Jerusalem
Embassy Act of 1995 For the past 30 years, members
of Congress and the Jewish community have urged successive American
presidents to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the
U.S. embassy there. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Congress passed the
Jerusalem Embassy Act by overwhelming and bipartisan margins in 1995-
requiring that the embassy move by May 31st, 1999. In the past, a presidential
national security waiver has been issued, effectively postponing the
move, thereby avoiding the financial penalty that accompanied his
decision not to move the embassy by the legal deadline.
The Jerusalem Embassy Act mandated that the President move the
embassy to Jerusalem by May 31st 1999 or face a 50 percent cut in the
State Department’s budget to maintain our overseas embassies. The waiver- which expires after 6 months but can be reissued- only applies to this financial penalty. The policy provisions of the law remain in effect. The Jerusalem Embassy Act states that it is the policy of the United States that: 1. The Jerusalem should remain an undivided city. 2. Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the state of Israel. 3. The U.S. embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem.
The waiver is unfortunately misconstrued by Israel’s enemies to
suggest that Jerusalem’s future status is somehow uncertain.
The waiver applies solely to the funding issue, and not to U.S.
policy that the U.S. embassy should be located in Jerusalem. We are asking members of the
House and Senate to call upon the President to move the embassy to
Jerusalem. The U.S. approach to Jerusalem should be based upon U.S. law
as stipulated in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. More
and more, we are witnessing efforts to undermine Jerusalem’s status as
the capital of Israel. The
European Union proclaimed that Jerusalem is “corpus separatum”
meaning that it is not part of Israel, but rather an entity unto itself.
The Palestinian Authority is attempting to use violence and
illegal excavations on the Temple Mount to eradicate evidence of Jewish
history in Jerusalem in efforts to claim Jerusalem as its own.
In light of these developments, it is very important that we make
every effort to ensure that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the united
capital of Israel and immediately moves our embassy there. Action
Recommendation: Please
write to the following elected and administration officials urging them
to immediately move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as
mandated by the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.
Remind them that throughout its long history, Jerusalem has
served as the capital only of the Jewish nation and that freedom
of access to holy shrines to worshippers of all faiths has been
truly available only since Jerusalem was re-united by Israel in 1967.
More points are contained in the rest of this packet. Write to: President George
W. Bush Sec. of State
Colin Powell Representative
_____________ Senator
_____________ The Institute for Public Affairs of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America is the non-partisan public policy research and advocacy center created to represent and mobilize the world's largest Orthodox Jewish community.
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