March 16, 2010

The Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act

The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 has several key provisions. It notes that every country designates its own capital, and that Israel has so designated Jerusalem, the spiritual center of Judaism. It states that since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, religious freedom has been guaranteed to all. And it recalls several previous Congressional resolutions calling for the city to remain united.

The Act then states what henceforth will be not Congressional preferences but the official policy of the United States toward Jerusalem: that it should remain a united city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected; that it should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and that the U.S. Embassy should be established there no later than May 31, 1999.

The Act stipulates that fifty percent of the money used to acquire and maintain official US buildings abroad—embassies, for example—may not be spent in fiscal year 1999 if the Embassy has not been opened in Jerusalem by May 31, 1999. It requires the Secretary of State to report every six months on the progress made toward opening the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

The President may waive the fifty percent spending restriction on U.S. buildings abroad beginning in October 1998 for six month periods, and then only if he determines and reports to Congress that such a suspension is necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States and details how such interests would be affected.

The Act was adopted on October 23, 1995, by both the Senate (93-5) and the House (374-37).
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Link to full text -

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/Jerusalem_Relocation_Act.html

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