Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Joe Biden says he will keep US embassy in Jerusalem if elected

Former vice president opposes West Bank annexation endorsed by Trump administartion

New York

Thursday 07 May 2020 12:06 BST

✕

Trump says Jerusalem will be Israel's 'undivided capital' under Middle East peace plan

Joe Biden says he would keep Israel's US embassy in Jerusalem if elected, despite calling Donald Trump's controversial decision to move the office from Tel Aviv "short-sighted and frivolous" before the US engaged a peace process.

The likely Democratic nominee to face the president in November's general election claimed that moving the embassy to the holy city would impede efforts to strengthen peace efforts among Israel's government and Palestinian officials.

While a Delaware Senator, Mr Biden supported the congressional authorisation of the embassy's move in 1995, but the move was delayed as parties sought broader negotiations with leaders in the region.

Speaking to members of a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday, the former vice president said: "Moving the embassy when we did without the conditions having been met was short-sighted and frivolous. It should have happened in the context of a larger deal to help us achieve important concessions for peace in the process."

Mr Biden said he supports a "two-state solution" though the president's push for the embassy to remain in Jerusalem aligns with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing and Israel hard-liners who have made Jewish and Christian claims to the region. Jerusalem is a crucial holy site for Christians, Jews and Muslims.

The Biden campaign also announced that the candidate would support the embassy remaining in Jerusalem during a Tuesday conference call.

Mr Biden's foreign policy advisor Antony Blinken said that "revisiting that question does not make a lot of sense, either practically or for that matter politically" and that "the real question going forward is what can be done to try to revive and then ultimately advance the prospects of two states for two people."

The former vice president opposes the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Show all 12

1/12Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

People walk past a Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) alliance electoral billboard depicting the faces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with text in Hebrew reading "taking care of himself" and of retired Israeli general Benny Gantz (L) with text reading "taking care of Israel", in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan on March 1, 2020, a day before the country's third election in a year.

AFP

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Israeli centrist Blue and White party and ex-military chief Benny Gantz talks to the media next to his wife Revital at a polling station in the city of Rosh Hayin during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Israeli man casts his vote during parliamentary election at a polling station in Jerusalem on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in the Israeli religious city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Israeli man and a child cast a ballot at a polling station in Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu cast their ballots during the Israeli legislative elections at a polling station in Jerusalem, Monday, March 2, 2020. Israelis have begun voting in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year.

AP

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Arab Israeli woman votes in the country's parliamentary elections at a polling station in the Arab city of Tamra in northern Israel on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Israeli settler casts a vote with his son during elections in the settlement of Alon Shvut, West Bank, Monday, March 2, 2020.

AP

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit sits inside a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health.

EPA

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit talks to a voter at a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health.

EPA

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

An Arab-Israeli girl casts her mother's ballot for the parliamentary election at a poling station in the Bedouin town of Rahat near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 2, 2020. - Israel held its third election in less than a year seeking to break a grinding political deadlock, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chasing re-election while facing criminal indictment.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures

Israelis gather at a polling booth specially erected for the 5,600 voters under quarantine, many of whom visited countries where the coronavirus COVID-19 is prevalent, during parliamentary elections in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career .

AFP via Getty Images

Earlier this year, the Trump administration broke from decades of US foreign policy to help Israel carve out a fractured Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank and would allow Israel to annexe the Jordan Valley and some occupied territory, including areas containing settlements that are illegal under international law.

Armed with US support and a large government coalition, the Israeli government will begin that process on 1 July.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies