[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H4004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               JERUSALEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge that the 
administration immediately move forward to establish a United States 
embassy in Jerusalem. It has been 4 years since Congress passed the 
Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. That act requires that the U.S. embassy 
must be moved to Jerusalem from its current location in Tel Aviv no 
later than May 31, 1999. That deadline passed last week. It is most 
regrettable that the administration is in the process of considering 
exercising its waiver option to again delay moving the embassy to 
Israel's capital city. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Around the 
globe, it is the policy of the United States to place its embassies in 
capital cities. But Israel is the glaring exception to this policy. 
There is no plausible reason for this glaring exception. It is vitally 
important that the administration act now to move the embassy, because 
the final status negotiations of the Middle East peace process which 
are in their initial stages will include talks about Jerusalem. It is 
imperative to establish now the U.S. conviction that realistic 
negotiations must be based on the principle that Jerusalem is the 
eternal, undivided capital of Israel and must remain united forever. If 
the embassy remains in Tel Aviv, it would encourage the Palestinians to 
persist in unrealistic expectations regarding Jerusalem and thus reduce 
the chances of reaching an agreement.
  I urge the administration to follow the lead of Congress and 
establish the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem where it rightfully belongs 
now.

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