Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday praised President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, The Hill has reported.
"In a long overdue move, we have moved our embassy to Jerusalem," Schumer said in a statement. “Every nation should have the right to choose its capital. I sponsored legislation to do this two decades ago, and I applaud President Trump for doing it."
Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995 that recognized the city as the capital of Israel and set aside funds for the relocation of the U.S. Embassy there.
The law, however, allowed the president to invoke a six-month waiver every half year on national security grounds, which had been done by every president since then until now.
Trump’s decision to move the embassy has been met with widespread criticism from international leaders due to Jerusalem’s disputed status, even though the area is located in part of the city that has been under Israeli sovereignty since 1948 and is not in an area of the city captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The statement by Schumer, a Democrat, was made just before the ceremony officially inaugurating the embassy in Jerusalem,The Washington Examiner reported.
A number of Schumer's Senate colleagues were at the ceremony, although they were all Republicans.
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