Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vehemently denied a report on Monday that claimed he had requested of President Donald Trump that he not move the USA embassy to Yerushalayim.
Earlier on Sunday, Tillerson said it was not clear whether an embassy move would help or harm prospects for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leader said he envisions a two-state solution with a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, and Israel's borders defined by the so-called 1967 lines.
Those cautioning against the embassy move warn that such a decision could trigger uproar in the Palestinian territories and across the Arab world and add another obstacle in the already-complicated path to peace.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they deliver a statement at the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., May 3, 2017.
Israeli Prime Minister's Office on Monday released a record of a previous meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, in a bid to reinforce Netanyahu's call for Trump to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump shared sensitive information with Russians
One of the two officials said Trump had disclosed the information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nearly spontaneously. Instead, the paper says Trump discussed information provided by a source relating to a specific terrorist threat.
Friedman is an orthodox Jew and a strong supporter of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.
The Trump administration stopped short of denying the report, but said the statement does not reflect USA policy, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday. Trump had promised during his campaign to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, whose status is one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The relocation is strongly opposed by many USA allies as the Palestinians also claim the city as their capital.
Since Trump took office last month, Israel has announced plans to build over 6,000 settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians. It's a very important diplomatic declaration that will be considered a unilateral move even before arrangements to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
In late March, Israeli and US officials held talks in Washington, building on another round of meetings in the Middle East earlier that month.
"It makes many of us - who are hoping for a change in U.S. -Israel relations - nervous", Foxman, the current Director of Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, told Jewish Insider "I can not believe that the traditionally pro-Palestinian functionaries in the American Consulate in Jerusalem are making the decisions on the Kotel and Jerusalem".
On Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated his belief that all foreign embassies should relocate to Jerusalem, the "eternal capital of the Jewish people".
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