A view of Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The US branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) has sent President Donald Trump and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a strategy paper calling for the move of America’s embassy in the Jewish state from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this year.

In the paper, delivered as Israel prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the holy city, the Christian Zionist group identified three main reasons the international community has used to justify the refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital: the internationalization of Jerusalem as suggested in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, the need to be “even-handed” on the issue of Jerusalem and “fear of a potential Islamic backlash.”

“This is not a policy based on principle, fairness or historical right, but it is based solely on weakness and fear,” the ICEJ said in the policy paper. “The United States should announce its firm decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move its embassy there in the weeks before Israel marks the 50th anniversary of a reunited Jerusalem.”

The reunification’s 50th anniversary is “the right time for the US to correct this historic injustice by leading the nations back up to Jerusalem,” ICEJ-USA Director Susan Michael said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that all foreign embassies — including America’s — should relocate to Jerusalem, the “eternal capital of the Jewish people.”

Meanwhile, ahead of Trump’s visit to Israel this month, the White House said the relocation of the embassy remains under consideration.

“The president has not made a decision yet and is still reviewing that,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated on Wednesday.