US President Donald Trump will not be traveling to Jerusalem for the inauguration of the new United States Embassy in that city next May 14, but in his place will send daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Mayor Nir Barkat said the location’s name will be “United States Square in honor of President Donald Trump.”

“This is the way in which Jerusalem returns love to the president and residents of the United States who stand by the state of Israel,” the mayor said in a news release, The Jerusalem Post reported. “President Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people, stand on the side of historical truth and do the right thing,” Barkat added. “I may go, I’m very proud of it.”

When the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was announced in December te Trump administration suggested that the move wasn’t imminent and might not take place until Trump was out of office. The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel, which says the city is its eternal and indivisible capital, and the Palestinians, who want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their own future state. “It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

The president added moving the embassy “is nothing less than a recognition of reality.”

Israel’s center of government is in Jerusalem, including its legislature, the Knesset, and the official residence of the prime minister. Trump noted in December that “while previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”

The United States plans to open its new embassy — which will be located where the U.S. consulate currently exists — on Monday, May 14. On May 14, Israel's 70th anniversary, the U.S. ceremoniously opens its new embassy in Jerusalem, in line with Trump's recognition in December of the city as Israel's capital. >> One week to opening of U.S. embassy in Jerusalem: Everything you need to know <<

Trump announced the controversial plan to transfer the embassy in December, saying: "It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," and calling it "nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. In March Guatemala’s president, Jimmy Morales, said that his country would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 16, two days after the U.S. move. All other nations’ embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv, Newsweek reported.
Paraguay announces that it will move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of May. Paraguay is the third country to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem after the United States and Guatemala.