Following statements by aides to President-elect Donald Trump regarding his wish to move America’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is urging Trump and members of his transition team to avoid controversial, inflammatory statements on this sensitive foreign policy question.

More than twenty years ago, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, directing the president to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. That legislation gave the president the authority to waive the requirement to move the embassy if he judged it to be necessary for U.S. national security. Every successive U.S. president -- Republican and Democrat -- has used this waiver, recognizing that moving the embassy outside the context of a peace agreement would be provocative and would undermine U.S. credibility, threaten U.S. peace efforts, and harm U.S. interests.

We urge President-elect Trump to adhere to this practice and to avoid destabilizing moves and statements pertaining to one of the most politically, religiously and culturally sensitive places on earth.