Ivanka Trump in Jerusalem for opening of controversial US embassy

IVANKA Trump has led a US delegation to Jerusalem for the official dedication of America’s controversial relocated embassy.

The US president’s daughter, her husband Jared Kushner and US secretary of treasury Steven Mnuchin are attending the event, which has sparked anger among Palestinians.

Dozens of foreign diplomats are expected at the ceremony, though many ambassadors of European nations who oppose the move will avoid it.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have been marching in celebrations to mark Jerusalem Day on the eve of the embassy relocation.

Police said more than 30,000 people took part in yesterday’s festivities, as revellers waved Israeli flags, singing and dancing through city streets. A group of Israelis protested against the march.

This year’s Jerusalem Day is the 51st anniversary of what Israel refers to as the city’s ‘unification’ following Israel’s capture of the eastern sector of the city from Jordan in the 1967 war.

The fate of Jerusalem is a deeply emotional issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Old City in east Jerusalem is home to key holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Nationalist Israelis view the day as a holiday marking the unification of the city under Israeli control. However, Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

US secretary of state Mike

Palestinian fury at Trump decision

Pompeo said the Middle East peace process ‘is most decidedly not dead’ even as the Trump administration plans to open the new American embassy in Jerusalem – a move that has angered Palestinians.

Mr Pompeo said the US still hopes to be able to ‘achieve a successful outcome’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He is also addressing the issue of security, saying the US has taken steps ‘to ensure that not only are governmental interests but the American people in that region are secure as well, and we’re comfortable we’ve taken action that reduces that risk’.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and view the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a one-sided move that invalidates the US as a peace broker.

Mr Trump’s decision in December to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ignited months of protests in the Palestinian territories. The weekly protests along the Israel-Gaza border are due to culminate today in parallel to the celebrations in Jerusalem.

Since March 30, a total of 42 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the weekly protests, aimed primarily against the decade-long blockade of Gaza. More than 1,800 have been wounded.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have led the protests, which are to peak this week with the 70th anniversary of what the Palestinians call the ‘nakba’, or catastrophe, referring to their mass uprooting during the war over Israel’s 1948 creation.

Most countries have traditionally kept their embassies in coastal Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem.