(JTA) — The Palestinians filed a lawsuit with the United Nations highest court asking the international body to order the United States to move its embassy out of Jerusalem.
The lawsuit was filed by “the State of Palestine” with the International Court of Justice, or World Court, on Friday, Reuters reported.
The lawsuit argues the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations of 1961 requires a country to locate its embassy on the territory of the host state. Israel’s ownership of Jerusalem, which it controls militarily, is in dispute on the international level.
It asks the court “to order the United States of America to withdraw the diplomatic mission from the Holy City of Jerusalem and to conform to the international obligations flowing from the Vienna Convention.”
U.S. President Donald Trump in December 2017 recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced that the U.S. would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The U.S. embassy was officially opened in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018 in the existing U.S. Consulate building in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood.
