No sitting US president has ever visited the Western Wall as US policy maintains that the final status of Jerusalem has yet to be resolved in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
By ELIYAHU KAMISHER, JTAUpdated: MAY 21, 2017 09:40Trump discusses goals of his first overseas trip as US president (credit: REUTERS)
US President Donald Trump is scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday to spend around 28 hours of his nine-day foreign tour in Israel and the Palestinian territories.Arriving from Saudi Arabia at approximately 12:15 p.m., Trump will fly by helicopter from Ben-Gurion to Jerusalem where he is scheduled to meet with President Reuven Rivlin at 1 p.m. at his official residence on Hanasi Street.At 6 p.m., Trump is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David Hotel, where the US president is staying in the rocket-resistant Presidential Suite. The meeting will be followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. with the prime minister, his wife, Sara, and first lady Melania Trump at the prime minister’s official residence.A separate dinner for Trump’s entourage and Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, will be held at the King David Hotel at 8 p.m.Also on Monday, Trump will visit the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.On Tuesday morning, the president is expected to travel to Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas where he will “urge Palestinian leaders to take productive steps toward peace,” according to the White House website.While Palestinian officials have not released an official schedule, Trump is expected to meet with Abbas at the Bethlehem governor’s office and may visit the Church of the Nativity.At 1 p.m., there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and then Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Israel Museum at 2 p.m. “celebrating the unique history of Israel and of the Jewish people,” according to the White House website.At 4 p.m., the US president will take off for the next leg of his journey, Italy and the Vatican.