Trump's Israel Envoy First U.S. Ambassador To Attend Celebration of East Jerusalem Occupation

President Trump's envoy to Israel attended celebrations on Sunday commemorating the 50th anniversary of East Jerusalem's capture in the Six-Day War, the first U.S. ambassador to attend such an event.

Addressing the crowd, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel, "did not occupy Jerusalem fifty years ago, it liberated it."

Trump envoy David Friedman's decision to attend the festivities, lauded by Netanyahu, made diplomatic waves since the international community has, for decades, regarded Jerusalem as contested territory. Both Israel and the Palestinians claim the city as their capital.

East Jerusalem is home to some of the world's most holy sites, notably Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, known by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, Noble Sanctuary, and the third-holiest site in Islam. Jews are not permitted to pray at the site, which is controlled by a Jordanian-Palestinian Islamic waqf, or trust .

Instead, Jews gather for prayer at the Western Wall, where Friedman — a far-right donor to Israeli settlements and Trump's former bankruptcy lawyer — was pictured praying last Monday, at the start of his term as Washington's representative in Tel Aviv. Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site but his team have signaled that, as he seeks to revive the peace process, in a bid for neutrality, he will not visit with Netanyahu.

Earlier on Sunday, Friedman attended a private event celebrating Jerusalem's "unification" with right-wing figures including prominent settler leader Yossi Dagan, Education Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, as well as former U.S. governor Mike Huckabee, father of Trump's deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who held a presidential campaign event at a West Bank settlement, viewed as illegal under international law.

Trump's ambassador has continued to promote the president's campaign pledge of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. After being appointed Israeli ambassador, he said that he hoped to be working from Jerusalem very soon.

Arab leaders have warned that the decision would have far-reaching implications in the region, inflaming the Arab street and further jeopardizing the peace process with Palestinians. Trump's team have indicated that he's considering the move but suggested he's unlikely to make an announcement on his brief two-day visit to the region when he meets with Netanyahu at the King David hotel on Monday evening before traveling to the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Read more: Trump's 28-hour Israeli and Palestinian tour itinerary in full

Palestinians fear that Trump's far-right pick for envoy is a foreboding sign of things to come. Friedman has previously compared left-wing Jews to "kapos," a derogatory term for Jews who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. The U.S. Senate only confirmed his nomination by 52-46, the smallest ever margin for a U.S. ambassador to Israel.