Trump's face to feature on newly-minted Israeli coin

An Israeli organisation has minted a coin bearing US President Donald Trump's face in honour of his decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem.

The Mikdash Educational Center said this week that the Temple Coin will feature Trump alongside King Cyrus, who 2,500 years ago allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon.

"The beautifully designed engraving announces the 'Trump-Balfour-Cyrus declaration' to express we are part of a historical and divine process towards the recognition of all mankind of the historical role of Jerusalem," the group's website says.

The group wanted to honour Trump on the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment.

One thousand of the two-inch diameter coins have been minted and will be sold for $50 each. The coin, made from pewter and plated with 10 grams of silver, cannot be used as currency.

The coin is inscribed with a statement attributed to King Cyrus reading: 'And he charged me to build a house in Jerusalem', with the other side featuring a rebuilt third Jewish Temple.

Mikdash's website features a quote from controversial Israeli professor Hillel Weiss which reads: "The Temple Coin is part of the getting us ready for the era of the Third Temple."

Weiss, a professor emeritus of literature at Bar Ilan University, once called for the "annihilation" of Palestinians.

In recent decades, several far-right Jewish groups, notably the Temple Mount movement, have emerged demanding that Jewish sovereignty be imposed over the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Such groups, which include Christian Zionist organisations, effectively call for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its replacement with a third Jewish Temple.

Trump's controversial December announcement to move the US embassy to Jerusalem caused global outrage.

Under international law East Jerusalem is recognised as occupied Palestinian territory.

The embassy move will take place on the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding, while the following day Palestinians will mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe," commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.