Israel has rejected the promised reopening of the main U.S. diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said there was no room in the contested city for such an office.
The Trump administration shuttered the U.S. Jerusalem consulate, an office that for years served as the de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to reopen it, a move that Israel says would challenge its sovereignty over the city. The reopening could help mend U.S. ties with the Palestinians ruptured under Trump.
“There’s no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem,” he said. “Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid suggested the consulate could instead be opened in the Palestinian administrative center in Ramallah, West Bank. The Palestinians would reject the idea because it would undermine their claims to Jerusalem.Israel views Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital.
Trump had downgraded the consulate’s operations and placed them under his ambassador to Israel when he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city in 2018. The embassy move infuriated the Palestinians and led them to sever most ties with the Trump administration.
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