US merges Palestinian mission in Israel

The U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians, will be absorbed into the new U.S. Embassy to Israel, the State Department said, a planned merger that has angered Palestinian leadership.

Background

The Embassy of the United States of America in Jerusalem is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America to the State of Israel, located in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem. In mid-October 2018, the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the Embassy in Jerusalem would be merging with the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem into a single mission. 

On October 18, 2018, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would be merging the Embassy and US Consulate General in Jerusalem into a single mission. The United States will continue conducting relations with the West Bank and Gaza through a newly-created Palestinian Affairs Unit which will operate from the Agron Site of the Jerusalem Embassy.

While the decision was praised by the Israeli Government, Palestinian officials criticized the Trump Administration for siding with Israel's claim to Jerusalem and "Greater Israel". In February 2019, it was announced that the US Consulate General would be formally merging into the US Embassy in March.

Analysis 

The decision to create a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem was announced last October by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and had been widely expected for early March. The State Department announcement gave the official date for the move.

The planned merger has raised Palestinians’ fears that the Trump administration is downgrading the handling of their concerns in the disputed city of Jerusalem, home to sites holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

U.S. President Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and stoked international criticism by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May 2018.

Palestinian leaders suspended diplomatic contacts with the U.S. administration after the embassy move and have since boycotted U.S. efforts to craft a long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, accusing Washington of pro-Israel bias.

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem is the top mission for Palestinians, who with broad international backing seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they want to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the decision was driven by operational efficiency and there would be “complete continuity of U.S. diplomatic activity and consular services.”

“It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement. “The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties.”

When Pompeo announced the merger plan last autumn, senior Palestinian leader Saeb Erekat denounced the decision to eliminate the consulate as the latest evidence the Trump administration was working with Israel to impose a “Greater Israel” rather than a two-state solution.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel regards the entire city, including the eastern sector it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, as its “eternal and indivisible capital,” but that is not recognized internationally.

The former US Consulate General in Jerusalem's Agron Street premises has been repurposed as the US Embassy Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU), which will be responsible for conducting a range of reporting, outreach and programming in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and with Palestinians in Jerusalem. Senior Foreign Service Officer Mike Hankey, who is fluent in Arabic and French, has been designated as the first Head of the Palestinian Affairs Unit.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the merger of the Palestinian affairs unit with the Embassy in Israel is a soft sign of the US’ intent to support its ally Israel in the ongoing conflict. We believe that by doing so, the US is vacating its ‘neutral mediator’ position it has held for the past seventy years in favour of taking a side in the conflict to fulfil the domestic campaign promises of the President. 

Image Courtesy: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dedication_ceremony_of_the_Embassy_of_the_United_States_in_Jerusalem_2734_(41431914064).jpg), „Dedication ceremony of the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem 2734 (41431914064)“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode