The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem and merged it with the US Embassy to Israel in the city, marking a significant downgrade to the status of the country’s main diplomatic mission in Palestine. The U.S. lowered the flag at the consulate today, Reuters reports.
“This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations,” State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said in a statement.
Palladino added that the move “does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.”
The move means that the consulate will stop acting as an independent diplomatic mission and Palestinians will now be forced to work with an entity that is subordinate to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a staunch supporter of the settlement movement.
Haaretz noted that the Jerusalem consulate’s previous work of submitting regular reports to the US administration about construction and other developments in West Bank settlements will now also be overseen by Friedman.
The US Consulate in Jerusalem has, for decades, acted as a de facto embassy for Palestinians from Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, providing them with US visa and passport services, and also as the main channel of communication between the US administration and the Palestinian leadership.
“There will be complete continuity of U.S. diplomatic activity and consular services during and after the merger,” Palladino said, adding that there will now be a Palestinian Affairs Unit under the command of the Embassy to serve Jerusalem Palestinians.
He made no mention of services for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, who previously traveled on Israeli entry permits to the consulate in Jerusalem for services.
Palestinian officials have sharply criticized the move as another attempt by the Trump administration to undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.
PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat described the move as “the last nail in the coffin” of the Trump administration as an arbiter of the peace process.
Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement that the move was “not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity.”
“The Trump administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility towards the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, as well as its abject disregard for international law and its obligations under the law,” senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement.
Palladino maintained, “The United States continues to take no position on final status issues, including boundaries or borders.”
“The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties,” he said.
Despite US assurances that old consular services will continue running as normal under new departments, some Palestinians and American citizens living in the occupied West Bank have expressed fears that the already lacking consular services will now be made even more difficult.
One Palestinian from the West Bank, who asked to remain anonymous, told Mondoweiss that he was forced to enter Jerusalem “illegally” in order to go to his US visa appointment after not receiving an Israeli entry permit.
“There are hundreds like me, who wait months just to get an appointment and then we also have to go through the obstacle of Israeli borders to get there,” he said. “I can only imagine that things will get much worse now.”
The downgrade is the latest in a more than year-long string of policies from the Trump administration aimed at further alienating Palestinians leading up to Trump’s widely anticipated “Deal of the Century,” which is supposed to be unveiled after Israel’s April elections.
We will continue to provide unwavering support and promote no-light-between loyalty to the “Jewish State”. God bless Isra…errr…America. God bless America.
and
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-in-first-u-s-deploys-thaad-missile-defense-in-israel-in-joint-drill-1.6989919
This is far more interesting:
“Palestinians Turn to International Court of Justice Over U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem
A statement from the ‘State of Palestine’ argues the 1961 Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations requires a country to locate its embassy on the territory of a host state ”
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/palestinians-turn-to-international-court-of-justice-over-u-s-embassy-in-jerusalem-1.6514190
“THE HAGUE, 30 November 2018. By an Order dated 15 November 2018, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, decided that the written pleadings in the case concerning the Relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem (Palestine v. United States of America) would first be addressed to the question of the jurisdiction of the Court and that of the admissibility of the Application. It fixed 15 May 2019 and 15 November 2019 as the respective time-limits for the filing of a Memorial by the State of Palestine and a Counter-Memorial by the United States of America.”
https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/176/176-20181115-ORD-01-00-EN.pdf
The ICJ has allready acknowledged that East Jerusalem is not part of Israel’s territory, which is obvious. But reading the advisory opinion it almost seems that it tried to avoid to declare the legal status of all of Jerusalem. According to countless Security Council resolutions Jerusalem – not only East Jerusalem – is considered to be occupied which led to the condemnation of its illegal annexation by Israel.
“5. Decides not to recognize the “basic law” and such other actions by Israel that, as a result of this law, seek to alter the character and status of Jerusalem and calls upon:
(a) All Member States to accept this decision;
(b) Those States that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions from the Holy City;”
https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/DDE590C6FF232007852560DF0065FDDB
“PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat described the move as ‘the last nail in the coffin’ of the Trump administration as an arbiter of the peace process”.
Gee, I thought that moving the US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem had been “the last nail in the coffin”. It turns out that the moving of the embassy was the second last nail in the coffin. When the American government finally presents its outline for peace, Mr Erekat will yet again tell us that this is “the last nail in the coffin…”, and so we’ll have to demote the closing of the consulate to the second last nail (and the moving of the embassy to the third last nail).
The Palestinians have decided quite some time ago that they will not negotiate a final settlement with Israel. In the propaganda war, it’s not a good ploy to announce that you have no intention of ending the conflict (someone might conclude that the conflict cannot be resolved because of your unreasonableness), so it’s always better to say that someone else is to blame for the stalemate. So, now, we have the updated complication that frustrates the search for peace: The Palestinians will have to go to the US embassy in Jerusalem instead of going to the US consulate in Jerusalem. In the list of infinite grievances, we now have infinity plus one.
This is all part or the master plan to get rid of the Arabs in the Palestinian territories, to make them inconsequential, and make them have no rights, claims, and to deprive them of what rightfully is owed to them. Who can do this to helpless human beings? That would be Donald J. Trump, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump, to please Benjamin Netanyahu (soon to be indicted), Samuel Adelson, and all other zionists, who want to expand their nation, over the blood, sweat, and tears, of the Palestinian people, and steal every inch of land over their 1967 borders.
America has enabled the most brutal occupation, and land grabs, by vicious transgressors, who have no right committing their crimes, inflicting pain and suffering, all while pretending they want peace, and bragging they are the “only” democracy in the Middle East. It seems those who dumped unwanted refugees in the Palestinian territories, do nothing to remedy this huge mistake. No Holy book is good enough to justify, the ridiculous claim to all lands in that region, by the zionists, as it will never stand up in a court of international law. That is a stupid argument.
On the other hand the zionists act as if they are above all international laws, even the ones that condemn the killing of innocent civilians. The entitled ones.