Wants To Open A Consulate In Jerusalem For Palestinians, The United States Must Get Israeli Approval

United States Consulate General in Jerusalem. (Wikimedia Commons/Master)

JAKARTA - A senior US administration official has confirmed that the country must get Israel's approval before reopening the consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinians that closed two years ago.

The revelations came during a Wednesday hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when Senator Bill Hagerty asked Undersecretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon about protocols for opening consulates in other countries.

"Is it your understanding, under US and international law, that the Israeli government must give its affirmative consent before the United States can open or reopen the US consulate for Palestine in Jerusalem, or does the Biden Administration believe it can move? Move forward to establish a second US mission in the motherland." the Israeli city of Jerusalem without the consent of the Israeli government?" asked Hagerty, citing Sputnik News Oct. 29.

"Senator, it's my understanding that we need to get approval from the host government to open any diplomatic facilities," McKeon replied.

The United States Consulate General in Jerusalem was never explicitly for Palestinians and was founded in 1844, long before Israel or the Palestinian National Authority was formed.

However, following the creation of Israel in 1948 and the opening of a separate US embassy in Tel Aviv, consulates provided such services to Palestinians who no longer had a state to do so.

After the Trump Administration announced in 2018, it was moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in line with a 1995 Congressional act that was repeatedly ruled out by previous presidents, the consulate was merged with the embassy.

United States Consulate General in Jerusalem. (Wikimedia Commons/Sofia Cohen)

Earlier this year, after taking office last January and Israel's 11-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, President Biden expressed his intention to reopen the consulate alongside other services for Palestinian residents in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Including the provision of 75 million US dollars in development funds for the West Bank and 110 million US dollars for Gaza. Funding for the United Nations mission for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was also restored after being cut by Trump, to $235 million.

Hagerty said at Wednesday's hearing that the US's desire to reopen the consulate general would be a violation of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act.

"President Biden's proposal to open a second US mission in Jerusalem will begin to reverse the recognition of Jerusalem, and it will divide Israel's eternal and undivided capital," Hagerty said.

However, McKeon corrected him, adding "There is no intention to move the US embassy from Jerusalem."

To note, some 2.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, while another 327,000 live in East Jerusalem and another 2 million live in Gaza, which is not connected to the West Bank and has been under an Israeli blockade since Hamas won elections there in 2007. .

However, the Israeli government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made clear this impossibility. Gideon Sa'ar who heads Israel's Ministry of Justice emphatically told The Jerusalem Post, "there is no way that will happen".

"I want to make it very clear. We are against it, we are 100 per cent against it. It requires Israeli approval, I don't believe it will get Israel's approval."