4 years after Trump decision, Jerusalem panel releases plan for permanent US embassy

A municipal committee on Tuesday published the detailed building plan for the permanent US Embassy in Jerusalem, which will replace the current temporary mission that has been used since former US president Donald Trump transferred it from Tel Aviv in a landmark move.

Jerusalem’s Local Planning and Building Committee published the plans for the diplomatic compound, which will be built on the abandoned Allenby military base on the outskirts of the Talpiot neighborhood, which was constructed by the Ottomans and later used by the IDF until the 1990s.

The embassy will be situated between Hebron Road, Hanoch Albek Street and Daniel Yanovski Street — an area that is just inside the 1949 Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Part of the temporary embassy has been said to lay in a disputed area known as “No-Man’s Land.”

The new compound will contain the embassy building, offices, staff residence, parking and security buildings. The statement did not provide an estimate as to when its construction would be completed.

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said in a statement that the plan was published following “four years of hard work” with the US mission.

“This new location of the US Embassy in such a central location will upgrade the neighborhood’s urban view and will connect it with all areas of the capital via a network of light rails that will stop almost at the door of the embassy building,” she said, referring to a plan — opposed by many environmentalist activists — to build a new light rail line on Hebron Road.

Hassan-Nahoum said she hopes other countries will follow the US and transfer their embassies to Jerusalem.

Trump’s decision in 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there wasn’t followed by most of the international community, which says the city’s status should be decided by an eventual peace agreement with the Palestinians.