Israel Suggests US Open Consulate for Palestinians in West Bank, Not Jerusalem

Israel stepped up its public opposition on Saturday to a plan by President Joe Biden’s administration to reopen a US consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, suggesting such a mission should be in the West Bank.

Under former President Donald Trump, Washington closed the Jerusalem consulate and placed its staff within the US Embassy to Israel that was moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in 2018.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state and saw the embassy move as undermining that aspiration. Israel considers Jerusalem its indivisible capital.

Seeking to repair ties with Palestinians, the Biden administration has said it would reopen the consulate, although it has not given a date.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, speaking next to Bennett, proposed reopening the consulate in the de facto seat of Palestinian government in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

“If they (the United States) want to open a consulate in Ramallah, we have no problem with that,” he said.

In Ramallah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Lapid’s comments.

“We will only accept a US consulate in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state. That was what the US administration had announced and had committed itself to doing,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.

Spokespeople for the US Embassy did not immediately comment.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that Washington would “be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians,” although one of his senior staff also said Israel’s rejection of the plan was an obstacle.

“My understanding (is) that we need the consent of the host government to open any diplomatic facility,” Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon said during a US Senate hearing when queried on the consulate standoff.