Israeli says no on consulate’s reopening

Former U.S. post in Jerusalem was dedicated to Palestinians’ affairs

Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Saar said Tuesday that there’s no way his country would agree to have the United States reopen its consulate dedicated to Palestinian affairs.

His comment came ahead of a meeting between the two countries’ top diplomats in Washington, D.C., this week, where such a discussion is likely to be on the agenda.

When pressed during a public conference on Tuesday about whether Israel would allow for the consulate’s reopening if the Biden administration pushed for it, Saar repeatedly registered his opposition, a response that drew applause from the audience.

“I spoke with [Prime Minister Naftali Bennett] a couple of times on the issue. We are on the same page, and we don’t see differently,” Saar added. “Someone said it’s an electoral commitment. But for us, it’s a generation’s commitment. We will not compromise on this.”

The U.S. State Department could not be reached for comment early Wednesday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in May that the United States would reopen the Jerusalem consulate that traditionally engaged with Palestinians, but observers say the issue presents a dilemma for the White House.

While the administration may wish to reopen the consulate, it does not want the issue to become a wedge in Israeli domestic politics or to weaken a government the U.S. considers “more moderate than its predecessor,” according to David Makovsky, a senior adviser to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the Obama administration.

Bennett led the small, rightwing Yamina party before coming into power by putting together a coalition government with more centrist parties in the country’s fourth nationwide election in half as many years. Bennett, the first prime minister to have lived in a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — illegal under international law — has made his objection to Palestinian statehood clear.

Nir Barkat, a member of the Knesset and a top contender to replace former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as leader of the right-wing Likud party, proposed a bill in July that would bar countries from creating diplomatic missions in Jerusalem that aren’t missions to Israel.

The opening of U.S. consular doors in Jerusalem can only happen with Israel’s approval, said Ron Hassner, who teaches international conflict and religion at the University of California at Berkeley.

“No traffic light goes up, no street is paved, and no mail is collected in East Jerusalem unless Israel does so,” he told The Washington Post. “It’s unthinkable for a foreign entity to set up diplomatic offices without the permission of the ruling authority. The Israelis are the only such authority.”

Palestinians have “no de facto or de jure control, nor have they ever had such control” over the eastern section of the city, Hassner said.

After victory in the 1967 SixDay War, Israel declared sovereignty over Jerusalem after capturing the eastern part of the contested city from neighboring Jordan, thereby gaining control of the Old City and the surrounding Arab neighborhoods. To this day, East Jerusalem is viewed by most of the international community as occupied territory; for Palestinians, it’s viewed as an area that would one day be the capital of their own nation.

In late 2017, President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This break from decades of U.S. foreign policy set in motion a series of events: The U.S. Embassy in Israel was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, and the consulate that had long handled Palestinian affairs was merged into the new embassy.