IN THE WORLD TODAY

Israel says no to re-opening US mission

ISRAELI Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has rejected the promised re-opening of the main US diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in Jerusalem, saying there is no room in the contested city for such an office.

The US Jerusalem consulate, which for years served as the de facto embassy to the Palestinians, was closed by the Trump administration.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged to re-open it, a move Israel says would challenge its sovereignty over the city. The re-opening could help mend US ties with the Palestinians which were ruptured under Donald Trump.

Asked about the consulate at a press conference Bennett said: “There’s no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid suggested the consulate could instead be opened in the Palestinian administrative centre in Ramallah, West Bank. However, the Palestinians reject that idea because it would undermine their claims to Jerusalem. Israel views Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital. The Palestinians seek the eastern part of the city, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed, as capital of their hoped-for state.

The consulate is emerging as another test between Bennett’s government and Joe Biden’s administration, which has moved to restore traditional US foreign policy towards Israel and the Palestinians after the Trump White

House largely sided with Israel on issues related to the conflict.

Trump downgraded the consulate’s operations and placed them under his ambassador to Israel when he moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv in 2018.

Palestinian official Wassel Abu Yussef said Bennett’s rejection entrenches Israel’s “policy of occupation” and presents a challenge to the Biden administration to follow through on its promise.