Israel: no room in Jerusalem for US Palestinian consulate

ISRAEL has set itself on a collision course with the US after Naftali Bennett, the country’s prime minister, said there was “no room” in the contested city of Jerusalem for Washington to reopen its Palestinian consulate.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has pledged to reopen the American outpost to help mend ties with the Palestinians after it was shut by the Trump administration, although it requires the permission of Israel to do so.

But the plan to re-establish the office appeared to be rejected over the weekend. “There’s no room for another American consulate in Jerusalem,” Mr Bennett said on Saturday. “Jerusalem is the capital of one state and that’s the state of Israel.”

Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, suggested the consulate could instead be opened in the Palestinian administrative centre in Ramallah, West Bank. The Palestinian foreign ministry said it viewed the reopening of the consulate as part of the international community’s commitment to ending Israel’s occupation of territories the Palestinians seek for their future state.

“East Jerusalem is an inseparable part of the occupied Palestinian territory and is the capital of the state of Palestine,” it said.

The issue is political dynamite for Mr Bennett’s eight-party coalition, which spans the political spectrum from Rightwing Jewish nationalists to pro-peace parties and Arab-israeli lawmakers.

The row will further test ties between Mr Bennett’s government and the Biden administration, which has moved to restore traditional US foreign policy toward Israel and the Palestinians after the Trump White House largely sided with Israel on issues related to the conflict.