US ambassador to Israel David Friedman listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem in 2018. Photo: AFP
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https://scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2188474/us-closes-jerusalem-consulate-angers-palestinians Middle East
US closes Jerusalem consulate, angers Palestinians
- State Department said the decision was driven by operational efficiency
- Planned merger has angered Palestinian leadership
US President Donald Trump stoked international criticism by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv last May. File photo: Reuters
The United States has officially closed its consulate in Jerusalem, downgrading the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by folding it into the US embassy to Israel.
For decades, the consulate functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Now, that outreach will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit, under the command of the embassy.
The symbolic shift hands authority over US diplomatic channels with the West Bank and Gaza to ambassador David Friedman, a long-time supporter and fundraiser for the West Bank settler movement and fierce critic of the Palestinian leadership.
The announcement from the State Department came early Monday in Jerusalem, the merger effective that day.
“This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.
“It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.”
When first announced by US Secretary Mike Pompeo in October, the move infuriated Palestinians, fuelling their suspicions that the US was recognising Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories that Palestinians seek for a future state.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the move “the final nail in the coffin” for the US role in peacemaking.
In a statement, senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said: “The Trump administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility towards the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights as well as its abject disregard for international law and its obligations under the law.”
The downgrade is just the latest in a string of divisive decisions by the Trump administration that have backed Israel and alienated the Palestinians, who say they have lost faith in the US administration’s role as a neutral arbiter in peace process.
Last year the US recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocated its embassy there, upending US policy toward one of the most explosive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians in turn cut off most ties with the administration.
The administration also has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, including help to hospitals and peace-building programmes.
It has cut funding to the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians classified as refugees. Last fall, it shut down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.
The Trump administration has cited the reluctance of Palestinian leaders to enter peace negotiations with Israel as the reason for such punitive measures, although the US. has yet to present its much-anticipated but still mysterious “Deal of the Century” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced last month that the US would unveil the deal after Israeli elections in April.
The Palestinian Authority has pre-emptively rejected the plan, accusing the US of bias toward Israel.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse