Israel denies US permission to reopen consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem

The United States must go ahead with its plans to reopen the consulate for Palestinians in the West Bank and not in Jerusalem, officials in Israel said on Nov. 6, Saturday, The Hill reported. "If they [United States] want to open a consulate in Ramallah, we have no problem with that," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was quoted as saying by the paper, in a statement to an agency. US Deputy Secretary of State for management and resources had earlier last week stated that Washington needed the Israeli government’s consent to reopen the consulate in East Jerusalem that served the Palestinians.

US President Joe Biden had pledged to restore bilateral ties with Palestine, which he had said at a White House conference, was downgraded by former President Donald Trump who unilaterally shut down the consulate in Jerusalem. 

'We are expressing our position consistently, without drama,' PM Bennett warns 

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, however, on Saturday presented a united stance opposing the US’ decision of reopening the Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem once again. Addressing reporters during the approval of the state budget for 2021-2022, prime minister Bennett was quoted saying by The Times of Israel that “there is no place for an American consulate that serves the Palestinians in Jerusalem.” This had been conveyed to Washington “both by myself and by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid,” he said.

“We are expressing our position consistently, quietly and without drama, and I hope it is understood. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel alone,” Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, according to Tel Aviv’s The Times of Israel newspaper.

Lapid, meanwhile, backed Israeli PM saying, “If the Americans want to open a consulate in Ramallah we have no problem with that.” But “sovereignty in Jerusalem belongs to one country — Israel.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had earlier officially announced Washington’s plan of moving ahead with the reopening of its consulate in Jerusalem in an attempt to cement the thwarted relations with the Palestinians, worsened by the former Trump administration. The US consulate served Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and besieged Gaza Strip, but was abruptly shut in March 2019 after Trump supported Israel’s declaration of Jerusalem as its capital.

"We'll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening of those ties with the Palestinians," Blinken said at the State Department conference after a trilateral meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan last month. 

Image: AP