“My position that was presented to the Americans is that there is no place for a US consulate serving the Palestinians in Jerusalem,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told journalists on Saturday. “We express our opinion consistently, quietly and without drama.”
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid suggested opening the consulate in the occupied West Bank in Ramallah, the de facto seat of the Palestinian government. “If they (the United States) want to open a consulate in Ramallah, we have no problem with that,” he said.
Palestinians: Only suitable for Jerusalem
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Lapid’s proposal. Only Jerusalem is acceptable as a location for a US consulate, said Nabil Abu Rudeineh of the Reuters news agency in Ramallah. The US government announced this and committed to it. The US embassy could not be reached for a comment at first.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as an undivided capital. The Palestinians, on the other hand, see the eastern part, conquered by Israel in 1967, as the capital of a future state of their own. The Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The conflict intensified in 2018 when the American embassy in Israel was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem under the then US President Donald Trump. The US consulate in Jerusalem was absorbed into the embassy and the staff responsible for Palestinian affairs have been working at the embassy ever since. Israel reacted enthusiastically, but the Palestinians angry. Trump’s successor Joe Biden is trying to smooth things over. His government has announced that the consulate will reopen, but has not given a specific date.
Source From: Nachrichten
