The American consulate in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians, will be merged into a new US embassy to Israel on Monday, the US state department said, the plan which has angered Palestinian leadership.
According to Reuters news reports, secretary of state Mike Pompeo had last October announced the decision of creating a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, had been widely expected early March. The department announcement gave the official date of merging.
The planned merger has also raised Palestinians’ fear that the US President Donald Trump’s administration is downgrading the importance of their concerns in the disputed city of Jerusalem.
Trump has outraged the Arab world and received international condemnation by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017’s December and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv last year’s May.
Palestinian leaders have suspended diplomatic talks with the US administration after the embassy move and since have boycotted the US efforts to establish Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, accusing the US of pro-Israel bias.
State Department spokesman Robert Palladino has said the decision has been driven by operational efficiency and there would be a “complete continuity of US diplomatic activity and consular services”.
In a statement, Palladino said, “It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties.”
When Pompeo had last year announced the merged planned, senior Palestinian leader Saeb Erekat has denounced the decision to dismiss the consulate as latest evidence the US administration was working on with Israel to impose “Greater Israel” rather than a two-state solution.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians.