U.S. Consulate Merges with U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

The former U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.

Ma’an News Agency contributors assembled an article regarding the merging of the U.S. Consulate and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.  The article specified that the consulate served the Palestinian population who live in Jerusalem.  Prior to the merger, the consulate was also the primary means of communication between the U.S. and Palestinian leadership.  As a result of the merger, the consulate will no longer be independent.  The writers of the article criticize the notion Palestinians will now have to work with an organization that is subservient to David Friedman, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel.  The spokesperson of the U.S. Deputy State Department, Robert Palladino was quoted stating that there will be a complete continuity of diplomacy by the U.S. Embassy, as well as services previously provided by the consulate, executed by a new Palestinian Affairs Unit throughout and after the merger.  Palladino assures continuity of U.S. policy regarding Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip, and reasons the U.S. decision for the Embassy to absorb the consulate to increase the productivity and efficiency of diplomatic activities.  The writers then specified that Palestinians call for East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future sovereign state.  The writers then claimed that Palestinians have severed relations with the U.S. Trump Administration because the administration favor Israel’s over the Palestinians desire for their capital to be recognized in Jerusalem.  Hanan Ashrawi, who is an Executive Committee Member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which is the representative entity of the Palestinian people is quoted in the article.  She said that the merging is a political assault on the Palestinian people’s rights and the merging contradicts the consulate’s services that go back close to two centuries.  The authors then attribute the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to alleged Israeli pressures concerning the standing of non-Jewish religious locations in the city, and the “Judaization” of East Jerusalem in establishing Jewish settlements involving the destruction of Palestinian homes.  The article concludes with the claim of international consensus regarding the status of Jerusalem should be agreed in a peace deal, and that identifying it as a capital would represent a bias for either side. 

David Friedman, U.S. Ambassador in Israel.

The article presents factual data, starting with the objective fact in the merging of the U.S. consulate and the embassy in Jerusalem.  It also confirmed previous activities between the consulate and the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership.  However, the mentioning of U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and clarifying his position regarding settlement is subjective.  The authors simplified Friedman’s position regarding Israeli settlement as illegal without drawing clear evidence to indicate the legality of Israeli settlement.  Thus, it raises the question, particularly about the legality of Israeli settlement – illegal, according to whom?  The claim that the Palestinians would be forced to work with a body that is subservient to Friedman implies that the consulate was not in Friedman’s jurisdiction prior to the merging, which is misleading.  According to the United States, the consulate follows the lead of the Ambassador. 

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Robert Palladino.

Robert Palladino’s quotes are suitably used, which drew from his public statement.  However, the claim of the Palestinian leadership had severed ties with the U.S. Trump Administration is rather confusing, and raises another question – if ties are cut between Palestinian leadership and the U.S., why is it a problem for Palestinians that the consulate is absorbed by the embassy?  Ashrawi’s inflammatory comments conflict with the reasoning and continuity assurances made by Palladino and indicates that the merging matters a great deal. 

Israeli Administration welcomes the U.S. Embassy into Jerusalem.

The article was written from a point of view that supports a sovereign, independent Palestine, separate from Israel.  It should be noted that the difference between a U.S. consulate and U.S. embassy are minute.  Embassies are headquarters for representatives of the U.S. government in foreign countries, particularly in the capital city, led by an ambassador.  Consulates are branches of Embassies.  To understand this fact, is to understand that the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem would naturally absorb the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.  This fact was not reported in the Ma’an article.  In addition, the authors were compelled to bring in the opinion of Hanan Ashrawi, an Executive Committee Member of the PLO, an organization that ceases to recognize Israel as a state, in pursuit of the liberation of Palestine.  The article attempts to use her quote objectively, but in her statement regarding the consulate’s functions to the Palestinian people, she fails to resonate to the continuity factor that spokesperson Palladino mentioned in the role of the Palestinian Affairs Unit.  According to the United States, the Palestinian Affairs Unit is a diplomatic entity in Jerusalem that has been managing diplomacy with Palestinians since 1844.  The writing of her critical opinion is used to speak from the point of view of Palestinian nationalists regarding choices made in United States diplomatic protocol.  Her emotionally charged remarks can sway readers to believe that this is not an effort of efficiency on the part of the United States.  And finally, the article suggests that Israelis are aggressively expanding into Palestinian territory as an implied argument that the merging of the consulate and the embassy goes against international opinion that peace efforts prohibit Israel from establishing their capital in Jerusalem.  It is likely that many Palestinians are angry that Israel has declared Jerusalem as their capital, and a world-leader (the United States) has taken their side, and many Israelis happily welcome this stance.  If the statements made by Palladino are true, then consular services for Palestinian people will continue, and nothing will change other than a new U.S. Embassy being located in Jerusalem.