Embassy to Jerusalem, but strongly objected to the consulate closing. ambassador to Israel, Ned Walker, has been an outspoken advocate of moving the U.S. The Trump administration has gone about it in a way that makes no sense.”Ī former U.S. Bush to President Obama, “had different approaches,” he said, “but each in their own way was resolved to mediate the conflict. The four administrations he worked under while serving in the Middle East, from President George H.W. Walles, who retired from the State Department in 2017, described Trump’s move to subsume the consulate general into the embassy as “a complete break with United States policy.” “The people working there understood their role as being part of the American effort to resolve the conflict, and I think that sense of mission is gone,” Walles said, describing the low morale among consulate workers. Jake Walles, who served as consul general from 2005 to 2009 and visited Jerusalem last week, said that for all its employees, Israeli Jew and Palestinian Muslim alike, the consulate represented the common endeavor of peace-building. The consulate was known for hosting one of the liveliest parties on Jerusalem’s annual schedule, a July 4 gala held on the front lawn that brought together Muslims, Jews and Christians. The Agron Street location has been the face of the United States here since 1912, and it represented American goodwill.” Nirit Shalev Khalifa, a historian and author of a scholarly catalog about the history of American consuls in Jerusalem, said the closure represents “the end of an incredible period in the development of Jerusalem and its place in international life. The dissent cable is a rarely used diplomatic instrument through which a diplomat can record opposition to a policy without going public. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Trump’s former attorney and a longtime supporter of the settlements.Īccording to National Public Radio, at least one “dissent cable” opposing the consulate closure was transmitted to the State Department. The United States and the international community consider the settlements to be illegal.Īs of Monday, the reports will be overseen by U.S. For many of the diplomats serving there, the work - support and training for Palestinian security services and major joint economic and social initiatives - came with a deep vocation for peace-building.Īmong its responsibilities, the Jerusalem consulate has long submitted regular reports on Israeli construction and development of West Bank settlements directly to the State Department. The consulate had been one of very few non-embassy diplomatic posts reporting directly to the State Department. Mike Hankey, Sasahara’s deputy, will be head of the new Palestinian affairs unit. Her departure, on Monday morning, was marked by “a small, internal farewell ceremony which included a flag lowering and presentation,” according to a U.S. Karen Sasahara, a career Middle East expert who became consul general in August, learned two months later that her job was being eliminated, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the mission’s end. It said it would become home to a new Palestinian affairs unit.īut the new unit represents a significant downgrade in diplomatic terms. is not abandoning the consulate building, across from Independence Park in West Jerusalem. Palestinians said the move did not take into account Palestinian aspirations for East Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a future state of Palestine. The diplomat struggled to find words to describe the situation of American envoys who arrived in Jerusalem with the aim of building ties to the Palestinian Authority, which officially cut ties to the United States after Trump’s announcement of the embassy’s move. diplomat, who was not authorized to speak to journalists and asked not to be identified.
“In terms of our Palestinian contacts, it’s like we’ve stopped existing for them,” said one U.S. diplomats and Palestinian officials have decried the closure as a slap in the face to the Palestinian Authority. The Trump administration has said the freestanding consulate was no longer needed after the embassy moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Embassy in Jerusalem as part of President Trump’s 2017 recognition of the holy city as Israel’s capital. That era came to a close on Monday, when the consulate - an independent diplomatic mission in existence since 1844 - was subsumed into the operations of the new U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem has served as America’s de facto embassy to the Palestinians.
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