US decision to merge Palestinian mission with Israeli embassy sparks anger

'The Trump Administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility towards the Palestinian people', PLO says

A flag flutters at the former US consulate building in Jerusalem (AP/Ariel Schalit)

The US has officially closed its consulate in Jerusalem, which served Palestinians, and has folded it into the US embassy to Israel.

The consulate functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians for decades, but now that mission will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit under the command of the embassy.

The symbolic shift hands authority over US diplomatic channels with the West Bank and Gaza to ambassador David Friedman, a longtime supporter and fundraiser for the West Bank settler movement and fierce critic of the Palestinian leadership.

“This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.

“It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.”

When first announced by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in October, the move infuriated Palestinians, with Palestinian official Saeb Erekat slamming the move as “the final nail in the coffin” for the US role in peacemaking.

Speaking on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Dr Hanan Ashwari said: “The Trump Administration is intent on leaving no room for doubt about its hostility towards the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights as well as its abject disregard for international law and its obligations under the law.

“Merging the US Consulate in Jerusalem with the US Embassy to Israel, which is now illegally located in Jerusalem, is not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity and a negation of the Consulate’s historic status and function, dating back nearly two hundred years.”

She added: “The US administration is subsuming Palestine under Israel and aligning itself with the racist Israeli right, which negates Palestinian identity, history, narrative and national rights.

“It is positioning itself with rogue states that have no regard for international law or respect for the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, a founding principle of the international order as we know it.”

Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and came under international criticism for recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, and for moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last May.

The administration also slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, including assistance to hospitals and peace-building programmes.

It has cut funding to the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians classified as refugees.

Last Autumn, it shut down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.

Palestinian leaders suspended diplomatic contacts with the US administration after the embassy move and have since boycotted US efforts to craft a long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, accusing Washington of pro-Israel bias.

The Trump administration has cited the reluctance of Palestinian leaders to enter peace negotiations with Israel as the reason for such punitive measures, although the US has yet to present its much-anticipated but still mysterious “Deal of the Century” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced last month that the US would unveil the deal after Israeli elections in April. The Palestinian Authority has preemptively rejected the plan, accusing the US of bias towards Israel.