Israel and the United States: A high-value embassy?

The embassy for the Palestinians has been causing tensions between the United States and Israel. The United States wants to open it in Jerusalem, but Israel has refused. This controversy touches the heart of the Middle East conflict.

A statement he has now measured: In April last year, Donald Trump announced the re-opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem for Palestinian Affairs, if elected by Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential candidate. Closed in 2018.

Now the US government wants to implement this promise, but Israel strongly opposes it. It is again about the controversial state of Jerusalem. “There is no room for another US embassy in Jerusalem,” Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett recently said, adding that Jerusalem was only the capital of one country and that it was Israel. Bennett stressed that this was also made clear to the US government.

In particular, it is about a facility in the western part of the city, not far from the old city wall. Political contacts with the Palestinian leadership continued through this embassy until the closure of Washington.

Ibrahim Talal Shah recalled that for thirty years the US Embassy was the embassy for the Palestinians. He was a lawyer and political analyst who worked at the embassy and currently runs a think tank called the “Horizon Center” in Ramallah.

Expected number

Not surprisingly, the Israeli government refused to reopen the embassy. Israel demands the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern part of Arabia. Trump endorsed the claim as US president in 2017, then moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The US Embassy in Palestine in Jerusalem will oppose this. From the Israeli point of view, this is to keep what you got through Trump, says analyst Dalal Shah.

Palestinians insist on Biden’s promise

The head of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is urging the reopening of the embassy in Jerusalem. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtaye has said that US President Biden is expected to fulfill his promise.

Staye rejected the proposal by Israeli Foreign Minister Jair Lapit to open a US delegation to Ramallah. Ramallah is not Jerusalem. Shtaye said they wanted the embassy in Jerusalem to open and become the future US embassy in Palestine. Several states, including Germany, have embassies in Ramallah. However, the United States played a key role in the Middle East conflict.

Is the solution impossible?

The intensity with which the dispute is conducted is explained by the question of location. The claim of both sides to Jerusalem is one of the major unresolved issues in the Middle East conflict. There is symbolic power at every step. The US government does not want to reopen the embassy against Israel’s wishes, but it does not want to officially abandon the project – and the Palestinians will not accept US diplomatic representation elsewhere. There is no sign of a solution.

The diplomatic dispute will be terminated without any resolution. Even so, it stands as a symbol of something – the overall state of the Middle East conflict.