Ambassadors the world over face delicate diplomatic concerns on a daily basis. It’s part and parcel for the job.
But nowhere is that truer than Jerusalem, where the US recently moved its embassy to. In the process of doing this, the US outraged many Palestinians while delighting most Israelis.
In the latest feather ruffling move, the United States has shuttered its Jerusalem consulate that served as its diplomatic channel to Palestine, and merged with the new embassy in Israel.
Palestine has boycotted the Trump administration after it made the bold policy decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital in December 2017.
Palestinians are not happy to say the least.
Previously the consulate had provided reporting on Palestinian affairs directly to Washington, but staff have now been reassigned to the embassy as the ‘Palestinian Affairs Unit,’ working under the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat decried the move on Twitter saying that, ‘This is the last nail in the coffin.’
Talks between the two countries collapsed last in 2014, but the White House has indicated that it plans to present a new peace plan following the upcoming Israeli election in April.
Israel lays claim to all of Jerusalem, including the eastern part that it captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed it in a move that the international ‘community’ has not recognised.
Read the article in The Australian Tribune.