After embassy move, Trump weighs Jerusalem consulate changes

This move could suggest placing the Palestinian Authority under Israel’s jurisdiction.

David Friedman
Staunchly pro-Israel, Friedman has close ties to the occupied West Bank settler movement [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

President Donald Trump is considering giving US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman more authority over Washington’s diplomatic mission that handles Palestinian affairs, five US officials told The Associated Press news agency, a shift that could further dampen Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

Any move to downgrade the autonomy of the US Consulate General in Jerusalem – responsible for relations with the Palestinians – could have potent symbolic implications, suggesting American recognition of Israeli control over occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

And while the change might be technical and bureaucratic, it could have potentially significant policy ramifications.

Breaking with years of US policy, Trump announced the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, drawing international condemnation and sparking a wave of heated protests around the world.

 As president, Trump has departed from traditional US insistence on a “two-state solution” for the Middle East conflict by leaving open the possibility of just one state. His administration prepares to unveil a long-awaited peace plan, the Palestinians have all but cut off contact, enraged by Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

The deliberations come as Friedman, who has pushed for changes to the consulate since he arrived in Israel last year, faces growing indignation in the US over partisan comments and other actions in which he has publicly sided with Israel over its critics.

On Thursday, a top Democratic legislator even suggested Friedman should be recalled after he waded into domestic US politics on Israel’s behalf, telling an Israeli newspaper that Democrats have failed to support Israel as much as Republicans.

For decades, the Jerusalem consulate has operated differently than almost every other consulate around the world. Rather than reporting to the US embassy in Israel, it has reported directly to the Department of State in Washington, giving the Palestinians an unfiltered channel to engage with the US government.

That arrangement was relatively clear-cut before Trump moved the embassy. Until Trump’s decision in December to move it from Tel Aviv, the United States did not recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Israel occupied Arab East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the 1967 war along with the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Israel moved to annex occupied East Jerusalem in 1981 in violation of international law.

The Jerusalem consulate provided services to Americans in Jerusalem and also served as the de facto US embassy to the Palestinians.

Palestinian leaders claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

But since Trump earlier this month moved the embassy to Jerusalem, the situation has become more complicated. Now, the US maintains an embassy in one part of the city and a separate consulate less than a mile away, potentially creating confusion about who has ultimate authority if, for example, an American citizen needs help and turns to the US government.

No final decision has been made about what changes to make to the consulate’s chain of command, a decision complicated by the consulate’s unique circumstances.

But the embassy, run by Friedman, is expected to end up with ultimate authority over the consulate, officials said. They weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.

PA to be under Israel’s jurisdiction?

Dan Shapiro, the former US ambassador to Israel, said such a move would be perceived as undermining Palestinians’ claims to sovereignty and statehood aspirations, because it would suggest that Washington considers the Palestinian Authority (PA) to be under Israel’s jurisdiction. Otherwise, Shapiro said, why would it expect the Palestinians to talk to the US through its mission to Israel?

 “They don’t want to deal with the US embassy to Israel as their channel,” said Shapiro, now a scholar at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “They want their voice to be heard directly in Washington.”

Chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat told Al Jazeera that he is not surprised by this news. He said the Palestinians would not deal with the Trump administration so long as it continues to undermine the two-state solution and completely adopt the ‘extreme’ right-wing Israeli positions.

“The Trump administration is not a dependable party to make peace in the region,” he said

Typically, the head of a consulate, known as a consul general, reports to the ambassador, who has “chief of mission authority” over all US posts in the country. In contrast, the consul general running the Jerusalem consulate has historically had his or her own chief of mission authority.

The closest comparable case to the Jerusalem situation is the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, which also has its own chief of mission who does not report to the US ambassador in Beijing.

Friedman has advocated for having the embassy in Jerusalem subsume the consulate, officials said, although the Department of State has ruled out that possibility. Other possibilities include allowing the consulate to retain some day-to-day authorities while letting the embassy set the direction for major policy decisions.

Staunchly pro-Israel and with close ties to the occupied West Bank settler movement, Friedman is broadly seen by Palestinian leadership as lacking good faith in US efforts to mediate a fair resolution to the conflict.

But on the consulate issue, he has an ally in the White House in the form of national security adviser John Bolton, the officials said.

It wasn’t clear precisely when the changes would be made, although one official said the administration is waiting until current Consul General Donald Blome leaves Jerusalem over the summer, possibly in July.

Regardless of any changes, the Jerusalem consulate will remain the primary US point of contact for the PA and for Palestinians, including those in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip seeking visas or other US consular services.

“Consulate General Jerusalem continues to operate as an independent mission with an unchanged mandate from its historic Agron Road location,” the State Department said in a statement.

Such changes would likely be carried out by Trump issuing new “letters of instruction,” which delegate authorities to ambassadors and chiefs of mission, to Friedman and whoever heads the Jerusalem consulate, the official said.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies