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| US President Joe Biden and Israeli PM Naftali Bennett chat during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House last week |
Israel said on Wednesday that a U.S. plan to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem that has traditionally been a base for diplomatic outreach to Palestinians is a โbad ideaโ and could destabilise Prime Minister Naftali Bennettโs new government.
The prior administration of President Donald Trump signalled support for Israelโs claim on Jerusalem as its capital by moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv and subsuming the consulate in that mission.
It was among several moves that incensed the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as capital of a hoped-for, future state.
President Joe Biden has pledged to restore ties with the Palestinians, back a two-state solution and move forward with reopening the consulate. It has been closed since 2019, with Palestinian affairs handled by the embassy.
โWe think itโs a bad idea,โ Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told a news conference when asked about the reopening. โJerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we donโt think itโs a good idea.
โWe know that the (Biden) administration has a different way of looking at this, but since it is happening in Israel, we are sure they are listening to us very carefully.โ
Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, told Reuters that the Israeli rejection of the consulateโs opening was expected, adding: โThey are trying to maintain the status quo and block any political solutionโ.
The U.S. embassy had no immediate comment.
Israel deems all of Jerusalem its undivided capital โ a status not recognised internationally.
It captured the cityโs east, along with the occupied West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 Middle East war.
Bennett, a nationalist atop a cross-partisan coalition, opposes Palestinian statehood. Reopening the consulate could unsettle Bennettโs government, which ended long-term premier Benjamin Netanyahuโs tenure in June, Lapid said.
โWe have an interesting and yet delicate structure of our government and we think this might destabilise this government and I donโt think the American administration wants this to happen,โ he said.
Divisions among Palestinians also cast doubt about the prospects for diplomacy, Lapid said. โI am a devoted believer in the two-state solution โฆ but weโll have to admit the fact this is not feasible in the current situation.โ
REUTERS
