Israeli PM: There’s no place for Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli occupation Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, on Monday night told the Knesset that ‘Israel’ is opposed to the re-opening of the US consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, claiming Jerusalem is the capital of ‘Israel.

On Monday, during a meeting to the Knesset, MK Nir Barkat issued a “scathing speech against Bennett in the Knesset on the issue of a Palestinian consulate in the capital,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

Barkat said that “he personally worked with Congress and non-governmental groups to thwart the opening of the consulate.”

There were “36 senators who submitted a bill” against it and 200 congressional members who sent a special letter to Biden to ask that he shelve plans for the consulate, Barkat said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“The government under my leadership has repeatedly clarified its position that there is no place for a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem,” Bennett told Barkat.

“Jerusalem is the capital of one state, the State of Israel – period,” Bennett claimed.

Earlier this month, a US diplomat, a former senior US official and another source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that the Biden administration “has effectively shelved its effort to resurrect the de facto mission to the Palestinians.”

The three sources confirmed that no such process has begun although it’s been seven months since US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the decision of reopening the Consulate.

Moreover, even the administration’s more ardent advocates of reopening the consulate have shifted their focus to policies more likely to impact day-to-day life for Palestinians, the former senior US official said.

Last May, the Biden administration announced that the U.S. would be reopening the Consulate in Jerusalem.

US President Joe Biden said he would keep the US embassy in Jerusalem “to engage the Palestinians.”

In October, Blinken also announced that Washington will be moving forward with its plan of reopening its consulate which served Palestinians in Jerusalem.

“We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening those ties with the Palestinians,” Blinken stated at the State Department as speaking to the press after hosting a trilateral meeting with Israeli occupation Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The consulate dates back to 1844 and served for 25 years as the U.S. diplomatic mission to the Palestinians.

However, in 2018, outgoing President Donald Trump merged the consulate into the US embassy in Jerusalem, after he moved the US embassy to ‘Israel’ from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.

Several Israeli officials opposed the US plan, including Israeli PM Bennett, Israeli occupation Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was reported that Bennett proposed to Biden that the American Consulate reopened on the outskirts of Ramallah or in the occupied West Bank town of Abu Dis, but the United States has said it is not interested in the plan.

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