“We think it’s a bad idea,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said at a news conference
Jerusalem:
Israel said on Wednesday that the US plan to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which has traditionally been the basis for diplomatic access for Palestinians, is a “bad idea” and could destabilize Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s new government. Is.
President Donald Trump’s former administration signaled support for Israel’s claim on Jerusalem as its capital by relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv and including the consulate in that mission.
It was one of several moves that provoked the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a hopeful, future state.
President Joe Biden has promised to restore relations with the Palestinians, support a two-state solution, and move forward with reopening the consulate. It has been closed since 2019, with Palestinian affairs being handled by the embassy.
“We think it’s a bad idea,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid asked at a news conference about the reopening. “Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we do not think this is a good idea.
“We know the (Biden) administration has a different way of looking at it, but since this is happening in Israel, we’re sure they’re listening to us very carefully.”
Asked for comment, Wasel Abu Yusuf, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Israel was trying to maintain the status quo and block any political solution.
The US Embassy did not immediately comment.
Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital – a status that is not recognized internationally.
It occupied the West Bank and the east of the city along with Gaza, occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.
Bennett, a nationalist over a cross-partisan coalition, opposes the Palestinian state. Lapid said reopening the consulate could destabilize Bennett’s government, which ended the tenure of premier Benjamin Netanyahu in June.
“We have an interesting and delicate structure of government and we think it could destabilize this government and I don’t think the US administration wants that to happen,” he said.
Lapid said the division among the Palestinians also raised doubts about the prospects for diplomacy. “I am a devoted believer in the two-state solution … but we have to accept the fact that it is not possible in the current situation.”
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