The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to build its permanent embassy in Jerusalem, a move Israel called a testament to the “unwavering alliance” between the two countries.
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During his first term, in December 2017, American President Donald Trump ordered the move of the American diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognized as the capital of Israel, breaking the historic neutrality of the international community.
“The United States not only recognizes Jerusalem as the eternal, ancestral and forever capital of the Jewish people, but the United States also says, ‘We are going to act on this issue,’” US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said during a ceremony at the Israeli Foreign Ministry marking the signing of an agreement on the construction site of the new building.
“We will plant our flag, our American flag, on the soil of Jerusalem to establish our brand new permanent embassy complex, which will serve as the flagship for our diplomatic activities here in Israel,” he added.
“I would say that God made this decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally came to recognize what was established long before the United States even existed,” he said.
The permanent embassy will be built on the so-called Allenby Complex site in the south of the city. Its services have until now been spread across several sites in Jerusalem.
The Israeli human rights organization Adalah denounced the construction project, saying it “deliberately enshrines a profound historical injustice.”
Indeed, Adalah explained, the site “is located on land confiscated by Israel from Palestinians” on the basis of a “discriminatory” law from 1950, which allowed the state to take possession of land from displaced people or refugees. Adalah said she had already filed appeals on behalf of heirs of Palestinian owners, some of whom are Jordanian or American nationals.
In a statement, the organization accused the American administration, by choosing this site, “of directly supporting illegal Israeli mechanisms of displacement and seizure,” in violation of Palestinian rights.
Israel conquered and annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967, before proclaiming the entire city as its undivided capital.
The international community has never recognized the annexation and considers East Jerusalem to be occupied territory.
The Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem the capital of the state they aspire to.
“President Trump’s historic decision in 2017 to move the embassy to Jerusalem put things back in order,” Gideon Saar, Israeli Foreign Minister, said during Wednesday’s ceremony.
According to him, the agreement signed for the construction of the site underlines the “unwavering alliance” between Israel and its ally, the United States.
“Just as the United States is vital and irreplaceable to Israel, Israel is vital to the United States and its interests in the region,” Mr. Huckabee added in a message on his X account.
The move also comes after a period of reported tension between Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over ending the war with Iran, which they jointly launched on February 28.
