Senior US officials said that the office would not be a consulate and would not have the facilities of one. They denied reports circulating in media that there was a plan to open a consulate in east Jerusalem. According to one news report, George Noll, head of the embassy’s Palestinian Affairs Unit, has begun preparations for the reopening of a consulate in east Jerusalem. In 2019, the US merged its consulate in Jerusalem with the US Embassy in the capital, creating one center to service all city residents. At the time, former American diplomats had described the consulate as Washington’s primary channel to the Palestinians. In maintaining separate diplomatic relations with the Palestinians and the Israelis, consecutive administrations since the signing of the Oslo Accords hoped to garner trust with Ramallah and underscore US support for a separation of the two peoples. The merging of the two was aimed at ensuring that the US speaks “with one voice” to both Israelis and Palestinians, after years of offering “mixed messages” to both sides.
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