A bill that would prevent de facto Palestinian embassies from opening in east Jerusalem received preliminary approval from the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
The private member’s bill authorized by MK Dan Illouz (Likud) and MK Ze’ev Elkin (National) was designed to prevent a new campaign to open consulates in east Jerusalem that service Palestinians. It shores up already existing prohibitions on such a move.
“The bill is intended to hermetically block this possibility,” Elkin said, as he addressed the plenum.
Illouz said, ”We will not allow anyone, including our greatest allies, to establish a representation [office] that will serve an imaginary Palestinian state – and especially not in Jerusalem!
“The purpose of the bill is to protect Jerusalem, prevent its division, and preserve our sovereignty. It is our duty to keep Jerusalem united,” he added.
Significance of bill’s timing
The move comes after Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia unilaterally moved to recognize Palestine as a state.
The bill was introduced on Jerusalem Day, which marks the reunification of Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967, when it captured that portion of the city from Jordan which had controlled it in the aftermath of the 1948 war.
The international community, which refers to that portion of that city as east Jerusalem, does not recognize that sovereignty and believes that those areas over the pre-1967 lines are the future capital of a Palestinian state.
Israel has insisted that Jerusalem must remain the country’s united capital. Most countries have located their embassies to Israel in the center of the country, rather than in Jerusalem, to illustrate their objection to a united Jerusalem.
Countries with consulates or embassies that maintain diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority and service West Bank Palestinians have located their missions in Ramallah.
In the text of the bill, Elkin and Illouz explained that the Israeli government has never allowed a situation in which a consulate office was opened that was not dedicated to servicing Palestinians, who were not residents of Israel.
“The reason that such permission was never given is that a de facto situation of Jerusalem as a “shared” city may arise,” the parliamentarians said in the explanation of the bill.
There are some eight consulates that service both, but they were opened before the establishment of the state, they stated.
“Countries that wanted to provide service to the Palestinians… established diplomatic missions in Ramallah or in Arab countries,” they explained.
In addressing the plenum, Elkin said, “the recent trend of various countries in the world to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state may prompt new initiatives to open foreign consulates in Jerusalem for the Palestinian population” that live outside of sovereign Israel.”
Opening such missions, he said, would be seen as a sign that they recognize “Jerusalem as a future Palestinian state,” thereby undermining Israeli sovereignty in the city.”
“There is nothing more correct than starting to advance this law precisely on Jerusalem Day, which symbolizes Jerusalem’s status as the united and eternal capital of Israel.
“We will do everything to bring about the final approval of the law as quickly as possible and use it to build an iron wall that will protect our sovereignty in united Jerusalem,” Elkin stated.
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