U.S. President Donald Trump is considering giving U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman more authority over the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that handles Palestinian affairs, five U.S. officials said.
Any move to downgrade the autonomy of the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem could have potent symbolic resonance, suggesting American recognition of Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank. And while the change may be technical and bureaucratic, it could have potentially significant policy implications.
For decades, the Jerusalem consulate has operated differently than almost every other consulate in the world. Rather than reporting to the U.S. Embassy in Israel, it has reported directly to the State Department in Washington, giving the Palestinians an unfiltered channel to engage directly with the U.S. government.
Now, since the move to Jerusalem last month, the U.S. maintains its embassy in one part of the city and the consulate separately less than a mile away, potentially creating confusion about which has authority if, for example, an American citizen needs help.
Trump has departed from traditional U.S. insistence on a "two-state solution" for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by leaving open the possibility of just one state. As his administration prepares to unveil a long-awaited peace plan, the Palestinians have all but cut off contact, enraged by Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Friedman, who has pushed for changes to the consulate's status since he arrived in Israel last year, is facing growing indignation in the U.S. over partisan comments and other actions in which he has publicly sided with Israel over its critics. On Thursday, a top Democratic lawmaker suggested Friedman should be recalled after he waded into domestic U.S. politics on Israel's behalf, telling an Israeli newspaper that the Democrats have failed to support Israel as much as the Republicans have.
Before Trump's decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem consulate provided services to Americans in Jerusalem and served as the de facto U.S. embassy to the Palestinians, who envision east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.
No final decision has been made about what changes may be made to the consulate's chain of command, a decision complicated by the consulate's unique circumstances. But the embassy, run by Friedman, is expected to end up with ultimate authority over the consulate, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, now a scholar at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, said such a move would be perceived as undermining the Palestinians' claims to sovereignty and their statehood aspirations because it would suggest that Washington considers the Palestinian Authority to be under Israel's jurisdiction. Otherwise, why would the U.S. expect the Palestinians to talk to it through its mission to Israel, Shapiro asked.
"They don't want to deal with the U.S. Embassy to Israel as their channel. They want their voice to be heard directly in Washington," Shapiro said.
Typically, the head of a consulate, the consul general, reports to the ambassador, who has "chief of mission authority" over all U.S. posts in a country. In contrast, the consul general running the Jerusalem consulate has historically had his or her own chief of mission authority. The closest comparable case to the Jerusalem situation is in Hong Kong, where the U.S. Consulate also has a chief of mission who does not report to the U.S. ambassador in Beijing.
Friedman has advocated for having the embassy in Jerusalem subsume the consulate, but the State Department has ruled this out, officials said. Other possibilities include allowing the consulate to retain some day-to-day authority while letting the embassy set the direction for major policy decisions.
Staunchly pro-Israel and with close ties to the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria, Friedman is broadly seen by the Palestinian leadership as lacking good faith in U.S. efforts to mediate a fair resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the consulate issue, he has an ally in the White House in the form of National Security Adviser John Bolton, the officials said.
It was not clear when any changes would be made, although one official said the administration was waiting until current Consul General Donald Blome leaves Jerusalem over the summer, possibly in July.
Regardless of any changes, the Jerusalem consulate will remain the primary U.S. point of contact for Palestinians, including those in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip seeking visas or other U.S. consular services.
"Consulate General Jerusalem continues to operate as an independent mission with an unchanged mandate from its historic location," the State Department said in a statement.
Changes would likely be carried out by Trump issuing new "letters of instruction" delegating authority to ambassadors and chiefs of mission, to Friedman and to the head of the Jerusalem consulate, the official said.
