The Biden administration is restoring a line of communication for the Palestinians that had been canceled by former President Donald Trump.
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The move, announced Thursday ahead of a possible visit by President Joe Biden to Israel and the West Bank, means Palestinians will deal directly with the State Department in Washington rather than go through the US Embassy in Israel first. Reflecting the change, the former Palestinian Affairs Unit changed its name Thursday to the Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA)
The decision falls short of the Palestinian demand that the United States reopen its Jerusalem consulate, which for years functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. The Trump administration shuttered the consulate, in one of a series of controversial moves that favored Israel over the Palestinians.
Under Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to reopen it, a move that Israel said would challenge its sovereignty over the city. It was thought that such a reopening could help mend US ties with the Palestinians, ruptured under Trump. The US has so far failed to reopen the consulate, apparently in fear of upsetting ties with Israel or destabilizing its fragile coalition government.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said there was no room in Jerusalem for another American mission. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it views the reopening of the consulate as part of the international community's commitments to ending Israel's decades-long "occupation."
A spokesperson for the embassy said that the name change was done to "better align with State Department nomenclature" and that the OPA, while operating under auspices of the embassy, "reports on substantive matters directly to the Near Easetrn Affairs Bureau in the State Department."
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