US shuts Jerusalem consulate, downgrades Palestinian mission

Why in news?

• The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem, downgrading the status of its main diplomatic mission in Palestine by folding it into the US Embassy to Israel.
• For decades, the consulate functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Now, that outreach will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit, under the command of the embassy.
• Palestinian leaders see the decision as another move against them by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which they froze contact with after his 2017 decision recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
• When first announced by US Secretary Mike Pompeo in October, the move infuriated Palestinians, leading to their suspicions that the US was recognising Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories that Palestinians seek for a future state.

Background: –

• Last year, the US recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocated its embassy there, upending the US policy towards one of the most explosive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• The administration also has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, including assistance to hospitals and peace-building programmes.
• It has cut funding to the UN agency that provides aid to Palestinians classified as refugees. Last fall, it shut down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.

Israel-Palestine issue: –

• The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century.
• The origins to the conflict can be traced back to Jewish immigration, and sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine between Jews and Arabs.
• Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, and its later electoral challenger, Hamas.
• After Hamas’s electoral victory in 2006, the Quartet conditioned future foreign assistance to the Palestinian National Authority (PA) on the future government’s commitment to non-violence, recognition of the State of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements.
• Hamas rejected these demands which resulted in the Quartet’s suspension of its foreign assistance program, and the imposition of economic sanctions by the Israelis.
• A year later, following Hamas’s seizure of power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory officially recognized as the PA was split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

(International)(Times now news)

Pic courtesy:Al Jazeera