In Jerusalem, the US Consulate and Atka

In October of the year 1995, Senator Robert Dole presented the draft "Law Implementing the Transfer of the Jerusalem Embassy", and after one month it was approved and issued as a "public law". The “General Law” is considered binding for implementation, and the drafting of its preamble was a major shift in official policy, as it referred to the city of “Jerusalem” as being completely under the sovereignty of the “State of Israel” and considered its “capital” since 1950. And that in the period 1948-1967 the city was “divided Where Jordan supervised the eastern part of it, "and prevented the Jews from accessing the holy places." He goes on to say that this situation "changed after the Six-Day War and the unification of Jerusalem," when "Israel guaranteed freedom of access for people of religion to their holy places." The law adopted Senate Resolutions 106 and 113, which stipulated that "the city of Jerusalem remains undivided, considering it the capital" and "unified." The "law" ignored the status quo and international law regarding the city of Jerusalem, and instead referred to the "Declaration of Principles of Self-Government" and the subsequent signing of the "Gaza and Jericho" agreement and the "transitional period".

In order to implement it, the “law” gave the Secretary of State 30 days to present to Congress a plan with time stages for “constructing and moving the embassy.” It gave the US President until May 31, 1999 to move the embassy, ​​while giving him the president the possibility of asking Congress to postpone the implementation of the “law” for six months only if it was “security.” The United States is threatened by its implementation. In its formulation, the "law" went further when it approved the reduction of the annual diplomatic mission's budget by half and the transfer of the other half to the budget for building and transferring the embassy. .

From its establishment in 1844 to 1995, the United States Consulate in Jerusalem was symbolically and politically important to the United States of America and its values. During this period, with its many stops, the United States refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and established its embassy in Tel Aviv, and kept its consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians. And it went further by not allowing its official vehicles to fly the American flag in Jerusalem, and its insistence on putting the name “Jerusalem”, and not “Israel”, in the birthplace of the American passport holder born in Jerusalem. And it practiced its parallel foreign policy when it put pressure on any country that tried to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

It is clear that the radical change in US policy towards the Palestinians and their rights has taken on different and accelerating dimensions since the mid-nineties, specifically by Congress and its active members, as Congress is still discussing and adopting many bills and laws that restrict any potential endeavors of the US administration that would reach an acceptable political settlement. In this context, Congress passed the "Taylor Force" law in 2018 regarding "stopping US economic aid to the Palestinian Authority if it does not stop aid to the families of martyrs and prisoners." In the same year, Congress passed the “Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act-ATCA” in the wake of federal lawsuits against the Palestine Liberation Organization. and Justice for Victims of Terrorism - (PSJVTA) to target the Palestine Liberation Organization directly and cut off any official Palestinian representation in the United States, and pave the way for the prosecution of the organization and the Palestinian Authority in American courts.

It is clear that the main objective of these unjust laws towards us is to blackmail and subjugate the national decision, which was not accepted before, nor later. What is required of us remains a greater effort to win advocates from the American legislative level for our just cause.