District Planning Committee to hear objections from Palestinian families against the U.S.-Israeli plan to establish a U.S. embassy on their land in Jerusalem
Tomorrow, 1 May at 08:30 Jerusalem time (GMT +2), the subcommittee for objections of the Jerusalem District Planning Committee will convene to discuss multiple objections to a proposed plan to build the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem – referred to as the Allenby compound – on private Palestinian land that was illegally confiscated by the state of Israel using the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law. One of the objections to be discussed is that submitted by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, submitted in January 2023 to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Israel, and the Israeli planning authorities, on behalf of twelve descendants of the original Palestinian landowners whose land the State Department is seeking to build on. These descendents include four U.S. citizens, three Jordanian residents, and five East Jerusalem residents.
Essential information:
Plan 101-0810796 - Diplomatic Compound - USA, Hebron Road, Jerusalem.
Location: The meeting will be held at the hearing hall of the District Committee located at 1 Shlomzion HaMalka Street, Jerusalem. The meeting is expected to be held in a hybrid format, with some invitees attending in-person at the hall.
Link to the virtual meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84807023104?pwd=M2RLdmh2L3d3Y3h3YmRwbHpVQXpIdz09
*In accordance with guidelines of the Planning Administration, the hearing will be accessible to the public, and the link to the meeting will appear on its website. However, all participants in the hybrid meeting will be required to identify themselves by their full name and will be visible on the video camera throughout the session.
CLICK HERE to read more about Adalah’s objection
CLICK HERE to read the plan (Hebrew)
The Israeli-U.S. plan was submitted to the Israeli planning authorities in February 2021, after a meeting in which four State Department officials participated. It was made clear during this meeting that the initiative for the plan was a result of the former U.S. President Trump's decision in December 2017 to relocate the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize it as the capital of Israel. The plan further reflected the intention of the U.S. government to build its embassy in two compounds, at two sites – one in Arnona and one in the Allenby compound – and the U.S. representatives in attendance reiterated that they were seeking to have both sites approved for embassy construction.
Archival records, found by Adalah in the Israeli State Archives and published in July 2022, clearly prove that the land was owned by Palestinian families and leased temporarily to British Mandate authorities before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
CLICK HERE to read more about the archival records
In November 2022, Adalah and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York sent an urgent letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, calling on the Biden Administration to immediately cancel the plan for the new U.S. Embassy compound in Jerusalem and to demand Israeli authorities to withdraw it.
CLICK HERE to read more about the letter
So far, in response to inquiries on the matter, the State Department has stated that the U.S. has not yet made a decision regarding the construction plan and is still considering both the Allenby Barracks and the alternative 'Arnona site'.
Adalah’s Legal Director, Dr. Suhad Bishara, filed an objection, arguing that this plan put forth by the U.S. government and the Israel Land Authority aims to construct an embassy complex on land that was expropriated from Palestinian owners, who became refugees or displaced persons as a result of actions that violate international law, as the expropriation of land belonging to Palestinian refugees is absolutely prohibited as permanent expropriation of the private property of people made refugees in war.
The objection further argued that planning and building the embassy as proposed in the plan would also violate Jerusalem’s special status a corpus separatum under international law and it would consolidate the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and reinforce Israel’s position that a “united Jerusalem” should serve as its capital, in breach of international law.
In the objection, Adalah cautioned the U.S. government that proceeding with the plan would implicate the U.S. in Israel's illegitimate policy of expropriating land belonging to Palestinian refugees and would lend support to the use of the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law, which is widely viewed as draconian, discriminatory, and motivated by racism.
CLICK HERE to read Adalah’s letter to the the US Ambassador to Israel and US Secretary of State
CLICK HERE to read an English translation of the objection
Related Press Release:
Palestinian Landowners File Objection Against US Plan for Jerusalem Embassy on their Stolen Property 30 January 2023.
Adalah and Center for Constitutional Rights demand US cancel its plan to build embassy compound in Jerusalem on private Palestinian land 10 November 2022
Photo credit: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
