For many Palestinians in east Jerusalem, the decision to open an American consulate in the center of the capital, first and foremost, would be good news from a bureaucratic perspective: These people, some of them American citizens, would be able to receive consular services without having to go through the US Embassy in Israel. However, the symbolic aspect of such an initiative cannot be ignored. The Biden administration is fulfilling a promise it made to the pro-Palestinian wing of his party, while mainly delivering a message to the Israeli government that it has the ability and authority to make decisions based on its own policy.
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On an even more symbolic level, the decision breathes life into the hopes of left-wing Israelis and segments of the Palestinian nation, that one day Jerusalem will be the capital of two countries, Israel and Palestine.
However, anyone familiar with the geopolitical reality in Jerusalem knows that the consulate building in the city center will never be the home of a future embassy in a Palestinian state that isn't close to being established. It was and will be, a consular office, nothing more. The concern in Israel, mainly from right-wing circles, is a tad overblown, and mostly difficult to explain: After all, this would be a decision by a sovereign country regarding the use of an asset in the service of its own interests.
Above all else, one must question the considerable concern over the "united Jerusalem" brand. As someone who knows Jerusalem, I know it is not one city and certainly not united. Completely irrespective of the political or ideological identity of the leadership, Jerusalem is split between two culturally, municipally and socially distant populations. Municipal and governmental services barely reach the nearly 350,000 Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, who despite fighting to hang on to their Israeli identification cards are also determined to preserve their Palestinian identity – and there you have the raw materials for civil and national conflict.
Israel's primary and perhaps only control is in terms of security, as the adjacent Arab villages are considered an integral part of the municipal territory but are essentially slums with rampant unemployment and crime.
It cannot be denied that in recent years there's been an awakening over the provision of municipal services to the city's east, yet east Jerusalem and its residents are far more than a municipal, inter-city matter. This matter has national, diplomatic and sometimes security implications and all policies in its regard have been determined by respective Israeli governments, not the municipality's health and welfare departments.
Here's a proposal: Before panicking over the opening of a consulate, maybe the government should formulate a clear policy about the city's eastern neighborhoods and decide once and for all: Are they part of the city, with all that entails, or not. And if city hall insists on collecting municipal and property taxes from its Palestinian residents – then they should not be limited in terms of the services to which they are entitled as citizens and residents. There's no need to fear a consulate, just take care of the long lines at the Interior Ministry.
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