US is shutting down Office of Palestinian Affairs and merging it into its embassy in Jerusalem

By Jennifer Hansler and Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is closing the Office of Palestinian Affairs and merging it into the US embassy in Jerusalem, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday.

“This decision will restore the first Trump term framework of a unified US diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital that reports to the US ambassador to Israel,” Bruce said at a department briefing. “Ambassador (Mike) Huckabee will take the steps necessary to implement the merger over the coming weeks.”

Bruce claimed the closure of the office “is not a reflection on any outreach or commitment to outreach to the people at the West Bank or to Gaza.”

“It really is actually very similar to what’s happening here with the bureaus, with our reorganization. It is making sure that the issues that are important are all working together right, are not segmented out so that the interests of the embassy – very, very much like the interests of our foreign aid and other actions – can work together in the Bureau as one entity,” she said.

Still, it appeared to be a further downgrading of relations with the Palestinian people, especially since the announcement comes one day after Israel approved plans to expand its war in Gaza.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “One thing will be clear: there will be no in-and-out.” After more than 18 months of war, Netanyahu said the population of Gaza will be displaced to the south “to protect them.” Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that “we are finally going to conquer the Gaza Strip.”

Last week, Trump said he told Netanyahu, “We’ve got to be good to Gaza.” But, so far, there has been no action to back up the rhetoric, with Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza entering its third month. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.

In the first Trump administration, the US shuttered the consulate general in Jerusalem and reopened it as the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which operated under the embassy.

The consulate gave the Palestinian Authority a dedicated US representative and a direct line to Washington without going through the US ambassador to Israel. Such an arrangement, where Israelis and Palestinians had separate lines to Washington, was viewed as critical for the US to operate as an impartial broker between the two sides, especially in times of conflict.

But David Friedman, Trump’s first ambassador to Israel during his first term and a staunch advocate of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, closed the consulate. The move made Friedman, who has openly criticized the idea of a Palestinian state, the primary intermediary for the Palestinians to talk to Washington.

The Biden administration did not reopen the consulate general despite claiming it would work to do so.

Rubio’s move to close the Office of Palestinian Affairs appears to be a further step in sidelining the Palestinian ability to engage directly with the US government, especially through Huckabee, who has said in the past that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

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