The Knesset Plenum on Thursday approved in a first reading a proposed amendment to Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel (Amendment No. 3 – Opening of Diplomatic Missions in Jerusalem), sponsored by MKs Zeev Elkin (New Hope—The United Right) and Dan Illouz (Likud). 30 MKs supported the proposal, and five opposed it. The bill now will be returned to the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for further deliberation.
The bill stipulates that the State of Israel will not permit foreign countries to open consulates or other official missions in Jerusalem whose heads have not presented their credentials to the President of the State of Israel and that Israel would work to encourage the opening of legitimate foreign embassies in Jerusalem.
Currently, eight countries maintain consulates-general in Jerusalem: Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem was merged into the Embassy of the United States in 2018.
This list also includes the Vatican (Holy See), which maintains an “Apostolic Delegation to Jerusalem and Palestine” in Jerusalem.
Some consulates-general in Jerusalem have jurisdiction over the “Palestinian territories” (eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip), and their heads act as representatives to “Palestine,” an entity without the status of a state.
These consulates are not diplomatic missions to Israel: the countries possessing consulates-general in Jerusalem maintain their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, and it is their ambassadors in Tel Aviv that present letters of credence to the president of Israel.
Not if the Elkin-Illouz legislation is passed. The explanatory notes to the bill read: “The purpose of this [proposed amendment to the basic law] is to strengthen the special status of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and to prevent the establishment of missions of foreign countries in Jerusalem that are not diplomatic missions (embassies) and [whose heads have not presented their credentials to the President of the State of Israel].
“It is further proposed to enshrine in the basic law the commitment of the State of Israel to work toward encouraging the establishment of embassies of foreign countries in Jerusalem.”
The bill authors stress that their proposed amendment to the basic law will apply only to the establishment of future missions in Jerusalem, and it does not recommend changing the status of consular missions of foreign countries that currently operate in Jerusalem.
However, even if the above eight or nine missions are grandfathered into the new amendment, it would still be extremely useful against additional countries that are planning to recognize a Palestinian state and hence establish a mission in Jerusalem to tend to the consular needs of PA residents.
The presence of consulates-general in Jerusalem that aren’t accredited to the Israeli government stems from the ongoing dispute over Jerusalem’s status. The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan proposed Jerusalem as a corpus separatum – an internationally governed entity separate from both the proposed Jewish and Arab states. This concept would have justified separate diplomatic missions in the city.
Although the corpus separatum plan was never realized, Jerusalem’s status remains contentious. The international community has not recognized Israel’s 1949 declaration of Jerusalem as its capital, nor its 1967 annexation of eastern Jerusalem. Consequently, the unusual arrangement of Jerusalem-based consulates provided a diplomatic compromise, allowing countries to maintain a presence in the city without implicitly endorsing Israeli claims over Jerusalem.
However, should the international community decide to recognize a State of Palestine with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, there would be a rush to plant dozens of foreign consulates that would operate outside Israeli jurisdiction. Hopefully, Israel will be spared this embarrassment once the basic law is amended.
