Israel and the United States (US) have signed an agreement on Wednesday to hand Washington DC a plot of illegally occupied land in Jerusalem, owned by Palestinians, for $1, to build the permanent site of the US Embassy in the city.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee signed the agreement in the presence of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, allocating the land for the permanent embassy compound, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The lease agreement for the land is for 99 years and the United States will pay Israel the sum of $1,” Huckabee said.
During his first term in December 2017, US President Donald Trump illegally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered the embassy moved from Tel Aviv. The temporary site opened in May 2018.
The decision was criticized internationally at the time as a break from the consensus on Jerusalem’s status.
In 2022, the Israeli rights group Adalah said that the land allocated for the embassy compound had been confiscated from Palestinians under Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law.
The group said that archival documents show the land belonged to Palestinian families before 1948 and had been leased to British Mandate authorities.
Adalah added that the expansion of the embassy and the confiscation of the land violate international law, specifically Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, which bars the confiscation of private property.
The United Nations (UN) considers East Jerusalem part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 and holds that any measures to change the city’s character or legal status carry no legal effect under international law.
Since the embassy’s move to Jerusalem in 2018, most countries have kept their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, in line with the international position on the city’s status
