"US Consulate Merges with Embassy in Jerusalem" by Ma'an News Agency

 On March 4, 2019 the Ma’an news agency published an article “reported on the United States consulate merging with the embassy in Jerusalem”. This article talks about the controversial moving of the United States consulate of Israel from its original building to same building as the U.S embassy Jerusalem. The decision to merge the US consulate in the same building as the U.S embassy in  

U.S Consulate of Israel

Jerusalem is in hopes to “form a single diplomatic mission”. The reason behind this controversy stems further back to the even more controversial moving of the US embassy of Israel to Jerusalem recognizing it as Israel’s Capital. This sparked protest among the Palestinian people feeling that the US government isn’t recognizing eastern Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state. So by now merging the U.S consulate of Israel, which had been open to all Israeli citizens but had mostly been serving Palestinians living in Jerusalem as the main channel allowing local communities/citizens to communicate with the government on affairs between US diplomacy and Palestinian leadership. Palestinians feel that the consulate will stop acting as an independent diplomatic mission as it will be working under the same roof as the U.S ambassador David Friedmen. The Palestinians feel a sense of bias from the United States as they have moved both the U.S embassy and Consulate to Jerusalem. The Palestinian government has cut ties with the trump administration as it calls it unfit to mediate between Israel and Palestine. U.S Deputy State Department spokesperson, Robert Palladino stated that the merge would not interfere with any previous diplomatic or consular functions performed by the U.S embassy Jerusalem. Also mentioning that there will be a “Palestinian Affairs Unit” to serve Palestinians living in Jerusalem operating through the previous consulate location on Aragon road. Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Member, said in a statement sharing here thoughts on the merging of the U.S Consulate in Jerusalem with the U.S Embassy to Israel is “not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity and a negation of the Consulate's historic status and function, dating back nearly two hundred years.”

            The author does do a good job at quoting what political officials had to say on the matter such as US state department spokesman, Robert Palladino, although there was not a time or place it was said. On the other hand while quoting what Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian Leadership organization (PLO) committee member had to say, there was a link to another article dedicated to her words. And although the author doesn’t need to give a background about the U.S ambassador of Israel, David Friedman, I do feel it is worth noting that he was a lawyer at a law firm where he met and represented Donald Trump, then served as an advisor for trump during his successful political campaign. Which shows he was appointed as ambassador because he was loyal to Mr. Trump. The author explains that other countries such as Guatemala and Australia but doesn’t quite give too much evidence on that more hearsay than anything.
       Unfortunately there is no author taking credit for this piece so I could not research his or her political background or previous tone to similar events. Although I sense no real political side was chosen on this matter the writer does tend to portray more of a loss on the Palestinian side than a win for Israel. Focusing more on what the Palestinian Leaders Organization (PLO) had to say on the merge.