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Israel and the United States signed an agreement on Wednesday under which Washington will receive a plot of land once owned by Palestinians in Jerusalem for $1 to build the permanent site of the US Embassy in the city.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee signed the agreement, in the presence of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, to allocate the land for building the permanent US Embassy compound in Jerusalem, 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 office in December 2017, US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv. The embassy’s temporary site opened in May 2018.
The decision drew broad international criticism at the time as a violation of the international consensus on Jerusalem’s status.
In 2022, Adalah, a rights group in Israel, said the land allocated for the embassy compound had been confiscated from Palestinians under Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law.
Archival documents prove that the land belonged to Palestinian families before 1948 and had been leased to British Mandate authorities, the group said.
The expansion of the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the confiscation of the land allocated for it violate international law, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, which prohibits the confiscation of private property, Adalah said.
The United Nations considers East Jerusalem part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 and says any measures aimed at changing the character or legal status of the city have no legal effect under international law.
Despite the US Embassy’s relocation to Jerusalem in 2018, most countries still keep their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv in line with the international position on the city’s status.
