Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren slammed the Biden administration for its plan to unilaterally reopen a consulate in east Jerusalem despite Israel’s opposition to the move, calling it an “anti-Semitic policy.”
“It’s a decisive reversal of the US recognition of Jerusalem as our capital,” Oren, who served as ambassador under former President Barack Obama, said in an interview on Radio 103FM on Monday morning. He referred to the situation before President Trump closed the US consulate in east Jerusalem as absurd.
“It was a totally absurd situation. Not only are these American policies impractical, they’re anti-Semitic,” Oren said. “It’s the only place in the world where Jews are banned from living in certain neighborhoods. Would anyone dare pass such a law in New York?”
Oren also spoke to Yisrael Hayom about the consulate issue and recalled a “humiliating incident” during his term as ambassador, when the US still maintained a US consulate in east Jerusalem. He said he was summoned to the State Department and castigated for the demolition of an outdoor toilet in east Jerusalem. “The demolition was authorized by the Israeli courts,” Oren stressed. “The incident, like other humiliating incidents was germinated at the American consulate in Jerusalem.”
Oren said he spoke about the issue at the time with Jewish organizations. “I showed them the consulate’s website. Everything on it was a Palestinian narrative, in Arabic and English only. You wouldn’t know that there was a single Jew in Jerusalem from that website. I told them – this is antisemitic, do something about it. They weren’t willing to stand up against the State Department. The consulate made sure to avoid even an appearance of American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and they embittered the lives of successive governments here every time they built a new neighborhood for Jews in Jerusalem, and every time they tried to enforce planning and building laws in east Jerusalem.”
“We have to stand up for our interests,” Oren asserted. “I can see a crawl toward that old antisemitic policy when the ambassador in Washington is summoned for every demolition of illegal construction in east Jerusalem and every brick that is laid in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem beyond the Green Line. It is a matter of sovereignty and national honor. This is our capital. We must set boundaries, even when we’re talking about our greatest friend. This is the moment when I expect our government to do so clearly, firmly and respectfully.”
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