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The United States and Israel on Wednesday signed an agreement to construct a permanent US embassy compound in Jerusalem, a move that Israeli officials hailed as a further demonstration of the “unbreakable alliance” between the two countries.
The agreement marks another milestone in the implementation of former US President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city.
Speaking at a signing ceremony at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reaffirmed Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“The United States recognises Jerusalem as the eternal, indigenous and forever capital of the Jewish people,” Huckabee said.
“We are going to plant our flag, our American flag, on the soil of Jerusalem with a permanent and brand-new embassy compound that will serve as the central hub of our diplomatic activities in Israel,” he added.
Huckabee also remarked that the historical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem predated the establishment of the United States, saying, “God made that decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally got around to acknowledging what had been determined long before the United States of America came along.”
According to officials, the new embassy compound will be constructed at the Allenby complex in southern Jerusalem.
Since the embassy’s relocation from Tel Aviv in 2018, US diplomatic operations in Jerusalem have been spread across several locations pending the establishment of a permanent facility.
President Trump’s decision in December 2017 broke with decades of US policy, under which the final status of Jerusalem was expected to be determined through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After capturing East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel declared the city its undivided capital, a claim that has not been widely recognised by the international community.
Palestinians, meanwhile, seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Consequently, most countries have maintained their embassies in Tel Aviv, arguing that Jerusalem’s status should be resolved through peace negotiations in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the agreement as another affirmation of the close strategic partnership between Washington and Tel Aviv.
“President Trump’s historic decision in 2017 to move the embassy to Jerusalem set the record straight,” Saar said during the ceremony.
“Today, with the agreement to begin building a permanent embassy complex, that decision becomes even more profound and enduring.”
However, the Israeli human rights organisation Adalah criticised the decision, describing the planned construction as the continuation of a “profound historical injustice.”
In a statement, the group said the designated site is located on land that was confiscated from Palestinian owners under Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law.
Adalah said it had previously filed objections on behalf of descendants of the original Palestinian landowners, some of whom hold US and Jordanian citizenship.
The organisation argued that proceeding with the project effectively endorses “unlawful mechanisms of dispossession and displacement” and violates the property rights of the original owners and their descendants under international law.
The embassy agreement comes amid continuing strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel and follows recent diplomatic and military coordination between the two allies during the regional confrontation involving Iran.
It also comes amid reports of differences between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over efforts to bring the conflict to an end.
