By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) – The Knesset (Israel’s parliament) on Wednesday approved in preliminary reading a bill that would prohibit the opening of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem to serve non-Israeli residents (Palestinians), citing a potential de facto situation of Jerusalem as a “shared city.”
The bill was passed by 18-7 votes. It still requires three additional votes to become law.
It stipulates that Israel “will not allow a foreign political entity to open or operate in Jerusalem a diplomatic mission that is intended to serve people who are not Israeli residents or residents of the entity in question.”
The bill argues that allowing diplomatic missions to provide services to foreign entities in Jerusalem could undermine Israel’s sovereignty in the city.
“No government has ever given permission to open any mission of a foreign entity that is not intended to serve its own residents or the residents of Israel,” the bill says. “The reason is that such permission was never given, is that this could create a de facto situation of Jerusalem as a 'shared' city.”
Palestinians hold firm to East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state, citing international resolutions that do not recognize Israel's occupation of the city in 1967 or its annexation in 1981.
Recently, Slovenia, Spain, Ireland and Norway have officially recognized Palestine as a state. In retaliation, Israel decided on May 27 to bar the Spanish Consulate in East Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 36,580 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio