Palestinians Urge Blinken Against Allowing US Embassy to Be Built on Confiscated Land in Jerusalem

A general view of the temporary United States embassy in Jerusalem taken on May 14, 2018. (AFP)
A general view of the temporary United States embassy in Jerusalem taken on May 14, 2018. (AFP)
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Palestinians Urge Blinken Against Allowing US Embassy to Be Built on Confiscated Land in Jerusalem

A general view of the temporary United States embassy in Jerusalem taken on May 14, 2018. (AFP)
A general view of the temporary United States embassy in Jerusalem taken on May 14, 2018. (AFP)

The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah, filed on Monday a letter to object against a plan to build the new US embassy and diplomatic compound in Jerusalem. The letter charges that the missions will be built on land that was confiscated from Palestinians.

The letter was sent to the Jerusalem District Planning Committee at the Israeli Interior Ministry, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Israel earlier this week.

The objection was filed by Adalah’s legal director on behalf of 12 of the heirs of the original Palestinian owners of the land the State Department is seeking to build on. The heirs include four US citizens, three Jordanians, and five East Jerusalem residents.

The US embassy compound is set to be built on a plot of land formerly known as the Allenby Barracks.

Adalah revealed that Israel had confiscated the land from the original owners using the 1950 Israeli Absentees’ Property Law. The land was then registered as state property, and later allocated to the US government.

In February 2021, the State Department and the Land Authority submitted plans for a US diplomatic compound. The move was made after former US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017 and relocated the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.

In November 2022, Adalah and the Center for Constitutional Rights sent a letter to Blinken and Nides, calling on the US to cancel the new embassy plans and the Israeli government to withdraw them.

Records found in the Israeli State Archives and released by Adalah in July 2022 clearly prove that the land was owned by Palestinian families and leased temporarily to British Mandate authorities before the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Adalah and the Center for Constitutional Rights emphasized that if the US proceeds with this plan, it will be a full-throated endorsement of Israel’s illegal confiscation of private Palestinian property. The State Department will become an active participant in violating the private property rights of its own citizens.

The descendants of the original owners include renowned Palestinian-American historian and professor, Rashid Khalidi.

He revealed that he was one of the Palestinian property owners who, in 1999, provided then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright with extensive documentation showing that at least 70 percent of this land is owned by Palestinian refugees, including dozens of American citizen heirs.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.