The U.S. consulate first opened in 1844 in the
Old City, inside
Jaffa Gate, in what is now the Swedish Christian Study Center. In the late 19th century, the consulate moved to a site on the
Street of the Prophets. In 1912, it moved to
Gershon Agron Street, in present-day
West Jerusalem. The main building, one of the first houses built outside the Old City walls, was constructed in 1868 by Ferdinand Vester, a German
Lutheran missionary. A third story was added later. On 23 May 1948, the Consul General,
Thomas C. Wasson, was assassinated. In 1952, the consulate leased a second building which provided American citizen and visa services on
Nablus Road,
East Jerusalem.
Trump Administration and US Embassy On 14 May 2018, the new embassy of the United States in Jerusalem opened on a small part of the
Arnona site of the Jerusalem Consulate General, and became the new diplomatic mission of the United States to the State of Israel, replacing the former
embassy of the United States in Tel Aviv. The Consulate General continued to operate as an independent mission from its historic Agron Road site.
Merger into US Embassy On 18 October 2018, the
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would be merging the US Consulate General with the newly-relocated US Embassy in Jerusalem into a single mission. Pompeo also announced that the US would continue to conduct its reporting, outreach and program in the Palestinian Territories through a new
Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the US Embassy in Jerusalem. This unit will operate from the Agron Road site in Jerusalem. On 19 February 2019, it was reported that the US Consulate General would be merging into the US Embassy in March 2019. On 4 March 2019, the functions of the consulate general were merged into the US Embassy and the consulate general ceased operating, ending the US practice of having separate diplomatic missions to the Israelis and Palestinians. The former Consulate General's Agron Road building was renamed the
Palestinian Affairs Unit, to carry out many of the former Consulate General's functions. The last Consul-General was
Karen Sasahara. Meanwhile, fellow Executive Committee member
Hanan Ashrawi called the closure of the Consulate General "an assault on Palestinian rights and identity."
Reopening In May 2021,
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the
Biden administration announced that Washington will reopen the consulate, without specifying a date. In September 2021,
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the US administration to speed up the reopening of the consulate general in Jerusalem to handle direct contacts with the Palestinians. In June 2022, the United States Government redesignated the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PUA) as the
U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA). While the OPA is still considered part of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, it reports directly to the State Department's
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. == Location ==