Relocation to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv The embassy opened at its
Jerusalem location on May 14, 2018, the 70th
Gregorian anniversary of
the creation of the modern State of Israel. It was relocated from
its previous site in Tel Aviv by the
Trump Administration and is situated in what was previously the former
US Consulate in the Arnona neighborhood. The opening prayer was delivered by the Evangelical Reverend
Robert Jeffress, and the closing prayer was given by the Evangelical Reverend
John C. Hagee. The move came 23 years after the passage of the
Jerusalem Embassy Act of October 23, 1995, which set a deadline of May 31, 1999, for the move. The Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations had all deferred the move.
Eugene Kontorovich claimed that the decision to shift the US embassy to this area is tantamount to the United States recognizing Israeli sovereignty over land that it captured in the
Six-Day War in 1967.
Merger with the U.S. Consulate General On October 18, 2018,
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would be merging the embassy and US Consulate General in Jerusalem into a single mission. The United States will continue conducting relations with the West Bank and Gaza through a newly created
Palestinian Affairs Unit which will operate from the Agron Site of the Jerusalem Embassy. In February 2019, it was announced that the US Consulate General would be formally merging into the US Embassy in March. On March 4, 2019, the US Consulate-General was formally integrated into the US Embassy in Jerusalem. The Consulate-General's Agron Street premises were revamped as the Palestinian Affairs Unit, which would handle many of the Consulate-General's former functions. This ends the US practice of assigning separate diplomatic missions to the Israelis and Palestinians. In response,
Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee called for the international community to boycott the new Palestinian Affairs Unit. Erekat's sentiments were echoed by fellow Executive Committee member
Hanan Ashrawi, who denounced the merger of the Consulate General as "political assault on Palestinian rights and identity". Ashrawi's visa request to the United States was subsequently denied. On February 24, 2026, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem announced that it will provide routine passport services to American citizens in the West Bank settlement of
Efrat for the first time starting late February (2026). The embassy described this as part of its efforts to make consular services more accessible to all Americans abroad, including similar pop-up outreach planned in 2026 for the settlement of
Beitar Illit, the Palestinian city of
Ramallah, and various locations in Israel (e.g, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beit Shemesh).
International reaction ,
Jared Kushner and
Ivanka Trump attending the opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem On December 18, 2017, in a 14–1 vote, the US vetoed a
United Nations Security Council draft resolution on the matter, and then on December 21, 2017, the
United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by a 128–9 vote.
Palestinian officials warned that it could lead to an "inactive war" and violent protests. The embassy's opening coincided with the bloodiest day of the
2018 Gaza border protests, with more than 57 Palestinians killed. French
Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said, "This decision contravenes international law and in particular the resolutions of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly". The opening of a new US Embassy in Jerusalem led two other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem. Two days after the US Embassy opened, Guatemala moved its embassy to Israel back to Jerusalem. Paraguay also opened a Jerusalem embassy to Israel, citing the US precedent. Newly elected Paraguayan President
Mario Abdo Benítez decided to relocate the Paraguayan embassy back to Tel Aviv.
ICJ: Palestine v. United States of America In September 2018, the
State of Palestine initiated an action in the International Court of Justice, in the case
Palestine v. United States of America (officially titled
Relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem), in which Palestine charges the US with violating the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, arguing the Convention requires that "the diplomatic mission of a sending State must be established on the territory of the receiving State." The Palestinian application argues that in international law Jerusalem cannot be considered to be the territory of the State of Israel because under
General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947 (the Partition Plan) Jerusalem was to have been placed under international governance, which thus precludes it from being considered under the sovereignty of any State. The case also involves the question of the statehood of Palestine, as under the
Statute of the International Court of Justice "only States may be parties in cases before the Court." The US has refused to participate in a meeting at the Court and has not submitted its legal brief. Palestine has submitted its brief, which as of August 2020 has not been made public. ==Location==