US acquires confiscated Palestinian land for $1 to build new Jerusalem embassy

Israel and the US have signed an agreement under which Washington will receive a plot of land in West Jerusalem that was owned by Palestinians before 1948 and will be the permanent site of the new US Embassy in the city. “The lease agreement for the land is for 99 years, and the United States will pay Israel the sum of $1,” US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said. During his first term in office in December 2017, US President Donald Trump ordered the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv. The decision drew broad international criticism at the time for violating the international consensus on Jerusalem’s status. Despite the US Embassy’s relocation, most countries still keep their embassies in Israel in Tel Aviv. In 2022, Adalah, a rights group in Israel, said the land allocated for the embassy compound had been confiscated from Palestinians under Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law. The expansion of the US Embassy in West Jerusalem and the confiscation of the land allocated for it violate international law, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, which prohibits the confiscation of private property, Adalah said. (TRT World)