Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the Department of State to close the Office of Palestinian Affairs and merge it with the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, according to several reports.
Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson with the Department of State, confirmed during a hearing that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would be taking “the steps necessary to implement the merger over the coming weeks,” according to CNN.
“This decision will restore the first Trump term framework of a unified US diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital that reports to the US ambassador to Israel,” Bruce said. “Ambassador (Mike) Huckabee will take the steps necessary to implement the merger over the coming weeks.”
Bruce added that the move to close the Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA) was “very similar to what’s happening here with the bureaus” and explained that “it is making sure that the issues that are important are all working together right” and “not segmented.”
“It really is actually very similar to what’s happening here with the bureaus, with our reorganization,” Bruce said. “It is making sure that the issues that are important are all working together right, are not segmented out so that the interests of the embassy — very, very much like the interests of our foreign aid and other actions — can work together in the Bureau as one entity.”
Per the Washington Free Beacon, the Office of Palestinian Affairs was a “Biden-era creation” that “repeatedly earned the ire of Republican lawmakers for its anti-Israel advocacy.”
The office repeatedly earned the ire of Republican lawmakers for its anti-Israel advocacy during the Biden-Harris administration. In the early hours of Hamas’s October 7 attack, the OPA called on Israel to stand down and forgo any retaliation. Subsequent legislation sought to rein in the office, mandating it periodically report on its public diplomacy and advocacy efforts.
The Biden administration created the OPA in June 2022 against Israel’s wishes, endowing it with the power to operate independently of the American embassy. It has come under fire in the past for its potential violation of the Jerusalem embassy Act of 1995, which mandated that a single U.S. embassy be established in the Israeli capital.
United States officials and “congressional sources briefed on the matter” also confirmed the move to the outlet.
In response to the news, several Republicans, such as Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), praised the move, describing it as a “great decision” from Rubio.
“The Biden administration’s Office of Palestinian Affairs undermined Israel & emboldened Hamas,” Tenney wrote in a post on X. “Thank you, @SecRubio & @USAmbIsrael, for dissolving this entity & reaffirming the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as the sole diplomatic mission in Jerusalem as required by law.”
“The U.S.-Israeli relationship should be handled exclusively by the appointed representatives at our Embassy in Jerusalem, not by anti-Israel activists working with the terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority,” Cotton wrote in a post on X.
“The Biden State Department violated federal law to open the OPA and it only served to sabotage Israel at every turn in the wake of Hamas’s terror attacks,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) wrote in a post on X. “This is the correct move by President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Ambassador Huckabee to support our great ally and reverse the previous administration’s undermining of Israel.”
During President Donald Trump’s first term he delivered a video address during the opening of the official United States Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, Breitbart News reported.
“Today we follow through on this recognition and open our embassy in the historic and sacred land of Jerusalem and we’re opening it many, many years ahead of schedule,” Trump said at the time.
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