Nineteen Countries Condemn Colombia Embassy Move to Jerusalem

Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 16 other countries said Colombia's decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem breaks agreed rules on the city's status.

Nineteen Arab and Islamic countries condemned Colombia's inauguration of its embassy in Jerusalem. They issued a joint statement on Thursday. The countries are Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Djibouti, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, Jordan, Somalia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman, Syria, Sudan and Pakistan. They said the move undermines work towards a just and lasting peace based on a a negotiated two-state peace, meaning a Palestine and an Israel side by side. They said it goes against United Nations Security Council resolutions. They said any step that tries to change the legal or historical status of occupied Jerusalem, or to recognise it as Israel's capital, is null and void. Nineteen governments called the embassy move null and void.

Why it matters

Jerusalem is the city both Israelis and Palestinians claim as a capital. Most of the world keeps embassies in Tel Aviv, because the final status of Jerusalem was left to negotiations. Moving an embassy is a decision to treat that question as already settled, on Israel's terms. A joint statement does not move the embassy back. It does put 19 governments, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey, on one page. Several of those governments have, in recent years, been under pressure to normalise ties with Israel. A public rejection of a Latin American embassy in Jerusalem is a reminder that normalisation has not become recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the whole city. Colombia has not, in this statement, been quoted in reply. The argument is about a building, and about the talks the building is said to prejudge. Pakistan is on the list, and so are Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the countries India watches most closely on this question. Their objection is about status and negotiations, not about a trade dispute with Colombia. A statement of 19 is a diplomatic position. It is not a vote in the Security Council.

Key facts

• Nineteen countries issued the statement on Thursday against Colombia opening an embassy in Jerusalem.

• They include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Qatar, Jordan and Palestine.

• They said the move harms efforts for a two-state peace.

• They said it breaks United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem.

• They said steps to change the status of occupied Jerusalem, or to treat it as Israel's capital, are null and void.

• The statement does not itself close the embassy or impose a penalty.

What's next

Colombia can keep the embassy where it is. The 19 countries can do little more, from a statement, than refuse to treat the move as legal. The test is whether other governments follow Colombia, or whether this remains a single inauguration that a large bloc has rejected. Peace talks that were already thin get thinner when one side's capital is treated as decided by a third country's choice of building. Occupied, in this statement, means East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed, a step most governments do not recognise. The 19 countries are defending that legal line, not opening a new negotiation. Colombia has not answered in the statement these 19 countries issued. A reply would have to say why Jerusalem, and why now.