The permanent US Embassy will be built on the 13-acre Allenby Barracks site in southern Jerusalem under a 99-year, $1-per-year lease, consolidating diplomatic operations despite ownership claims from Palestinian families holding pre-1948 land deeds.
During a signing ceremony at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee announced the project.
“The United States not only recognises Jerusalem as the eternal, indigenous, and forever capital of the Jewish people,” Huckabee said. “We are going to plant our flag, our American flag, on the soil of Jerusalem for a permanent and a brand new embassy compound.”
“I would say God made that decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally got around to acknowledging what had been determined long before the United States of America came along,” he added.
The agreement deepens the US break with international law and decades of diplomatic consensus. During his first term, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and ordered the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv.
The move broke with longstanding US policy and contravened the US-brokered Oslo Accords, which explicitly stated that the final status of Jerusalem must be decided through direct, bilateral negotiations between both parties.
It also violates numerous United Nations (UN) resolutions, which consistently affirm that any unilateral actions altering the character, status, or demographic composition of Jerusalem have no legal validity.
UN Security Council Resolution 478 directly condemned Israel's 1980 declaration of Jerusalem as its "complete and united" capital, branding the move "null and void" and urging member states to "withdraw such missions from the Holy City."
East Jerusalem has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 and is occupied Palestinian territory under international law. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980 has been repeatedly rejected as illegal by the UN Security Council.
In violation of international law and past agreements, Israel has aggressively expanded settlements in the West Bank and constructed a surrounding wall and settlement ring around occupied East Jerusalem, effectively severing the city from the West Bank to cement Israeli control—a process that accelerated after the 1993 Oslo Accords and has intensified through the 2000s.
By 2023, there were upwards of 700,000 Israeli settlers living illegally on occupied Palestinian land, including more than 470,000 in the West Bank and more than 229,000 in East Jerusalem. These settlers live among some 3 million Palestinians who are indigenous to the land. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and have been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and human rights organizations.
In a landmark July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel's continued presence in occupied Palestinian territory unlawful. The court ruled that Israel's annexation and settlement construction violate fundamental principles of international law, including the prohibition on acquiring territory by force and the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.
Consequently, the ICJ held that Israel must end its unlawful presence as rapidly as possible, cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers, and make reparations for damages caused.
Furthermore, the ruling outlines clear obligations for third states, establishing a duty not to recognize the illegal situation and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining it.
Most countries have traditionally located their embassies in Tel Aviv, maintaining that Jerusalem's final status should be resolved through negotiations in accordance with the Oslo Accords, international law, and relevant UN resolutions.
The US decision to move its embassy is a unilateral act. Building a permanent compound rewards Israel's illegal annexation and undermines the prospect of a two-state solution.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, previously filed an objection to the project on behalf of descendants of the original Palestinian landowners.
The original owners’ land was confiscated under Israel’s Absentees’ Property Law of 1950.
At the time of the filing in January 2023, US State Department officials said no final decision had been made and that alternative sites were still under consideration.
Adalah has argued that the project violates international law, including Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, which protects private property and prohibits confiscation.
It has also described the Absentees’ Property Law as arbitrary, discriminatory, and draconian.
Adalah further said that moving the embassy to Jerusalem, regardless of location, disregards international consensus on the city’s status and signals support for Israel’s annexation.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the agreement underscored the “unbreakable alliance” between the two countries.
“President Trump's historic decision in 2017 to move the embassy to Jerusalem set the record straight,” he said. “And today, with the agreement to begin building a permanent embassy complex, that decision becomes even deeper and more enduring.”
In a separate post on X, Huckabee said that “Just as the US is vital and irreplaceable for Israel, Israel is vital for the US and its interests in the region.”
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