I was asked what seemed a very easy question: Why does no country keep an embassy in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem?
In 1947 (November 29) the United Nations called for a termination of the British Mandate over Palestine and partitioned the land into a Jewish and an Arab state. It was in 1948 that the Jewish state declared (May 14) and later in 1949 that it was admitted to the United Nations (May11).
Sixty-three years have passed, and today there is not a single embassy in Israel’s capital. Earlier this month, the 44th anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem was celebrated. Jerusalem is the largest city in Israel with approximately ten percent of Israel’s residents living there. So why, I was asked, is it that no country honors Israel by having its embassy located there?
