Western powers have “inflamed the tensions” in Jerusalem through errant public statements on the eruption of violence in the ancient city, according to the top Israeli diplomat in the United States.
“Your outrageous comments have been destructive and have further inflamed the tensions,” Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who represents the Jewish state in Washington and at the United Nations, said Monday. “In the last few days, Israel has made every effort to bring calm, including halting Jewish visits to our holiest site, the Temple Mount, but the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen use every excuse to justify violence and Hamas, a genocidal terrorist group, uses every opportunity to ignite the region.”
Erdan did not mention the U.S. by name, but he did rebuke the Quartet — a format wherein the U.S., the European Union, and Russia can coordinate with the secretary-general of the United Nations “to facilitate” a two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team disagreed with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s posture Sunday regarding recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but State Department officials on Monday took a more sympathetic tone toward Israel’s right to self-defense.
“Let me start by saying that the United States condemns in the strongest terms the barrage of rocket attacks fired into Israel in recent hours,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. ”The United States will remain fully engaged to promote calm in Jerusalem, and we welcome the steps the Israeli government has taken in recent days aimed at avoiding provocations, including the decision to avoid confrontations during the Jerusalem Day Commemoration and the delay in the decision regarding the Sheikh Jarrah evictions.”
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The cause of the recent clashes is a subject of dispute. Many observers have attributed the unrest to a pair of Israeli decisions — the placement of “police divider fences” at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City last month, as well as the threatened eviction of several Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood — that have contributed to fears that Israel intends to consolidate control over east Jerusalem at the expense of the Palestinians. The evictions were a focal point of Sullivan’s conversation with his Israeli counterpart.
“Mr. Sullivan also reiterated the United States’ serious concerns about the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” the White House press office noted in summary of Sullivan’s call with Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. “They agreed that the launching of rocket attacks and incendiary balloons from Gaza towards Israel is unacceptable and must be condemned.”
Israeli forces conducted airstrikes against Hamas in response to the rocket attacks, which were the first barrage targeting Jerusalem since 2014. And Israeli officials countered Sullivan by leaking their own version of the call to local press, in which Ben-Shabbat is quoted as telling the Biden adviser that such comments are “a prize for the rioters and those sending them who hoped to put pressure on Israel.”
The violence is also taking place in the context of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s cancellation of parliamentary elections that were scheduled for May 22. Abbas justified the decision by faulting Israel for refusing to allow Palestinians in east Jerusalem to vote in the races. But that explanation was reportedly a pretext. Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, was expected to make significant gains in the elections at the expense of Abbas’s allies, who are weakened by a lack of internal unity.
“We oppose the postponement of elections or their cancellation,” Hamas said on April 28. “If the elections are not held according to schedule, Israel will pay the price.”
Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., did not mention the election delay, but he criticized the oft-repeated international account of the latest crisis.
“What we are seeing now is the direct result of the international community’s failure to understand the reasons behind the Palestinians’ violence,” he said. “The UN, the Security Council, the Quartet and many others who have refused to unequivocally condemn Palestinian incitement have only served to embolden Hamas terrorists, who are now firing rockets at Jerusalem and innocent civilians all over Israel!”
Still, Israel’s Supreme Court canceled a hearing on the evictions case Monday. Israeli officials also rerouted an annual march of Jewish nationalists that typically passes through traditionally Palestinian neighborhoods.
“I appreciate some of the steps we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, particularly with regard to rerouting the parade and putting off the decision on the evictions, but it’s imperative that all sides take steps to de-escalate and calm the situation,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday afternoon. “I’m deeply concerned about the rocket attacks. And even as all sides take steps to de-escalate, Israel, of course, has a right to defend its people and its territory from these attacks.”
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U.S. officials also reportedly blocked the release of a statement by the U.N. Security Council, which met Monday in an emergency session to address the crisis.
“We don’t discuss our actions during private consultations,” said Price, the State Department spokesman, when asked Monday about the deliberations over the statement. “Whatever comes out of the U.N. Security Council, we want to see to it that those products, be they statements or anything else, don’t escalate tensions. That’s our overriding priority.”
