US Palestinian Mission Renamed ahead of Biden Visit

The US diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem was redesignated and will report directly to Washington “on substantive matters”.

The Biden administration renamed the “Palestinian Affairs Unit” (PAU) to the “US Office of Palestinian Affairs” (OPA) ahead of his visit to Jerusalem.

“The OPA operates under the auspices of the US embassy in Jerusalem, and reports on substantive matters directly to the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in the State Department,” a spokesperson for the mission said.

“The name change was done to better align with State Department nomenclature,” the spokesperson added. “The new OPA operating structure is designed to strengthen our diplomatic reporting and public diplomacy engagement.“

However, the Palestinian officials did not comment on the new mission. They were due on Thursday to host State Department envoy Hady Amr in Ramallah, their seat of government in the occupied West Bank.

In previous remarks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed that the current situation cannot be accepted nor tolerated amid the absence of a political horizon and international protection for the Palestinian people in accordance with signed agreements and resolutions of international legitimacy.

Moreover, he stressed that the Palestinian leadership is working hard to confront this Israeli escalation, condemning the international community’s inability to compel Israel to adhere to the resolutions of international legitimacy and its failure to stop Israel’s criminal and occupying practices, ethnic cleansing measures, and racial discrimination, amid the US silence on these provocations and practices that are in flagrant violation of international law.