The US embassy has started to make preliminary arrangements to relocate to Occupied Jerusalem next year.
According to different Hebrew news agencies US consulate staff were seen moving equipment and boxes from their facility into the former boutique Eden Hotel in the holy city’s Arnona neighborhood.
The US consulate in Jerusalem currently operates two facilities the main branch on Agron Street (where it has owned a building since 1912) and the consular section on Flusser Street in Arnona.
In 2014 the US purchased a building adjacent to the facilities on Flusser Street known as the Diplomat Hotel which is currently home to elderly immigrants and it could be used as an annexe for the embassy or the consulate.
US officials cited by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal said last week Washington was seeking to expedite the relocation so it would not build a new structure but would instead convert buildings in Arnona into its embassy.
An Israeli newspaper has speculated that the US embassy is seeking to bring consular services nearer to the site as it prepares to relocate thus the move into the Eden Hotel.
The employees making the move refused to answer questions from Israeli media crews and made them stop filming.
In an address to the Knesset last Monday US vice president Mike Pence pledged that Washington would relocate the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of next year.
