US signs $1 lease with Israel for a permanent Jerusalem embassy
The United States and Israel signed a lease on July 1 for land in West Jerusalem to build a permanent US embassy, with the price set symbolically at $1, Al Jazeera reports . Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee signed the agreement, which follows the temporary embassy facility established after Washington relocated its mission during Trump’s first term.
The move converts a policy that began as a diplomatic gesture into physical infrastructure. Committing to construct a permanent building — rather than operate out of a repurposed consulate — signals that no future administration is expected to reverse the relocation, and it further forecloses the long-standing Palestinian position that East Jerusalem would serve as the capital of a future state. Al Jazeera framed the signing as another blow to those aspirations.