The Jerusalem Municipality on Tuesday published the zoning description for a new US Embassy complex in the capital city.
The embassy will be on Derech Hebron between Hanoch Albek Street and Daniel Yanovsky Street, an area known by its British Mandate-era name, “Camp Allenby.”
The complex will include an embassy, offices, residences, parking and security structures. The buildings can be no more than 10 stories high, and the wall surrounding the area will be 3.5 meters high.
Time to start planning the move
Members of the public will have 60 days to submit their opposition to the plan to the municipality.
“After almost four years of hard work with the American Embassy in Jerusalem, we are pleased that the zoning plans were published this morning for the new Allenby complex,” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said Tuesday.
“The US Embassy in such a central part of the city will upgrade the urban landscape of the neighborhood and connect it to all areas of the capital through the [Jerusalem] Light Rail network that will stop almost at its doors,” she said. “We hope that more countries will follow and move their embassies to our capital, Jerusalem.”
The US Embassy moved to Jerusalem in 2018, a few months after President Donald Trump recognized Israel’s capital.
“We hope that more countries will follow, and move their embassies to our capital - Jerusalem.”
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum
The embassy has since operated out of the former US Consulate in Arnona, which was expanded to include more offices, and has a much larger “branch office” in the former site of the embassy in Tel Aviv.
The US also sold the palatial beachfront residence in Herzliya in which past ambassadors lived, reportedly to pro-Israel billionaire and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. The embassy found a residence for Ambassador Thomas Nides on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street. He previously lived in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel but was unable to host guests there.