Quds: In a move steeped in arrogance and contempt, the United States purchased a stolen plot of land from the Zionist entity for a paltry sum-not a handful of dirhams, but a single dollar. The entity, in turn, showed such disregard for this (Palestinian) land that it gave it away freely-from those who possess nothing to those who deserve nothing.
According to Yemen News Agency, in a reckless deal and a blatant challenge to the rights of the Palestinian people, the US administration signed an agreement with the enemy entity granting Washington the right to seize a Jerusalemite plot of land for 99 years for the meager price of just one dollar, to build a permanent headquarters for its embassy in occupied Quds.
This agreement is not merely a lease contract; it is a new aggressive declaration that consolidates the Judaization of the city, flouts international legitimacy resolutions, and confirms that Washington is a full partner in the settlement project and the theft of the Holy Land.
For the one who possesses nothing-the Israeli entity-gave to the one who deserves nothing-the United States-a plot of land once owned by Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem for one dollar for 99 years, under an agreement announced on Wednesday, July 1, to establish what was described as the "permanent headquarters of the Washington embassy in the city"-a step reflecting a close alliance against Palestinian rights and American complicity with the illegal steps carried out by the Zionist enemy.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and the US Ambassador to the entity, the extremist Mike Huckabee, signed an agreement to allocate the land plot for the construction of the "permanent compound of the US embassy in Quds," according to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which stated that the agreement represents the beginning of the transition of the US embassy from its current location to its new permanent headquarters in Quds, as reported by Al Jazeera.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described the step in its statement as "a continuation of US President Donald Trump's 2017 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the embassy there."
Sa'ar claimed during the signing ceremony that President Trump's historic decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem was "historical justice," and that today, with the signing of the agreement to begin construction of the permanent embassy headquarters, which will be located in the Allenby Compound south of Quds, "this step is further cemented for future generations," in his words.
Huckabee, for his part, said the lease runs for 99 years for one dollar, claiming that the new compound strengthens the American presence in Quds, and repeated the barbaric claim that the city is "Israel's eternal capital."
In December 2017, President Trump announced the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli entity and decided to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to it, before opening the temporary embassy headquarters in May 2018, which at the time sparked widespread international criticism as it violated the international consensus on the status of Quds.
In 2022, the Adalah Legal Center in occupied Palestine stated that the land designated for the embassy compound was confiscated from Palestinians using the Absentees' Property Law of 1950, affirming that archival documents prove its ownership by Palestinian families before 1948, and that it had been leased to the British Mandate authorities.
The United Nations considers East Quds to be Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and affirms that any measures aimed at altering the character, legal status, or demographic composition of the city have no legal effect under international law.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the extremist US ambassador stood on the platform and waved a one-dollar bill, saying: "The land lease is for 99 years, and the United States will pay Israel one dollar."
In response, the Adalah Legal Center condemned the signing of the agreement between the Israeli entity and the United States, considering it a legitimization of the confiscation of Palestinian lands, and that this step "entrenches a deep historical injustice."
In a statement on Thursday, the Center said it "condemns this agreement in the strongest terms," considering it a "legitimization of the confiscation of Palestinian lands, and a direct entrenchment of the policies of seizure and uprooting that 'Israel' practices against Palestinians, in flagrant violation of international law."
The Center noted that "the site designated for the compound is located on private Palestinian land that 'Israel' seized from its owners under the discriminatory Absentees' Property Law of 1950, a law that has been widely used to dispossess Palestinians of their lands and properties."
It said that "in January 2023, it submitted a formal objection to the Israeli planning authorities on behalf of 12 descendants of the original Palestinian owners, including American and Jordanian citizens, as well as Palestinians from Quds," demanding "the halt of the land allocation process for the US embassy compound."
The Center added: "However, the planning authorities rejected the objection and ratified the plan in September 2023, before giving it final approval in April 2024, ignoring the legal and historical rights of the landowners and their heirs."
It affirmed that "the establishment of the US embassy compound violates the special international legal status of the city of Quds, as an entity with a special international status according to UN General Assembly resolutions."
The Center continued that "proceeding with the construction of a permanent embassy headquarters, along with the American recognition of Quds as Israel's capital, is not merely a political position or a diplomatic step, but constitutes practical support for the illegal Israeli annexation of East Quds, and provides cover for the continued grave violations committed by Israel, in violation of international law, including international humanitarian law."
It added: "Furthermore, the establishment of the embassy on land confiscated under the Absentees' Property Law means that the US government is directly endorsing the illegal mechanisms used by Israel to strip Palestinians of their lands and displace them, violating the fundamental property rights of the original Palestinian owners and their heirs, in direct violation of international law and the prohibition of illegal annexation."
The signing of the embassy construction agreement comes after the United States and the Zionist entity jointly waged an aggression that lasted several months against Iran, and after a period of tensions reported by media between Trump and the Prime Minister of the Israeli enemy, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, Benjamin Netanyahu, over differences regarding efforts to end the war on Tehran.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative Movement, Mustafa Barghouti, said that the Israeli-American agreement granting the United States a plot of land in Quds to establish a permanent embassy headquarters for one dollar represents "a violation of international law" and "complicity with occupation policies."
Barghouti added, in a statement to Anadolu Agency, that "the United States is committing an error and a violation of international law by moving its embassy to Quds, in principle and in origin."
He explained that this step "violates all existing agreements, and all that the United States had previously adopted in terms of agreements and positions, including the inadmissibility of changing facts on the ground."
He considered that the agreement "represents, unfortunately, a response to Israeli demands and desires," adding that "this is a position held by very few countries, and the United States is one of them, making its position contradictory to the positions of most countries of the world."
Barghouti affirmed that "most countries of the world consider these lands to be Palestinian," stressing that "what is happening is a grave violation of international law and the rights of the Palestinian people."
He added: "This constitutes complicity by the United States in committing an act that will be classified as a violation and a crime against the rights of the Palestinian people."
In response, reports and human rights organizations stated that the land designated for the project originally belongs to Palestinian families, and that the Israeli enemy authorities confiscated it under the Absentees' Property Law, a law that has been subject to international criticism for years.
These bodies consider that allocating the land for the embassy construction raises legal questions regarding property rights, amid the continued dispute over the status of Quds, according to Watan News.
The one-dollar bill has become a symbol that has attracted widespread attention, not because of its financial value, but because of the political and legal dimensions it represents, which far exceed the amount paid, and bring back to the forefront the ongoing debate over land ownership and the future of Quds.
Writer Luma Jamal Al-Abseh said that while the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran is taking center stage, the Zionist enemy emerges with a step whose implications defy all logic, announcing that its extreme right-wing government has agreed to sell a Palestinian land confiscated from its owners since 1950 to establish the permanent headquarters of the US embassy. She pointed out that this is "a new step with serious implications, as it is not merely an administrative or protocol procedure, but a clear political declaration that the occupation is exploiting the preoccupation of major powers with regional conflicts to entrench a new reality in Jerusalem, defying Palestinian rights that are being pushed to the margins in the equations of major powers, and ignoring the historic Hashemite custodianship over Islamic and Christian sanctities in Quds."
Al-Abseh added, in an article published by the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustour, that "this parallelism between the war on Iran and the tampering in Palestine is not new; history tells how the usurping entity exploited major international crises to impose facts on the ground, from the Gulf War to the events of September 11, and today the scene repeats itself but