This very anomalous diplomatic practice is a result of the unresolved issue of the status of Jerusalem. Under the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947, Jerusalem was to become a corpus separatum, under international control, separate from both the Jewish state and the Arab one whose creation the partition plan envisaged; that would have logically entailed various countries having a separate diplomatic representation in Jerusalem. While the corpus separatum idea was never implemented, the status of Jerusalem remains disputed and unresolved. The international community never recognized the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 1949 or the annexation of East Jerusalem to Israel in 1967. Thus the anomalous Jerusalem consulates serve as a convenient way for various countries to have a diplomatic presence in the city without recognizing such Israeli "accomplished facts". The United States maintained a consulate general in Jerusalem between 1844 and 2019, which later become responsible for conducting relations with Palestinians living in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. After the United States relocated its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018, the United States Secretary of StateMike Pompeo announced that the Consulate General would be merged into the Embassy. In early March 2019, the Consulate General was formally merged into the US Embassy, ending the US practice of accrediting separate missions to the Israelis and Palestinians. Most of its former responsibilities were assumed by a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the Embassy.
Some of the countries with consulates-general in Jerusalem include the contacts with the Palestinian National Authority in the consulate-general responsibilities. Most of the countries with consulates-general in Jerusalem have separate embassies in Tel Aviv that are accredited to Israel.
, in East Jerusalem. Its jurisdiction covers the Palestinian National Authority and the corpus separatum with the Jerusalem area.
, in East Jerusalem; it "provides services" for "Jerusalem and Palestinian territories"
Several more countries are represented by Jerusalem-based honorary consuls. Jacobus Kann, Dutch-Jewish banker and a founder of the Zionist Movement, was the Dutch Honorary Consul in Jerusalem between 1923-1927.