Hans Wechsel, who heads the US Embassy in Jerusalem’s Office for Palestinian Affairs, informed staff on Tuesday that he would be resigning from his post at the end of the month, a US official says, confirming a report in Jewish Insider.
Wechsel told staff that he “didn’t like the direction the ship was heading,” JI reported.
Wechsel is a career diplomat who only arrived in Jerusalem in August of last year.
The Trump administration created the Office for Palestinian Affairs, folding it into the embassy after shuttering the US Consulate in Jerusalem — an independent mission serving the Palestinians. The move was widely seen as a downgrade of US-Palestinian ties.
While former US president Joe Biden campaigned on reopening the consulate, Israel blocked the move, and he sufficed to again separate the diplomatic reporting channels between the embassy and the US office for Palestinian Affairs.
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