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Why did the Palestinian Authority reject U.S. mediation after the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital?

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Oslo Accords: Declaration of Principles on Palestinian Self-Rule — Palestinian Authority U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton (center) looking on as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) shakes hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian Self-Rule, September 1993.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) determined that the United States could no longer serve as a fair mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.1

This recognition, followed by the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, disheartened Palestinian leadership and severely strained relations. The situation further deteriorated as the U.S. administration subsequently cut funding to the PA and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and ordered the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, D.C.1

By the time the U.S. unveiled its 2020 peace plan—which proposed that Israel retain an undivided Jerusalem as its capital and maintain sovereignty over significant portions of the West Bank—the PA had already concluded that the U.S. had abandoned its role as an impartial broker in the pursuit of a two-state solution.1