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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that the US was overturning its long-standing position on Israeli settlements in the West Bank by no longer viewing them as "inconsistent with international law".
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Overturning more than four decades of US policy, Pompeo's announcement was a victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is struggling to remain in power after two inconclusive Israeli elections this year.
US policy had long been based on a legal opinion issued by the State Department in 1978 that found establishing Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories went against international law.
Pompeo said that Washington's statements about the settlements in the West Bank – which Israel captured during the 1967 war – had been inconsistent. He noted that Democratic former president Jimmy Carter believed they were not consistent with international law while in office (1977-1981) while Republican president Ronald Reagan said in 1981 that he did not view them as inherently illegal.
"The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements is not, per se, inconsistent with international law," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department, drawing criticism from a senior Palestinian figure even before the announcement.
"Another blow to international law, justice & peace," Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian negotiator and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, said on Twitter ahead of Pompeo's statement.
Another blow to international law, justice & peace by a Biblical absolutist waiting for the "rapture."
Israeli settlements not 'inconsistent with international law,' Pompeo set to announce https://t.co/OpZ4aY8xj2— Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) November 18, 2019
Netanyahu welcomes announcement
Netanyahu welcomed the new policy, saying it "rights a historical wrong". The Israeli prime minister also called on other world powers to do likewise.
"This policy reflects an historical truth – that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria. In fact, we are called Jews because we are the people of Judea," he said in a statement, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
But the Palestinian Authority slammed the Trump administration's new position.
The US is "not qualified or authorised to cancel the resolutions of international law, and has no right to grant legality to any Israeli settlement", Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.
The European Union warned of the potential repercussions in a statement following the announcement that did not mention the U.S.
“All settlement activity is illegal under international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace,” said the statement froRead More – Source
