US ‘disappointed’ by Israel’s plans to build new homes in W. Bank
The top U.S. diplomat said he was “disappointed” by Israel’s announcement to build 3,000 new homes in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Blinken said during a news conference in Buenos Aires that it was long-standing U.S. policy that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“They’re also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens, doesn’t strengthen Israel’s security,” Blinken said.
In November 2019, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington no longer viewed Israel’s settlements on West Bank land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war as “inconsistent with international law,” a reversal of four decades of U.S. policy.
Months later in January 2020, the Trump administration announced a peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was embraced by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, partly because it awarded Israel most of what it has sought during decades of conflict, including nearly all the occupied land on which it has built settlements.
The administration of President Joe Biden has opposed further expansion of settlements, saying it was counterproductive to lasting peace, but Friday was the first time a U.S. official said the practice was inconsistent with international law.
The administration has recently imposed sanctions on four Israeli men accused of being involved in settler violence, but it has continued to provide arms and funding to the Israeli government, despite its crimes.
Palestinians and the international community view the transfer of any country’s civilians to occupied land as illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate about 650,000 settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.
Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are considered illegal.
Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically working to Judaize East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and to obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.
The U.S. has come under increasing pressure for its unwavering support for Israel, which killed almost 30,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – and leveled the blockaded Gaza Strip to the ground, and has been blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid supplies, amid an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Blinken responded Thursday to criticism that the U.S. is alone in its approach to Israel’s war on Gaza, saying “We all share the same goals.”
“Everyone wants to see an end to this conflict as soon as possible,” Blinken said during a news conference in Brazil in response to a question on the U.S.’s isolation due to its support for Israel and the use of its veto against U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire for the third time.
“I think all of us are united in wanting to see after Gaza the path forward to a genuinely durable, sustainable peace,” he said.
The U.S. on Tuesday vetoed the latest attempt at the U.N. Security Council to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the official death toll is rapidly nearing 30,000.
The draft resolution, put forward by Algeria, received widespread support in the Council with 13 of its 15 member states voting in favor. The U.S. was the sole nation to vote against it, and as a permanent Council member, its opposition killed the resolution. The U.K., another permanent member, abstained.
“We’re focused intensely on trying to get an agreement that results in the release of the remaining hostages and that produces an extended humanitarian cease-fire. And again, those are goals that I think virtually everyone in the G20 shares,” he said.
Blinken was speaking in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, where he is attending the G-20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, where he held several bilateral meetings, including with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva amid disagreements about Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
The meeting came after Lula compared the Israeli war on Gaza to Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jews, saying “what’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide.”
“We profoundly disagree,” Blinken said when asked about Lula’s remarks, adding it is “also something that friends do.”
“We can have these disagreements, even profound disagreements on one particular issue, or I should say even an aspect of the issue and still continue all of the vital work that we’re doing together,” he said.
He added that there is also a “shared objective” of getting the hostages out and getting an extended humanitarian cease-fire along with more humanitarian assistance and ending the conflict.
By Daily Sabah with Agencies
