Israeli settlements violate international law, In a decision that effectively reversed the policy of the former White House administration of former President Donald Trump, the United States has stated that the construction of new Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal.
An announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that over 3,300 new agricultural settlements would be constructed in the occupied West Bank in the coming years was described by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as “disappointing”.
It has long been a policy of both Republican and Democratic administrations that new settlements are counter-productive to the achievement of enduring peace and are against the best interests of both parties.
Blinken said in a news conference held late Friday afternoon in Buenos Aires that the actions taken by the Pentagon are also in conflict with international law.
It is our policy to oppose the expansion of settlements as strongly as possible. According to our assessment, this will only weaken Israel’s security, not strengthen it,” he added, without mentioning any concrete consequences which Israel might suffer as a result of expanding settlements.
As a result, it negates the so-called Pompeo Doctrine, which was announced by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in November 2019, in which he stated that Washington supports Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem as legal and democratic.
It is widely regarded among people around the world that these settlements are illegal and that they are a continuation of Israeli occupation.
John Kirby, the White House spokesperson for national security, told reporters this morning that Blinken has held the same position “under both Republican and Democratic administrations”.
“If there is any administration that has been inconsistent because of its policies, it was the previous administration,” Kirby said.
According to the Pompeo Doctrine, Israel has violated international law in its settlement activities, which had been evaluated as a violation of international law since 1978 during the presidency of former President Jimmy Carter when the American government had left the position that Israeli settlements violated international law.
Also, Germany has issued a condemnation against Israeli plans to construct many thousands of new homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank that are part of the latest settlement.
It is well known that we do not support the construction of settlements. Kathrin Deschauer, a deputy spokesperson of the German foreign ministry, told a news conference in Berlin that this practice is contrary to international law, and that also applies to new construction projects.
Settlements in new areas
According to Smotrich, the new settlement plans are supposed to have been launched as a response to the terrorist attack he called on Thursday, which resulted in one Israeli being killed and several others being wounded near a checkpoint that connects Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim, which he described as a “terrorist attack”.
As a result of the support of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Strategy and Policy Minister Ron Dermer, Smotrich plans to build 2,350 new housing units on Palestinian land in Ma’ale Adumim, 300 in Kedar, and 694 in Efrat, across the country.
There was a blatant challenge being thrown at the international community on Saturday by the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who called the announcement a serious obstacle to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
According to Peace Now, an Israeli watchdog group that monitors Israeli settlement activity, over $100 million will be added to settlement development in 2024.According to the announcement, coalition funds will amount to over $203 million by the end of 2024 [instead of the $76 million initially allocated by the May 2023 decision of the government].There have also been increased calls for increased curbs on Palestinians since the attack, including a ban on Palestinian movement after the attack was carried out by the Israeli government with the most extreme right-wing policies in its history.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Israel has advanced plans to expand illegal settlements regardless of any attacks that might occur. There has traditionally been little pressure put on Israel by the US or its allies to halt or roll back the expansion of settlements in the past few decades.
As the Israeli military began the war on Gaza at the beginning of October, the number of raids across Palestinian territories occupied by Israel had become almost daily, and they have only increased significantly in frequency and intensity since then, as well as becoming deadlier.
Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 29,500 Palestinians have been executed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, most of them children or women, including many children and the elderly.
Timenews provided that news.
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