Settlement construction sparks tension with US
THE US has given what appears to be its harshest public critique of Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank since President Joe Biden took office.
“We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government’s plan to advance thousands of settlement units on Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a press briefing four days after Israeli authorities published the agenda for an upcoming meeting of the Defence Ministry body that authorises settlement building.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and restore calm. And it damages the prospects for a two-state solution.”
The Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee is slated to convene this week to advance projects for 2862 settlement homes in the West Bank.
Asked for comment on the matter, Price had issued a general statement against unilateral moves by both Israelis and Palestinians that has been issued dozens of times in the past year.
He also expressed the Biden administration’s concern over the Sunday announcement by Israel’s Housing Ministry that it had published tenders to build 1355 new housing units in seven different settlements across the West Bank – the first such development since Biden took office.
The publication of tenders is an additional step that is required for projects in larger settlements before ground can be broken.
“We also view plans for the retroactive legalisation of illegal outposts as unacceptable,” Price said, without specifying what he was referring to.
A recent state government review determined that the illegal Evyatar outpost erected over the summer in the West Bank was built on what Israeli authorities consider to be state land. The government had previously struck an agreement with the Evyatar squatters that they would legalise the settlement if it was found to be on state land.
Price added that US officials “continue to raise our views on this issue directly with senior Israeli officials in our private discussions.”
After a reporter noted that the statement was the furthest the Biden administration has gone on the issue, Price responded, “Our public messaging on this is consistent with what we are seeing transpire.”
After the High Planning Subcommittee published its agenda for its upcoming session, the US Embassy in Jerusalem’s chargé d’affaires Michael Ratney called Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s senior foreign policy adviser Shimrit Meir to voice his opposition, an Israeli official confirmed to The Times of Israel.
The two had a “difficult” conversation, the Axios news site reported, with Ratney taking particular issue over the fact that many of the projects are located deep in the West Bank, further complicating US efforts to promote a two-state solution.
The Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the sides indeed have disagreements over the issue of settlements, but they disputed Axios’s characterisation of the call.
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