US lambasts Israeli settlement moves
The decision, which takes immediate effect, also dramatically expedites and eases the process for expanding existing West Bank settlements and retroactively legalising some illegal outposts.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – The US State Department said on Sunday that it was “deeply troubled” by a pair of Israeli moves aimed at significantly advancing settlement construction in the West Bank, which it branded an “obstacle to peace”.
The decision to release a statement over the weekend, rather than waiting until the issue was raised at a press briefing during the week indicated a heightened sense of frustration in Washington, which has warned Jerusalem that such steps significantly complicate US efforts to advance issues of mutual concern such as a normalisation with Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans for 4560 new settlement homes. A majority of the units will be located in Jewish communities located deep in the West Bank, east of the security barrier in what will further complicate efforts to create a contiguous, viable Palestinian state.
Hours later, the government passed a controversial resolution that gives practically all control over planning approval for construction in West Bank settlements to Smotrich, a settler himself and an impassioned advocate of the nationalist movement.
The decision, which takes immediate effect, also dramatically expedites and eases the process for expanding existing West Bank settlements and retroactively legalising some illegal outposts.
In its statement, the State Department said the US “is deeply troubled” by the decision to green-light additional settlement homes and is “similarly concerned” by the subsequent resolution passed by the cabinet.
“As has been longstanding policy, the US opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” the statement continued.
“We call on the government of Israel to fulfil the commitments it made in Aqaba, Jordan, and Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation,” the State Department added.
At the Aqaba and Sharm El-Sheikh meetings, Israeli and Palestinian representatives committed to taking steps to calm tensions amid intensifying violence in the West Bank. Jerusalem specifically agreed to hold off on advancing plans for new settlement homes for four months and to not legalise any new outposts for six months.
Next week’s Defence Ministry meeting to advance new construction will come just as the four-month moratorium expires. Just before it began, Israel green-lit a record high of 10,000 settlement homes in addition to legalising at least nine outposts.
Israel argues that it technically has not violated the commitments it made in Aqaba and Sharm El-Sheikh, but it has green-lit construction in East Jerusalem and also illegally transferred a yeshivah in the northern West Bank, in what will make way for the legalisation of the Homesh outpost.
The PA announced on Monday that in response to the Israeli decisions, it would be boycotting a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian finance officials that was supposed to take place on Monday. It was supposed to be the first gathering of the Oslo Accords-mandated Joint Economic Committee since 2009, and the Biden administration has been working for over a year to get the gathering nailed down.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed plans to advance the highly controversial E1 settlement project amid US pressure. The subsequent plan to move forward with thousands of settlement homes elsewhere appears to be an effort to placate Netanyahu’s coalition partners.
This will be the second time that the High Planning Subcommittee has advanced settlement homes since the establishment of the new hardline government on December 29. When it green-lit plans for some 10,000 homes in February, it drew massive international uproar and a joint statement of condemnation from the UN Security Council.
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