The Jewish settlement of Efrat in the West Bank, January 30, 2023.
Washington – The US disagrees with Israel's move, which on Sunday additionally formally recognized nine Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. In a statement published on the website of the US Department of State, the head of this department, Antony Blinken, stated this.
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“We strongly reject such unilateral measures that exacerbate tensions and undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution,” Blinken said. Already during his January visit to Tel Aviv and Ramallah in the West Bank, the US minister said that the US supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, i.e. the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the Israeli one.
“Everything that distracts us from the vision two states for two peoples, harms the long-term security of Israel … and our vision of equal conditions of security, freedom, prosperity and dignity for Israelis as well as Palestinians,” Blinken also said in a statement on Monday.
Nine Jewish settlements on Israel's security cabinet, which has decision-making powers, recognized the West Bank on Sunday. It is the first such decision under the new government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
World powers consider the settlements to be illegal because the settlements occupy territory that the Palestinians consider for their state. Israel, which disputes this, has established 132 settlements since taking control of the West Bank in 1967, according to Peace Now. In recent years, radical settlers have established many settlements without government permission. Some were razed by the police, others were given permission retroactively.
