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Washington / AFP
The United States rebuked Israel on Wednesday over what it said was its accelerated building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the face of mounting international concern.
“We are deeply concerned by the government of Israel’s announcement today to advance plans for over 500 new settlement units in the West Bank,” a senior US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“This significant expansion of the settlement enterprise poses a very serious and growing threat to the viability of the two-state solution,” he added, warning Israel could torpedo peace hopes. Washington has long been concerned that Israel’s building on occupied Palestinian land is undermining hopes for a Middle East peace deal, but Wednesday’s warning was unusually strongly worded.
The official said Israel’s actions ran counter to the advice laid out by the Middle East Quartet, a contact group comprising the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States.
Both Washington and the Quartet as a whole have urged Israel and the Palestinians to “take meaningful steps” to build trust, but Israel has instead promoted the building of thousands of new settlement homes.
“We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorized settlement units,” the US official complained, apparently suggesting a tougher US line.
“These policies have effectively given the government’s green light for the pervasive advancement of settlement activity in a new and potentially unlimited way,” he warned.
“As the Quartet report highlights, we are concerned about a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations,” he said.
This, the official warned, “fundamentally undermines the prospects for a two-state solution and risks entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict.”