US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned Israel’s proposed expansion of settlements in the West Bank during a press conference Friday, marking a significant reversal in policy since former president Donald Trump’s administration claimed the expansion of settlements did not violate international law.
Blinken stated:
On settlements, we’ve seen the reports, and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement. It has been a long-standing policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations that new settlements are counterproductive to achieving enduring peace. They are also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion.
Blinken’s statements come less than a month after President Joe Biden issued an executive order allowing for the issuance of sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The first round of sanctions, announced by the US Department of State, targeted individual settlers responsible for violent assaults on Palestinians and raids on Palestinian homes and farms.
Both Blinken’s statements and Biden’s executive order mark a stark reversal in policy from the approach of Trump’s administration. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in 2019 that the Trump administration did not consider the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as violative of international law. Pompeo claimed that adopting a view of per se illegality for all settlements in the West Bank “hasn’t advanced the cause of peace.”
As the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has continued, Israel’s continued settlement and occupation of the West Bank has come under greater scrutiny. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report in late 2023 alleging that Israeli security forces (ISF) have killed 291 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, including 79 children and three men with disabilities. Also, in late 2023, both Belgium and the US instituted travel restrictions against Israeli settlers from the West Bank. The US specifically targeted those “individuals and their family members involved in or meaningfully contributing to actions that undermine peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
In 2022, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, released a report stating there are “reasonable grounds to conclude that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is now unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli Government’s de-facto annexation policies.” UN human rights investigators have also claimed the continued settlements and their expansion may be a war crime.
