Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed a position that the United States has held for decades and that was rejected by the Trump administration
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that he considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, that is, the settlements established by Israel in areas that much of the international community believes belong to Palestinians, illegitimate to be. and which have always been one of the main obstacles to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Blinken said he believes the colonies are “incompatible with international law” and “counterproductive to achieving lasting peace.”
Blinken's words are very relevant from a political perspective because they refer to a position that the United States had taken for decades regarding Israeli settlements and that the administration of former President Donald Trump had effectively abandoned.
This happened in 2019, when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he no longer considered Israeli settlements to be illegitimate, as established in 1978 in the so-called “Hansell Memorandum”: a document by which President Jimmy Carter's administration declared Israeli settlements “illegitimate.” ” under internationally defined law that had actually determined U.S. policy regarding Israeli settlements until 2019. Pompeo's words did not have the same level of formality as the 1978 memorandum, but were seen by many symbolically as a reversal of U.S. policy on Israeli settlements.
Responding to a reporter's question about the plan under which Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli government announced it would administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after the war ends, Blinken said he believes Israeli settlements are illegitimate. Among other things, the plan calls for Israel to take control of the security of not only the Gaza Strip, but also the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the areas that would belong to Palestine under peace agreements of past decades.
The journalist's question was particularly concerned with the Israeli government's announcement that it plans to build approximately 3,300 new houses in three different Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The announcement was made by Israeli Economy Minister Bezalel Smotrich in response to an attack by three Palestinians on Israeli settlers in Maale Adumim, a settlement east of Jerusalem. Blinken said he condemned the attack but also said he believes the Israeli settlements are illegitimate, adding that this has been “long-standing U.S. policy” on the matter.
– Also read: Netanyahu's plan for the Gaza Strip calls for “unlimited freedom” for the army
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