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Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images) continues after publication
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Friday the 23rd that the United States government now considers new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories to be “incompatible with international law”, marking a change to a policy implemented under the administration of Donald Trump and a return represent Washington's decadeslong position on this issue.
The announcement came during a press interview in Buenos Aires after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich indicated on Thursday that thousands of new homes would be built in the settlements. Around 500,000 residents now live in the occupied West Bank and more than 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
According to the Geneva Conventions on Humane Conduct in War, this is the case It is illegal to expropriate occupied land for purposes that do not benefit the residents or forcibly relocate the local population. In the West Bank 18% The territories occupied by Israel have been declared “firing zones” for military training since the 1970s.
Palestinian communities living in these areas are constantly threatened with the destruction of their homes and the confiscation of agricultural land because they do not have building permits from the Israeli authorities.
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“It has been longstanding U.S. policy, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, that new settlements are counterproductive to achieving lasting peace,” Blinken said. “They contradict international law. Our government continues to firmly reject settlement expansion. And in our opinion, this only weakens Israel’s security, not strengthens it.”
When contacted by The New York Times, State Department officials declined to say what measures the United States might take to hold Israeli settlers or the government legally responsible for building new settlements.