Palestine slams US policy reversal on illegal settlements

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned an announcement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating the that Israeli illegal settlements settlements in the West Bank will no longer be viewed as illegal.

“The U.S.’s partial bias towards one of the most radical trends in Israel [of illegal settlement building] prevents it from seeing the basic principles of international law,” Shtayyeh told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

“This is nothing but an effort to support [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu in the final moments of the prime minister’s [electoral] race,” he added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday the United States was no longer considered Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank “inconsistent” with international law.

“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees … (the) establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law”, he said.

According to several United Nations Security Council resolutions, the most recent in 2016, Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US decision “contradicts totally with international law”.

Washington is “not qualified or authorised to cancel the resolutions of international law, and has no right to grant legality to any Israeli settlement”, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah said in a statement.

Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian negotiator and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, said on Twitter before Pompeo’s statement that the move represented another blow to “international law, justice & peace”.

Meanwhile, Hamas put it shortly saying that “The statement by the U.S. official confirms that it is a partner in the attacks on our people and their rights,” according to Hazim Kasim, spokesman for the Palestinian resistance group.

Kasim said the Israeli settlements are “war crimes where Israel expelled the real owners of these lands and built settlements using force and brought Israelis there from all over the world.”

The Islamic Jihad group and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for unity against the division of Palestine.

Internationally, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned that the US change of position would have “dangerous consequences” on the prospects of reviving the Middle East peace process.

Safadi said in a tweet that Israeli settlements in the territory were illegal and killed prospects of a two-state solution in which a Palestinian state “would exist side-by-side with Israel”.