The United States “strongly” criticizes Israel for colonization in the West Bank

The government of the president of USA, Joe Biden, raised his voice for the first time before Israel on the issue of colonization, criticizing “strongly” the announcement of the construction of more than 1,000 new houses in the Jewish colonies of the occupied West Bank.

“We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government project,” declared the spokesman for American diplomacy, Ned Price, before journalists.

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“We strongly oppose the expansion of the colonies, which is totally contrary to efforts to reduce tensions and ensure calm, and affects the prospects for a two-state solution,” Israeli and Palestinian, he added.

The Hebrew state announced on Sunday plans to build 1,355 new homes in Jewish colonies in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967, a decision denounced by the Palestinians.

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These new accommodations must be added to the around 2,000 homes announced in August by the authorities and that should obtain this week the definitive green light from the Ministry of Defense.

“Strengthening the Jewish presence (in the West Bank) is essential in the Zionist vision,” declared Construction Minister Zeev Elkin, a member of the right-wing Nueva Esperanza party, which is part of the government coalition led by Naftali Bennett.

“We also consider that any effort that seeks to retroactively legalize illegal settlements is unacceptable”, highlighted Price, by ensuring that senior US officials made these positions known “directly” to their Israeli counterparts.

It is one of the strongest positions taken by the United States regarding Israeli colonization in the Palestinian territories since the arrival of President Joe Biden to the White House at the beginning of the year.

Posture change

His predecessor, Donald Trump, took a more lenient stance and multiplied gestures toward Israel and the then prime minister, his “friend” Benjamin Netanyahu.

His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, even modified the US doctrine in 2019 and affirmed that Washington stopped considering the colonies as contrary to international law. The decision was celebrated by Israel but denounced by the Palestinians.

Pompeo became last November, after Trump lost the election but while still in power, the first head of US diplomacy to travel to a colony in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli colonization experienced a major boom under the impulse of “Bibi” Netanyahu, during the Trump era.

The Biden government, officially opposed to colonization, had been prudent in recent months, limiting itself to asking Israel and the Palestinians to refrain from carrying out any “unilateral” measure likely to increase tensions, even in the area of ​​colonization.

But the Democratic team now appears to be moving closer to the position of former President Barack Obama, who, at the end of his term in 2016, allowed the adoption of a landmark UN resolution condemning the Israeli colonies.

These colonies installed in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel are in fact considered illegal by the United Nations and seen as a brake on peace by much of the international community.

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Deshawn