US will supply consular companies in a West Bank settlement for the primary time | EUROtoday

Palestinian and Israeli left-wing criticism

The Islamist motion Hamas spoke of a “dangerous precedent” and of “de facto recognition of the legitimacy of the settlements and the control of the occupation on the West Bank”. In Ramallah, the Palestinian Commission for Resistance to Settlement and the Wall denounced a violation of the precept of “non-recognition of illegality”, accusing Washington of consolidating the fact of the settlements and providing them “additional political cover”, in distinction to the declared dedication to the two-state resolution.

Even on the left, in Israel, the transfer is seen as an unequivocal political sign. Human rights lawyer Michael Sfard notes that Efrat — about 13,000 inhabitants, lower than 13 kilometers from the US embassy in Jerusalem — already is dependent upon the town for many companies. “It cannot be interpreted in any other way than as a political statement legitimizing the settlements,” he argues.

The shadow of annexation

Liberal critics additionally level to the obvious contradiction with President Donald Trump’s repeated statements in opposition to formal annexation of the West Bank. The present US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has lengthy been thought of near the positions in favor of annexation.

According to Nadav Tamir, govt director in Israel of the liberal J Street foyer, the consular places of work within the settlements signify a “creeping recognition of sovereignty”, analogous to what many outline as “creeping annexation” on the Israeli facet. “Since Trump said no to annexation, small steps are being sought under the radar,” he says.

A studying shared by Daniel C. Kurtzer, former American ambassador to Israel beneath Republican and Democratic presidents, in line with whom such initiatives mirror continuity with the strategy of the primary Trump administration, when in 2019 Washington declared that the settlements weren’t “in themselves incompatible with international law” and closed the American consulate in Jerusalem traditionally devoted to the Palestinians.