US says Israeli settlements no longer considered illegal in dramatic shift

(by Richard Gonzales, NPR) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday the Trump administration’s latest pro-Israel change in U.S. policy, saying the State Department is rescinding the policy it implemented in 1978 that viewed settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as inconsistent with international law.

That legal opinion, known as the Hansell Memorandum, which was put in place during Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s administration, said that “civilian settlements in those territories is inconsistent with international law.”

Pompeo said that over the years U.S. presidents have viewed the opinion different ways but that the Trump administration does not view the settlements as inconsistent with international law and leaves the issue of individual settlements up to Israeli courts.

“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.”

The move comes after the administration [officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy there – under the U.S.’s Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995], as well as formally recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights.

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Trump administration for backing the Jewish people’s historic ties to the West Bank, which the Israeli government calls by the Biblical name Judea and Samaria. It said, “This policy reflects an historical truth – that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria.”

A Palestinian leader said Pompeo’s announcement undermined the Trump administration’s credibility in arranging peace talks.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat issued a statement saying: “Once again, with this announcement, the Trump administration is demonstrating the extent to which it’s threating the international system with its unceasing attempts to replace international law with the ‘law of the jungle.’ ”

The Trump administration “cannot and will not re-write international law,” said H.E. Dr. Raid Malki, Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister. He said the Trump administration showed “disregard and contempt to the rules-based international system and multilateralism, whose effects go beyond the Question of Palestine.”

In his remarks, Pompeo denied the policy change was timed to benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who favors annexation of the West Bank. Netanyahu is locked in a political battle with his rival, Benny Gantz, who is trying to cobble together a majority in Israel’s Parliament this week.

“The timing of this was not tied to anything that had to do with domestic politics anywhere,” said Pompeo. …

Published at NPR .com on November 18. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from NPR.