Israeli settler look at Palestinian demonstrators during a protest against Jewish settlements, in Al-Sawaherh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 20, 2019. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a major shift in
US policy on November 18, reporting that Washington now no longer considers civilian
settlements by Israelis in the occupied West Bank to be in breach of
international law.
Pompeo’s statement reverses a 1978 State Department legal
opinion that labelled these settlements as “inconsistent with international
law,” a position held by many in the international community and endorsed by the United
Nations Security Council in 2016.
Pompeo said that these settlements are “not per se,
inconsistent with international law,” depicting this as “reversing the Obama
administration’s approach towards settlements,” specifically former
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s endorsement of the 1978 opinion. Pompeo argued
that the reversal “creates the political space for a more likely resolution,” as
it demonstrates that “there will never be a judicial resolution to the
conflict.” He clarified that this announcement was “not meant to send a message”
about US support for more settlements and that Washington is “expressing no
view on the legal status of any individual settlement,” deferring instead to
the judgments of Israeli courts. Pompeo insisted that calling Israeli
settlements illegal under international law “hasn’t advanced the cause of peace”
and left the door open for those who sought to reverse the Israeli occupation
of the West Bank through judicial means. He insisted that the conflict “will
only be solved by negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
The US announcement comes just days before Israeli opposition
leader Benny Ganz faces
a deadline to either successfully form a government or return his mandate
to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Israel has been without a formal government
since two elections in April
and September
failed to produce a clear path for a majority for any party or coalition.
Pompeo’s statement is the latest of a series of moves bolstering
Washington’s support for Israel. In December 2017, US President Donald J. Trump
announced that the
United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Palestinian
claims to East Jerusalem. This decision was followed by the
opening of a new US embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018, the decision to recognize
the Golan Heights as part of Israel, and the March 2019 closure of the US
consulate general in Jerusalem, which many referred to as “the
de facto US embassy to the Palestinian Authority.”
Trump has made finding a peaceful solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict a major international priority of his
administration. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was put in
charge of the United States’ efforts to broker a peace deal, and Kushner hosted
a “Peace
to Prosperity” conference in June 2019 in Bahrain to try to win Arab support
for an economic plan to boost growth and living standards in the Palestinian
Authority as part of a broader peace deal.
Atlantic Council
experts respond to Pompeo’s announcement on Israeli settlements:
Tuqa Nusairat, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s
Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East Programs:
“The Trump administration’s policy toward the Palestinians
has been driven by unabashedly pro-Israel voices, led by Jared Kushner, former
special envoy for the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, and Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, who have shown no genuine interest in resolving the conflict. Every
step the administration has taken in this regard, from proclaiming Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy there, recognizing Israel’s
illegal annexation of the Golan Heights, cutting off aid to the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and
convening a regional conference on economic development in the Palestinian
territories where no Palestinian officials or recognized representatives were
present, point to a complete disregard for any semblance or interest in being
an “honest broker” of Middle East peace.
“Secretary Pompeo said, “calling the establishment of
civilian settlements inconsistent with international hasn’t worked; it hasn’t
advanced the cause of peace.” Indeed, the reason this hasn’t worked is not due
to a flaw in the legal explanation itself, but due to a lack of willingness by
the United States to use these violations of international law to hold Israel
accountable, consistently vetoing UN Security Council resolutions to that end.
The Trump Administration’s scramble to shove through as many
pro-Israel policies as possible will be seen by Palestinians and the
international community for what it is—creating facts on the ground in favor of
Israel that will serve as not only road blocks to any future peace agreement
but attempts to further isolate Palestinians in enclaves in the West Bank and
an open air prison in Gaza that cannot reasonably constitute a future
Palestinian state.”
Shalom Lipner, nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic
Council’s Middle East Programs:
“Secretary Pompeo’s dramatic announcement, following on the
heels of previous administration gestures toward Israel, stands to impact
directly on events in the region. Most immediately, the shift injects a new
variable into current negotiations on the formation of Israel’s next
government, with the incumbent, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost
certain to highlight the development as evidence of his close relationship with
the White House—and to assert that he should thus be handed the mantle of
leadership once again.
“Secondly, the realignment of long-standing US government
policy foreshadows the promised, if long delayed, release of President Trump’s
vision for regional peace, intimating that the blueprint may countenance the
extension of Israeli sovereignty to communities whose existence has, until now,
been considered illegal per US interpretation of international law. The
decision makes it even less likely that Israelis and Palestinians will resume
talks at any time in the foreseeable future.”
David A. Wemer is associate director, editorial at the Atlantic Council. Follow him on Twitter @DavidAWemer.
Further reading:
Wed, Oct 23, 2019
Now that Prime Minister Netanyahu has failed to form a government, opposition leader Benny Gantz gets his turn.
MENASource
by
Carmiel Arbit
Tue, Sep 17, 2019
Results were disappointing for the incumbent, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but still inconclusive. The next phase promises to be no less tortuous.
New Atlanticist
by
Shalom Lipner
Mon, Jul 22, 2019
US President Donald Trump’s administration team failed to gather required support from Arab countries during the Bahrain workshop for its economic plan, which would have been the cornerstone for the undisclosed political strategy policy for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The economic plan, through its three initiatives, could address paramount determinants of economic prosperity and peace, economic growth, human capital, and governance.
MENASource
by
Iyad Yousef
“The realignment of long-standing US government policy foreshadows the promised, if long delayed, release of President Trump's vision for regional peace, intimating that the blueprint may countenance the extension of Israeli sovereignty to communities whose existence has, until now, been considered illegal per US interpretation of international law,” Shalom Lipner says.
| 
