The white House Says israeli Settlements in the west Bank Are no longer illegal. Here’s what That Means

On Monday, the Trump Administration broke with decades of U.S. precedent to redefine America’s policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Since President Trump took office in 2016, he has overturned long-held U.S. positions on several of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s most contentious issues, to the dismay of the Palestinian leadership. The White House’s latest announcement—that the U.S. will no longer consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law— is likely to further inflame those tensions. Here’s what to know. What is Washington’s new policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank? “After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Monday, “the United States has concluded that the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.” Pompeo added that “calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law hasn’t worked. It hasn’t advanced the cause of peace.” Close to 600,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements Israel built after it took over the territory in the Six Day War of 1967. The area is also home to almost 3 million Palestinians who live under the control of the Israeli security forces, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Central Bureau of Statistics. Almost 2 million more Palestinians live in Gaza, a 25-mile long strip administered by the militant group Hamas and subject to a 12-year-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

How does this differ from the past policy? While Israel has long disputed the majority of the international community’s determination that settlements are illegal under international law, for decades the U.S. had adopted a position of compromise. The State Department, under former president Jimmy Carter, in 1978 deemed that Israeli settlements are “inconsistent with international law.” Announcement reverses four decades of US policy and puts Trump administration at odds with the international community. It is a dramatic shift in US policy and goes against the position taken by international organisations and most other countries. The United States says it no longer views the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as “inconsistent with international law”. The Palestinians are furious and many observers say it makes Israeli-Palestinian peace even more elusive. It was another u-turn on policy by US President Donald Trump in favour of Israel. Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy there. He also recognised Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria. What’s the reason for this latest controversial move?