US condemns settlement construction, as Israeli minister urges annexation

The United States issued strong condemnation of Israeli settlement expansion on Wednesday, even as Israeli ministers vowed to further boost the settler population and even annex the West Bank.

Responding to news of 284 new settlement housing units, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One that “this significant expansion of the settlement activity poses a serious and growing threat to the viability of a two state solution.”

He added: “We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorised settlements.”

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby also strongly criticised the most recent Israeli moves, noting that “since the Quartet report came out we have seen a very significant acceleration of Israeli settlement activity that runs directly counter to the conclusions of the report.”

According to Kirby, “so far this year Israel has promoted plans for over 2,500 units including over 700 units retroactively approved in the West Bank.”

Such policies, Kirby said, “have effectively given the Israeli government’s green light for the pervasive advancement of settlement activity in a new and potentially unlimited way.”

Such a “significant expansion of the settlement enterprise poses a very serious and growing threat to the viability of the two-state solution”, Kirby warned.

An unnamed senior US official cited by AFP said Washington has decided to “toughen its tone with Israel”, in response to the latter’s aggressive settlement construction and a “dramatic acceleration” in its demolition of Palestinian buildings.

Meanwhile, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) used an event Tuesday night marking the 40^th anniversary of Kedumim settlement to vow that the government will achieve “the imposition of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]” within a few years.

Speaking alongside him at the same settlers’ event, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev (Likud) promised that in ten years, “there won’t be a Palestinian state here, and there will be a million Jews in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].”