Palestinians hit back Pompeo’s claim US support for Israeli settlements advances peace

‘Settlements are a war crime and illegal.. they are antithetical for the basic requirement for peace’ say Palestinian officials

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes the hand of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following their meeting in Jerusalem on October 18, 2019 (SEBASTIAN SCHEINER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Mike Pompeo has said Washington’s support of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank will advance peace, sparking fury from Palestinian officials that dismissed the notion as “dangerous”.

Speaking via video link at a policy forum conference in Jerusalem, the US secretary of state reiterated that the Trump administration believes Israeli settlements on land captured in the 1967 war “don’t inherently violate international law” and instead advance peace with Palestinians.

“It’s important that we speak the truth when the facts lead us to it. And we are recognising that these settlements don’t inherently violate international law,” Mr Pompeo said, during Wednesday’s event hosted by the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem think-tank.

“We are returning to a balanced sober Reagan era approach. In doing so we are advancing the cause of peace between the Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.

Palestinian leaders were outraged by the statement, dismissing the notion as “ludicrous”.

Around 430,000 settlers live amongst some 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, where the Palestinians seek to set up a state along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

“Settlements are a war crime and illegal. They are a violation of international law. They are antithetical for the basic requirement for peace,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee, told The Independent.

“It is a dangerous shortcoming to believe in this. It is like saying we support murder to maintain peace,” she added.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator also rejected the notion saying that US policy was pushing “the region further towards bloodshed and violence”.

“Israeli colonial settlements are illegal under international law... ignoring facts (doesn’t) mean they don’t exist,” he said.

The shift in US policy on settlements not violating international law was first announced in November. It countered the widely accepted view that transfer of any country’s civilians to occupied land is a war crime, and a violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and UN Security Council resolutions.

Many countries condemned Mr Pompeo’s announcement at the time but the Trump administration, which has strong ties with the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stuck by its shift.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor signalled she would launch a full investigation into possible crimes committed by all sides in the Palestinian Territories – including a probe into Israeli settlements.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Trump administration’s backing was a “proper answer” to the ICC’s decision to move ahead with the probe.

“The ‘Pompeo doctrine’ regarding the status of the settlements simply states that we are not foreigners in our homeland,” Mr Netanyahu told the Wednesday conference.

Israeli rights groups have told The Independent that Trump’s election has emboldened Israel’s pro-settler government.

In October Peace Now registered that since Trump came to office there have been well over twice the amount of housing units approved in settlements than the three years before that.

B’tselem, another Israeli organisation, said this week that in 2019 Israel demolished a record number of homes in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians have boycotted the Trump administration and its peace efforts, including its long-delayed peace plan since 2018. They accuse Washington of pro-Israel bias since it recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.