Jerusalem
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The U.S. Embassy in Israel announced its first event providing diplomatic services in Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The consulate will provide “routine passport services” to American citizens in the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, during a one-day event Friday, according to an announcement Tuesday. The embassy said the relief effort is part of its “Freedom 250” initiative to reach all Americans.
The move appears to signal that the United States will further legitimize Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which many in the international community consider to be land for a future Palestinian state.
This marks a break with decades of US foreign policy that has argued that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace. But President Donald Trump is no stranger to such dramatic changes in U.S. policy. During the first administration, the United States reversed its longstanding position on the settlement, with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating that the settlement was consistent with international law.
Consular events will also be held in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and the West Bank cities of Beitar Illit, Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya and Beit Shemesh, but dates have not been announced.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry celebrated the announcement as a “historic decision” to “extend consular services to American citizens in Judea and Samaria,” using the Biblical term for the West Bank.
“Five months after President Trump said he opposes annexation, local representatives are providing services in Israeli settlements and treating virtually all the land as part of Israel. Annexation is gradually normalizing,” Xavier Abu Eid, a former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s negotiating unit, said on social media.
Just days ago, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that he would be “okay” with Israel occupying much of the Middle East. Asked whether Israel should be allowed to occupy the land that extends to Iraq’s Euphrates River, Huckabee said, “I don’t care if Israel occupies everything,” before adding, “I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.”
A group of Arab and Islamic countries condemned Huckabee’s expansionist comments as “dangerous and inflammatory” and called them “a clear violation of international law.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Huckabee’s comments “contradict religious and historical facts, international law and the stated position of US President Donald Trump rejecting the annexation of the West Bank.”
President Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, but the Israeli government is rapidly expanding settlements and tightening its control over the territory.
