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Opinion

Sincerity in doubt

The American affirmation of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory opposes international norms, casting a shadow on its much-deliberated Middle East peace plan

The US announcement that it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank "inconsistent" with international law shows its support to the Jewish state hardline stand against the Palestinian quest for statehood.

Even though the decision is largely symbolic, it has put a question mark on the US administration's credibility to play any future role in resolving the decades-old Arab-Israel conflict besides spelling trouble for its yet to be announced Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The decision has given a boost to the beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin, who is fighting for his political survival. He has been weakened domestically by mounting legal woes and two inconclusive elections this year. He said the announcement "rights a historical wrong".

"This policy reflects a historical truth – the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists and Judea and Samaria," said a statement issued by Netanyahu's office, using Israeli terms for the West Bank.

"After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees…(the) establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said announcing the decision on Monday.

He made it amply clear that the US would no longer abide by a 1978 State Department legal opinion that said settlements were "inconsistent with international law".

The announcement has understandably come in sharp criticism by Palestinians, rights groups and politicians who said it totally contradicts the international law and has dangerous consequences on the prospects of reviving the Middle East peace process.

Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement that the US is "not qualified or authorized to cancel the resolutions of international law, and has no right to grant legality to any Israeli settlement.

The European Union has also voiced its opposition to the announcement. Without naming the US, the 28-nation bloc in a statement said all settlement activity is illegal under the international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and prospects of lasting peace.

The 1978 legal opinion on settlements is known as the Hansell Memorandum. It had been the basis for more than 40 years of carefully worded US opposition to settlement construction that had varied in its tone and strength.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal based in part on the Fourth Geneva Convention that bars an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population to occupied territory.

Several United Nations Security Council resolutions, the most recent in 2016, have said that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The Netanyahu government was dealt a blow last week when the European Court of Justice ruled that products in Israeli settlements must be labelled as such.

Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and began settling in the captured parts. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers are currently living in the two areas. Some three million Palestinians live there. Palestinians claim their territories and want them to be part of their future state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

While maintaining that the fate of the settlements is a subject for negotiations, it has over the years expanded them.

The US announcement signifies that the Trump administration has sided with Israel and against stances taken by the Palestinians and Arab states even before unveiling its long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The US recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017. The following year it formally opened its embassy in the city. Its policy previously had been that the status of Jerusalem was to be decided by parties to the conflict.

Also in 2018, the Trump administration announced it was cutting its contribution to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

In March, Trump recognised Israel's 1981 annexation of Golan Heights from Syria.

All these developments raise doubts if the US would be fair to the Palestinians when it announces its much talked about Middle East plan.

M Shakeel Ahmed is a former Editor of PTI and served as West Asia correspondent for PTI, based in Bahrain from 1988 to 1995. Views expressed are strictly personal

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