Biden must rein in illegal Israeli settlements – former ambassador

The administration of US President Joe Biden should remind Israel that its ongoing settlement of the West Bank violates a deal it struck with Washington in 2004, former US ambassador to the country Daniel Kurtzer said on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu granted retroactive authorization to nine settlements in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated afterwards that 10,000 homes for Jewish settlers would be built in these locations. While the UN Security Council issued a statement denouncing the move, the US reportedly intervened to thwart a Palestinian plan to issue a legally binding resolution instead.

Retroactively authorizing these illegally built outposts is “a significant violation of a commitment that the Israeli government made in writing to the American…