❗️Huckabee: Israel's settlement expansion 'not a violation of international law'

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israeli Army Radio that “massive” settlement development in the occupied West Bank, including the E1 area east of Jerusalem, “is not a violation of international law” and would not be opposed by Washington.

“Whether or not there should be massive development in E1 is a decision for the government of Israel to make,” he said, adding that the US would not interfere in Israel’s decisions.

His comments directly contradict international consensus. Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch told Middle East Eye that settlement expansion is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute.

In 2020, the EU and 15 European states denounced the E1 plans, while the UN’s Stephane Dujarric warned this week that the project “would put an end to prospects of a two-state solution.”

Extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich meanwhile praised the plan as “Zionism at its best” that would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”