According to reports from international news agencies, Palestinian groups have reacted strongly to the United States’ decision to provide consular services in the occupied West Bank, viewing it as a clear partnership with the Zionist regime aimed at annexing the area. Last night, the Islamic Jihad movement issued a statement declaring that the U.S. Embassy’s announcement in Jerusalem regarding consular services in the illegal settlement of Efrat, built on lands in Bethlehem and Hebron, is a blatant violation of international conventions and norms, further confirming the United States’ complete bias towards settlement expansion and the annexation policies of the occupying regime’s cabinet.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Jihad movement emphasized that the claim this action is part of a program for Americans living abroad, or that it is temporary, does not diminish the dangerous nature of the initiative. Instead, such claims are attempts to normalize these actions in the occupied West Bank and solidify them as standard practice serving annexation goals.The statement continued: “Providing official services within settlements established on occupied territories, as Washington claims, is not merely an administrative procedure. It represents a clear political and legal recognition of the legitimacy of Zionist settlements and an active participation in the crime of ‘silent annexation’ perpetrated by the fascist cabinet of the occupying regime.”<\/p>\n
The movement added that offering services to Americans in an area where Palestinians are shot at daily and their properties are seized is, in fact, part of the occupiers’ dominance over the West Bank and the displacement of the Palestinian people. This criminal policy is supported by Washington with money, weapons, and now diplomatic cover.Islamic Jihad stressed that this step turns the U.S. government into a direct partner in the projects aimed at annexing the West Bank to the territories occupied by the Zionist regime. It reveals that the positions declared by Donald Trump, the former U.S. President, opposing the annexation of the West Bank were nothing more than media deception to facilitate the execution of Jewish settlement and annexation projects without any objection from Arab governments.<\/p>\n
The statement concluded that this action by Washington aligns with the recent remarks made by Mike Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to the occupied territories.In a similar vein, Hamas also issued a statement condemning the U.S. decision to provide consular services in the Efrat settlement, built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. Hamas described this as a dangerous precedent and a clear alignment with Jewish settlement plans, as well as a practical recognition of the legitimacy of settlements and the occupiers’ control over the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Hamas emphasized that this U.S. decision demonstrates a blatant contradiction in its positions, as Washington claims to oppose the annexation of the West Bank while simultaneously taking actions that reinforce annexation and solidify the occupiers’ sovereignty over Palestinian land.The movement added that providing official U.S. services in the settlements is a clear violation of international laws, which criminalize settlement activities and attempt to impose new political realities that pave the way for the obliteration of the national rights of the Palestinian people. Hamas warned of the dangerous implications of this action, especially in light of statements from U.S. officials, including Mike Huckabee, who encourage the occupiers to expand their control over Palestinian lands, calling for a decisive international stance against it.These statements follow an unprecedented announcement from the U.S. Embassy in the occupied territories which declared on Tuesday night that it would begin providing regular consular services to American citizens including passport services in several locations including West Bank settlements. The embassy confirmed that consular staff would start offering passport services in Efrat on Friday February 27. Over the next two months field visits to other locations including Beitar Illit Ramallah Haifa Jerusalem Netanya and Beit Shemesh will also be conducted.<\/p>\n
The expansion of U.S. consular services in the West Bank signifies direct support from the U.S. for settlement activities and the entrenchment of the Zionist regime’s occupation in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamic Jihad condemns America’s alarming new actions in the West Bank, framing them as blatant complicity in the annexation of the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}