According to international news reports, as Israel accelerates its efforts to solidify its occupation of the West Bank and displace Palestinians, the United States has remained silent. However, in an unprecedented announcement, the U.S. Embassy in Israel declared it would begin offering standard consular services to American citizens in several locations, including West Bank settlements.
Starting Friday, February 27, consular staff will provide passport services in the Efrat settlement. Over the next two months, field visits to additional locations, including Beitar Illit, Ramallah, Haifa, Jerusalem, Netanya, and Beit Shemesh, are planned.The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed this decision, calling it a historic step that strengthens the ties between Israel and the United States. This move comes shortly after provocative statements from U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee regarding Israel’s sovereignty over Arab lands from the Nile to the Euphrates, as part of the so-called Greater Israel project.
The expansion of American consular services in the West Bank directly supports Israeli settlement activities and the ongoing occupation, which are deemed illegal under international law and United Nations resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334 passed by the Security Council in 2016. This resolution confirmed that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories have ‘no legal validity’ and constitute a ‘flagrant violation’ of international law, calling for a halt to all settlement activities.It is unsurprising that the U.S. remains indifferent to Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, as former President Donald Trump never discussed a ‘two-state solution’ for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza presented a long, complex, and conditional path that effectively stripped Palestinians of their natural right to self-determination and an independent state.
Moreover, during his first term, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also allocated nearly a third of the West Bank to Israelis under the anti-Palestinian ‘Deal of the Century.’The U.S. does not view Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem as illegal or a breach of international law. U.S. ambassadors in Israel have consistently emphasized the validity of Israel’s claims to sovereignty over the West Bank framing it as a divine promise.
All these factors suggest that the discussions surrounding Trump’s plan and the UN resolutions regarding a meaningful vision for an independent Palestinian state are mere rhetoric designed to distract global public opinion and buy time for Israel to annex the West Bank and Judaize Jerusalem.
