US, European nations join to oppose Israeli settlement authorization

• The foreign ministers of four European nations joined Washington.
• The settlements Israel has established are viewed as illegitimate.
• Israel has built 132 settlements since the 1967 conflict on the territory.

On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of four European nations joined Washington in denouncing the Israeli government’s decision to permit the construction of nine Jewish settlers’ outposts in the occupied West Bank.

The foreign ministers of the United States, Italy, France, Germany, and Britain all expressed worry over Israel’s plans in a single statement.

“We strongly oppose unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution,” they said.

Israel announced the mass building of new homes in established settlements on Sunday and gave retroactive authorization to nine settler outposts in the West Bank, leaving US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “very disturbed.”

The extreme religious nationalist bloc in Netanyahu’s coalition member and security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he intended to go further but that the foreign ministry of Israel had no quick reply.

“This is our mission. This is our doctrine,” Ben-Gvir said. “Nine settlements is nice but it’s still not enough. We want much more,” he said in a video message.

The settlements Israel has established on land it won in a conflict with Arab nations in 1967 are viewed as illegitimate by the majority of foreign powers.

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Israel rejects that and cites security reasons as well as connections to the West Bank in the Bible, history, and politics.

According to the watchdog group Peace Now, it has built 132 settlements since the 1967 conflict on territory that Palestinians view as the nucleus of a future state.

In addition to the permitted settlements, groups of settlers erected a large number of outposts without authorization from the government. Police have destroyed some while retrospectively authorizing others. The first for this Netanyahu administration are the nine measures that received approval on Sunday.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh expressed his appreciation for the joint declaration but added, “We demand that words be turned to deeds.”

The proposal has frightened foreign powers who anticipate an even bigger escalation of bloodshed given how high tensions are in the West Bank now. Following a crackdown that was started last year in the wake of a slew of deadly Palestinian attacks, Israeli authorities have undertaken raids in the West Bank almost every day.

Israeli soldiers have murdered more than 40 Palestinians this year, including both militant militants and civilians. Ten people have also been killed in two Palestinian attacks in Israel at the same time.

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