US Pressing "Israel" Over West Bank Settlements: Axios
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According to Axios, the Biden administration is discreetly pressuring "Israel" to end settlement expansion in the West Bank.
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The Israeli settlement of "Givat Zeev" near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank (AFP)
US President Biden is secretly putting pressure on the Israeli government to ease off settlement construction in the West Bank and to "show restraint ahead of a key decision on settlement building in the West Bank," according to Axios.
The news website added that President Biden told PM Bennet during their August 27 White House meeting that he expects the Israeli occupation "to show restraint on the settlements issue," to which the occupation's prime minister replied by saying "Israel" would build only according to its 'needs' arising from "natural growth."
Previously, several European countries issued a joint statement calling on the Israeli occupation to immediately reverse its decision to expand settlements in the West Bank. The joint statement was issued by the foreign ministries of France, the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It urged the Israeli occupation to halt its decision to expand settlements in the West Bank, for they saw that the decision to expand settlements in the West Bank violates international law.
"The continued colonization was a war crime," said the Special UN Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the West Bank, occupied since 1967.
73 Democrat lawmakers urged Biden in June to make moves "to reverse the former administration's abandonment of longstanding bipartisan United States policy on Israeli-Palestinian relations."
According to the "Jerusalem Post," the letter called for Biden to firmly consider Israeli settlements "illegal" and the West Bank "occupied."
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
