US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned today that the United States will oppose the construction of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as Benyamin Netanyahu prepares to retake power thanks to a far-right coalition.
“And in the future, we will clearly oppose any actions that could threaten the two-state solution, especially the expansion of colonies, measures to annex the West Bank, changing the historical status quo of the holy sites, the destruction, expulsion and incitement to violence,” the US Secretary of State emphasized in a speech by the American pro-Israel group J Street.
The right-wing bloc and its ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies won the largest number of votes in Israel’s November 1 parliamentary election, with 64 of the 120 seats in parliament, allowing Netanyahu to begin talks on the formation of a government.
In that process, on Thursday he signed a coalition agreement with one of three far-right parties, giving him a central place in the settlement development of the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967.
More than 475,000 Israelis currently live in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law, which is four times more than when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1990, which did not bring lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.