US to offer passport services to citizens in illegal West Bank settlements

The US will provide on-site consular services in two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for the first time, breaking with previous policy, in a move that has been criticised by Palestinian officials as “a clear violation of international law”.In a post on X, the US embassy in Jerusalem said that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with routine passport services in the West Bank settlement of Efrat on Friday “for one day only”.Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law. Efrat, about 7 miles (12km) south of Jerusalem, is home to about 12,000 Israelis.The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said in a statement that the initiative “constitutes a clear violation of international law and a blatant favouring of the occupation authorities”, referring to Israel.Mu’ayyad Shaa’ban, the head of the commission, said the step “entrenches a settlement reality that undermines the possibility of establishing an independent and sovereign Palestinian state”.Hamas called it “a dangerous precedent” and a “practical recognition of the legitimacy of settlement and the occupation’s control over the West Bank”.The US embassy in Jerusalem said similar facilities offering consular services would be provided in the coming months in a second Israeli settlement, Beitar Illit, as well as in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and three cities inside Israel.The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, welcomed the US move. “We … appreciate the important decision by the US embassy to extend consular services to Efrat, in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the intent and context of the new policy were important.“The background is very clear. Mike Huckabee [the US ambassador to Israel] is an avowed proponent of the Greater Israel vision and supports the realisation of that vision between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” Lovatt said. “This is a signal that the US will not treat the Israeli settlements [in the West Bank] in any different way from towns within Israel.”Last week Israel’s cabinet approved measures to tighten the country’s control over the West Bank and make it easier for settlers to buy land, a move Palestinians called a “de facto annexation”.Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has said he opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank in line with longstanding US policy but his administration has not taken any measures to halt settlement activity, which has risen since he took office last year.Settler violence and army raids have increased in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. Last week Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian American man during an attack on a village, the Palestinian health ministry and a witness said.On Tuesday there were arson attacks on Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta and other nearby villages in the south Hebron Hills. The area has been repeatedly targeted by violent settlers in recent years.The US currently offers passport and consular services at its embassy in Jerusalem as well as at a Tel Aviv branch office. The number of dual American-Israeli nationals living in the West Bank is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.Much of the West Bank is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the western-backed Palestinian Authority.Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which has a large voter base in the settlements, includes many members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.Efrat, the Jewish settlement where American consular officials will provide passport services on Friday, is home to many American immigrants.More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, home to 3 million Palestinians. Most settlements are small towns surrounded by fences and guarded by Israeli soldiers.