Conflict

Troubled by return of settlers to evacuated West Bank settlement: UN

Al-Aqsa mosque located in old city of Jerusalem. [File Photo]

The United States on Saturday said it was troubled by the return of Jewish settlers to an evacuated West Bank settlement, as well as the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by fascist Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank, which according to Israeli law was illegally built on private Palestinian land,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement.

“This order is inconsistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon’s written commitment to the Bush Administration in 2004 and the current Israeli government’s commitments to the Biden Administration. Advancing Israeli settlements in the West Bank is an obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution.”

The spokesperson also expressed concern by what he described as yesterday’s Ben Gvir’s “provocative visit” to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Al-Aqsa Mosque) in Jerusalem “and the accompanying inflammatory rhetoric.”

“This holy space should not be used for political purposes, and we call on all parties to respect its sanctity. More broadly, we reaffirm the longstanding US position in support of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites and underline Jordan’s special role as custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem,” the spokesperson concluded his statement.

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