U.S. Criticizes Israel on Building in Yehuda and Shomron

WASHINGTON (Reuters/Hamodia) — The White House expressed displeasure with the Israeli decision this week to move forward with plans for some 10,000 homes in Yehuda and Shomron.

“We are deeply dismayed by Israel’s announcement that they will advance thousands of new settlements and retroactively legalize nine outposts in the West Bank that were until now illegal under Israeli law,” presidential press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during the daily briefing on Thursday.

“The United States strongly opposes these unilateral measures, which exacerbate tensions, harms trust between the parties and undermines the geographic viability of the two-state solution.”

Along with the U.S., the European Union, the U.N. Secretary General, Germany, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia voiced their opposition to the Israeli decision on Wednesday.

At the same time, the U.S. criticized the introduction of a draft United Nations resolution on Israel’s building plans in Yehuda and Shomron. Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters on Thursday that it would be “unhelpful” in supporting the conditions necessary to advance negotiations of a two-state solution. The U.N. Security Council is considering a draft resolution, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, that would demand Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”