The reversal of US policy on settlements emboldens Israeli opponents of the Palestinian statehood and perpetuates the conflict rather than bringing it closer to resolution, former member of Israel's parliament Ksenia Svetlova told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2019) The reversal of US policy on settlements emboldens Israeli opponents of the Palestinian statehood and perpetuates the conflict rather than bringing it closer to resolution, former member of Israel's parliament Ksenia Svetlova told Sputnik.
In a latest move to bolster Israel's grip over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories claimed by the Palestinians to establish a state of their own, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the US no longer viewed dozens of settlements, a home to over 600,000 Israelis, as inconsistent with international law.
"It will accelerate the approach of one-state solution, one state for two people, a binational state... I don't think it will be a positive development for Israel. Those who are happy today should know in a short time we will find ourselves unable to separate from the Palestinians," Svetlova said. "We, our children and grandchildren will be just doomed in this forced coexistence with another nation that will not stop struggling for their rights."
Now a Research Fellow at the Israeli Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, she belonged to the influential center-left Zionist Union Party and for four consecutive years, until early 2019, served as a member of parliamentary opposition to right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, attacking him for reneging on the peace process with the Palestinians.
Svetlova said it would be wrong to expect that Pompeo's declaration would take the issue of settlements off the negotiation table just as the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel two years ago didn't bring conflicting parties anyway closer to resolving the dispute over the city.
"This different approach, this decision that was made right now by the American administration is most declarative one. It doesn't really apply to what is happening in the Israeli settlements or in the sphere of conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Autonomy," Svetlova said. "The international law will not change, the hostility that we experience in the West Bank and other parts will not go away. Most importantly, I think, it will not help Israelis and Palestinians to reach just solution for this conflict."
She doesn't believe that Netanyahu, now struggling to remain in power, would be able to honor his election pledge to annex portions of the West Bank, still deemed as occupied even in the Israeli legislation.
"Perhaps there will be more settlement activity, but I really doubt that, unless we have a narrow right wing government, there will be real progress towards annexation. For now it's mainly propaganda," Svetlova said.
She warned that any such moves would severely exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
