The US State Department declared on Wednesday that legalizing settlement outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank would be “dangerous and reckless,” in reaction to rumors that Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was advocating for the same.
According to the Times of Israel, Smotrich called it “one of the most dramatic expansions” for the settlement movement in decades and intended to start the process of legalizing 68 illegal outposts in the West Bank.
During a daily briefing, deputy spokeswoman for the State Department Vedant Patel stated, “We believe that these reports about directives to support illegal outposts in the West Bank are dangerous and reckless.” According to him, the US is against the settlements and thinks they break international law.
