Legalizing settler outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank would be “dangerous and reckless,” the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday in response to reports Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was pushing to do so.
“These reports about directives to support illegal outposts in the West Bank, we believe that to be dangerous and reckless,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a daily briefing. Israel has settled the West Bank extensively since 1967, viewing it as the biblical Judea and Samaria and critical to Israel’s security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promoted settlement growth, which the U.S. has criticized.
Washington imposed sanctions on Friday on an ally of Israel’s far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence.