The White House said Monday it does not endorse Israel\u2019s decision to expand control over the West Bank, responding to questions from reporters after Israel\u2019s security cabinet approved a series of measures\u00a0strengthening\u00a0Israeli administrative and land authorities in the territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has clearly stated that he does not support Israel annexing the West Bank,\u201d a White House official said, adding that\u00a0maintaining\u00a0stability there aligns with the administration\u2019s goal of advancing regional peace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although other countries have criticized the decision made by Netanyahu\u2019s government, pushback from the US, Israel\u2019s closest ally, is notable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cabinet decision, announced Sunday by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, introduces significant changes to land registration and governance procedures.\u00a0The measures will make previously restricted land registries publicly accessible, rescind Jordanian-era laws prohibiting land sales to Jews, broaden Israeli civil and law enforcement authority in Areas A and B, reinstate the Land Acquisition Commission, and transfer planning oversight in parts of Hebron from the Palestinian municipality to the Israeli Civil Administration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katz and Smotrich said the changes remove longstanding legal barriers and allow accelerated development of Jewish communities. Smotrich said the steps reinforce Israel\u2019s presence, while Katz said they\u00a0establish\u00a0a durable strategic framework.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Britain issued a stronger response. An FCDO spokesperson said, \u201cThe UK strongly condemns the Israeli Security Cabinet\u2019s decision yesterday to expand Israeli control over the West Bank,\u201d warning that the changes would harm prospects for peace and conflict with international law. The statement called on Israel to reverse the decisions and reiterated support for a two-state solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier Monday, foreign ministers from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan,\u00a0Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt released a joint declaration rejecting what they described as \u201cillegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty.\u201d The European Union also criticized the move, with\u00a0spokesman\u00a0Anouar El\u00a0Anouni\u00a0calling it \u201canother step in the wrong direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Authority appealed for intervention by the UN and the US. Hamas called for a \u201crebellion across the West Bank and Jerusalem\u201d and urged \u201cescalation\u201d of the conflict \u201cby all available means.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House said Monday it does not endorse Israel\u2019s decision to expand control over the West Bank,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-283616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}