The United States said on Sunday night that it was troubled by the return of Jewish settlers to an evacuated West Bank settlement, as well as the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank, which according to Israeli law was illegally built on private Palestinian land,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement.
Israel's far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound early on Sunday. #AlAqsaUnderAttack #Jerusalem #Palestine pic.twitter.com/Bj9Qx6Huzh
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 21, 2023
“This order is inconsistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon’s written commitment to the Bush Administration in 2004 and the current Israeli government’s commitments to the Biden Administration. Advancing Israeli settlements in the West Bank is an obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution,” the statement added.
The spokesperson also expressed concern by what he described as Ben Gvir’s “provocative visit” to Al-Haram Al-Sharif (Al-Aqsa Mosque) in Jerusalem “and the accompanying inflammatory rhetoric.”
“This holy space should not be used for political purposes, and we call on all parties to respect its sanctity.”
“More broadly, we reaffirm the longstanding US position in support of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites and underline Jordan’s special role as custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem,” the spokesperson concluded his statement.
(WAFA, PC)
