UN pushes back on US reversal on Israeli settlements

The United Nations human rights council pushed back Tuesday on the United State’s announcement that it would not consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law. 

“A change in the policy position of one state does not modify existing international law nor its interpretation by the International Court of Justice and the [U.N.] Security Council,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said at a Geneva news briefing, according to Reuters.

The response came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Monday announcement that the U.S. will not consider those Israeli settlements a violation of the law. 

Pompeo said the decision strengthens the U.S.’s position ahead of the expected release of a Mideast peace plan authored by President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Israel took over the West Bank of the Jordan Valley after the 1967 Six-Day War. An estimated 700,000 Israelis live in communities on the West Bank in areas where Palestinians claim land rights.