Israel on Wednesday welcomed the US embassy’s offer for consular services in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority slammed it as a “violation of international law".
AFP quoted the US mission in Jerusalem saying on Tuesday that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with “routine passport services in Efrat on Friday, February 27… for one day only".
Efrat, West Bank settlement located 12 kilometres south of Jerusalem, has about 12,000 Israelis.
This is despite the international law terming Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, as illegal.
“We… appreciate the important decision by the US embassy to extend consular services to Efrat, in Judea and Samaria," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said, using the biblical name for the West Bank, while responding to US’s offer.
“As America marks 250 years of independence, Israel stands proudly beside it," he added at an event marking the occasion.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission has slammed the move and said that this Palestinian Authority’s Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission.
AFP quoted Minister Muayyad Shubban, head of the commission, asking the US to reverse the decision, and the international community to refrain from legitimising the settlement system.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has called it “a dangerous step that supports (Israel’s) Judaisation plans".
According to AFP, the US embassy in Jerusalem also announced that such pop-up consular services will be provided in the next couple of months in another Israeli settlement, Beitar Illit, as well as in the Palestinian city of Ramallah and three cities inside Israel.
Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
