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.