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Israel only occupies 2% of West Bank, says US ambassador
Source: The Guardian
Israel only occupies 2% of West Bank, says US ambassador
David Friedman also says international community always intended for Israel to keep some of the land it seized in 1967
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Thursday 28 September 2017 15.45 BST
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has made a second dramatic intervention in US Middle East policy, suggesting that only 2% of the West Bank is occupied by Israel and that the international community always intended for Israel to keep some of the land it seized during the six-day war in 1967.
The comments, made in an interview with the news channel Israeli Walla, came a day after rightwing Israeli politicians celebrated 50 years of Israeli settlement building, prompting condemnation by Palestinian officials.
“I think the settlements are part of Israel,” Friedman said, in comments that seem at odds with decades of US foreign policy.
“I think that was always the expectation when resolution 242 was adopted in 1967,” he said, referring to the UN security council resolution made at the end of the six-day war, when Israeli forces occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
-snip-
David Friedman also says international community always intended for Israel to keep some of the land it seized in 1967
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Thursday 28 September 2017 15.45 BST
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has made a second dramatic intervention in US Middle East policy, suggesting that only 2% of the West Bank is occupied by Israel and that the international community always intended for Israel to keep some of the land it seized during the six-day war in 1967.
The comments, made in an interview with the news channel Israeli Walla, came a day after rightwing Israeli politicians celebrated 50 years of Israeli settlement building, prompting condemnation by Palestinian officials.
“I think the settlements are part of Israel,” Friedman said, in comments that seem at odds with decades of US foreign policy.
“I think that was always the expectation when resolution 242 was adopted in 1967,” he said, referring to the UN security council resolution made at the end of the six-day war, when Israeli forces occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/28/israel-occupies-small-fraction-of-west-bank-claims-us-ambassador