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US House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank on Monday, marking the first visit of its kind by a US official in this position.
Johnson’s visit comes amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 60,000 Palestinians and displaced millions, and at a time when Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank accelerates in defiance of international law.
During the visit, Johnson referred to the occupied Palestinian territory by the Israeli term “Judea and Samaria”, calling it the “rightful property of the Jewish people,” in comments aired by Israel’s Channel 7.
The US delegation, which included 15 other members of Congress, participated in a tree-planting ceremony in the settlement — a symbolic act that Palestinians say underscores Washington’s active endorsement of Israel’s illegal colonization project.
Palestinian Foreign Ministry Condemns ‘Historic Violation’
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sharply condemned the visit, describing it as a “blatant violation of international law and UN resolutions,” and as “an encouragement of settlement crimes and the confiscation of Palestinian land.”
The ministry said Johnson’s statements are “provocative” and reflect a clear contradiction with the publicly declared U.S. position on settlements and settler violence.
“All settlements are invalid and illegal. They undermine the chances of implementing the two-state solution and achieving peace,” the ministry stressed.
International Law and US Double Standards
Under international law, all territories occupied by Israel since 1967 — including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Syria’s Golan Heights — are considered illegally occupied. All settlements built there are unlawful.
Yet the visit by the third highest-ranking U.S. official reflects Washington’s ongoing political, military, and diplomatic protection of Israel — even as it defies binding International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders to halt settlement expansion and military aggression.
Palestinian officials and human rights groups say such visits legitimize Israel’s apartheid policies in the West Bank, while providing political cover for its genocide in Gaza.
A Symbol of US Complicity
Johnson’s trip to Ariel, hailed by Ariel’s mayor as a “historic moment” in US-Israeli relations, is seen by Palestinians as a symbol of Washington’s complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
At a time when entire neighborhoods in Gaza lie in ruins, famine claims lives daily, and settler violence surges in the West Bank, critics say U.S. congressional delegations are rewarding Israel’s impunity instead of holding it accountable. (ILKHA)
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