US backtracks on Israeli criticism over recent violence
The US administration has backtracked on its criticism of the Israeli regime over the recent escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories.
On Wednesday, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said credible reports indicate that Tel Aviv used excessive force against Palestinian protesters in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
But speaking at Indiana University on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States backs Israel’s “right to defend its existence.”
Kerry said that he was working with the Israelis and the Palestinians “to stabilize the situation.”
“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against innocent civilians,” he said. “There is absolutely no justification for these reprehensible attacks.”
This is while a day earlier Kerry blamed Israel’s settlement expansion projects for the current escalation of tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.
“There's been a massive increase in [Israeli] settlements over the course of the last years, and now you have this violence because there's a frustration that is growing," Kerry said.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were occupied by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
Kerry is scheduled to travel to the Middle East this week.
The recent violence between Palestinians and Israelis was triggered after Israel set up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods of Israeli-occupied East al-Quds on August 26, to put restrictions on entries into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
According to Palestinian sources, a total of 32 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israelis since October 1. At least 7 Israeli have reportedly been killed in the same period.
Palestinians are furious at the settler violence and a plan by Israelis to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which is Islam’s third holiest site after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.
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