Israel’s Expansion of Gush Etzion Settlement Bloc Harms Peace, U.S. Says

The Jerusalem Post reports: The expansion of the territorial boundaries of the Gush Etzion Regional Council in the West Bank is harmful to peace and makes it more difficult to achieve a two-state solution, according to US State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Settlement activity is “illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace. Continued settlement activity and expansion raises honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions and will only make achieving a two-state solution that much more difficult,” Kirby told reporters in Washington on Friday.

He spoke days after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon agreed to expand the Gush Etzion bloc to include a 4-hectare site with eight stone buildings that is located off of Route 60 between the Gush Etzion junction and the Kiryat Arba settlement.

Read more at the Jerusalem Post