Former US ambassador accuses Israel of ‘creeping annexation’ of the West Bank

Daniel Kurtzer says legalised settlements are ‘a significant violation of a commitment the Israeli government made to the American government’

A former US ambassador to Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government of breaking a written agreement with Washington by legalising a group of hardline nationalist and religious settlements in the West Bank.

Daniel Kurtzer, who served in Tel Aviv during the George W Bush administration, also warned that some ministers in Netanyahu’s new coalition are not interested in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. He called on the Biden administration to be more proactive in stopping Israel’s “creeping annexation” of the West Bank.