The US has raised its concern “at the highest level” about Israel’s continued settlement activity, its UN envoy told the Security Council as she pledged her country’s commitment to a two-state solution and the normalization of Israeli ties in the region.

“Make no mistake: the expansion of settlements undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution, exacerbates tensions, and further harms trust between the two parties,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

She spoke in the aftermath of a dramatic spike of 303% in housing starts from the first and second quarters of 2023, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics published this month.

From January to March of this year, ground was broken for 255 settler homes, compared to 1,028 housing starts from April to June of the year, the CBS reported. 

Despite the second-quarter rise, housing starts have dropped this year by 18.7% in the first two quarters when ground was broken for 1,283 settler homes compared with the same time period last year when there were 1,580 settler starts.

Advancing settlement plans

All total, there were 2,568 settler housing starts in 2023. Israel has advanced plans this year for 12,349 housing starts, according to the left-wing group Peace Now. It’s the largest such number since the group started collecting data in 2012.

“The United States strongly opposes the advancement of settlements and urges Israel to refrain from this activity. “We take the issue very seriously, as it undermines the possibility of a future contiguous Palestinian state, and we raise it at the highest levels on a consistent basis,” she said. 

Thomas-Greenfield spoke during the UNSC’s monthly meeting Wednesday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which took place amid a push for an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal and in the aftermath of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Joe Biden. The potential Saudi agreement is a subset of a deal between Washington and Riyadh that would consist mainly of a security pact. The US-Saudi deal could also include an interim agreement with the Palestinians at a time when the Israeli government does not support a Palestinian state and supports all settlement activity. Thomas-Greenfield in her speech also took Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to task for his speech in August blaming the Jews for the Holocaust. “I want to reiterate that the United States condemns President Abbas’s blatantly antisemitic remarks in August, which wrongly maligned the Jewish people and distorted the Holocaust. These kinds of divisive and hateful remarks only undermine prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” she said.

But the bulk of her speech was directed at Israel, with an emphasis on settlement building and settler violence.

“The sharp rise in violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians is also deeply alarming. “All perpetrators of violence against civilians, whether Israeli or Palestinian, should be held accountable according to the law,” Thomas-Greenfield stated.

 “Ongoing violence sets back the prospects for peace and is responsible for so much needless suffering,” she said. The US is “deeply concerned by the levels of violence in the West Bank and Gaza” and it expresses “condolences for those injured or killed in the past month across Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. ”She welcomed de-escalation efforts and called on all parties to refrain from actions and rhetoric that inflamed tensions – “including hateful rhetoric, settlement activity, evictions, the demolition of Palestinian homes, terrorism, incitement to violence, and [Palestinian Authority] payments to the families of terrorists,” she said.

 Thomas-Greenfield re-affirmed the US commitment to the status quo on the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.“We oppose actions that depart from the historic status quo, or otherwise disturb the sanctity” of religious sites in Jerusalem. “Such action is unacceptable,” she added. 

Work is underway to convene the Forum of Five – Egypt, Jordan, the US, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel – which met twice this year in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba. Thomas-Greenfield also confirmed her country’s support for freedom of movement for the peacekeeper forces on the Lebanese border and affirmed the decision taken under the Trump administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights. “Our policy in this regard [the status of the Golan Heights] remains unchanged from 2019,” she said.

“I am disturbed by the high levels of settler-related violence, often in the proximity of Israeli Security Forces, with perpetrators rarely held accountable. Israel must act to stop all settler violence.”UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said that from June 15 to September 19, Israeli security forces demolished 238 illegal Palestinian structures, as he noted that authorizations for structures are almost impossible to obtain.

In addition, he said, shrinking grazing land and settler violence have forced Palestinians to leave their homes in Area C of the West Bank. In describing the violence of the last three months, he said, “68 Palestinians, including 18 children, were killed by Israeli security forces during demonstrations, clashes, security operations, attacks or alleged attacks against Israelis, and other incidents. ”In conjunction, there were “10 Israelis, including one woman, two children, and three Israeli security forces personnel who were killed. ”Wennesland said he remained “gravely concerned by the intensification of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel – at levels not seen in decades – and the use of increasingly lethal weaponry, including in densely populated areas. ”Similarly, Wennesland said, “I condemn all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror. ”He added, “I am disturbed by the high levels of settler-related violence, often in the proximity of Israeli Security Forces, with perpetrators rarely held accountable. Israel must act to stop all settler violence