JERUSALEM — A day after approving the construction of a new settlement in the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years, Israel announced a new, if ambiguous, settlement policy on Friday “out of consideration for the positions of President Trump’’ and, it said, to enable progress in the peace process with Palestinians.
Israel said it was taking steps to “significantly rein in the footprint’’ of the settlements, allowing construction within all its existing settlements in the occupied West Bank but limiting, “wherever possible,’’ their expansion into new territory.
How the new policy might translate on the ground was largely left open to interpretation. The Palestinians, like most of the rest of the world, oppose any Israeli construction in the occupied territories.
Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, furiously rejected the Israeli settlement policy. “All Israeli settlements are illegal,’’ he said, “and we are not going to accept any formula that aims at legitimizing the presence of Israeli colonies on occupied Palestinian land.’’
President Trump has called for curbs in settlement construction as part of an ambitious push to revive long-stalled peace talks to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an interview published in February in the Hebrew edition of Israel Hayom, a newspaper considered supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Trump said he wanted Israel “to act reasonably,’’ after a series of Israeli moves to approve thousands of housing units for new settlers.
“There is limited remaining territory,’’ Trump added. “Every time you take land for a settlement, less territory remains.’’
Days later, during a meeting between the two leaders at the White House, Trump made a public request to hold off on settlements.
But on Friday, the White House gave no signal that it was troubled by Israel’s latest settlement move. At a White House briefing on Friday, officials said they did not want to discuss the settlement question and did not anticipate that it would be a focal point of discussions over the next week.
That was despite the fact that on Friday the administration was preparing for separate visits by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan to the White House next week — both leaders of countries often affected by tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.
While Sissi has not yet made Israeli policy toward the Palestinians a major concern, Abdullah faces a more delicate domestic situation where assertive Israeli actions often generate protests. Worried about a public backlash, Abdullah raced to Washington shortly after Trump took office to buttonhole the new president at a prayer breakfast and implore him not to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, as he had promised on the campaign trail. Trump has obliged and delayed any embassy move while he reconsiders the matter.
Since then, Jerusalem and Washington have negotiated to try to reach an understanding on slowing or curbing settlement construction.
During the Obama administration, Israel’s settlement activity was the source of constant friction.
But Israel’s latest policy announcement was likely to have been coordinated with the White House. Since the February meeting with Netanyahu, US and Israeli officials have been working to reach a more formal understanding on slowing or curbing settlement construction. And there appears to be some understanding that Netanyahu would be allowed to fulfill his earlier promise to compensate 40 families evicted from the illegal hilltop outpost of Amona by building them a new community.
The new Israeli formula left the government much room for maneuver. While it might limit the territorial expansion of the settlements, it could also encourage an increase in the settler population by, for example, filling in available spaces with high-rise construction and by building more homes closer to existing amenities.
