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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jason Burke International security correspondent

US to offer passport services to citizens in illegal West Bank settlements

Rows of houses in Efrat
Efrat is home to about 12,000 Israelis and many American immigrants on occupied Palestinian land. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

The US will provide on-site consular services in two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank for the first time, breaking with previous policy, in a move that has been criticised by Palestinian officials as “a clear violation of international law”.

In a post on X, the US embassy in Jerusalem said that as part of an initiative to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, it would provide Americans with routine passport services in the West Bank settlement of Efrat on Friday “for one day only”.

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