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Misreporting the U.S. Position on the Legality of Israeli Communities in Judea and Samaria
(CAMERA) Tamar Sternthal - The Biden Administration's decision on Feb. 23 to reinstate President Obama's position that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law has been the subject of recurrent misreporting on American policy. Reuters said the move signaled "a return to long-standing U.S. policy on the issue." The New York Times alleged that the move "restores a decades-old U.S. policy." In fact, the Trump administration's 2019 decision overturned a policy that was in place for just three years - and not decades as reported. Prior to the 2016 Obama decision, and dating back decades until the Carter administration, U.S. policy did not take a stance on the legality of Israeli settlements. Since the Reagan administration, which explicitly said it did not believe the settlements were illegal, U.S. administrations had not characterized them as illegal. The writer is director of CAMERA's Israel Office.