The political gift made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the eve of the expiration of the deadline for forming an Israeli government is seen by some as paving the way for Israel to further annex Palestinian occupied territories.

Pompeo reversed a longstanding US position that had declared settlements to be illegal by saying Nov. 18, "After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate ... the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law."

Pompeo’s statement directly contradicts international consensus that has existed for over five decades. The International Court of Justice ruled unanimously in 2004 on the illegality of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories; in 1978, a US State Department legal opinion hled that the settlements were "inconsistent with international law." In December 2016, the UN Security Council vote 14-0 to approve Resolution 2334, with the Barack Obama administration abstaining and coming under domestic criticism for not having exercised its veto. The resolution referred to Israeli settlement activity as a "flagrant violation" of international law that has "no legal validity."

Husam Zumlot, former head of the Palestine mission in Washington and now Palestinian ambassador to the UK, told Al-Monitor, “We are seeing US politicians destroying world order for personal reasons. This is not a problem for Palestinians only but for the entire world.” Zumlot told Al-Monitor that for the first time, all Arab ambassadors to the UK agreed to his request to send a strongly worded statement to Washington in opposition to Pompeo's settlement declaration.