US House Speaker visits West Bank settlement amid Palestinian condemnation

In an unprecedented move for a senior US official, House Speaker Mike Johnson visited a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday.

The visit, described as “private,” was part of a tour organized by a pro-"Israel" lobbying group and immediately drew strong condemnation from the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called it a blatant violation of international law.

According to Axios, citing "Israeli" officials, Johnson’s unannounced trip was arranged by the American "Israel" Education Foundation, an extremist advocacy group. The "Israeli" embassy in Washington, its Foreign Ministry, and the US embassy in Jerusalem were reportedly caught off guard and were not involved in planning the visit.

Johnson was accompanied by a delegation of Republican lawmakers, including Representative Claudia Tenney, who leads a congressional bloc supporting settlements and advocating for the annexation of the West Bank.

The visit is expected to last unusually long, with the delegation set to depart on August 10. The group also plans to visit Gaza to see aid centers operated by “Humanitarian Gaza,” a US- and "Israeli"-backed organization.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Johnson’s visit to the Ariel settlement, built on Palestinian land, as well as his inflammatory remarks endorsing West Bank annexation.

The ministry said the visit “encourages settler crimes and the confiscation of Palestinian land, contradicting the official US stance on settlements.” It stressed that all settlements are illegal and undermine the prospects for a two-state solution and peace.

While some Republican members of Congress have visited settlements before, Johnson’s visit as the third-highest-ranking US official is unprecedented.

Observers see this as a direct challenge to traditional US policy, which views settlements as a major obstacle to peace, and as strong support for more extreme factions within the "Israeli" government.