The Palestinian Authority on Monday lambasted the Trump administration for softening its position on settlements, calling the policy shift "unacceptable."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that the White House has "carefully studied" US policy on Israel's settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and has come to the conclusion it is "not inconsistent" with international law.
Israel lauded the policy shift. A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move "reflects a historical truth" and "rights a historical wrong. The Trump administration clearly rejected the false claim that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are inherently illegal under international law."
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A statement released by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah said that "Secretary of State Pompeo's declaration is baseless, unacceptable, condemned and totally in contravention with international law and international decisions that reject settlement building, especially United Nations Security Council resolution 2334."
Video: Reuters
Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that "the American administration is not qualified or authorized to cancel the resolutions of international law, and has no right to grant legality to any Israeli settlement."
The European Union said that it continued to believe that Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank was illegal under international law and eroded prospects for lasting peace.
"The EU calls on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
The UN Security Council said it will convene on Wednesday to discuss Pompeo's announcement on the legality of the settlements.
The UN human rights office reaffirmed its long-standing position that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are in breach of international law, saying in a statement, "A change in the policy position of one state does not modify existing international law nor its interpretation by the International Court of Justice and the Security Council."
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned that the US policy shift would have "dangerous consequences" on the prospects of reviving the Middle East peace process.
Safadi said in a tweet that Jewish settlements in the territory were illegal and undermined the prospects of a two-state solution in which a Palestinian state would exist side-by-side with Israel, which Arab countries say is the only way to resolve the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi said on Twitter before Pompeo's statement, that the move was "another blow to international law, justice and peace."
Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, called on the international community to push back against Pompeo's statement.
"Once again, with this announcement, the Trump administration is demonstrating the extent to which it's threatening the international system with its unceasing attempts to replace international law with the 'law of the jungle,'" he said in a statement.
"Henceforth, the international community must take all necessary measures to respond and deter this irresponsible US behavior, which poses a threat to global stability, security, and peace," he stated.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassim said Pompeo's statement was "another affirmation of the American administration's participation in the aggression against the Palestinian people.
"The establishment of these settlements is a real war crime. The occupation expelled the original owners of the land among our people, stole it and then built settlements on it.
"These settlements, like the occupation, are illegitimate and our resistance will continue its struggle until they are swept away, the occupation is expelled and our people return to the land they were kicked out of," Qassim said in a statement posted on the terrorist group's website.
Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, also blasted the decision, saying it "played in favor of far-Right interests in Israel."
"No declaration will change the fact that the settlements were constructed in occupied territory in contravention of international law, and are an obstacle to peace. Trump has been, and remains, a dishonest broker who serves the vision of the far-right at the expense of the moderate majority of the Israeli public," the group said in a statement.
The left-wing Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called the decision "farcical."
"The American administration is pushing the world over 70 years backwards, to the period at the end of the 2nd world war, when only in its aftermath did the world come to terms with the consequences of the absence of such protections," it said in a tweet.
