Israeli Cabinet minister rejects US criticism on settlements

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s  finance minister says that his ultranationalist party would push to legalize all wildcat settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, a move likely to draw international outcry and condemnation. Bezalel Smotrich spoke Tuesday, less than a day after the U.S. said it strongly opposed Israeli plans to build 10,000 new settlement housing units and retroactively legalize nine outposts in the territory. Israel’s announcement drew criticism from the U.S., EU and Arab states. Smotrich, a hard-line religious ultranationalist settler, said that he and his allies were “committed to removing completely the restrictions on building in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.