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Palestinians and left-wing Israelis have slammed the US ambassador to Israel for saying Israel "has the right" to annex parts of the West Bank, labeling him "spokesman of the settlers."

David Friedman told the NYT that "under certain circumstances," Israel "has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank," prompting a furious response from Palestinians.

In a statement, Fatah questioned whether Friedman's comments were indicative of a change in US policy towards the Palestinian territories and "represented the official American position or the position of the settlers in Israel." The comments are a "complete blow" to the peace process, the group added, and undermine the prospect of a two-state solution.

Fatah's Mustafa Barghouti said it has long been clear that Friedman is "the spokesman of the settlers."

Palestine Liberation Organization leader Saeb Erakat said in a tweet Friedman's words show that the Trump administration's vision for the region is really about the annexation of occupied territory.

Criticisms were also leveled at the US ambassador from the Israeli left, with Meretz's Tamar Zandberg saying Friedman "must know that annexation would be a disaster for the State of Israel."

A US State Department official said on Saturday that the administration position on settlements has not changed and "no plan for unilateral annexation by Israel of any portion of the West Bank" has been presented by Israel to the US, Haaretz reports.

Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, are illegal under international law and breach a number of UN security resolutions on the issue. The Friedman controversy comes as Jared Kushner prepares to officially unveil the US peace plan, which has already faced criticism for allegedly proposing to split the West Bank and leave a "smaller share" to Palestinians.

Rodham did not appear to play a major public role in sister Hillary's 2016 run for the presidency but did campaign with her during some stops in Pennsylvania.

In 2000, while his brother-in-law was president, Rodham successfully lobbied Bill Clinton to pardon a couple convicted of bank fraud who paid Rodham $245,000 for consulting work, according to a House Government Reform Committee report at the time.

Most famously a consultant, Rodham previously worked as an insurance salesman, a prison guard and a private detective. In 1996, Rodham coordinated "constituency outreach" for the Democratic National Committee.

Rodham said in 1999 that he had both benefited and suffered from his sister and President Bill Clinton's rise to power.

"It can go both ways," Rodham said at the time. "There's some wonderful things that have happened to me because of my relationship with Hillary and Bill, and there's been some really terrible things that have happened to me."

In 2000, as the Clinton administration was coming to a close, Rodham successfully lobbied his brother-in-law, the president, to override the objections of the Justice Department and pardon a Tennessee couple convicted of bank fraud, according to The New York Times.

A congressional investigation later found that Edgar Allen Gregory, Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo, who were in the carnival business, had paid him almost $250,000 as a "consultant" in their bid to get a pardon.

In 2010, former President Bill Clinton helped Rodham, then short of cash, get a job raising investments in GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company then owned by Terry McAuliffe, an old Clinton friend and later governor of Virginia, the Times reported in 2015.

"I was complaining to my brother-in-law I didn't have any money. And he asked McAuliffe to give me a job," Rodham said at a court proceedings involving unpaid legal bills to his lawyer in a child support case, the newspaper said.

He also drew scrutiny as co-chairman of Haiti's recovery commission, following the devastating 2010 earthquake, for allegedly seeking a multimillion dollar deal to rebuild homes in the ravaged country with funding from the Clinton Foundation.

In court proceedings in an unrelated lawsuit, Rodham explained how someone in Haiti had "donated" 10,000 acres of land to him. In court testimony, he said he had pressed Clinton for helping in breaking through red tape to get funding for the rebuilding project.

"I deal through the Clinton Foundation. That gets me in touch with the Haitian officials," Rodham said, according to a transcript of his testimony, the Times reported. "I hound my brother-in-law, because it's his fund that we're going to get our money from. And he can't do it until the Haitian government does it."

The Clinton Foundation said in a statement at the time that it was not aware of Rodham's Haiti project, which never materialized, and had no involvement in it, the newspaper says. Likewise, Clinton's office said at the time he had no involvement in the scheme.

In another venture, Rodham sought to export hazelnuts from the Republic of Georgia, where he was linked to a rival to then Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, a close Clinton ally. The incident prompted a National Security Council official to intervene to defuse a potential diplomatic embarrassment, according to The Washington Post.

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