Israel has approved the establishment of 22 new illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The decision was reportedly taken in a closed-door vote by the security cabinet last week.
The settlement plan was advanced by Israel’s far-right defence minister, Israel Katz, and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler himself, who resides in Kedumim – an illegal settlement under international law.
Katz described the initiative as one that ‘strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria’, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
He claimed it ‘anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism’.
He added: ‘It is a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.’
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem condemned the policy, stating: ‘Israel continues to promote Jewish supremacy through the theft of Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
‘The Israeli government is openly and blatantly working to destroy the Palestinian people, and any chances for a normal future for the people living between the Jordan River and the sea.’
The spokesperson added: ‘The international community is enabling Israel’s crimes by standing aside while millions of Palestinians are subjected to this racist and brutal regime of the Israeli government.’
The 22 settlements are aimed at reinforcing Israel’s hold along Route 443, a highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem through the West Bank.
Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha council that oversees Jewish settlements, praised the plan, calling it ‘the most important decision since 1967’.
Smotrich echoed the sentiment, announcing on X: ‘We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing the settlement of the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the state of Israel.’
In July 2023, the Israeli government approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank in more than thirty years.
It appropriated 12.7 square kilometres of land in the Jordan Valley – the biggest single land grab since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
Last year, Smotrich admitted in a leaked recording that the volume of land confiscated in 2024 exceeded previous years by a factor of ten.
Speaking at a National Religious Party conference, he said: ‘This thing is mega-strategic and we are investing a lot in it.
‘This is something that will change the map dramatically.’
Smotrich has repeatedly stated that preventing the creation of a Palestinian state is his ‘life’s mission’.
Between 1 January and 19 March 2024, the Israeli government approved 10,503 new housing units in the occupied West Bank, exceeding the total number approved in the whole of 2023, according to figures released by Peace Now.
Mike Huckabee, nominated as US ambassador to Israel by Donald Trump, voiced support for Israeli annexation, saying: ‘When people use the term “occupied”, I say: “Yes, Israel is occupying the land, but it’s the occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It is their land”.’
Settler leaders have described Trump’s senior officials as a ‘dream team’, applauding their role in lifting sanctions on violent settler groups and paving the way to abolish any remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood.
• See feature
