Israel approves major settlement project that would divide West Bank
Settlement development in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, has been under consideration for more than two decades, but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a former settler leader, cast the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognise a Palestinian state in recent weeks.
'The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,' he said on Wednesday. 'Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and has vowed to maintain open-ended control over the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem, and the war-ravaged Gaza Strip – territories Israel seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their state.
Israel's expansion of settlements is part of an increasingly dire reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as the world's attention focuses on the war in Gaza. There have been marked increases in attacks by settlers on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns, Israeli military operations, and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
More than 700,000 Israelis settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The location of E1 is significant because it is one of the last geographical links between the major West Bank cities of Ramallah, in the north, and Bethlehem, in the south.
The two cities are 22 kilometres (14 miles) apart, but Palestinians travelling between them must take a wide detour and pass through multiple Israeli checkpoints, spending hours on the journey. The hope was that, in an eventual Palestinian state, the region would serve as a direct link between the cities.
'The settlement in E1 has no purpose other than to sabotage a political solution,' said Peace Now, an organisation that tracks settlement expansion in the West Bank. "While the consensus among our friends in the world is to strive for peace and a two-state solution, a government that long ago lost the people's trust is undermining the national interest, and we are all paying the price.'
If the process moves quickly, infrastructure work in E1 could begin in the next few months and construction of homes could start in around a year. The plan includes around 3,500 apartments that would abut the existing settlement of Maale Adumim. Smotrich also hailed the approval, during the same meeting, of 350 homes for the settlement of Ashael near Hebron.
Israel's government is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians, like Smotrich, with close ties to the settlement movement. The finance minister has been granted Cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
7 hours ago
- LeMonde
Israel's plan to expand settlements in the West Bank is 'unacceptable,' say 21 countries
Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement on Thursday, August 21, calling Israel's approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank "unacceptable and a violation of international law". Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometer (five-square-mile) parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday. "We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms," said the statement of foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy. Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden also signed the statement, as did the European Commission's foreign affairs chief. "This brings no benefits to the Israeli people," the foreign ministers said. "Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace. The government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan," they added. The statement noted that Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the plan "will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem". The plan seeks to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive tract of land, which lies between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim. All of Israel's settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has slammed the latest move, which has also been criticized by UN chief Antonio Guterres and the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini. The project would "completely cut off the northern and central West Bank from the southern West Bank – meaning that there would no longer be any territorial contiguity", said Lazzarini. He said Israel was taking decisions that would make the creation of two states "increasingly impossible". Britain on Thursday summoned Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely to the foreign ministry to protest the decision. "If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution," the foreign office said in a statement.
France 24
9 hours ago
- France 24
Facing troop shortage, Israeli army looks to deserters and the diaspora
The Israeli army is seeking to recruit young volunteers from the Jewish diaspora – particularly from France and the United States – to address a manpower shortage that has left the military strained after nearly two years of intense combat in Gaza. It is looking into how to appeal to Jewish communities abroad to convince those between 18-25 years of age to sign up. The goal is to recruit some 600 to 700 soldiers per year from the diaspora to to fill the up to 12,000 estimated vacancies, Israeli Army Radio announced Monday. 'No one has officially informed us of such a move,' a representative from the Jewish Agency, the organisation in charge of promoting and organising immigration to Israel, told the French daily Le Figaro. Foreign volunteers without Israeli citizenship could only work in support tasks, but not in combat units, according to him. The Israeli army is seeing its numbers dwindle even as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to expand its military offensive to occupying Gaza City by October 7, 2025 – the two-year anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. To combat the shortfall, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last week offered those facing jail time for desertion a one-time amnesty if they registered within five days. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who were once exempt from military service, can now be drafted into the armed forces. In January, the Israeli army welcomed its first batch of ultra-Orthodox into a new fighting brigade. But the army faces an uphill battle to actually enlist a significant number of ultra-Orthodox. The recruitment effort comes amid mounting international criticism over the destruction of Gaza, the displacement of an estimated 1.9 million people and more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths, most of them civilians. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on suspicion of war crimes. Demoralisation at the front "We all participated and supported the war effort at the beginning," said Guy Poran, a former army officer and helicopter pilot who has become an outspoken critic of the war. "But this war has long since become about revenge. A messianic fantasy of occupying Gaza." According to Poran, Israeli public opinion on the war is shifting. "A majority of Israelis now believe that the conflict in Gaza is no longer about Israeli security but about pursuing a political agenda," he said. After 23 months, the war in Gaza is the longest in Israeli history. And it has taken a toll on its armed forces: almost 900 soldiers have died in Gaza, according to official figures, while media reports say at least 18,500 have been wounded or are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some 50 have reportedly committed suicide. The IDF lists an additional 14,600 Israelis as draft dodgers or deserters. The stated goal of occupying Gaza City could require the mobilisation of more than 100,000 reservists, according to IDF estimates. The Israeli army began sending call-up orders to some 60,000 of them on Wednesday as Netanyahu's office spoke of a " shortened" timeline in a post on X. Reservists are part-time soldiers who have agreed to fight when reinforcements are necessary. But many are disillusioned with the conflict and beleaguered by almost two years of war. Many have already served multiple tours and say they have lost trust in Israel's leadership and the reasons for the war. A survey by Agam Labs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that almost 36 percent of reservists said they were either slightly or significantly less motivated to serve than they were at the beginning of the conflict. Only a little more than 13 percent felt more motivated. The largest group of respondents, 47 percent, expressed negative feelings towards the government's handling of the war and the hostage crisis. "While some deserters resign for ideological reasons, many surrender out of fatigue, for financial reasons or at the behest of their families, after hundreds of days of fighting far from home," Poran said from Tel Aviv. Many military personnel, including the highest-ranking officers, have been overcome by doubt. Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir initially called Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza City a "strategic trap", warning that it would endanger the remaining hostages and strain the army. Zamir later changed his tune, approving the " main framework" of an expanded offensive in mid-August. "He could have resigned, but he chose to play along," Poran observed. But Zamir's vocal objections may have a lasting effect, according to Poran. "Can you imagine the state of mind of the military personnel who are asked to risk their lives in Gaza City carrying out a mission that the chief of staff himself disapproves of?" he asked. "It is tremendously demoralising, and I expect the number of reservists refusing to report for duty to increase." Cracks in Israeli society Disillusion with the war is spreading across Israeli society, from the front line to the political and religious spheres. "Israeli democracy is seeing an unhealthy corrosion of the visceral bond between the nation and its current leaders," said David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute for Strategic Analysis and a Middle East specialist. The war has also turned a spotlight on the privileged position enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi. Since the founding of Israel, they have enjoyed a near-universal exemption from military service based on the idea that they would devote themselves instead to studying Judaism's holy texts. But the crisis that followed October 7, 2023, have prompted a reconsideration. As the war in Gaza dragged on, "Haredi life has largely continued as usual, untouched by the war and its toll," Yair Rosenberg observed in The Atlantic, adding that the exemption is getting harder to justify. "Yeshiva students have even been photographed enjoying ski vacations abroad while their same-age peers are on the battlefield." Israel's Supreme Court ended the draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox men in June 2024, making an estimated 70,000 more soldiers eligible to fight. But the move had little effect: almost a year later, only 2 percent of the 10,000 who were called up obeyed their draft orders. As Rosenberg put it, "more Arab Israelis serve in the Israel Defense Forces than ultra-Orthodox Jews".
France 24
13 hours ago
- France 24
Firefighters struggle to contain wildfires in Spain and Portugal
01:38 21/08/2025 Ukraine: Largest Russian strikes in weeks as peace efforts drag on 21/08/2025 How did the rooster become a symbol of France? France 21/08/2025 Y Mekelberg: With Gaza escalation, Israel risks 'sacrificing hostages and its standing in the world' Middle East 21/08/2025 NATO weighs Ukraine security guarantees amid peace talks 21/08/2025 CHAN 2025: Three hosts, three teams through to quarters 21/08/2025 Texas redraws congressional map: Stakes high for 2026 midterms 21/08/2025 Rights groups reports reveal human rights violation in DRC 21/08/2025 Khartoum struggles to rebuild amid devastating war damage 21/08/2025 In Malawi, overcrowded refugee camp fuels hunger, crime
