Israel approves 22 West Bank settlements in major blow to prospect of Palestinian state
The Israeli government approved 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in what campaigners are calling the largest development of its kind in decades that will have a profound effect on Palestinian residents and further harm the prospect of a future Palestinian state.
The decision legalises nine outposts, typically home to the most violent and ideological edges of the country's settler movement, and establishes settlements in remote areas of the northern West Bank where there is little to no permanent Israeli military presence. This includes a settlement on Mount Ebal, close to the major Palestinian city of Nablus, where settlers say there is a biblical alter.
Some of the new communities are on areas that were evacuated in 2005, when Israel evicted several communities in the north of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Settlers have repeatedly tried to re-enter the area and a law banning Israeli citizens from the region was revoked last year.
Lior Amihai of Israeli NGO Peace Now, which tracks settlements, told The National that the move 'is very big in terms of changing the landscape of the West Bank'.
'It's part of many other dramatic decisions that show the government is heading towards annexation and sovereignty over the occupied territories. It's showing Palestinians, Israelis and the world that it doesn't want to end this conflict,' he added.
The decision was taken by the government two weeks ago, but Israel's Defence Ministry publicly confirmed the move on Thursday, describing it as 'a step that will change the face of the area and shape the future of settlement for years to come'.
Most of the international community views Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal.
New settlements along the border with Jordan will also be set, which the Defence Ministry said will bolster Israel's security. The decision also includes settlements in the South Hebron Hills, in the south of the West Bank, which has seen a dramatic increase in attacks against Palestinian shepherding communities leading to major forced displacement in recent years.
Mr Amihai said the new settlements have three main purposes: to break the territorial continuity of the West Bank and therefore render a future Palestinian state unviable; suppress Palestinian development in communities that neighbour the illegal Israeli communities; and to 'ethnically cleanse' through intimidation the Palestinian populations of smaller communities that border the settlements.
Israel's settlement movement has been expanding its presence in the West Bank for decades, but received a massive boost when the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came into office in December 2022, based on a coalition that contains prominent settlers.
This includes Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position that is influential for the settlement issue in the Defence Ministry, who said the news marks 'a deep strategic change".
'Settlement in the land that our ancestors inherited is a protective wall for the State of Israel and today we have taken a huge step for its strengthening. The next step is sovereignty,' he added.
Annexing the West Bank, which has already happened in East Jerusalem, is a primary goal of many Israeli settlers.
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