Israel approves 19 new settlements in occupied West Bank, 69 in past three years
JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move the country’s far-right finance minister said on Sunday was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a statement from the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.reached its highest level since at least 2017.
“The proposal by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz to declare and formalise 19 new settlements in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the cabinet,” the statement said, without specifying when the decision was taken.
Smotrich is a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself. “On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” he said in the statement.
The latest approvals come days after the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank — all of which are considered illegal under international law -UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recently condemned what he described as Israel’s “relentless” expansion of settlements in the occupied territory. It “continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State”, he said earlier this month.These developments are further entrenching the unlawful Israeli occupation and violating international law and undermining the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.
Smotrich’s office said the 19 newly approved settlements are located in what it described as “highly strategic” areas, adding that two of them — Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank — would be re-established after being dismantled two decades ago.Many of these, however, are later legalised by Israeli authorities, fuelling fears about the possible annexation of the territory.
US President Donald Trump has warned Israel about annexing the West Bank. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” Trump said in a recent interview to Time magazine.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has soared since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state have proliferated, with several European countries, Canada and Australia recently moving to formally recognise such a state, drawing rebukes from Israel.