Daijiworld Media Network - Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Dec 21: Israel’s security cabinet has approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that the country’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was intended to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
With the latest decision, the total number of settlements approved over the past three years has risen to 69, according to a statement issued by Smotrich’s office. The approvals come just days after the United Nations said Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank had 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 the exact date of the decision.
Smotrich, a vocal supporter of settlement expansion and a settler himself, said the move was aimed at blocking the establishment of what he described as a “Palestinian terror state”. “On the ground, we are preventing the creation of such a state. We will continue to develop, build and settle the land of our ancestral heritage,” he said.
The decision has drawn strong criticism from the international community. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently condemned Israel’s “relentless” settlement expansion, warning that it fuels tensions, restricts Palestinian access to land and threatens the viability of an independent, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state.
A UN report noted that settlement expansion has reached its highest level since 2017, with an average of 12,815 housing units added annually between 2017 and 2022. “These developments further entrench the unlawful occupation and undermine the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Guterres said.
Excluding east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in 1967, more than 500,000 Israelis currently live in the West Bank alongside about three million Palestinians.
According to Smotrich’s office, the newly approved settlements are located in what it termed “highly strategic” areas. Two settlements in the northern West Bank — Ganim and Kadim — will be re-established after being dismantled around two decades ago. Five of the 19 settlements already existed but had not previously been granted legal status under Israeli law.
While all Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law, some unauthorised outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, though many are later legalised by the authorities. This has fuelled concerns about the possible annexation of the West Bank.
US President Donald Trump has warned Israel against annexing the territory, saying it would lose US support if such a move were carried out.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence in the region has surged since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023. According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, at least 1,027 Palestinians — including militants and civilians — have been killed in the West Bank since the conflict began. During the same period, at least 44 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to Israeli data.