🔗 Share this article

The nation's security cabinet has voted to recognize the recognition of nineteen new communities in the contested West Bank, representing a sustained drive for settlement expansion.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a settlement and put forward the move alongside Defense Chief Israel Katz, asserted that the move was about blocking the creation of a sovereign Palestine.

It is important to note that Jewish communities in the occupied West Bank are viewed as in violation of international law.

The decision has drawn condemnation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has previously stated that Israel's "relentless" settlement expansion heightens frictions, curtails Palestinians' access to territory, and jeopardizes the prospects of a sovereign Palestine.

Rising Unrest and Diplomatic Fallout

Unrest in the occupied West Bank has increased sharply since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, intensifying apprehensions that the growth of communities could deepen the Israeli presence and damage the possibility for a peaceful resolution based on two states.

The concept of two states envisions the formation of a State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem's eastern sector as its seat of government, broadly along the borders that were in place before the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli war.

Upon assuming leadership in late 2022, the present Israeli government has ramped up the green-lighting of new settlements and started the legalisation process for unauthorised settler outposts, recognising them as "extensions" of existing settlements.

Sustained Expansion

The latest decision takes the cumulative figure of communities approved over the preceding 36 months to 69, as stated by the Finance Minister.

These approvals come only a few days after the United Nations stated that settlement expansion had reached its highest level since the year 2017.

The latest round of approvals features the revival of a pair of communities — Ganim and Kadim — which were evacuated almost in 2005.

In a previous move, the Israeli government gave the nod to twenty-two additional communities in the territories - labeled as the biggest wave of approvals in many years.

In a related development, the government sanctioned projects last summer to build more than 3,000 housing units in the controversial E1 project between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim community, a initiative that had been frozen for many years amid fierce international objection.

Regarding that plan, the Finance Minister said it would "bury the idea of a Palestinian state."

Demographic Facts and International Response

Approximately seven hundred thousand settlers dwell in about one hundred and sixty communities in the occupied territories, according to the Israel-based monitoring organization Peace Now. This is territory that the Palestinian people seek for a prospective sovereign nation.

This ongoing construction has angered Arab states who have repeatedly said it erodes chances for a two-state solution.

It has also fueled concerns about the eventual incorporation of the occupied West Bank.

Former US President Donald Trump had once admonished Israel about such a move, telling a publication that Israel would forfeit its backing from the US if it happened.

In a diplomatic shift, the UK - along with other nations such as Australia and Canada - formally recognized a State of Palestine, a significant although primarily ceremonial change in foreign policy.

The Israeli government strongly rejected the move, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that a sovereign Palestine "is off the table."