On Monday, June 26, the Israeli government approved thousands of new illegal housing units in a number of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Reports stated that the decision was made by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Supreme Planning Council. The units are in various stages of planning and construction, according to media reports.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law and are not recognized as part of the state of Israel by the international community. However, Israel continues to expand its existing settlements and plans to construct more new settlements despite the widespread opposition. Since occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has built hundreds of illegal settlements on the occupied land. Latest statistics state that upwards of 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers currently live in these settlements.
Since coming to power, the ultra-right wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—with extremist settler leaders in the cabinet like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—has made settlement construction and expansion a top priority. It has made it easier to build new Jewish settlements on confiscated Palestinian land by doing away with previous restrictions, regulations, and stages involved in the process.
Responding to the new settlement plans approved yesterday, a Palestinian government official called it an “open war against the Palestinian people” and said that “all settler colonialism in all the occupied Palestinian territories is illegitimate and illegal.” Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now also denounced the plans which it said were being pushed at “an unprecedented pace towards the full annexation of the West Bank.” The Brazilian Foreign Ministry in a statement called the move a violation of international law and expressed concern over the “escalation of violence in the West Bank, which included the resumption of Israeli air strikes.”
The United States, Israel’s primary international ally, also condemned the decision, with the State Department saying that it was “deeply troubled” by the move. While the US has not taken any substantial or concrete measures to end Israeli settlement construction, it announced it will suspend cooperation and all forms of financial support for scientific, technical and technological projects in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reverting to its original policy which was canceled under former President Donald Trump.
