JERUSALEM (AP) — In a move that threatens to further strain relations with the United States and escalate tensions with the Palestinians, Israel’s far-right government has ordered more than 5,000 new homes to be built in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. is doing Construction of new residences was approved. According to Israeli media reports… the decision came despite growing criticism of Israel’s settlement policy by the US government and against a backdrop of escalating violence in the occupied territories.
The Ministry of Defense Planning Commission, which is responsible for overseeing settlement construction, has approved about 5,700 new settlements, several Israeli media reported. The housing units are in various stages of planning, but it was not immediately clear when construction would begin. Defense agency COGAT, which is in charge of the Planning Commission, did not comment on the matter. The international community, like the Palestinians, views settlement construction as illegal and illegitimate and a serious obstacle to the peace process. The occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 war and where Palestinians seek a future state, are now home to more than 700,000 Israeli settlers.
Wasser Abu Youssef, a Palestinian official in the West Bank, condemned the move as an ongoing aggression by the Netanyahu government and an open war against the Palestinian people. He reiterated the position of the Palestinian side that any settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories is unjust and illegal.
Settlement permits have increased this year, with Israel issuing permits for more than 13,000 homes, according to the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now. This number is nearly three times the total number of permits for 2022 and represents the highest annual figure since the planning process began to be systematically tracked in 2012.
Israel’s current government, which took office in late December, is dominated by religious, extremist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a prominent settler leader, has been given cabinet-level authority over settlement policy and has pledged to double the West Bank’s settler population.
The Biden administration has taken an increasingly blunt stance on Israeli settlement policy. In a recent speech to the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, Secretary of State Anthony Bernkin said the settlement was an obstacle to America’s hopeful future. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller expressed the US government’s deep concern over the alleged decision to build more settlements, saying such unilateral actions would make achieving a two-state solution more difficult.
Despite the criticism, the US has yet to take significant action against Israel. But there were signs of a backlash, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponing his traditional visit to the White House after the election. Additionally, the United States recently announced a reversal of its longstanding policy of withholding funding for science and technology research projects in the West Bank, reversing the Trump administration’s pro-settlement decision.
As a vote on the new construction project approached, Israeli Cabinet Minister Isaac Wasserlof, a far-right Jewish wingman, dismissed differences with the United States and expressed confidence in a lasting alliance between the two countries. Simcha Rothman, another member of the ruling coalition, accused the Biden administration of a “willful obsession” with the Israeli government.
Israel’s current right-wing government, considered the most right-wing in the country’s history, has made settlement expansion a top priority. After a wave of violence, officials are pushing for increased construction and other measures to strengthen Israeli control over the West Bank.
