Israel approved a massive expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank this week in a move described as a continuation of de facto annexation of the territory.
Peace Now, an Israeli non-governmental organization that tracks settlements, said it was the largest expansion of settlements since the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 30 years ago.
Israel will establish 22 new settlements, including deep within the West Bank and in area from which the country had previously withdrawn, as part of the new security cabinet decision, according to a joint statement from Defense Minister Israel Katz and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“All the new communities are being established with a long-term strategic vision, aimed at reinforcing Israeli control of the territory, preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and securing development reserves for settlement in the coming decades,” the statement said.
Peace Now blasted the government for making such a decision in the midst of a war.
“The government is making clear – again and without restraint – that it prefers deepening the occupation and advancing de facto annexation over pursuing peace,” the organization said. “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the Occupied Territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal.”
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights, are considered illegal under international law.
The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), were designed to pave the way to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of a two-state solution.
For months, Israel’s military has carried out a massive operation in the West Bank, deploying tanks to the territory for the first time in decades and displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians. In February, Katz ordered the military “to prepare for a prolonged presence” as the military evacuated Palestinian refugee camps. Within the last several weeks, Israeli forces have carried out multiple waves of raids and arrests across the West Bank.
Peace Now said 12 of the new settlements will be the legalization of illegal outposts. Outposts are illegally established be Jewish settlers without approval from the government with the intention to push for formal recognition and legalization. Another nine of the settlements will be entirely new, while the final one will be the conversion of an existing neighborhood to an independent settlement, according to Peace Now.
Two of the settlements in the new plan were evacuated during the disengagement from parts of the West Bank in 2005, which forbade Israelis from establishing a civilian presence in those areas. That law was overturned by the current right-wing Israeli government.
Smotrich gloated about the new settlements, making clear his goal was annexation. “The next step – sovereignty! We did not take a foreign land, but the inheritance of our ancestors,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the security cabinet approved a land registration process for Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli civil and security control. Peace Now called the move “a mega theft of Palestinian lands.”