🔗 Share this article

The nation's top security body has given its endorsement to the formalization of nineteen additional outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories, signaling a continued push for settlement expansion.

Hardline Treasury Chief Bezalel Smotrich, a settler who proposed the move in concert with Defence Minister Israel Katz, asserted that the move was intended for preventing the creation of a sovereign Palestine.

Under international law, Jewish communities in the disputed territories are considered unlawful.

The announcement has sparked criticism from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has previously stated that Israel's "persistent" growth of communities exacerbates frictions, curtails Palestinians' use of territory, and jeopardizes the feasibility of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Rising Tensions and Diplomatic Fallout

Unrest in the region has escalated since the conflict in Gaza began in the autumn of 2023, further heightening concerns that settlement expansion could solidify Israel's occupation and damage the chance for a peaceful resolution based on two states.

The concept of two states involves the creation of a State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem's eastern sector as its capital, broadly along the boundaries that existed before the 1967 Six-Day Middle East war.

Since coming to power in 2022, the incumbent government in Jerusalem has greatly accelerated the approval of new settlements and begun the process of legalization for previously illegal settler outposts, recognising them as "extensions" of existing communities.

A Pattern of Growth

The latest decision takes the cumulative figure of settlements recognized over the last three years to 69, per the figures from Smotrich.

These decisions come just days after the UN stated that settlement expansion had reached its most intense pace since the year 2017.

The newest group of authorizations includes the revival of a pair of communities — Ganim and Kadim — which were dismantled nearly 20 years ago.

In a previous move, Israel approved 22 new settlements in the territories - what was the largest wave of approvals in decades.

Furthermore, the government gave the go-ahead for blueprints last summer to build more than three thousand residences in the controversial E1 area between the capital and the Maale Adumim settlement, a plan that had been on hold for decades amid fierce foreign opposition.

On that occasion, Smotrich stated it would "end the notion of a Palestinian state."

Demographic Realities and International Reactions

Approximately seven hundred thousand settlers live in approximately one hundred and sixty communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the Israel-based monitoring organization Peace Now. This is land that the Palestinian people aspire to have for a prospective independent state.

Settlement expansion has provoked Arab nations who have steadfastly argued it harms hopes for a two-state solution.

It has furthermore fueled fears about the possible formal annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Former American President Donald Trump had once cautioned Israel about this step, telling TIME magazine that the country would forfeit all its support from the US if it happened.

Recently, the UK - together with other nations including Australia and Canada - acknowledged a Palestinian state, a notable although largely symbolic shift in official stance.

Israel opposed this step, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that a Palestinian state "is off the table."