Israel's Smotrich takes measures to fast-track West Bank settlement building
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken new measures to ensure the acceleration of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, with minimal US involvement or political approval.
Smotrich has been seeking to expand land seizures throughout occupied Palestinian territory - outlawed under international law - via a new mechanism that will allow for weekly settlement building permits, which previously took months to be approved.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (Ynet), these measures have been taken despite US-Israeli tensions over illegal settlements and violent settler activity, as well as guidelines set by the United States that allow Israel to build a few settlements only near the designated "Green Line".
This 1949 armistice line is an area that separates the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip from Israel.
Ynet reported that Smotrich's Settlement Administration, which is responsible for land seizures in the West Bank, aims at normalising settlement planning by holding meetings on a weekly basis, where discussions would lead to the approval of new settlements.
In the past, land grabs took months to be approved, and meetings discussing such decisions where held once every three months.
The weekly committee meetings are expected to significantly raise the amount of land seizures in 2025 compared to previous years.
In the past week alone, around 440 housing units were processed to be approved. Moreover, the building of 2,377 units has been advanced by the Supreme Planning Council in just the last six weeks.
The Peace Now movement, one of the largest in Israel working to promote a two-state solution, has criticised the large-scale settlement construction in the West Bank, noting that this is the result of policies introduced by the "Netanyahu-Smotrich government".
"This systematic approach aims to normalise settlement planning and attract less public and international attention and criticism," the self-proclaimed left-wing Zionist group added.
System of apartheid
Settlement infrastructure, which has been carved out of lands only Israeli citizens are allowed to access, has been described by several human rights groups as a system of apartheid.
The Green Line mentioned in the US regulations on settlements has been hugely controversial among far-right Israelis, who have been outraged by how slow they perceive settlement construction to be.
"It's absurd that we had to wait long months to promote construction in approved locations and no one was bothered by it. Now, fundamental changes are being made that bring normalcy to half a million residents," a settlement official told Ynet.
Read More »Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has decided to omit the Green Line from its maps, making the Palestinian territories it has occupied appear as being part of the state.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. However, Israel has continued to build settlements across the occupied territory over the past several decades.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, all of which have been built since Israel captured the territories in the 1967 conflict.
Smotrich has been spearheading this trend. In October, he called for an aggressively expansionist Israeli policy, saying the country should expand "little by little" until its borders reach the Syrian capital Damascus.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldakov called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to facilitate the illegal settlement of one million Jews in the occupied West Bank.
Speaking to Hebrew site Bahdrei Haredim, which covers news related to Haredi Jews, Goldakov urged Netanyahu to "bring a million Jews to Judea and Samaria," the Israeli term for the West Bank.
Goldakov also called for the Gaza onslaught to be leveraged to ramp up settlement construction in the area.
