Status: 02/24/2023 1:35 p.m
Despite growing international criticism, Israel is continuing to build settlements: the government approved 7,000 new apartments in the West Bank. The number of building permits this year is significantly higher than before.
The right-wing government in Israel has granted permits for the construction of more than 7,000 new houses and apartments in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This number was given by supporters and critics of Israeli settlement building.
International resistance to the expansion of settlements in the Palestinian territories is growing. Only recently, US diplomats said they had received assurances from Israel that they would refrain from unilateral measures for six months.
Discussions on project E1 next month
The Peace Now organization, which opposes settlement construction, has now announced that a planning committee has issued permits for around 7,100 housing units throughout the West Bank. This was done in a two-day session that ended on Thursday. Another planning committee meeting is scheduled for next month, according to Peace Now, to consider developing an area east of Jerusalem known as E1.
The US has a history of blocking Project E1, which would effectively split the West Bank in half. Critics have said opening up would make the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel impossible. Lior Amihai, future director of Peace Now, said some 5,200 housing units are still in the early planning stages; the green light had been given for the others to be built soon. Construction work has also been approved in four illegal outposts.
Since the new Israeli government took office last November, significantly more new settler apartments have been approved than in 2022 (4,427) and 2021 (3,645).
criticism from the Security Council
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week that it had promised not to allow any new settlement outposts in the West Bank. Ten recently retrospectively approved settlements remained unaffected by the promise.
A few days ago, the UN Security Council issued a statement sharply criticizing the construction of Israeli settlements in the areas claimed by the Palestinians. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, blocked an even tougher, legally binding resolution. Diplomats said they had received assurances from Israel that they would refrain from unilateral action for six months.
Attacks by settlers in the West Bank
Violent clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians are common in the West Bank. At noon, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Israeli settlers had shot and seriously injured two Palestinians. The two men were being treated at a hospital in the town of Kuzra, west of Nablus. A group of armed settlers from a nearby outpost stormed the village, Palestinian administration official Ghassan Douglas said.
In the north of the West Bank in particular, settlers have recently carried out increased attacks on Palestinians. Many villages in this area lie between settlements and unauthorized outposts. In the past month, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem recorded a series of incidents near Nablus: settlers threw stones at Palestinians in Kusra, Palestinian cars were set on fire in Akraba. In early February, a settler shot and killed a Palestinian in the village of Salfit.