Israel is pushing ahead with settlement construction in the West Bank

Between the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and the steadily worsening situation on Israel’s northern border, a third hotspot in the Middle East is sometimes almost forgotten: the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But the situation there has also become drastically worse since the Hamas massacre on October 7: the Israeli army has been fighting with militant Palestinians in Tulkarem or Jenin almost every week. There are repeated attacks against Israelis, while Jewish extremists are attacking Palestinian villages.

Amid this explosive situation, Israel is now pushing ahead with settlement in the area. On Wednesday, Israeli activist group Peace Now announced that Israeli authorities had declared an area of ​​12.7 square kilometers in the Jordan Valley as “state land” in June. According to the group, which campaigns against the occupation of the West Bank, this is the largest land appropriation since the Oslo Accords in 1993.

The land had previously been considered a military restricted area. By declaring it state land, it can now be used for settlement construction, among other things. Citing old Ottoman law, Israel repeatedly declares occupied areas in the West Bank as “state land” in order to administer it temporarily – at least in theory.

“We are preventing the threat of a Palestinian state”

In practice, however, the settlement of the West Bank is becoming more and more permanent. On Wednesday and Thursday, the responsible Israeli authority also discussed plans to build 6,000 new housing units in various settlements in the area. These are illegal under international law and in the opinion of most of the international community – Israel denies this. More than 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank. Not surprisingly, the Israeli plans immediately sparked international criticism.

Applause, however, came from Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister and chairman of the far-right Religious Zionism party. “Thank God, we are building and developing the settlements and preventing the threat of a Palestinian state,” he said, referring to the planned 6,000 housing units. Smotrich, who is also responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank as minister in the Ministry of Defense, has greatly expanded his powers to approve settlements since joining the government.

He recently boasted that 24,000 housing units had been approved since he took office, more than in the previous three years. At the end of June, audio recordings were also made public in which Smotrich said he was creating “facts on the ground to make Judea and Samaria an integral part of the State of Israel.” Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for the West Bank – which Smotrich obviously wants to annex.

Smotrich’s maneuver worked

The 44-year-old, who himself lives in a settlement in the West Bank, uses his positions as finance minister and minister in the defense ministry very skillfully. An episode last week shows how great his influence is on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Smotrich pushed through a series of measures in the cabinet, including the legalization of five outposts. These are settlements that are illegal even under Israeli law.

In return, Smotrich agreed to release millions of dollars in tax money that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, which he had previously held back for three months. He also threatened not to renew the permit for cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks – which would likely have led to a collapse of the banking sector in the West Bank.

Following the cabinet decision, Smotrich extended the banking license for another four months. The finance minister sees the measures imposed as sanctions against the PA, which had supported lawsuits against Israel in international courts, as well as against Spain, Ireland and Norway, which recognized a Palestinian state in May.

The Israeli finance minister is a driving force behind the construction of settlements, but he is by no means a lone fighter. The government and large parts of the opposition support the settlement of the West Bank. After Palestine was recognized by several European states, Defense Minister Joav Gallant, who is considered a moderate within the government, made it easier for settlers to access certain areas of the West Bank. However, the settler movement has long been making bigger plans: for example, quite a few are calling for Jewish settlements to be built again in the Gaza Strip after the war.