Israel is further nibbling away at the Palestinian territories. Wednesday March 6, in a simple message published on the social network A response to last week’s deadly shooting by three Palestinians between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, reports The Times of Israel. “Let it be clear to all terrorists who plan to attack us: the slightest attack on Israeli citizens will result in a deadly blow and destruction, as well as the consolidation of our eternal hold over the entire land of Israel,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
These construction plans have already been approved by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, the body that implements the Israeli government’s policy in the West Bank, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In a post on “Alongside building permits, we are investing heavily in the development of transport infrastructure, employment and quality of life,” he writes.
Significantly expanded colony sizes
In total, more than 490,000 people are currently living in settlements in the West Bank, deemed illegal under international law. In a report published this Friday, March 8, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights highlights Israel’s abusive expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories. “The size of existing Israeli settlements has expanded considerably” during the period 2022-2023, it is noted. Around 24,300 housing units within existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank were added during this period, the number “the highest ever recorded since the census began in 2017.”
The report also highlights a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, particularly since the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. . Added to this are “forced evictions, non-issuance of building permits, house demolitions and restrictions on movement for Palestinians”. The establishment and continued expansion of settlements “is tantamount to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population to the territories it occupies” and “such transfers constitute a war crime”, denounces the report.
Condemnations from Paris, Madrid and Washington
France and Spain condemned, Friday evening, these Israeli plans to expand colonies in the West Bank. Paris “calls on the Israeli government to immediately reverse this unacceptable, illegal and irresponsible decision,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The statement added that “Israeli colonization of Palestinian territories […] constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and must stop”, and calls for the outposts to be dismantled “without delay”.
Madrid also strongly condemned “the approval of plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank”, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which asks “Israel to reverse this measure”.
“Settlements violate international law, undermine efforts to achieve a two-state solution and constitute an obstacle to peace,” adds the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its report. American Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reaffirmed, at the end of February, that “new settlements are counterproductive to achieving lasting peace”.