Middle East: Israel creates 22 new settlements in the West Bank

Israel wants to create 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. This was confirmed by the right -wing extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on the platform X. The decision on the controversial approval of the new settlements was made at a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet, several local media reported.

“This is a great day for the settlement project and an important day for Israel,” wrote Smotrich. Defense Minister Israel Katz described the decision as historical. In addition, the new decision “our historical law on the state of Israel” is anchored, Katz said.

In 1967 Israel had conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where today more than 700,000 settlers live in the middle of around three million Palestinians. Both the crew and the Israeli settlements there are illegal under international law. The Palestinians claim the areas for their own state with East Jerusalem as the capital.

The United Nations see the Israeli settlements as a great obstacle to future peace regulation because they would hardly allow a coherent territory for the Palestinians in a possible two -state solution.

According to information from the Israeli peace movement Peace NOW, numerous, also from Israeli perspective, illegal or non -approved outposts are now legalized and recognized as settlements. Only nine are actually new among the 22 new settlements, reported Peace Now. According to the peace movement, the latest approval is the largest settlement expansion in decades.

Peace Now sharply criticized the government’s decision. This would “redesign the West Bank dramatically and solidify the crew even further,” said the peace movement. “The Israeli government no longer pretends to do something else: the annexation of the occupied areas and the expansion of the settlements are their central goal.”

There is also criticism from abroad. “The United Kingdom condemns these measures. The settlements are contrary to international law, further endanger the two-state solution and do not protect Israel,” wrote Hamish Falconer, State Secretary at the British Foreign Ministry, in an X-Post.

Israel’s announcement that he wants to create new settlements in violation of international law takes place at a time when the government covers the West Bank with extensive military operations. Finance Minister Bezhalel Smotrich, who controls a large part of the West Bank’s administration, has announced that he wanted to destroy the refugee camp in Tulkarem, Dschenin, Nablus and Ramallah. “They will be transformed into uninhabitable ruins, and their residents will be forced to emigrate and look for a new life in other countries,” he commented.

The United Nations Aid Agency for Palestine Labels (UNRWA) described the Israeli military approach as “the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second Intifada in the 2000s”. The Israeli army relies on preserving its “freedom of action” in the Palestinian areas by continuing to tear roads and destroys buildings, infrastructure as well as water and power lines.