By : Najla M. Shahwan
Jordan Daily – ” No anti-Israel or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement,”Israeli far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on August 14 , announcing new plans to expand settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state.This is the mission of my life,” he added.
Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defense ministry, said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion,” a bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem.
The approved new illegal settlement lies on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank .
The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now denounced the plan, calling it a “wholesale attack” on an area “renowned for its ancient terraces and sophisticated irrigation systems, evidence of thousands of years of human activity.”
Since the offensive on Gaza began, the Israeli cabinet has approved the establishment of five settlements and at least 25 outposts, most of them agricultural.
“The cabinet approved the establishment of five new settlements: Evyatar, Givat Assaf, Sde Ephraim, Adorayim, and Nachal Haletz, all illegal outposts intended to become official settlements, “Peace Now said.
“25 outposts, most of them agricultural outposts”, in the occupied West Bank , Peace Now added.
Smotrich, the leading far right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, said in a speech last June the way to prevent a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel was to develop Jewish settlements.
“The goal is to change the DNA of the system for many, many years,” he said.
Israel’s Supreme Court defines Israeli control over the West Bank as a temporary military occupation rather than the annexation of territory under a civilian administration.
But Smotrich, who lives in a settlement himself, has opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Besides, he has for long advocated for the expansion of Jewish settlements that are considered illegal under international law and by most of the international community.
Moreover, Smotrich was quoted as saying “After October 7th it is a consensus in Israeli society. The way is to develop settlements and we are focusing on doing broad structural processes that will result in the State of Israel developing settlements in an orderly manner.”
Additionally , Smotrich said that a separate civilian system had been created for the occupied West Bank, even as the Defense Ministry remained in control of the area.
“We created a separate civilian system, there is an office within the Ministry of Defense. There is a minister there. There is an administration there, it’s like an office, there is a CEO for the administration, he is accepted as the CEO of a government office, there is a whole system within the administration,” Smotrich said.
As more countries call for an independent Palestinian state, Smotrich spoke about the extensive planning powers of the minister and administration and the prospect of developing mass transit and road systems in the West Bank over the next few years to encourage settlement there.
“This is a revolution: this is how you bring a million people to Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said,using the term by which many Israelis describe the occupied territory.
Israel has expanded settlements in the occupied West Bank over decades despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s, Oslo Accords, that envisaged the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as part of a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On the other hand , a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, has unfolded in the shadow of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
From October 7, 2023 to August 5, 2024 alone, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported at least 1,143 settler attacks against Palestinians .
Of those, at least 114 attacks “led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries,” according to OCHA.
All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967 and inhabited by more than 700,000 Israeli settlers – including occupied East Jerusalem – are considered illegal under international law , regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.
While the State of Israel faces one of the greatest challenges in its history—with an ongoing war on multiple fronts, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens displaced, 116 hostages in Gaza, and millions of Palestinians in Gaza enduring ongoing attacks, killings, and displacement—Netanyahu’s government has invested immense resources in creating facts on the ground.
This includes expanding settlements in the West Bank and accelerating annexation processes, with the aim of eliminating the possibility of a two-state solution and peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The controversial settler movement has grown in power over the years and is seen by the outside world as a major impediment to peace in the region.
Najla M. Shahwan is Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist.She is also Chairwoman of the Palestinian Center for Children’s Literature ( PCCL ), founder of Jana Woman Cultural Magazine and recipient of two prizes from the Palestinian Union of Writers.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Jordan Daily.
