All articles tagged with #settlement expansion
Christmas celebrations returned to Bethlehem after two years, but festivities were limited due to Israeli military checkpoints and ongoing violence in the West Bank, where record demolitions, displacement, and settlement expansion continue amidst a backdrop of conflict and political tension.
Israeli forces have sealed off Tulkarem in the West Bank, conducting raids, arrests, and demolitions, displacing thousands of Palestinians amid a broader crackdown and settlement expansion plans by Netanyahu, which threaten the prospect of a Palestinian state.
Hundreds of Israeli settlers gathered in Jerusalem for a convention advocating the rebuilding of settlements in Gaza and the northern part of the West Bank. The conference, organized by the right-wing Nahala organization, was attended by 12 ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and other far-right coalition members. Speakers at the conference emphasized the link between settlements and security, expressing opposition to the government's past evacuation of settlements from Gaza and calling for a return to control of the land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultranationalist advocate of settlements, practically all control over planning approval for construction in West Bank settlements, according to a controversial resolution passed by the government. The decision also expedites and eases the process for expanding existing West Bank settlements and retroactively legalizing some illegal outposts. Settlement leaders praised the move, while opponents warned it would allow for unchecked expansion of the settlements and constituted further “de facto annexation” of the West Bank.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pledged continued US commitment to Israel's security and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but said the expansion of Jewish settlements would be an obstacle to peace. Blinken also said that moves toward annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank or that disrupt the status quo at holy sites would hurt the prospects for a two-state solution.