Israel appropriates 1,976 acres of land in Jordan Valley, declaring it state land
Announcement follows West Bank settlement expansion earlier in March; new status will allow for hundreds of housing units to be constructed in addition to commerce zones
Israel on Friday declared the appropriation of some 8,000 dunams, or 1,976 acres, of land in the Jordan Valley and declared it state land, meaning it can now be used for development projects.
The declaration of the land as Israeli-owned will allow for the construction of hundreds of settlement housing units, as well as an area designated for industry and commerce.
Activists called the move the largest action of its kind in decades.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, oversaw the move. He said the declaration of the land as state-owned was “an important and strategic issue.
“While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria and the country in general, we promote the settlement movement with hard work and in a strategic manner across the country,” he added, using the biblical name for the West Bank.
Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993’s Oslo Accords, and that “2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land.”
The move came nearly three weeks after the Defense Ministry body that authorizes settlement construction advanced plans for 3,426 new Israeli homes to be built beyond the Green Line.
Settlements Minister Orit Strock said at the time that after a months-long lull in West Bank construction approvals, the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee had advanced projects to build 2,402 new homes in Ma’ale Adumim, 694 homes in Efrat and 330 homes in Keidar.
The projects in Ma’ale Adumim and Keidar were approved through an early planning stage known as deposit, while the homes for Efrat received a more advanced planning approval before construction.
Smotrich, under whose aegis the subcommittee falls, called that latest expansion an “appropriate Zionist response” to a terror attack outside Ma’ale Adumim, in which one man was killed and 11 were injured, including a pregnant woman.
“The enemies try to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” Smotrich wrote on X.
In response to the early March announcement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state.
“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” Turk said in a statement accompanying the report that will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in late March.
Despite opposition abroad, Israel has in recent decades built dozens of settlements across the West Bank. They are now home to more than 490,000 Israelis, who live alongside around three million Palestinians in the territory.
The Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans.
Jacob Magid and Reuters contributed to this report.
