34 new West Bank settlements formally approved by government

The security cabinet approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in a meeting two weeks ago, The Times of Israel has learned.

This brings to 103 the total number of new settlements established or retroactively legalized by the government since it took office in 2022. Only six new settlements were formally approved by Israel in the 30 years following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Security cabinet meetings and their decisions are classified, and there has been no official confirmation of the decision by the government.

The new settlements likely include not only brand-new settlements but also the retroactive legalization of formerly illegal outposts, and are spread across the entire West Bank, previous reports have indicated.

Ynet reports that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir expressed serious concern at the security cabinet meeting that the approval of the new settlements would further stretch the IDF’s already severely strained manpower resources.

The Yesh Din organization, which campaigns against violations of Palestinian rights, alleges that the approval of the new settlements is designed to advance the “ethnic cleansing” of the West Bank.

“While we were running to bomb shelters [during the war with Iran and Hezbollah], it was urgent for cabinet members to establish dozens more new settlements in the West Bank, thereby advancing the Smotrich plan for ethnic cleansing of the West Bank by pushing the Palestinians into small, densely populated enclaves in Area A,” the group charges, referring to Religious Zionism party head Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firm settlement advocate.

The Peace Now organization, which strongly opposes the settlement movement, accuses the government of trying to establish as many facts on the ground as possible before the next elections.

“Today, it is clear to everyone, and the IDF emphasizes this again and again, that establishing settlements is harmful to security, places an abnormal burden on the IDF, and harms the possibility of resolving the conflict and reaching some kind of future security and peace,” the group claims.