Gov’t advances plans for 5,700 settlement homes, breaking annual record in 6 months

Israeli authorities advance plans for some 5,700 new settlement homes, shattering in just six months the record for most West Bank housing units for Israelis greenlit in a single year.

The 13,056 homes that have now been advanced through a pair of major planning stages thus far in 2023 surpasses the previous record of 12,159 homes, which were greenlit in 2020 when Donald Trump was US president and his administration proposed a peace plan that envisioned Israel annexing all of its West Bank settlements.

The number of homes advanced today is also more than the 4,427 advanced in all of 2022, when a more moderate unity government was in power that was more willing to heed to the Biden administration’s warnings against further entrenching Israel’s presence in the West Bank.