Palestinians, Israeli left slam cabinet move to legalize settlement outposts
PLO says steps and punitive measures against PA are part of continued ‘war of genocide’ against the Palestinian people; settler leaders welcome efforts led by Smotrich
A decision by Israel to legalize five West Bank settlement outposts drew widespread criticism on Friday from dovish Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, which accused Israel of continuing a policy of “genocide” against the Palestinian people.
The statements came after the security cabinet, at the behest of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, announced the steps and a series of punitive moves against the PA.
Smotrich, who also heads the Defense Ministry’s civilian administration, said the move was in response to the PA’s international lawsuits against Israel and its “push for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” referring to the recent decisions of Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia to recognize Palestinian statehood.
“The government of Israel is advancing de facto annexation of millions of Palestinians to our territory,” Labor party leader Yair Golan wrote on X. “This annexation will harm the security of our citizens, the future of our children and will bring about the end of the Zionist dream.”
Far-left lawmaker Ofer Cassif, of the majority-Arab Hadash-Ta’al faction, slammed the decision. “No front will satisfy the pyromaniacs’ government’s bloodlust,” Cassif wrote on X. “More violence, more abandonment, more killing, more theft, more occupation.”
Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the settlements are “illegal colonies that violate all international resolutions.
“The decisions by the occupation government aim to pursue the war of genocide against our Palestinian people,” he told Reuters, adding that the PLO and the PA would continue pressing for Israel to be taken before international courts and punished for “crimes against our people, and in particular in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel is embroiled in several international legal cases, including a suit at the International Court of Justice claiming the country’s conduct in the Gaza war amounts to “genocide.”
In addition, Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in May requested the tribunal issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the country’s conduct throughout the war.
Khan also sought warrants against Hamas leaders for atrocities committed on October 7, when the terror group led a thousands-strong onslaught on southern Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people and saw over 250 taken hostage, sparking the Gaza war.
Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda in 2019 launched a still-ongoing probe into Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, which she said could amount to war crimes. The probe was launched soon at the request of the PA — then a newly minted UN member — in a move that Israel’s envoy to the UN at the time termed “diplomatic terrorism.”
Israel, which captured the West Bank in 1967’s Six Day War, has gradually dotted the territory with settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal occupation.
There are currently some half a million Jewish settlers in the West Bank, living alongside over two million Palestinians, whom Israel does not consider citizens, and whose movements the country routinely restricts.
Israel has never annexed the West Bank, claiming its military presence there was a temporary measure pending a future resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The country occasionally clears out outposts erected without the government’s consent, usually to right-wing ire.
Smotrich said the sanctions would include “enforcement action against incitement” by PA officials, cancelation of their exit visas and stripping the PA of its jurisdiction over illegal construction in a Judean desert nature reserve.
The outposts set to be legalized are Evyatar in the northern West Bank, Sde Efraim and Givat Asaf in the central West Bank, and Heletz and Adorayim in the territory’s south.
The cabinet also okayed the publication of tenders for thousands more homes in settlements, according to Smotrich’s statement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are yet to comment on the matter, as is the White House.
Smotrich, himself a settler from the Kedumin settlement in the northern West Bank — whose own home was allegedly built, in part, on private Palestinian land — was recorded last week as saying that the government was plotting a “mega-dramatic” plan to exert still greater control over the West Bank.
Settler leaders welcomed the move, with Israel Gantz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, saying it “strengthens the State of Israel.”
Yaron Rosenthal, head of the Gush Etzion regional council, commended the “rare moment of peace” brought about by Smotrich’s decision to strip the PA of its authority over illegal construction in the Judea desert nature reserve.
“The meaning on the ground is that the massive [illegal Palestinian] construction we have seen until now will be stopped immediately,” Rosenthal wrote in a message to residents, adding that the council would seek to bring down existing buildings.
The late Thursday cabinet that resulted in Smotrich’s touted settlement legalization was reportedly delayed due to a dispute between the hard-right minister and Netanyahu over the move’s potentially negative impact on ties with Washington — barely a day after Defense Minister Gallant returned from there.
