Security cabinet said to secretly okay establishment of 22 new West Bank settlements
Smotrich and Katz reportedly led vote last week to build new communities and legalize existing outposts, including Homesh and Sa-Nur, which were evacuated amid 2005 Gaza withdrawal
The security cabinet held a vote in secret last week to approve the establishment of 22 new West Bank settlements, according to Hebrew media reports on Tuesday.
The motion was said to have been put forward by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The settlements — a mix of new communities to be founded, and existing, illegal outposts to be legalized — include the evacuated settlements of Homesh and Sa-Nur, according to Ynet.
The two communities were evacuated and partially demolished at the same time that all Israeli settlements in Gaza were evacuated in 2005. There have been repeated attempts by settlers to re-establish both communities in the years since their evacuation.
The Israel Hayom news outlet reported Tuesday that the government intends to use the 22 new settlements to bolster Israel’s presence around Route 443, which connects Jerusalem and Tel Aviv via Modiin. A section of the route passes through the West Bank.
Israel Ganz, the head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of West Bank Jewish municipalities, declared the secret government decision to be “the most important decision since 1967,” when Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan during the Six Day War.
He hailed the “huge news” of the decision, saying it sends a clear message that “we are here not just to stay but rather to establish the State of Israel here, on behalf of all its residents, and to fortify its security.”
The move followed the government’s approval earlier this month of a cabinet resolution to create a land registration process in Area C of the West Bank, which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was designed to “develop settlements” and was part of measures for the “de facto” annexation of the territory.
The resolution also declared that a land registry process being conducted by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank will have no legal validity in Israel, and ordered security agencies to thwart the conduct of that registration process.
Also, on Monday, it was reported that Israeli government ministers had warned key European countries that any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state could prompt Israel to take unilateral measures as well, potentially including the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.