Israel’s approves construction of 3,476 housing units in West Bank settlements

Construction in Ma’aleh Adumim, the West Bank, 2023

Hagar Shezaf reports in Haaretz on 6 March 2024:

Israel’s National Planning and Building Council approved the advancement of development of 3,476 housing units in settlements throughout the West Bank. 694 units in Efrat received final approval and another 2,452 in Ma’ale Adumim and 330 in Kedar were promoted, a step in the planning process.

This is the first time since June that the development of housing units in the West Bank have been advanced. Their approval came in what the government labeled as a response to a West Bank attack about two weeks ago in which one Israeli was killed and 11 were wounded.

Last week, Israel’s West Bank Civil Administration has declared 2,640 dunams (652 acres) near Ma’aleh Adumim as state land.

This has created a continuous strip of state land between the settlements of Ma’aleh Adumim and Kedar, which will allow them to be connected in the future. The area is currently occupied by Bedouin communities, who may be affected by this move. In tandem, the higher planning committee is expected to approve next week the construction of thousands of housing units in the area, to be completed in stages.

The declaration of land as state land allows it to be designated for construction in Jewish settlements included in the relevant area. It can also be added to the area of jurisdiction already controlled by these settlements. Other implications of these moves could be an increased monitoring of illegal [Palestinian] construction in the area and an augmented law enforcement for [Bedouin] communities living in the area.

Additionally, last week, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Central Command signed an order that will allow an unauthorized outpost in the West Bank to become a large urban settlement. If the order is implemented, the Mitzpeh Yehuda outpost, near Ma’aleh Adumim, will become a city named Mishmar Yehuda.

The order follows a cabinet decision taken last year to authorize 10 West Bank outposts. It allocates 417 dunams (104 acres) of land to the settlement, compared with the 50 dunams it now occupies, with a small number of structures and inhabitants. The Gush Etzion Regional Council’s master plan shows the aim is to turn it into a city.

2023 was an exception in terms of promoting construction plans in the West Bank. 12,359 housing units were approved or advanced in the planning phase last year. “Peace Now,” an Israeli non-governmental organization, estimates that this is the highest number since the signing of the Oslo Accords.

In response, Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns approval of further settlement units in the West Bank and call on the Israeli government to immediately withdraw the decisions.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry too “strongly” condemned the approval of 3,500 West Bank settlement units, according to a post it wrote on X.  In the post, the ministry also condemned the “Israeli occupation’s” attempt to “Judaize large parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

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