The Washington Post on March 22 gives details (and a map) of Israel’s seizure of 3.8 square miles of Palestinian territory in the West Bank. The article quotes Peace Now, a settlement watchdog group, that this is “the single largest land seizure by the Israeli government since the 1993 Oslo accords.”
It also quotes Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who refers to the territory by its biblical name:
“While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country.”
The article says that although Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law,
Israel has used land orders like the one issued Friday to gain control over 16 percent of Palestinian-controlled lands in the West Bank. The newly seized area includes parcels in the Jordan Valley and between the settlements of Maale Adumim and Keidar. The land transfer will also cut across the West Bank, dividing the north and south.
Friday’s land order diminishes the prospect of the two-state solution promoted by President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken:
“If Israel confiscates land around Jerusalem, all the way to the Dead Sea, there will be no future for a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem,” said Hamza Zubiedat of the Ramallah-based Ma’an Development Center. “This is where a Palestinian capital was supposed to be located, according to the American and European talks.”
Mr. Zubiedat also said if the Israelis annex the area near Maale Adumim:
“It will be a catastrophe for Palestinians who live in the south. Palestinian traders will be cut off, and it will become impossible to have any independent Palestinian ways of life.”
The article explains that Palestinians “have little ability” to stop the land transfers. After the 1967 war, Israel issued a military order that stopped the process of land registration across the West Bank.
Now families lack the paperwork to prove that they have private ownership over their land. And tax records, the only other evidence of West Bank property rights, are not accepted by Israeli authorities.
The article explains further that last year in June, the Knesset “waived a long-standing legal precedent that required the prime minister and the defense minister to sign off on West Bank settlement construction at every phase.” As a result, Smotrich, who is a key leader in the Israeli settlement movement, “enjoys near-total control over construction planning and approvals in the West Bank, and approved a record number of settlements in 2023.”
A leader at B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, comments:
“Israel has reached the conclusion that they could get away with this huge land grab because of the lack of international action. There have been individual economic U.S. sanctions placed on violent settlers, but the greater violence of the occupation is this colossal land theft.”
According to B’Tselem, more than 40 percent of the West Bank is under the control of Israeli settlers, and more than half-a-million Jewish residents now live in the West Bank.
Israel’s government has also used incentive programs to move Jewish residents into West Bank settlements, where more than 200 settlements and unofficial outposts have fractured the Palestinian territory and displaced Palestinian residents. In recent years, the Housing Ministry has offered subsidized apartments in the West Bank through a lottery system.
The article says Smotrich is a key leader in Israel’s settlement movement. An Israeli political analyst calls the land transfer announcement by Smotrich a provocation, but also “the continuation of his pro-settler ideological project.” The analyst, Dahlia Scheindlin, explains:
“He entered the government with one overriding purpose: to annex all land conquered in 1967 and extend permanent Jewish sovereignty everywhere, no matter how and when it has to happen.”
The article says that while West Bank settlements are authorized by the Israeli government, outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.
As for U.S. policy regarding the settlements, according to a March 14 article in Reuters the Biden administration has announced sanctions on two West Bank settler outposts, “the first use of such economic restrictions on Israeli outposts,” and also on three settlers it accuses of undermining stability in the West Bank. In addition, the U.S. has appealed to Israel to do more to prevent settler violence.
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If the Washington Post link above doesn’t work for you, try this one.
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UPDATE: According to a March 28 comment on X, formerly twitter: