New reports suggest that Israel is taking advantage of the Gaza war to continue building more illegal settlements in Palestinian lands.
According to a newly-released report by Haaretz, Israel is using the war in Gaza as a distractor to divert the world’s attention to build more and more illegal settlements in the West Bank.
“Under the cover of the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel is accelerating the building of settlements for Jews in the West Bank. It is moving forward with plans for a new Jewish settlement, Nofei Rachel, comprising 650 residential units in occupied East Jerusalem, located just meters from Palestinian homes in Umm Tuba,” Haaretz reported this Tuesday.
But this number seems to be only the tip of the iceberg as according to another report by Israeli nonprofits Ir Amim and Bimkom Planners for Planning Rights, the Justice Ministry and a real estate company controlled by right-wing settler activists in the Knesst have come to an agreement to approve the construction of 8,434 new housing units for Jews in areas of Jerusalem beyond the 1967 border, starting from March 2024.
Describing to the Gaza war as an opportunity for Israel to increase the pace of its settlement buildings in the Palestinian lands, Haaretz’s report also noted that “during the period of the war, the planning institutions in Jerusalem have been continuing to advance the settlement enterprise in the city at an accelerated and unprecedented pace,”
In line with this silent, yet anti-Palestinian policy, the Jerusalem Municipality has, since the beginning of the war, also stepped up the pace of home demolitions in East Jerusalem.
Referring to the effects of Israel’s impatience to build as many illegal settlements as possible on the lives of Palestinians, the report also said that “the new settlements will deepen the prevention of the contiguity of the Palestinian space in Jerusalem and constitute additional impediments to the possibility of a different future for Israelis and Palestinians in the city and the entire area.”
What do the annual reports say?
According to the annual report of Israeli settlement buildings in Palestinian lands, the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank saw an unprecedented increase of more than three percent last year, according to a new released by a pro-settler organization
The report, released by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com based on Israeli government statistics, shows that the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank was 517,407 by the end of December 2023, compared to 502,991 in the previous year.
“The settler population grew 15 percent over the past five years. It exceeded half a million last year and will see accelerated growth in the years to come,” the report also noted.
Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered to be illegal. But this has not stopped Israeli decisionmakers to halt expanding them on an increasing pace and without being held accountable internationally.
These new settlement buildings also bring with them more vicinity between Israelis and Palestinians, which in turn result in more violence against Palestinian people by the Israeli residents.
As one UN report noted in this regard, “Between 1 October and 1 November, over 800 Palestinians from at least 98 households in the occupied West Bank were forced out of their homes by settlers.”
Last but not east, it was early in January that the Israeli human rights group issued a report, confirming the challenge for Palestinians and asserting that “2023 was the most violent year in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in both the number of incidents and their severity … The first two months since October 7 were particularly violent.”
