Israel turbocharged West Bank settlement expansion with the largest land grab in decades.


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that further escalated already escalating tensions. It is likely to happen. The war in Gaza.

Israel's aggressive expansion into the West Bank reflects the strong influence of the settler community in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most religious and nationalist in the country's history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, has turbocharged the expansion policy, seizing new authorities on settlement development and saying they are aimed at strengthening Israel's grip on the territory and building a Palestinian state. Staying is to be stopped.

Officials recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (about 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, according to a copy of the order obtained by The Associated Press. It was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process, Peace Now data showed.

Settlement watchers said the land grab connects Israeli settlements with a key corridor along the Jordanian border, a move they say undermines the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state.

It is in an area of ​​the West Bank where, e Before the Israel-Hamas war began, Settler violence was displacing Palestinian communities. Violence has escalated in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas. Settlers have done. More than a thousand attacks on Palestinians According to the United Nations, there have been casualties and property damage in the West Bank since October

The land grab, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, included 8 square kilometers (about 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February. Mail) has emerged after the occupation.

Peace Now said this makes 2024 the peak year ever for Israeli land occupation in the West Bank.

By declaring them government land, the government opens them up to Israelis for leasing and prohibits private ownership by Palestinians. The land grabs this year are controversial, connecting two pre-existing settlements to form a solid block near the border with Jordan. Israeli military zones were closed before these lands were declared government lands.

Palestinians see the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the biggest obstacle to any lasting peace deal, blocking any possibility of a coherent state. Most of the international community considers the settlements to be illegal or illegitimate.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War, areas the Palestinians want for a future state. The current Israeli government views the West Bank as the historical and religious center of the Jewish people and opposes a Palestinian state.

Israel has built more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers who hold Israeli citizenship.

Three million Palestinians in the West Bank apparently live under open Israeli military rule. The Palestinian Authority manages enclaves scattered throughout the territory, but is barred from operating in 60 percent of the West Bank, which includes settlements as well as areas populated by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Yoni Mizrachi, head of settlement tracking at Peace Now, described the land grabs announced Wednesday as part of a strategy to establish a buffer zone between Jordan and Palestinian land and end the viable possibility of a Palestinian state. In their view, the aim is to push the Palestinians into isolated islands surrounded by Israeli territory.

“They certainly see this area as a strategic area, one of the first and easiest ways to initiate annexation,” he said.

Prominent human rights organizations have pointed the blame at Israel's rule over the West Bank. The international crime of racismIsrael rejects the allegations as an attack on its legitimacy.

Smutrich was given extended powers over Israel's administration of the occupied territories under Netanyahu's governing coalition. Smutrich presented his plans for the West Bank at a conference for his ultra-nationalist Religious Zionist party last month, a recording of which was obtained by Peace Now. He said he plans to allocate 15 square kilometers (about 6 square miles) of land in the West Bank this year.

“We have come to settle the land, build it and prevent its partition and the creation of a Palestinian state, God forbid,” he said during the conference. He vowed to “dramatically change the map” by claiming more of the West Bank as state land than before.

He also promised to expand the establishment of agricultural checkpoints, which hardline settlers have used to increase their control over the countryside and block Palestinian construction.

Rights groups say the proliferation of outposts in the West Bank has fueled settler violence since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, forcing many Palestinian villages to uproot and abandon their land.

Palestinians say the violence is aimed at putting vast swaths of land under Israeli control and pushing the prospect of a Palestinian state further.

The United States, European Union, Britain and Canada have imposed high-level sanctions against violent settlers and settler organizations, but some of those targeted told the AP that these measures There has been little impact.

Peace Now said the declaration published Wednesday was signed under the authority of Hillel Roth, who was appointed earlier this year to promote settlement expansion and state land declarations in the West Bank.

The announcement came a day after Peace Now said Israeli authorities would approve or advance the construction of more than 6,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, was not immediately available for comment.

Hamas cited the expansion of West Bank settlements as justification for an October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Made. Israel has launched a massive crackdown in response that has killed more than 37,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who would not say how many were fighters.

The war has caused widespread destruction across Gaza and displaced most of its 2.3 million people. Often many times. Israeli sanctions, ongoing fighting and a breakdown in law and order have hampered humanitarian aid efforts, leading to widespread hunger and It gives rise to the fear of famine..

___ Follow AP's war coverage. https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war



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