Photo: AFP
Jerusalem: The Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Israel's decision on Sunday to recognize over a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, elevating existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement, accusing Israel's security cabinet of blatantly disregarding international legitimacy and its resolutions.
The West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, is home to approximately three million Palestinians, along with nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are considered illegal under international law, AFP reported.
A far-right leader and settler, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who played a key role in the cabinet's decision, described the move as an “important step” for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Smotrich, a strong advocate for Israel’s formal annexation of the West Bank—similar to its annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967, a move not widely recognized internationally—emphasized that recognizing each neighbourhood as a separate community would help in their development.
In a statement on Telegram, he referred to the decision as part of a "revolution" and expressed that instead of apologizing or hiding, Israel would boldly continue to build and settle in the region, as quoted by AFP.
Smotrich also described the decision as a crucial step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, using the Biblical term for the West Bank. In its statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry also highlighted an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, which, they claimed, has been accompanied by an unprecedented increase in the confiscation of Palestinian lands.
The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by Israel’s cabinet are scattered across the West Bank. While some are effectively part of larger settlements, others are considered nearly separate. However, their recognition as independent communities under Israeli law is not yet final.
The Yesha Council, which represents the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, praised the "normalization" of settlement expansion and expressed gratitude to Smotrich for advocating the cabinet's decision. According to EU data, 2023 marked a 30-year high in the number of settlement building permits issued by Israel.