#israeli-settlement-expansion

#israeli-settlement-expansion

The new measures, which aim to expand Israel's power across the occupied West Bank, will make it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally. We are anchoring settlement as an inseparable part of Israel's government policy, said Katz. Experts say it will fundamentally alter the civil and legal reality of the territory, removing what the Israeli ministers termed legal obstacles that have existed for decades against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

The Israeli government has approved the formalisation of 19 so-called settlement outposts as independent settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is the third wave of such formalisations this year by the government, which considers settlement expansion and annexation a top priority. During an earlier ceremony of formalisation, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, We are advancing de facto sovereignty on the ground to prevent any possibility of establishing an Arab state in [the West Bank].

Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that experts say would damage plans for any future territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the territory. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who announced the plan on August 14, hailed the decision as historic and framed the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognise a Palestinian state in recent weeks.