Palestinians denounce Israeli recognition of new West Bank settlements

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of “disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions”, said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader and settler who was behind the cabinet’s decision, hailed it as an “important step” for Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

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Smotrich is a leading voice calling for Israel to formally annex the West Bank, as it did with east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

“The recognition of each (neighbourhood) as a separate community… is an important step that would help their development,” Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a “revolution”.

“Instead of hiding and apologising, we raise the flag, we build and we settle,” he said.

“This is another important step towards de facto sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” added Smotrich, using the Biblical name for the West Bank.

Hamas “strongly condemned” Smotrich’s remarks, describing them as proof that settlements were a “racist replacement project”.

In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by “an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands”.

The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some are effectively part of bigger settlements, while others are practically separate.

Their recognition as distinct communities under Israeli law is not yet final.

Peace Now, an Israeli NGO that opposes the settlements in the West Bank, condemned the decision to recognise 13 new ones as “another nail in the coffin” for hopes of a two-state solution that would see a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The move “exposes Israel’s long-standing lie that it does not establish new settlements, but only ‘neighbourhoods’ of existing settlements”, it said in a statement.

However, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, hailed the “normalisation” of settlement expansion and thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision.

According to European Union figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record high in settlement building permits issued by Israel.