Palestinian body says Israel advancing 1,024 settlement units in West Bank

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission said on Friday that Israeli authorities are moving ahead with plans for 1,024 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank on more than 1,069 dunams of Palestinian land.

According to the commission, the projects form part of a wider push to expand settlements across the occupied territory. It said Israel was pressing ahead with measures aimed at reinforcing control on the ground and widening settlement activity through the work of the Higher Planning Council under the Civil Administration.

Plans discussed since start of July

The commission said the Higher Planning Council has examined nine settlement schemes since the beginning of July, with the proposals reaching approval and deposit stages. Of the 1,024 housing units, it said 455 have been approved while 569 have been deposited for further planning procedures.

It described the settlement drive as part of

entrenching de facto annexation and expanding settlements

across the occupied West Bank. The body also said the plans reflect

a systematic policy

aimed at strengthening settlement blocs in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, through outward growth and higher residential density.

Projects in Jenin and Hebron areas

Among the plans cited by the commission is an approved expansion of the Mevo Dotan settlement, which it said is built on land belonging to the town of Arraba in southern Jenin. The project would add 455 settlement units on nearly 539 dunams.

The commission said two more plans were submitted for the expansion of the Beit Hagai and Asael settlements in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron. Those two projects would add 569 settlement units on more than 519 dunams, it said.

It also said Israel is increasingly concentrating on enlarging existing settlements rather than establishing entirely new ones. According to the commission, this is being done through changes to construction plans, land-use rules and zoning arrangements to allow denser settlement building.

International position

The commission said settlement planning has turned into

an integrated system

intended to reshape Palestinian geography by extending settlements, linking them to Israeli infrastructure and constraining Palestinian urban growth. It said this policy was being used to consolidate Israel’s

de facto annexation

of occupied Palestinian land.

The United Nations has repeatedly said that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law and has warned that they weaken the chances of a two-state solution. Palestinians maintain that East Jerusalem should serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state, in line with international resolutions that do not recognise Israel’s 1967 occupation or its 1980 annexation of the city.