Israel approves plans to build 5,700 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank

Israel on Monday approved plans to build 5,700 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, marking an annual record for settlement construction for the government which has only been in power for six months.

The move came despite criticism in recent weeks from the international community, which considers all settlement building a violation of international law and of recent commitments made by Israel.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government has also authorised in recent days residency in three illegal outposts that settlers established without government approval.

The Joe Biden administration in the US has been increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Israel’s settlement policy, worsening relations that are already strained over plans by the government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, to weaken the judiciary.

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Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu said he believed Israel should “cut short the Palestinians’ aspiration to have an independent state”.

Speaking earlier this month at a closed meeting of the Knesset parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, he said Israel was preparing for life after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. “We need the Palestinian Authority (PA) and we do not want it to collapse. We are willing to help the PA economically. It is in our interest that it continue to function. In those places where it does function, it does the job instead of us.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Mr Abbas, said Mr Netanyahu’s statement was further proof that Israel rejects international law. “The Palestinian state exists and is recognised by more than 140 countries. Israel is dreaming if it thinks that it can perpetuate this occupation by continuing the aggression against the Palestinian people.”

The Israeli army has sent another two battalions to the West Bank in an effort to curb a wave of attacks by settlers against Palestinians. Since last week’s shooting attack near the settlement of Eli, in which four settlers were killed, more than 85 acts of Jewish nationalist crime have been committed against Palestinians at various West Bank locations. In a rare joint public statement, the heads of the army, police and the Israel Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet, issued a public condemnation of the violence.

This prompted national missions minister Orit Struck, from the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party, to compare the heads of Israel’s security establishments to the Russian mercenary Wagner Group. “I am against these events, but calling it Jewish nationalist terrorism is a shame and disgrace,” she said.

She issued a publicly apology admitting her comparison was out of place, following a sharp rebuke from Mr Netanyahu. “There is no place for criticising the people who lead our fight against terrorism and work for the security of Israel,” he said.