Eagerly anticipating the return of Donald Trump to the White House, Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank have drawn up an ambitious master plan to cement their rule over the disputed Biblical land.
The plan includes building four new cities, a massive expansion of energy and transportation infrastructure and the de facto dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, blurring the border between Israel proper and the land that was captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The ultimate aim remains extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. The settlers received a major boost when Trump appointed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. The Evangelical preacher has said “there is no such thing” as the West Bank and that Israelis have “a rightful deed” to the land.
“Trump’s victory brings an important opportunity for Israel,” said finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionist party, who also controls West Bank civilian affairs. “During Trump’s first term we were on the verge of applying sovereignty over the settlements. Now, the time has come to make it a reality.”
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The West Bank is divided into three areas: area A, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah; area B, under Palestinian civilian control but Israeli military control; and area C, the settlements, under full Israeli control. The new action plan drawn up by the Yesha settlers’ council and Avichai Buaron, a lawmaker from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, calls for expanding the jurisdiction of West Bank settler councils to take control of all the land in areas B and C, including Palestinian villages.
“If we use this window of opportunity wisely, we will create conditions for turning Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley into an inseparable part of Israel,” Buaron said, using the Biblical name for the West Bank. “The two-state solution needs to be taken off the table permanently.”
According to the plan, Israel’s housing shortage would be addressed by the construction of four new West Bank cities, including one for the ultra-Orthodox and one for Israel’s Druze minority. Some of the larger settlements would be expanded and given city status and hundreds of new farms for settlers would be authorised to facilitate Israeli control over rural areas. New power plants and Israel’s largest solar field, all connected to the Israeli grid, would be built along with new highways connected to Israel.
[ ‘A stark example of the apartheid’: An Irish doctor on working in the West BankOpens in new window ]
In 2020, Trump’s Middle East peace plan proposed the creation of a Palestinian state, while granting Israel sovereignty over much of the West Bank. It was never implemented and it is still unclear whether he will support the settlers’ plans for Israeli annexation. Meanwhile, the planning continues.
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