Israeli settler watchdog Peace Now is warning in a new report that the Israeli Housing Ministry is seeking a massive series of new settlement expansions cutting across all sections of the West Bank, totaling 55,548 new housing units, including two new settlements.
The new settlements would be in the E1 area, and would further divide the remaining Palestinian parts of the occupied West Bank. The possibility of building in the E1 has caused considerable concern that it would effectively prevent a contiguous Palestinian state.
Israeli officials tend to announce settlements in the few thousands of units at a time, dealing with limited diplomatic fallout each time, but avoiding the major condemnation they’d face from announcing such huge expansions as they have in recent years all at once.
Settlement expansions have also become virtually obligatory for Israel’s far-right governments, as they depend heavily on a handful of pro-settler MPs for their narrow majority. The settlers are pretty much constantly furious about the slow rate of growth, and it’s to be expected that the Housing Ministry would have a considerable backlog of potential announcements to make to placate them.
Israel seems to be increasing both the frequency and the size of their expansion announcements. I wonder if they think that their free ride might be coming to and end and they want to grab as much land as they can while they still can figuring they'll never be forced to give it back…which they most likely won't be asked to do.
Could be of course. My own suspicion runs opposite. I see few signs of anxiety on that.
They were slowly edging forward, cautious to see what they could get away with.
Now they've realized they can get away with much more, and so they are.
As one example, their open insults on the day of arrival of important US visitors were a test, and they concluded they could go much further.
I keep hoping that they will do something that will finally draw a rebuke and consequences from the US – the rest of the world, mostly, have already reached that point. All it will take is for the USG to stand with the rest of the world instead of protecting Israel. I may be delusional, but…
I agree completely.
I keep giving up hope, but it springs eternal and I hope again. Then I'm disappointed again.
It's time for the international community to face the reality: Israel is one country that includes the West Bank and Gaza and is a racist apartheid regime. The Zionist fanatics think they are being clever by stealing land a small piece at a time but they are sealing the doom of the racist concept of a "Jewish nation" and supporting the eventual reality of one nation for all its residents.
The "international community" minus the United States already knows. The Israel Lobby in the United States dictates most of our policies that condones and supports apartheid, racism, master-race theology, and land theft. Truman should have listened to the majority of his advisors and never recognized the apartheid regime. None of our problems with Muslims would have materialized as a result of that blunder.
If, as it appears, Israel is rapidly coming apart, this means that Palestinians will have thousands of homes to move into, without the expense of building or putting in infrastructure (water, gas, electricity).
Good on them!
Except that the Israelis have this nasty habit of destroying things they are forced to leave behind, e.g., weren't they forced to give up a settlement once before and didn't they bulldoze the settlement in retaliation? Sorry, my memory tain't what it used to be.
Maybe the settlements are for the poor Syrian refuges?