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Israel approves thousands of building permits in occupied West Bank

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has expressed the government's commitment to expand illegal settlements and strengthen Israel's control over Palestinian territory.

Reuters

Israel’s hardline government – which includes ultra-Orthodox parties and a far-right ultranationalist religious faction – has put settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank at the top of its priorities./ Photo: Reuters

Israel's nationalist-religious, far-right government has approved the construction of 5,700 additional housing units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, despite US pressure to halt the expansion of illegal settlements.

The plans for approval of the settlements in various areas of the occupied West Bank were approved by Israel's Supreme Planning Council on Monday.

Jewish settler leadership praised the decision.

"I thank the Israeli government for the continued development of Israeli settlement," the head of the West Bank Gush Etzion Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council Shlomo Ne'man said.

"Especially in these difficult days, this is the most appropriate Zionist answer to all those who seek our help."

The Jewish settlements, built on Palestinian land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, are illegal under International Humanitarian Law.

Palestinians have been seeking to establish an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as their capital since Jewish Zionist forces took the vast majority of Mandatory Palestine and established the state of Israel in 1948 following the events of the Nakba (Palestinian catastrophe).

Israeli settlers claim exclusive Jewish historic connections to the land. Peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since 2014.

Since entering office in January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition has approved the promotion of more than 7,000 new illegal Jewish settlements, most deep in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli government is pushing us at an unprecedented pace towards the full annexation of the West Bank," the settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement.