{"id":84072,"date":"2024-06-29T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/29\/what-to-know-about-israels-plan-to-legalize-5-west-bank-settlements\/"},"modified":"2024-06-29T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T15:25:13","slug":"what-to-know-about-israels-plan-to-legalize-5-west-bank-settlements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/29\/what-to-know-about-israels-plan-to-legalize-5-west-bank-settlements\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Know About Israel\u2019s Plan to Legalize 5 West Bank Settlements"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/28\/multimedia\/28mideast-crisis-legalizing-outposts-lgvk\/28mideast-crisis-legalizing-outposts-lgvk-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"What to Know About Israel\u2019s Plan to Legalize 5 West Bank Settlements\" title=\"What to Know About Israel\u2019s Plan to Legalize 5 West Bank Settlements\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some settlement construction has continued under every Israeli government for decades. As of last year, more than 130 settlements had been built with Israeli government permission since 1967.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More than 100 unauthorized settlement outposts have been erected since the 1990s, and the Israeli authorities are working on legalizing many of them retroactively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More than <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/01\/world\/middleeast\/west-bank-settlers-land-tuqu-takoa.html\" title=\"\">500,000 Israeli settlers<\/a> now live in the West Bank \u2014 not counting more than 200,000 in East Jerusalem \u2014 alongside more than 2.7 million Palestinians. Some of the settlements are home to religious Zionists who believe that the area is their biblical birthright. Many secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews also moved there, largely for cheaper housing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This year, the Israeli government had designated a record amount of land, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/2024-04-11\/ty-article\/.premium\/israel-has-declared-record-amount-of-west-bank-land-as-state-owned-in-2024\/0000018e-c7a2-dd23-a3cf-e7a713c90000\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">about 6,000 acres<\/a>, as eligible for settlement by March, another signal of Mr. Smotrich\u2019s intent to deepen the Israeli hold on the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In March, the U.N. human rights chief, Volker T\u00fcrk, condemned the rapid expansion of settlements after a U.N. report showed a \u201cdramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, particularly since 7 October, 2023, which is accelerating Palestinians\u2019 displacement from their land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tor Wennesland, the U.N.\u2019s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, on Tuesday said that signs of expedited settlement and legalization of outposts <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2024\/sc15743.doc.htm\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">undermine prospects for a two-state solution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That appears to be the goal for Mr. Smotrich, who adamantly opposes Palestinian statehood. He has said that he will legalize additional outposts in response to any nation that announces recognition of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the last two months, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Armenia have formally <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/22\/world\/middleeast\/spain-norway-ireland-palestinian-statehood-israel.html\" title=\"\">recognized an independent Palestinian state<\/a>. In a social media post on Thursday, Mr. Smotrich indicated that the latest settlement legalization was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bezalelsm\/status\/1806461734879740070\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a response to those decisions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019ll continue developing the settlements to maintain Israel\u2019s security and to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger our existence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, the head of Israel\u2019s Central Command, which is responsible for the West Bank, has said that since Mr. Smotrich took office the effort to clamp down on illegal settlement construction has dwindled \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/16\/magazine\/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html\" title=\"\">to the point where it has disappeared<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Aaron Boxerman<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/29\/world\/middleeast\/israel-west-bank-settlements-palestinian.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some settlement construction has continued under every Israeli government for decades. As of last year, more than 130 settlements had been built with Israeli government permission since 1967. More than 100 unauthorized settlement outposts have been erected since the 1990s, and the Israeli authorities are working on legalizing many of them retroactively. More than 500,000 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/28\/multimedia\/28mideast-crisis-legalizing-outposts-lgvk\/28mideast-crisis-legalizing-outposts-lgvk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[673,5558,32150,736,17987,6501],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84074,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84072\/revisions\/84074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}