Map Shows Israel’s Plans to Expand Settlement in West Bank

Israel has published plans for a new settlement in the occupied West Bank, the country’s finance minister announced Wednesday, a month after the United Nation’s top court deemed Israeli settlements illegal in the territory.

Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician and ally of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote in Hebrew in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, that the “blue line of 602 dunams was published for the establishment of the settlement of Nahal Heletz,” in Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements in the West Bank.

Smotrich called it part of a “national mission” to connect to Jerusalem.

The Israeli settlement covers about 150 acres and is located within the Battir UNESCO World Heritage Site, northwest of Bethlehem, and near the Israeli settlement Har Gilo, according to Agence France-Presse. UNESCO designated the site in 2014 for its “characteristic stone terraces” and irrigation of grapevines and olive trees.

“No anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of settlements,” Smotrich wrote in the post, adding: “We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground.”

Newsweek reached out to Israel’s Central Planning Bureau for comment and confirmation via email on Wednesday. Newsweek also contacted the City of Bethlehem for comment via email on Wednesday.

Smotrich often uses anti-Palestinian rhetoric, such as calling a Palestinian state “dangerous.” Last week, he was condemned by several international leaders for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve Gazans.

Smotrich called the move part of the “national mission” to connect Gush Etzion to Jerusalem, and said the settlement was a “historic moment.” He does not support a two-state solution that would establish an independent Palestinian state.

As of May 2024, the 143 U.N. member countries voted in favor of a resolution to provide new “rights and privileges” to a Palestinian state and urge the Security Council to consider its admission to the U.N. Nine countries voted against the resolution, including the United States and Israel.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group, denounced the settlement plan, which is part of a larger proposal for five new settlements proposed by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration in June. The group called it a “wholesale attack” on the heritage site.

Newsweek reached out to both Israel’s Defense Ministry and Peace Now for comment via email on Wednesday.

Back in July, following the initial proposal, Peace Now said: “The establishment of the settlement aims to sever their connection to Bethlehem, turning them into an enclave within Israeli territory and thereby preventing the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.”

Smotrich is an advocate for settlements and currently lives in one himself west of Nablus, Kedumim. In June, he said, “The Security Cabinet authorized one outpost for every country that unilaterally recognized Palestine as a state in the last month.” Last year, a report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that 700,000 Israeli settlers were illegally residing in the occupied West Bank.

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion declaring Israel’s continued presence in the West Bank since 1967 is illegal and urged the country to immediately halt all new settlements, evacuate settlers, and provide reparations.

The ICJ’s opinion, delivered by a panel of 15 judges from around the world, including one from the United States, lacks enforcement measures. The court’s decision comes amid a 10-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has killed around 40,000 Palestinians, displaced upward of 2 million, and flattened large swathes of Gaza, according to The Associated Press. Israel’s continued military offensives come after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which around 250 hostages were taken and 1,200 people killed.

Israel has previously ignored and refuted rulings on the matter. Immediately following the decision Netanyahu rejected the court’s findings and wrote on X, “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in the Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home.”

Mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages captured in its October 7 attack in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and Israel withdrawing from Gaza. Talks are expected to resume on Thursday, but as of late Wednesday, it was unclear if Hamas officials would attend.