Israel Plans 22 New Settlements in West Bank

‘We have not taken a foreign land, but rather the inheritance of our forefathers,’ Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

Israeli security forces deployed at the site of a shooting attack in the West Bank Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, on Aug. 1, 2023. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo

Israel approved plans on May 29 for 22 settlements in the West Bank, including the legalization of existing outposts, according to Israeli media citing the Ministry of Defense.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.”

The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that a baby who was delivered by caesarean section after his mother, an Israeli settler, was shot dead on May 14 had died.

Katz, using the biblical term for the West Bank territories, said the settlement decision, “strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria ... [and] anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.”

There has been no response to the announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump or the U.S. Department of State.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel’s move is a “dangerous escalation.”

“This extremist Israeli government is trying by all means to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” he said.

The West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, was captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War, when Israeli troops defeated an alliance of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

About 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, alongside about 2.7 million Palestinians.

‘Inheritance of Our Forefathers’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionist Party, wrote on the social media platform X on May 29: “This is a great day for the settlements and an important day for the State of Israel.

“We have not taken a foreign land, but rather the inheritance of our forefathers.”

He described the proposed settlements as a “strengthening of the eastern spine of the State of Israel.”

Smotrich, who has previously said he wanted Israel to annex the West Bank, added, “The next step—sovereignty!”

In 1993, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Abbas, then the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator, signed the Oslo Accord at the White House, launching a process aimed at establishing Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Oslo process later collapsed.

In a May 22 statement, Netanyahu appeared to rule out a two-state solution.

“When you establish a Palestinian state, we’ve seen it, the radicals take over. Iran sends them in and they take over. So don’t give us this talk, ‘It’ll be a peaceful Palestinian state'. It won’t be,” he said.

Netanyahu was responding to a joint statement by the leaders of the UK, Canada, and France on May 19 that said, “We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank.”

That statement added, “Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.  We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions.”

Israel, under Netanyahu, has accelerated settlement construction in recent years, making the prospect of an independent Palestinian state less viable.

Relations between the Palestinian population and the settlers have also deteriorated since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists crossed the border from Gaza and killed 1,200 Israelis.

Some Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villages in the West Bank, and settlers have also been targeted by Palestinian terrorists.

Murdered Israeli Settler’s Baby Dies

On May 14, Tzeela Gez, a 30-year-old Israeli settler, was killed while traveling in her car on a road connecting the settlements of Peduel and Bruchin in the northern West Bank.

The Israeli security forces launched a large-scale manhunt for the attacker, but he has not been identified. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement published on its website, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Gez, who was nine months pregnant, “was transferred to the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section and delivered the baby in serious but stable condition.”

On May 29, Netanyahu said: “It is with great sadness and pain that we learned this morning of the death of baby Ravid Chaim, son of Tzeela and Hananel Gez. There are no words that can offer consolation for the murder of a newborn baby along with his mother.”

The United Nations passed a resolution in November 1967 that ordered Israel to leave the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, and pointed out the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”

In 2016, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that called the Israeli settlements in the West Bank a “flagrant violation” of international law. The United States abstained.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice, the top U.N. court, ruled that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is unlawful and called for an end to all settlement construction.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.