Trump-era Israeli settlement growth accelerates despite reverse in US policy

THE growth of Israel’s West Bank settler population accelerated last year, according to figures released by a pro-settler group.

The growth came despite renewed American pressure to rein in construction on occupied territory that the Palestinians want for a future state.

The figures show that a settlement surge initiated when Donald Trump was president shows no sign of slowing down. Mr Trump provided unprecedented support for Israel’s claims to land seized in war, reversing decades of US policy.

President Joe Biden’s administration has returned to the previous approach, criticising settlement expansion as an obstacle to resolving the conflict.

But Israel has continued to build and expand settlements, and major road projects are expected to bring even more settlers into the territory.

The statistics, compiled by

Westbankjewishpopulationstats. com and based on official figures, show the settler population grew to 490,493 as of January 30, a nearly 3.2 per cent rise over 13 months.

The population has risen by 16.5% since the group began compiling statistics in 2017, it says.

Israel’s overall annual growth rate, by comparison, is around 1.7%. In 2020, the last year of the Trump administration, which also saw repeated coronavirus lockdowns, the settler population in the West Bank grew by 2.6%, according to the group.

“There’s a tremendous amount of construction going on,” said its CEO, Baruch Gordon, including in his community of Beit El, just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.

“Right now there’s 350 units going up that will probably be finished within a year, So when that hits, that’s going to increase the size of our town by about 25%,” he said.

The settler population tends to be younger and more religious, with a higher average birth rate.

Many Israelis are drawn to the state-subsidised settlements for the quality of life. They offer lower housing prices than Israel’s crowded and increasingly unaffordable cities. The pandemic might have made the settlements even more attractive.

“Just like in America, people moved out of Manhattan and went to suburbs,” Mr Gordon said.