ISRAEL OKS PLAN FOR 3K SETTLER HOMES IN WEST BANK

The Israeli government advanced plans Wednesday to build more than 3,000 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, in the first move of its kind since Prime Minister Naftali Bennett succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu in June.

A defense ministry planning committee approved the construction of 3,130 new homes that would be spread across 25 existing settlements, most of them deep inside the West Bank, the territory that Palestinians hope will form part of a future Palestinian state. The decision is considered the most important stage of the planning process, but some administrative steps, including the selection of construction companies, would still need to be taken before building begins.

The construction would further consolidate the Israeli presence in the West Bank and the barriers to the creation of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state. The announcement has already raised tensions between the Bennett government and the Biden administration, which opposes activity that makes it harder to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The move has also heightened disagreements within the Israeli government, a diverse coalition of ideologically opposed parties who put aside their differences to remove Netanyahu from office, promising to prolong their fragile alliance by avoiding unilateral decisions in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan during the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. It has since permitted the construction of more than 130 Jewish settlements there, a process that most of the international community considers a breach of international law, which prohibits an occupying power from moving its people into occupied territory.

Critics say Israel has effectively stolen land for settlements from Palestinians whose families had long held it but could not prove ownership to Israel’s satisfaction. The Israeli government says much of the land was never privately owned, while religious settlers believe the land is the ancestral birthright of the Jewish people.

Across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the settlements house about 700,000 people, or roughly 10 percent of all Israeli Jews; the higher the settler population, particularly in settlements deep inside the West Bank, the harder it would be to disband the settlements under a possible peace deal.