Controversy over Israel’s plans for 22 new settlements in occupied West Bank

Israel on Thursday, May 29, 2025, announced plans to establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move that includes legalizing previously unauthorized outposts.

This decision was made following a secret vote by Israel’s security cabinet last week.

The West Bank, captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War, has since been the focus of various Israeli government efforts to assert permanent control.

One method has been to designate large areas as “state lands,” effectively barring Palestinian ownership.

The proposal for the new settlements was introduced by far-right ministers Israel Katz, the defense minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.

Smotrich is a resident of the Kedumim settlement in the West Bank, which, like others, is considered illegal under international law.

Katz described the expansion as a reinforcement of Israel’s historical and biblical claims to the territory, referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.”

He stated that the move also serves as a “crushing response to Palestinian terrorism” and a strategic action to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, which he said would pose a threat to Israel’s security.

The new settlements will be positioned to strengthen Israeli control along Route 443, a key highway that links Jerusalem and Tel Aviv through Modiin.

Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, which represents West Bank settlers, called the cabinet’s decision the most significant since 1967.

Katz celebrated the development on social media, writing that the decision would revive settlement in northern Samaria and bolster Israel’s eastern territorial axis.

This announcement comes less than a year after Israel approved its largest West Bank land seizure in over 30 years.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli NGO that monitors settlement activity, the government seized 12.7 square kilometers of land in the Jordan Valley in July 2024.

This was described as the largest single land appropriation since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which marked the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

In a leaked recording from a National Religious Party-Religious Zionism conference last year,

Smotrich stated that land confiscations in 2024 had increased tenfold compared to previous years.

He emphasized the strategic importance of these moves, declaring that they would dramatically alter the territorial map.

In line with his views, Smotrich has previously declared that preventing the formation of a Palestinian state is his life’s mission.

In May 2023, he directed government ministries to prepare for the arrival of an additional 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

On June 20, The Guardian reported that the Israeli military had discreetly transferred key legal powers in the West Bank to pro-settlement civil servants working under Smotrich.

An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) order, posted in May 2024, confirmed the transfer of authority over many Civil Administration regulations from the military to civilian officials in the defense ministry.

Settlement expansion has accelerated rapidly.

Between January 1 and March 19, 2025, a total of 10,503 housing units were approved—more than the 9,971 units approved in all of 2024, according to Peace Now.

These approvals are seen as part of a broader strategy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition to pursue annexation of the West Bank.

It is supposedly a vision that received significant support from the Trump administration in the U.S.

Mike Huckabee, nominated as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Trump presidency, expressed support for Israel’s West Bank claims.

He argued that the land belonged to Israel by divine right, stating:

“When people use the term ‘occupied’, I say: ‘Yes, Israel is occupying the land, but it’s the occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago.

“It is their land.’”

This ideological alignment between the Israeli government and Trump-era officials bolstered settler confidence.

Many right-wing settler groups saw the Trump administration as a “dream team.”

A “dream team” poised to help Israel eliminate any remaining possibility of a Palestinian state and solidify permanent Israeli control over the territory.

For Diaspora Digital Media Updates click on Whatsapp, or Telegram. For eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to: citizenreports@diasporadigitalmedia.com. Follow us on X (Fomerly Twitter) or Facebook