Israel advanced plans for 5,700 new settler homes in the West Bank on Monday, in a move that is likely to only heighten tensions with the United States, which has already strenuously objected to such unilateral actions.
“The US is deeply troubled” by the move, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.
“The US opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” he said.
“We call on the government of Israel to fulfill the commitments it made in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh and to return to dialogue and de-escalation,” he added.
“From the US standpoint, we do think it is important to make these statements clear publically” and that it continues “to raise them privately with Israeli officials and will continue to do so," he said. “Our opinions about this are quite clear,” Miller added.
The move comes just a week after a Palestinian gunman killed four Israelis at a gas station outside the Eli settlement in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.
Among the homes detailed in the plans, some 1,563 units (27%) are slated for the Eli settlement, including plans that would legalize three outposts as new neighborhoods within the community’s municipal lines: the outposts of Palegi Maim, Hayovel and Nof Harim.
Yesha Council head Shlomo Ne’eman lauded the move, stating that it was “the most appropriate Zionist answer to all those who seek to harm us.”
Final approval to only 818 of the homes
The Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria which advanced the plans on Monday gave their final approval to only 818 of the homes, while the remainder of the plans were deposited for further consideration.
This means the committee will need to review them again before they can be finalized.
The final tally of homes contained in the plans was published by both the Yesha Council and the left-wing NGO Peace Now.
Peace Now said that when the council last met in February, it advanced plans for 7,382 homes, adding that to date the final tally of homes whose plans the council has pushed forward this year is 13,082 units.
“The Israeli government is pushing us at an unprecedented pace towards the full annexation of the West Bank,” Peace Now stated.
The United States expressed frustration
The move comes just one day after the US expressed its frustration with the West Bank settlement activity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government by reversing a Trump-era policy that went into effect in October 2020, just months before US President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
That policy reinstalled a ban on US government cooperation with Israeli entities located over the pre-1967 lines, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Among the plans given final approval were 359 in Elkana and 381 in Revava. Out of those plans given an initial nod were 714 in Givat Ze’ev, 340 in Ma’aleh Adumim, 312 in Betar Illit, 310 in Adora; 264 in Etz Ephraim and 152 in Ma’aleh Amos.