The United States threatened to hold Israel accountable for West Bank settlement expansion, as the IDF’s Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria held a two-day meeting to advance plans for 5,300 new settler homes in that region.
“Unilateral actions like settlement expansion and legalization of outposts, they are detrimental to a two-state solution,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told repeaters in Washington on Tuesday.
“So we’ll continue to use the tools at our disposal to expose and promote accountability for those who threaten peace and stability in the region,” he stated.
“We view the expansion of settlements as – and outposts as inconsistent with international law, and again, we view these as something that only serves to weaken Israel’s security,” Patel said.
He spoke in advance of the Higher Planning Council’s meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to advance those plans, some of which would lead to the legalization of four outposts.
In addition, 500 settler homes will also be marketed this week.
Cabinet also approves transformation of five outposts into settlements
The advancement of plans for 5,300 new settler homes was part of a Security Cabinet decision which also included the transformation of five outposts in new settlements, one settlement for each of the five European countries that unilaterally recognized Palestinian statehood in the last few months.
These five outposts were in addition to the four outposts, which will be debated by the Higher Planning Council during their two-day meeting.
The Security Cabinet agreed to move on the issue of settlement expansion as part of the deal by which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would release three months of tax fees he had withheld from the Palestinian Authority.
He also agreed to extend by four months an arrangement that allows for Palestinian banks to operate.
The United States and European countries had pressed Smotrich to take these steps.
Patel acknowledged the two moves, but said, that they did not go far enough. Extending the banking arrangement and transferring tax fees are steps that should happen automatically, he explained.
“Our view is that ultimately these are – these are Palestinian Authority funds. These are funds that belong to the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
"We, of course, welcome reports that Israel will extend the correspondent banking relationship for four months and release a portion of the PA’s clearance revenues.
“But our call is for Israel to extend correspondent banking for at least 12 months and to release the rest of the withheld clearance revenues as well.
“It’s important to remember that the viability of the Palestinian Authority is essential to stability in the West Bank, which in turn is essential to Israel’s own security interests as well. We have made these concerns clear to our partners in Israel at the highest level, and we’ll continue to engage with them on this issue,” Patel stated.
The ratcheting up of tensions over the Israeli government's support for West Bank settlements comes as the US is pushing for the revival of a Saudi normalization deal with Israel which would include a pathway to Palestinian statehood.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has opposed Palestinian statehood but has otherwise supported a Saudi deal.
Smotrich has been among the more vocal opponents of Palestinian statehood. The settlement expansion was a direct attempt to thwart such statehood in Judea and Samaria, he said Wednesday.
“We are building and developing the settlements and thwarting the danger of a Palestinian state,” he said. “Last week, we brought five settlements in strategic areas to the cabinet for approval, including the settlement of Evyatar, and to this, we are adding approval for thousands of housing units as well as tens of thousands of dunams of declarations of state lands. This is an integrated and massive action whose goal is to thwart the Palestinian state.
“We are always, and even more so at this time, committed to the development of our good land and thwart any discourse on a Palestinian state that only rewards terrorism.”
Smotrich touted his record in expanding Israel’s territorial hold on the West Bank through settlement building. The planning process for settlements came under his control when he was given the role of minister in the Defense Ministry at the start of 2023, as part of his Religious Zionist Party’s coalition agreement with the Likud.
Plans for 24,000 homes had been advanced and approved in that period, compared with fewer than 20,000 plans for homes that were advanced or approved from 2020-2022, Smotrich said.
The left-wing group Peace Now on Wednesday said Israel had accelerated settlement activity during the Gaza war when domestic and international attention was focused on the ongoing violence.
“Since the start of the war, the Israeli government has focused all its efforts on building, developing, and investing in construction across the West Bank,” it said. “In the midst of an exhausting and destructive war, with thousands of Israelis still displaced from their homes and 120 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, the ongoing settlement construction, along with the decision to establish new settlements deep in the West Bank and the transfer of planning powers from the army to Smotrich’s officials, will lead to disaster for Israel and the region.”
The Civil Administration’s Custodian of State Property on Wednesday said it had reclassified 12,700 dunams in the Jordan Valley as state land, Peace Now reported. It followed a reclassification as state land of 2,640 dunams between the settlements of Ma’aleh Adumim and Kedar, and other declarations of 8,000 and 170 dunams, for a total of 23,510 dunams this year.
“The size of the area designated for declaration is the largest since the Oslo Accords, and the year 2024 marks a peace in the extent of declarations of state land,” Peace Now said.
The reclassification is the first step in marking the land as a potential territory for settlement development.
Separately, the Civil Administration and the Border Police on Wednesday evacuated the small outpost of Tzur Harel, which was built more than a year ago in the Binyamin Region, not far from the Beit El settlement.
The UK Foreign Office condemned Israel’s actions, particularly the creation of five new settlements.
“Israel must halt its illegal settlement expansion and hold to account those responsible for extremist settler violence,” it said. “We are clear that actions by Israel to weaken the Palestinian Authority must stop. We call for longer-term measures to be put in place to ensure continued correspondent banking relations and assurance that Israel will release frozen funds without delay.”