Israel Announces Plans to Build 22 New Settlements in the West Bank

On Thursday, May 29, Israel’s Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, announced plans to establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. This move is expected to further complicate already strained relations between Israel and much of the international community. “We made a historic decision: 22 new settlements in Judea-Samaria,” declared the far-right minister Smotrich, using the term favored by Israelis for the West Bank. According to a map published by Likud, the right-wing party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, these planned settlements will be spread across the entire West Bank, from north to south, including its central regions. The Israeli settlement policy has been routinely condemned by the UN as illegal under international law and is considered one of the main obstacles to a sustainable solution between Israelis and Palestinians, as it hinders the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Smotrich’s announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Scott Feinberg, stated on Wednesday that he had “a very good feeling” about the possibility of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza following 600 days of conflict between Israel and Hamas. In June, France will co-chair with Saudi Arabia a UN conference aimed at promoting the so-called two-state solution: Israel and an independent, fully sovereign Palestine living side-by-side.