ISRAELI government proposals to build 3,500 new homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank took a step forward today, when far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the project had received planning permission.
“We continue to build the country!” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the scheme received approval from the Higher Planning Council, which authorises West Bank construction. “The enemies try to hurt and weaken us, but we will continue to build.”
The decision concerns 300 new homes in the Kedar settlement and 2,350 in Maale Adumim. It also advances a previously approved plan to build nearly 700 homes in Efrat to its final approval stage.
Mr Smotrich unveiled the plan in February, prompting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say that was “disappointed.”
The number of new settlement housing units approved in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government took office has now risen to 15,775, according to Israeli activist group Peace Now, which is the highest number for a 15-month period since the watchdog began keeping count.
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