Bezalel Smotrich Says Israel’s Settlement Revolution Will Reach Negev And Galilee

Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that the Israeli government has begun a “settlement revolution” that will “get to the Negev and the Galilee too,” after Security Cabinet approval for a plan to establish 13 new settlements in the central occupied West Bank.

“- Announcement comes after Security Cabinet approves plan to establish 13 new settlements in central occupied West Bank LONDON: Israel’s finance minister said on Monday that the Israeli government had begun a “settlement revolution” that would eventually extend to the Negev and Galilee”

Arab News

The announcement came two days after Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the plan to establish 13 new settlements, a move Palestinian officials said would further isolate East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities.

Arab News PK

Arab News said the new settlements will be located in strategically important areas, while Palestinian officials and rights groups said the expansion would deepen Israeli control over the occupied territory and further undermine the prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state.

Arab News also tied the acceleration of settlement expansion to 2022, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the head of the most right-wing coalition in the country’s history, and it cited a Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies claim that newly established settlement outposts rose to 86 last year from 64 in 2024.

The same report said the outpost growth was aided by $20 million in government funding and that the annual average was about eight between 2012 and 2022.

A British charity has funded a Jewish religious school in an illegal settlement in Hebron, the UK government’s Charity Commission said, after Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent almost £200,000 ($267,000) to Hebron Yeshiva between 2019 and 2024.

Arab News PK reported that the school received approval for a new dormitory to be built in June after an agreement on planning authority in the city was broken by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and it said parts of the expansion are already complete.

BBC

The report said the Israeli military has built an outpost on top of a Palestinian house located next to the site, and it described the settlement’s isolation as being maintained by an Israeli military-run complex of defense systems including fences, walls and checkpoints.

Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence, said: “If communities fund that (new) dormitory, they are funding more violence, funding the next wave that will bring death to Palestinian families and Israeli families,” while Issa Amro said: “We want British charities to fund peace, not to fund obstacles for peace. This is very wrong.”

Arab News PK added that Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran said the new dormitory is a significant development because they are adding more settlers in Hebron, the most extreme settlement, where apartheid is everywhere.

As the Gaza war began, BBC reported that violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has risen sharply, and it said UN figures show settlers have killed eight Palestinians and wounded more than eighty-four.

“Jewish settlers who have become a threat to Palestinians in the West Bank - Author: Reha Kansara and Mohanad Hashim - Role: BBC Global Religion and World Service - Published Issa Amro is barricaded inside his house in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank”

BBC

The BBC also said UN figures show that 700,000 people live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and it described these settlements as illegal under international law.

In Hebron, the BBC described Issa Amro as barricaded inside his house, with his garden fenced off and windows covered with bricks, and it said he told the BBC that on October 7 he was abducted in his garden, held for ten hours and assaulted by Israeli soldiers, some of whom he claims are his neighboring settlers.

The BBC said it presented Issa’s claims to the Israeli Defense Forces, and an IDF spokesperson told the BBC that their mission is to maintain the security of all residents in the region and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel.

The Guardian, meanwhile, reported that the Charity Commission shared details of a letter sent by Labour MP Melanie Ward with the Metropolitan police’s war crimes unit but that no investigation is under way, and it quoted Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper saying: “charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements” and “some evidence suggests that rules are being broken.”