A group of Israeli settlers have squatted at the site of Sa-Nur, an illegal West Bank settlement that was evacuated in 2005, in an attempt to resettle the area. “This settlement has been empty for 15 years, and it’s against Israeli law for them to be here,” Tawfeeq Alawneh, the mayor of the nearby Palestinian village of Jaba’, told Mondoweiss. “But at the end of the day we know that the soldiers and the government will always protect and help the settlers.”
The Netanyahu government has advanced plans for 4,948 new settlement units in the West Bank, signalling an end to the pretense that Israel halted its annexation plans in exchange for normalization with Arab countries. Analysts suggest the slate of approvals are part of a larger effort to take advantage of US support while Donald Trump is still in power.
It has been one month since Israel’s unofficial July 1st deadline to annex the West Bank passed. According to data gathered by Mondoweiss from local Palestinian news reports, from July 1st to the 31st, there were at least 25 reported incidents of Israeli settlers attempting to seize Palestinian land, setting up new outposts, attacking Palestinians, vandalizing Palestinian homes, mosques, and vehicles, and burning down Palestinian crops and agricultural lands.
The New York Times covers annexation as if it chiefly affects Israeli Jews. “The fear most unnerving Israelis is that their sons and daughters could be sent into combat,” it reports but all but ignores Palestinian concerns about the illegal move Israel is contemplating.
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has approved the expansion of the Efrat settlement in the southern occupied West Bank — nearly doubling the settlement in size. The comes just one week before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to visit Israel to discuss annexation plans.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his approval of 3,500 new illegal settler homes in the highly contested ‘E1’ area.
Israeli defense ministry officials want to upend the definition in international law of the settlements as a war crime by allowing settlers buy as private property the plots of occupied land their illegal homes currently stand on.
Israeli politicians and leaders of the settler movement are calling for annexation of the occupied West Bank after the body of an off-duty Israeli soldier was found on the side of the road early Thursday morning in the southern West Bank.
Israel has advanced plans for more than 2,300 illegal settlement units deep in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now has reported. These new units come just one week after the Israeli security cabinet announced it would be approving 715 permits for Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank, a move that was largely seen as a policy shift towards extending Israel’s sovereignty in the territory.
Last week Israel said it was approving 700 Palestinian building permits in the West Bank in what is being viewed as a move to further extend its sovereignty in the occupied territory and perhaps prepare for annexation. Now, the PA is pushing back saying that they will start issuing building permits in areas controlled by Israel.