The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) advanced plans for 2304 settler homes and regularized three settler outposts in the West Bank during a two-day meeting of its higher planning council that ended Tuesday Peace Now reported.
Plans for 1466 of these settler homes were deposited which means they are in the initial stages of discussion and 838 were validated which means they were given final approvals according to Peace Now a left-wing NGO.
70 percent of the units are for isolated settlements which are located outside the route of the separation barrier.
At one time Israel and the US had made a distinction between isolated settlements and settlement blocs. Isolated settlements were believed to be vulnerable to withdrawal in any future final-status agreement with the Palestinians. Israel in the past held that settlements blocs would be part of its final sovereign borders.
Under the current US administration of Donald Trump and the current Israeli government no distinction is made between settlements on either side of the barrier. Earlier this week premier Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Efrat settlement and reiterated his remarks that “no settler or settlement will be uprooted on his watch.”
Among the more significant projects are almost 300 units for the small isolated ultra-Orthodox settlement of Asfar which is located in the Gush Etzion region. About 200 of the units that were deposited are for property within the settlement itself. In addition the council legalized the adjacent Ibei Hanahal outpost as a new neighborhood of the settlement approving in the process 96 new homes.
Peace Now has condemned the moves saying “the approval of settlement plans is part of a disastrous government policy designed to prevent the possibility of peace and a two-state solution and to annex part or all of the West Bank.”
It noted in particular that the council also approved the Haroeh Haivri outpost as an educational institution with plans for 24 homes. Built in 2015 it is located near the Bedouin herding village of Khan al-Ahmar which the government has sought to evacuate.
The council also authorized the Givat Salit outpost with plans for 94 homes but held off on approving the Brosh outpost. It also delayed the approval of 207 homes in the Har Bracha settlement.
