The Israeli Higher Planning Council is set to approve 1,170 new housing units in illegal West Bank settlements, further entrenching occupation and displacement, Peace Now warns.
The Israeli Higher Planning Council is set to convene on Wednesday to discuss the approval of 1,170 new housing units in four illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now reported.
The majority of these units—756—are reportedly planned for Gvaot, a settlement adjacent to the Palestinian village of Nahalin, southwest of Bethlehem, where approximately 50 families currently reside. The other settlements are Itamar, Shaarei Tikva, and Givat Zeev.
If approved, the expansion of Gvaot would mark a significant increase in its size, following the council’s approval last year of a smaller deposit of 250 housing units. According to Peace Now the expected approval would expand the settlement twentyfold.
The Higher Planning Council will convene on Wednesday, February 26, to discuss the approval of 1,170 housing units across four settlements: Gvaot, Itamar, Shaarei Tikva, and Givat Zeev.
— Peace Now (@peacenowisrael) February 24, 2025
The Higher Planning Council has dramatically increased the pace of settlement expansion in recent months.
Peace Now noted that “since early December 2024, the Higher Planning Council has been holding weekly meetings to advance settlement housing projects, with approvals at each session ranging from several hundred to over a thousand units.”
A key policy change implemented by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in June 2023 has allowed for the acceleration of settlement approvals.
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Of these, 756 units are planned for Gvaot, a settlement adjacent to the Palestinian village of Nahalin, where approximately 50 families reside.
In July 2024, the HPC approved the deposit of 250 housing units in Gvaot. This settlement is set to expand twentyfold. pic.twitter.com/ZM8wLXD8ph
— Peace Now (@peacenowisrael) February 24, 2025
Previously, all settlement construction plans required direct approval from the Israeli defense minister. However, this requirement was removed, enabling the Higher Planning Council to greenlight projects without additional political oversight.
Peace Now, which monitors and opposes Israel’s settlement policies, condemned the ongoing expansion, saying in a statement:
“The Israeli government is making clear, week after week, and day after day, what it envisions for our future: a future of permanent illegal occupation, apartheid, dispossession, and violence”.
“These approvals of settlement housing units will not bring security to Israelis or Palestinians—on the contrary, they will deepen the conflict, fuel violence, and push a political solution further away. This reckless expansion policy must be stopped before it is too late,” the statement added.
Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law and has been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations and international human rights organizations. Despite this, the current Israeli government has continued to advance plans, further entrenching its control over Palestinian land.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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