Far-right Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the far-right new government of Benjamin Netanyahu will lift all restrictions on the construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian lands, defying international law and US opposition, Thursday, 16 February 2023.
“The real answer to terror is to continue to build, to continue to set roots in the land of Israel,” said Right-wing extremist Bezalel Smotrich during a press conference at the illegal West Bank outpost of Givat Harel.
“The settlement enterprise thrives thanks to the pioneers who have sustained it for many years, with great love, with great determination, with great consistency and efficiency.” He added
The minister noted that he will try to push for more settlement authorization, saying “We must lift all the restrictions on construction in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. This area must function like any other in the State of Israel.”
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the legalization of nine outposts deep in the occupied West Bank in sheer defiance of the outcry from the international community and Palestinians who want an end to the regime’s settlement projects.
In a statement, Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the decision listing the illegal outposts as Avigayil, Beit Hogla, Givat Harel, Givat Arnon, Mitzpe Yehuda, Malachei Hashalom, Asahel, Sde Boaz, and Shacharit.
To legalize the outposts, the far-right Israeli government will have to prove that they were established on what Israel claims to be state land. This will likely be difficult given that many of them, including almost all of Sde Boaz and Givat Harel, were built on private Palestinian land.
It’s worth noting that more than 650,000 colonial settlers distributed among 164 illegal settlements and 124 outposts built on the stolen lands of occuiped West Bank and Jerusalem.
The West Bank and Jerusalem lands are occupied territories based on International law due to this all Israeli settlement-building activities there are illegal.
