JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH: Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to separate 13 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank from their neighbouring communities, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.

The settlements will ultimately be recognised as independent, he posted on X about the move, which follows the approval of tens of thousands of housing units across the West Bank.

“We continue to lead a revolution of normalisation and regulation in the settlements. Instead of hiding and apologising we raise the flag, build and settle. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said, using Israel’s term for the West Bank.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry criticised the approval of the separation of the neighbourhoods and their recognition as independent settlements as disregarding international legitimacy and resolutions.

Hamas, the Palestinian group governing Gaza, condemned the move in the West Bank, describing it as a “desperate attempt to impose realities on the ground and consolidate colonial occupation on Palestinian lands”.

Palestinians denounce new occupation following the approval of tens of thousands of housing units

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967 during the six-day war. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements on territory seized in the war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.

Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of US President Donald Trump.

Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party and a key partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, has for years called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

He noted that until now the 13 settlements were formally considered part of their parent communities, in some cases for decades, which he said caused significant difficulties in their daily management.

“Recognising each of them as an independent settlement is an important step that will greatly assist in their advancement and development,” Smotrich said.

New occupation

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned on Sunday an Israeli decision to recognise more than a dozen new settlements in the occupied West Bank, upgrading existing neighbourhoods to independent settlement status.

The decision by Israel’s security cabinet was a show of “disregard for international legitimacy and its resolutions”, said a statement from the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry.

“The recognition of each (neighbourhood) as a separate community... is an important step that would help their development,” Smotrich said in a statement on Telegram, calling it part of a “revolution”.

Hamas “strongly condemned” Smotrich’s remarks, describing them as proof that settlements were a “racist replacement project”.

In its statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry also mentioned an ongoing major Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, saying it was accompanied by “an unprecedented escalation in the confiscation of Palestinian lands”.

The 13 settlement neighbourhoods approved for development by the Israeli cabinet are located across the West Bank. Some are effectively part of bigger settlements, while others are practically separate.

Their recognition as distinct communities under Israeli law is not yet final.

Peace Now, an Israeli NGO that opposes the settlements in the West Bank, condemned the decision to recognise 13 new ones as “another nail in the coffin” for hopes of a two-state solution that would see a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The move “exposes Israel’s long-standing lie that it does not establish new settlements, but only ‘neighbourhoods’ of existing settlements”, it said in a statement.

However, the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation for the municipal councils of West Bank settlements, hailed the “normalisation” of settlement expansion and thanked Smotrich for pushing for the cabinet decision.

According to European Union figures, 2023 saw a 30-year record high in settlement building permits issued by Israel.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2025