Israel’s new settlement plan expands West Bank annexation

In the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on August 14th a plan to build 3,400 new settler homes, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI). 

The project, known as “E1,” would be located east of Jerusalem and would effectively split the West Bank in two, destroying the possibility of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state. 

Smotrich himself openly stated that the plan would undermine any prospect of Palestinian statehood “because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,” adding: “this is Zionism at its best—building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”

Abdallah al-Awad, a lifelong resident of Turmus Ayya in the occupied West Bank, spoke with RFI correspondents. From a vantage point above his village, he points to the Israeli settlement of Shilo on the opposite side of the valley, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.

Then, he gestures toward a cluster of tents even closer to the Palestinian village. Here, he explains, radical young Israeli settlers are based, launching repeated attacks and harassment against neighbouring Palestinian communities. This is how the colonisation project advances.

In Israel itself, anti-occupation NGOs have documented land confiscations and the strategic placement of mobile homes by the most hardline settler groups, actions sometimes taken without waiting for official approval from Israeli authorities.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, over 700,000 settlers now reside in roughly 160 settlements spread across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The pace of annexation has only intensified since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, with new settlement projects accelerating despite international condemnation.

Meanwhile, as Israel’s military campaign continues and Gaza suffers the devastation of more than 22 months of war, several Western countries—including France, the United Kingdom, and Canada—have pledged to recognise Palestinian statehood at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September 2025.

When asked by RFI reporters about his view on Western recognition of Palestine, Wadi Alkam, another Palestinian villager, expresses bitter frustration: “What do you expect them to recognise? When Israel will have already confiscated all the land?”

Middle East Eye, BBC, Maghrebi.org