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Canada and 13 other countries issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a broader intensification of settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but also risk fueling instability,” the statement said. joint statement said.
On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet announced the approval of 19 additional settlements, bringing to 69 the number of new settlements in recent years, according to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has championed an expansion program in the West Bank.
This approval increases the number of settlements in the West Bank by almost 50 percent during the term of the current far-right government. In 2022, there were 141 in the West Bank. Today there are 210, according to Peace Now, an anti-colonization watchdog group.
The settlements are widely considered illegal under international law. Smotrich’s office said cabinet approval was obtained Dec. 11 and the project was shelved until Sunday.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Anita Anand condemned the news in an article on X.
“Continued settlement expansion is contrary to international law and jeopardizes the 20-Point Peace Plan. Clearly, such action undermines the prospects of a two-state solution and the ultimate goal of Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and security,” Anand said.
The approval comes as the United States pushes Israel and Hamas to move forward with the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, which took effect on October 10. The U.S.-brokered plan calls for an eventual “pathway” to Palestinian statehood, something the settlements aim to prevent.
The cabinet decision included a retroactive legalization of certain previously established settlement outposts or neighborhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated, the Israeli Finance Ministry said. Settlement sizes can vary from a single dwelling to a collection of skyscrapers.
The ministry said two of the settlements legalized in the latest approval are Kadim and Ganim, which were two of four West Bank settlements dismantled in 2005 as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. There have been multiple attempts to resettle them after the Israeli government in March 2023 repealed a 2005 law that evacuated the four outposts and barred Israelis from re-entering the areas.
