How Israel is Expanding Settlements in a Drive to Reshape the West Bank
BBC News
Image source: Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images
By Joe Inwood, World news correspondent
Published 13 minutes ago
It was during a ceremony at a settlement in the occupied West Bank last September that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made his intentions clear: "We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state. This place belongs to us." He was signing an agreement to push ahead with the expansion of a settlement in an area known as E1, just east of Jerusalem.
In recent days, the opening up of tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes on this strategically important land has brought widespread condemnation. All settlements are illegal under international law and, under global pressure, Israel held off for decades on plans to build in the area.
After the recent announcement, the UN secretary general stated these actions posed an "existential threat" to a future Palestinian state. A joint statement by the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada labeled the plans "unacceptable" and said they would "drive a wedge through the West Bank", a sentiment echoed by the European Union. This was welcomed by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, who called for concrete measures to halt the implementation of the E1 plan.
Along with Gaza and the Golan Heights, the West Bank was captured during the 1967 war against a coalition of Arab states. Israel has controlled it ever since. As occupied land, international law prohibits Israel from settling it. Despite this, the number of Israelis living in settlements there has grown over the years. Approximately 700,000 Jews reside in around 160 settlements built since 1967.
There has been a notable increase in settlement construction speed since 2022, accelerating further after the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel. One example is Tzofim, a settlement in the northwest of the territory, where BBC Verify analysis reveals the construction of around 185 new buildings since 2022 via satellite imagery. Similar expansion has occurred at Kochav Hashahar, where existing infrastructure has been extended in multiple directions with roads, houses, and a new settler outpost on surrounding lands.
Hundreds of outposts, illegal under both Israeli and international law, have been established since the 1990s. Dozens have been retroactively legalized by the government. Perhaps the most contentious is the E1 settlement, which would effectively divide the West Bank in two, isolating East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory.
Opponents argue this development would block the establishment of a Palestinian state as it would sever the north of the West Bank from the south and prevent the development of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, stated: "The government is trying to sign contracts with contractors before the (upcoming October) elections so that it will be much harder for the next government to cancel the construction."
