Watchdog report finds surge in Israeli settlement building

Construction rate of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank has surged sharply as Israeli authorities have taken advantage of the Trump administration's break with a longstanding US policy.

JERUSALEM — Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now has released a report that found Israel's average annual construction rate of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank has risen 25% since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

It also found that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has laid the groundwork for a further, sharp spike in settlement construction in the coming years by approving plans to build thousands more settlement homes.

“In my opinion, they’re trying to take advantage of the window of opportunity that they have under the Trump administration, knowing that it might change in a few months,” Hagit Ofran, a researcher for the group, told the Associated Press news agency. “There was no such supportive administration for the settlements previously, ever.”

According to the Peace Now figures, Israel began construction on 1,917 new homes in the West Bank last year. That marked a slight dip from 2,100 construction starts in 2018. But overall, Israel has begun construction on an average of 2,267 homes per year since Trump took office, compared to an annual average of 1,807 units during the Obama administration. The construction was scattered throughout the West Bank, including small settlements deep inside the territory.

That new annual construction could house roughly an addition 9,000 people per year in settlements, based on Peace Now's estimate of four people per a household.

According to Peace Now, Israel last year advanced plans to build nearly 8,457 new homes, putting them on track to potentially be built in the coming years — up from 5,618 units last year and 6,742 in 2017. By comparison, Israel advanced plans for a total 4,611 new homes during the final two years of the Obama administration, when ties with the US were strained.

Most of the world considers the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, to be occupied Palestinian territory and Israeli settlements illegal obstacles to peace. But Donald Trump, who has surrounded himself with advisers with close ties to the settlement movement and counts pro-Israel Evangelicals as a key support base, has broken with a longstanding US foreign policy stance by taking a much softer line.

Trump’s administration declared last year that it did not consider the settlements to be illegal under international law. Then, in January, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner unveiled a long-awaited peace plan that envisions placing large swathes of Palestinian territory, including all of the settlements, under permanent Israeli control.

The Palestinians, with wide international backing, seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, also captured in 1967, as parts of a future independent state. But with nearly 500,000 settlers now living in the West Bank, and over 220,000 more in east Jerusalem, the Palestinians say the chances of establishing a state in those territories are quickly dwindling.

They have rejected the Trump Mideast plan, saying it would extinguish any remaining hopes of independence. But with little chance of any international pressure that could prompt Israel to halt its creeping takeover of land that would have formed a Palestinan state, many are saying that the future of the Holy Land will most likely see Israel retain the status quo and entrench a system in which it rules over both Palestinians and Israeli citizens with two different sets of rules. Some, including proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that seeks to compel Israel to comply with international law, have accused Israel of mimicking the tactics of apartheid South Africa.

Netanyahu, fighting for his political life after numerous inconclusive elections and amid his looming corruption trial, took a number of pro-settlement steps while campaigning for re-election early this year. Immediately after Trump unveiled his Mideast plan, Netanyahu vowed to begin annexing the settlements. When the White House balked, he pushed forward a flurry of new settlement plans as he tried to cater to his hard-line base.

Despite these steps, Netanyahu came up short as the March 2 election ended in deadlock. Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, is now trying to form the country’s next government but also appears to face long odds of success. If neither man can cobble together a governing coalition, the country could plunge into a fourth consecutive election.

But the prospects for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, or a halt to settlement construction, would remain slim regardless of the outcome of Israeli elections. Israel's settlement program has been pursued by all of Israel's governments in past decades, regardless of their political leanings. Gantz, who has portrayed himself as more reliable and moderate than Netanyahu, also endorsed Trump's plan to annex settlements when it was initially announced.