Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says move aimed at ‘burying’ idea of Palestinian state
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has advanced plans to build a settlement in the E1 area surrounding East Jerusalem and derail the creation of a Palestinian state.
The minister said on Thursday he would approve tenders for more than 3,000 housing units, effectively splitting the occupied West Bank in two.
The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the UN began tracking the data.
In 2025, “plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, compared with some 26,170 in 2024″, said the report, according to a report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, seen by AFP.
Israel’s security cabinet has approved 19 more settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the number granted permission the past three years to 69.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, revealed the latest proposal had been passed after pushing it through the cabinet. Mr Smotrich openly says the new settlements will prevent a Palestinian state from establishing itself, something critics also decry. The 19 include two from which Israel withdrew in 2005.
Internal Security Forces affiliated with Syria’s Interior Ministry, working with the General Intelligence Directorate, carried out what the ministry described as a well coordinated security operation in Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on Sunday, 21 December, targeting an Islamic State group site.
Israel’s security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move the country’s far-right finance minister said on Sunday was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a statement from the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The revelation adds to evidence suggesting Israel knew of the Hamas attack in advance, yet allowed it to occur
An Israeli soldier stated that he and his fellow soldiers stationed at a military outpost near Gaza received orders not to carry out their usual early morning patrol on the border fence on 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported on 17 July.
Tel Aviv’s colonial project blends the ambitions of Greater Israel with the reach of ‘Great Israel’ – annexing land while redrawing the sovereignty of its Arab neighbors.
Four weeks after Israel signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain on 15 September 2020, Tel Aviv’s Higher Planning Council approved 4,948 new settler units in the occupied West Bank. No public fanfare.
Born from a religious call to arms against ISIS terror, Iraq’s PMU has become more than a military force – it is now a pillar of national strength and a powerful player in the country’s struggle to reclaim full sovereignty.
In June 2014, the Iraqi army collapsed under the weight of ISIS’s blitz across Mosul. The so-called caliphate then surged toward Baghdad, threatening to overrun the capital and desecrate the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.
Europe’s belated recognition of Palestinian statehood is a naked geopolitical maneuver – part of a wider normalization push that sidelines Palestinian liberation, while repackaging defeat as diplomatic progress. Are we witnessing the birth of a state? Or the declaration of its defeat?
Since its inception in 1948, Israel has never operated within fixed borders. Expansion has always been its doctrine – not constrained by law, but propelled by force and endorsed by unwavering western support. Israel has refused to define its boundaries for almost eight decades because its very identity is rooted in a colonial ambition that has never truly ended.
It is in Israel’s interest to allow the US the space and time to act according to its own approach, until Washington reaches the inevitable conclusion that Hamas cannot be disarmed.
The ceasefire that came into effect on the basis of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, leading to the release of all living hostages and 26 of the 28 deceased hostages, constitutes a significant achievement for Israel, all the more so given that it was secured while the country continued to hold 53% of the Gaza Strip at this stage.