2023
January
The new Israeli government told the Israeli High Court that the state would reverse its previous position that Israeli settlers leave Homesh, a yeshiva built on private Palestinian property, and that the government intends to change the Disengagement Law. The Palestinian landowners appealed to the court because they have been prevented from reaching their property due to settlers in the Israeli outpost blocking access. The State Attorney's Office said "the political echelon wishes to announce that, in accordance with the coalition agreements that were signed, it intends to act as soon as possible to amend the guidelines permitting Israelis to remain" and requested a further three months to submit another opinion. [40] [41]
In response to the decision to grant the government 90 days to explain its decision to reverse course on Homesh, the US said that "The Homesh outpost in the West Bank is illegal. It is illegal even under Israeli Law. Our call to refrain from unilateral steps certainly includes any decision to create a new settlement, to legalize outposts or allowing building of any kind deep in the West Bank, adjacent to Palestinian communities or on private Palestinian land." [42] [43]
February
Israel approved the legalization of nine illegal settler outposts. A US spokesman said "We strongly oppose expansion of settlements, and we're deeply concerned by reports about a process to legalize outposts that are illegal under Israeli law. We are seeking more information from the Israeli government on what has actually been decided." The Palestinian Authority condemned the decision as crossing "all red lines". [44] [45] [46] [47]
At a UNSC meeting of 20 February, the Council issued a formal statement condemning Israel's plan for settlement expansion on Palestinian territory. It was the first action the United States has permitted against Israel in six years. The statement said "The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines" and "The Security Council expresses deep concern and dismay with Israel's announcement on February 12." The UAE did not push a draft resolution to a vote "given the positive talks between the parties." Netanyahu's office condemned the formal statement saying "The statement should not have been made and the United States should not have joined it." [48] [49]
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took charge of most of the Civil Administration, obtaining broad authority over civilian issues in the West Bank. Israeli peace groups condemned the move as de jure annexation of occupied territories. [50] [51] Rights lawyer Michael Sfard tweeted that the action "entails de jure annexation of the West Bank". [52] [53]
Daniel Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Israel, accused the government of breaking a written agreement with Washington by legalising a "group of hardline nationalist and religious settlements" and called on the Biden administration to prevent Israel's "creeping annexation" of the West Bank. [54]
March
Israel repealed a 2005 law whereby four Israeli settlements, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim, were dismantled as part of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. The move was condemned by the PA and the EU, the latter calling for the revocation of the new law. Critics, including some of the Israeli opposition and NGOs supporting Palestinian rights, denounced the move as a prelude to annexation of the West Bank. [55] [56] [57] [58] The US, in addition to denouncing the move, [59] also summoned the Israeli ambassador to express concern. [60]
May
With Israeli government approval, Israeli settlers relocated a yeshiva established on private Palestinian land in Homesh, to a nearby spot designated state-owned land. The relocation was carried out despite international opposition, including repeatedly from the U.S., and the opposition of the Israeli attorney general. [61] [62] [63] [64] [65]
June
Israel shortened the procedure of approving settlement construction and gave Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich the authority to approve one of the stages, changing the system operating for the last 27 years. The United States said it was "deeply troubled" by the Israeli plans that explicitly violate previous commitments made by Israel to the Biden administration. "The United States is deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s reported decision to advance planning for over 4,000 settlement units in the West Bank. We are similarly concerned by reports of changes to Israel’s system of settlement administration that expedite the planning and approvals of settlements". Tor Wennesland, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process urged a halt and reversal of the decisions and said "I am deeply concerned by the Israeli Government’s decision yesterday to alter settlement planning procedures that have been in place since 1996, which is expected to expedite settlement expansion. I am also alarmed by the anticipated advancement next week of over 4,000 settlement housing units by Israeli planning authorities". The Israeli press reported that the US has informed Israel that the Negev forum on regional cooperation will be postponed as a result of the Israeli moves. [66] [67] [68] [69] [70]
The US criticized Israel’s advancement of plans for 5,700 new homes in Jewish settlements and said it was "an obstacle to peace". [71] [72] [73] [74]
July
In its first six months, construction of 13,000 housing units in settlements, almost triple the amount advanced in the whole of 2022. [75] [76]
In a CNN interview on 9 July 2023, US President Joe Biden said that extreme cabinet ministers in the coalition that back settling "anywhere they want" in the West Bank are "part of the problem" in the conflict. [77] [78]
December
On December 4, the Lower Aqueduct plan for 1792 housing units was approved in an expedited process, marking the first major new East Jerusalem settlement plan in East Jerusalem since Givat HaMatos in 2012. [79] [80]
2024
After Palestinian gunmen killed one Israeli and injured five Israelis near Ma'ale Adumim, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in February 2024 announced a "settlement response" after speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as "any harm to us will lead to more construction and more development and more of our hold all over the country", with 2,350 more homes in Ma'ale Adumim and 300 more homes in Kedar being arranged for approval, as well as 700 more homes in Efrat slated to be built. [81] American Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the announcement, stating that new Israeli settlements are "inconsistent with international law" and "counter-productive to reaching an enduring peace", risking "Israel’s security". [81] Israel's government in early March 2024 fully approved 694 more settler homes for Efrat, and additionally progressed the approval of 2,452 more settler homes in Ma'ale Adumim and 330 more settler homes in Kedar, reported Haaretz . [82] [83]
In late March 2024, Minister Smotrich declared that the Israeli government had newly seized 10 km2 of land in the West Bank, "promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country". [84] Some of the seized land were in the Jordan Valley, and some were between the Israeli settlements Ma'ale Adumim and Kedar. [84] Settlement watchdog group Peace Now claimed that this land seizure was the largest by the Israeli government since the Oslo Accords of 1993. [84]
Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and were first established after Israel's victory in the Six-Day War of June 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this. The expansion of settlements often involves the confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, leading to displacement of Palestinian communities and creating a source of tension and conflict. Settlements are often protected by the Israeli military and are frequently flashpoints for violence against Palestinians. Further, the presence of settlements and Jewish-only bypass roads creates a fragmented Palestinian territory, seriously hindering economic development and freedom of movement for Palestinians.
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.
In 2005, 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally dismantled and Israeli settlers and army evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip, redeploying its military along the border.
The population statistics for Israeli settlements in the West Bank are collected by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. As such, the data contains only population of settlements recognized by the Israeli authorities. Israeli outposts, which are illegal by Israeli law, are not tracked, and their population is hard to establish. All settlements in the West Bank were advised by the International Court of Justice to be unlawful.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, occupation of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, with the former having occupied the Gaza Strip and the latter having annexed the West Bank; the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were under the sovereignty of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The first conjoined usage of the terms "occupied" and "territories" with regard to Israel was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and called for: "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
The status of territories captured by Israel is the status of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, all of which were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Homesh was an Israeli settlement in the West Bank along Route 60, just south of the Palestinian towns of Silat ad-Dhahr and Fandaqumiya, illegally built over private Palestinian land. The settlement was under the administrative jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council. In 2005, the settlement homes were demolished along with three other settlements in the northern West Bank, at the same time as the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.
Sa-Nur was an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank, just north of the Palestinian towns of Silat ad-Dhahr and Fandaqumiya, under the administrative jurisdiction of Shomron Regional Council until 2005. Prior to its demolition, Sa-Nur was home to 43 families.
Yossi Dagan is an Israeli activist and politician who has been the head of the Shomron Regional Council since August 2015.
In Israeli law, an outpost is an unauthorized or illegal Israeli settlement within the West Bank, constructed without the required authorization from the Israeli government in contravention of Israeli statutes regulating planning and construction. In Israeli law, outposts are distinguished from settlements authorized by the Israeli government. This distinction between illegal outposts and "legal" settlements is not endorsed by international law, which considers both a violation of the norms, governing belligerent occupations, applicable to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Oslo II Accord divided the Israeli-occupied West Bank into three administrative divisions: the Palestinian enclaves as "Areas A and B" and the remainder, including Israeli settlements, as "Area C".
The Levy Report, officially called Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, is an 89-page report on West Bank settlements published on 9 July 2012, authored by a three-member committee headed by former Israeli Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy. The committee, dubbed the "outpost committee", was appointed by Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late January 2012 to investigate the legal status of unauthorized West Bank Jewish settlements, but also examined whether the Israeli presence in the West Bank is to be considered an occupation or not.
Bezalel Yoel Smotrich is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022. The leader of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, he previously served as a Knesset member for Yamina.
Annexation of the Jordan Valley is the proposed application of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. The idea has been advocated by some Israeli politicians since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, most notably with the Allon Plan and the 2020 Trump peace plan. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu's September 2019 annexation proposal included Jericho becoming a Palestinian enclave.
Settlement blocs is term used to refer to Israeli settlements and the territory around them considered candidates to be retained by Israel in any peace agreement. The exact extent of these blocs has never been defined or agreed upon.
Limor Son Har-Melech is a far-right Israeli politician. She has served as a member of the Knesset for the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party following the 2022 Israeli legislative election.
Amihai Ben-Eliyahu, commonly known as Amihai Eliyahu, is an Israeli far-right politician and activist who has served as Minister of Heritage since 2022. Eliyahu also briefly served as a member of the Knesset for Otzma Yehudit following the 2022 Israeli legislative election.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2023.
The Israeli government’s Coalition Agreement of December 1, 2022 between incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the far-right, ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism party of Bezalel Smotrich states that "the prime minister will work towards the formulation and promotion of a policy whereby sovereignty is applied to Judea and Samaria". Smotrich would take up a new post of minister within the defense ministry, where he would oversee civil matters in the West Bank. Other commitments included legalization of dozens of unauthorized settlements and the provision of large funds for road building and public transport in the West Bank.
