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Israel's security cabinet has given its endorsement to the establishment of nineteen additional communities in the disputed Palestinian territories, representing a ongoing campaign for community development.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler who put forward the step in concert with Defense Chief Israel Katz, stated that the decision was intended for blocking the establishment of a sovereign Palestine.

Under international law, Jewish communities in the occupied West Bank are considered in violation of international law.

The decision has sparked criticism from Saudi Arabia. The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has previously stated that Israel's "unceasing" growth of communities heightens frictions, curtails Palestinians' access to land, and threatens the prospects of a sovereign Palestine.

Rising Tensions and Diplomatic Fallout

Unrest in the occupied West Bank has surged since the hostilities in the Gaza Strip began in the autumn of 2023, intensifying fears that settlement expansion could solidify Israel's occupation and undermine the chance for a peaceful resolution based on two states.

The two-state solution envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Palestinian territories, with Jerusalem's eastern sector as its seat of government, broadly along the lines that were in place before the 1967 Six-Day Middle East war.

Upon assuming leadership in 2022, the current Israeli government has significantly increased the approval of fresh communities and initiated the formal recognition for previously illegal settler outposts, recognising them as "neighbourhoods" of existing settlements.

Ongoing Growth

The most recent approval takes the cumulative figure of settlements authorized over the past three years to sixty-nine, as stated by Minister Smotrich.

These decisions arrive a short time after the United Nations reported that settlement expansion had hit its highest level since the year 2017.

The newest round of authorizations encompasses the rebuilding of two settlements — Ganim and Kadim — which were removed about in 2005.

Previously, the Israeli government gave the nod to twenty-two additional communities in the territories - described as the most significant wave of approvals in many years.

In a related development, the Israeli government sanctioned blueprints in August to construct over 3,000 residences in the controversial E1 corridor between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement, a plan that had been on hold for many years amid strong international condemnation.

Regarding that plan, Smotrich remarked it would "end the notion of a Palestinian state."

Population Facts and International Response

An estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers live in around one hundred and sixty communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as per data from the Israeli monitoring organization Peace Now. This is land that Palestinians aspire to have for a future sovereign nation.

Settlement expansion has provoked Arab states who have consistently contended it harms hopes for a peaceful two-state outcome.

It has also sparked concerns about the potential formal annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Former US President Donald Trump had once admonished the Israeli leadership about such a move, stating to a publication that Israel would lose its backing from the United States if it occurred.

Recently, the United Kingdom - together with other countries including Australia and Canada - acknowledged a Palestinian state, a major although primarily ceremonial change in government policy.

The Israeli government was against the move, with PM Benjamin Netanyahu asserting that a Palestinian state "is off the table."