Israel has suggested it could legalise 68 settler outposts in the occupied West Bank — a move that has been labelled "dangerous and reckless".
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in late April said he wanted to pursue legalisation, Israeli media reported, with the Times of Israel labelling the proposition "one of the most dramatic expansions" for the settlement movement in decades.
The United States, which opposes the settlements and believes they violate international law, said it was concerned by the reports.
"These reports about directives to support illegal outposts in the West Bank, we believe that to be dangerous and reckless," State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said last week.
The US would "continue to urge Israeli officials to refrain from taking actions to fund outposts that have long been illegal under Israeli law," he added.
It's not the first time the settlements have sparked concern and criticism, and it almost certainly won't be the last.
How long have Jewish settlements existed?
Israel began its occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank after it
Since then, Jewish settlements in these occupied Palestinian territories have steadily increased. Figures from Peace Now, an Israeli non-government organisation, show that Israel has built almost 147 settlements, and an additional 150 outposts which have been completed without government approval.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported Israel has also built more than 600 physical barriers; including checkpoints, roadblocks, and a 700km-long barrier wall that runs mostly through the West Bank.
The expansion of Jewish settlements has significantly fragmented Palestinian land.
"When you look at a map, the West Bank seems like a contiguous piece of land," Andrew Thomas, a lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Deakin University, told SBS News.
"It's actually much more like small pieces of land … with little military checkpoints in between each one.
As well as developing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Israel has built hundreds of physical barriers throughout the territory.
The Israeli government has so far this year designated more than 1,093 hectares of the West Bank as state land.
That's already more than any other year to date in just three months.
Dror Etkes, founder of Kerem Navot — an Israeli group that monitors settlement activity, told SBS News: "There are things happening in the West Bank that we haven’t seen in decades.
"Massive expropriations of land, in order to allocate them in the future to Israeli settlements."
How many settlers are living in the West Bank?
The United Nations says that there are now more than 700,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the US government estimates three million Palestinians are living in the West Bank.
Israeli government statistics reported that the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, grew by almost 3 per cent in 2023, jumping to 517,407 from 502,991 a year earlier.
Israeli governments have over the years offered them incentives to move there, including subsidised housing, discounts on development, and greater government investment in infrastructure.
Who is living in the West Bank settlements?
Many of those living in the Jewish settlements are newly arrived immigrants in Israel from other countries, who have made aliyah, a Hebrew term for immigration of Jews to Israel.
Israel's law of return allows Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship.
"The settlers come from a broad range of societies, in fact, all over the world. A lot of Jews from the diaspora come and conduct aliyah," Thomas said.
"Some of them, in their migration to Israel … they come and they attempt settlement in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem."
Israel's Law of Return allows people with Jewish ancestry, to come to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Source: AFP / Jack Guez/via Getty Images
However, some people living in the Jewish settlements are also choosing to settle in the West Bank for ideological reasons.
"A lot of these people are quite religious, and they inherently believe that the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria, is their birthright, is holy, and part of Greater Israel," Thomas said.
Why are Jewish settlements controversial?
The UN considers these settlements illegal under international law, while states that an occupying power can’t move its civilians to the territory it occupies.
The United States, Israel's staunchest ally, agrees.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in February: "It's been long-standing US policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace."
"They're also inconsistent with international law. Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion."
However, Israel considers the West Bank to be disputed territory, not occupied territory. And, in 2018, it passed the nation-state law, which established the settlement as a national value that must be promoted by the state.
"We are settling our land from width to length, controlling it and fighting terror always and bringing with God’s help security to all of Israel. Without settlement there is no security," Smortrich said.
What's Australia's stance on Jewish settlements?
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has criticised the building of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as illegal under international law and a barrier to peace.
"We believe settlements are contrary to international law. We have also consistently said that they are an impediment to peace," Wong told reporters when she visited Israel in January.
Wong reaffirmed the government's position that West Bank settlements weren't consistent with the "pathway to a two-state solution".
"We don't believe — as the Australian Government, we've made that clear — that settlements are consistent with that pathway to a two-state solution."
"It is clear from the conflict that the path to peace demands a just and enduring two-state solution," she said, adding that it demands the recognition of Palestinians' aspirations for statehood and security for Israelis.
With additional reporting by Reuters and the Australian Associated Press.
