[News] Israel: illegal settler population continues to increase

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220310-israel-illegal-settler-population-continues-to-increase/>
Israel:
illegal settler population continues to increase
March 10, 2022
------------------------------

Israel's illegal settler population in the occupied West Bank increased at
a dramatic rate last year despite the Biden administration in the US
rejecting Israel's push to build more settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territories, a pro-settler group said today.

The report by West Bank Jewish Population Stats shows that the aggressive
Israeli settlement spree during Donald Trump's presidency has not slowed
down. Trump's administration declared in 2019 that it did not consider the
settlements to be illegal
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191119-palestine-pm-slams-us-policy-shift-on-settlements/>
under international law. The reality is that all settlers and settlements
are illegal under international law.

Trump's views about settlements were consistent with his pro-Israel
position. Throughout his presidency he displayed contempt for international
law relating to Israel-Palestine by recognising
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171206-trump-recognizes-jerusalem-as-israeli-capital/>
Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, moving the US embassy from
Tel Aviv
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180514-palestinian-outrage-as-us-embassy-opens-in-jerusalem-70-years-since-nakba-day/>
to Jerusalem and then formally recognising Israel's 1981 annexation
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190321-breaking-trump-says-time-for-us-to-recognize-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan/>
of the Golan Heights.

Biden's administration may criticise settlement expansion as an obstacle to
resolving the conflict, but it does nothing to stop Israel from expanding
and building settlements and settling ever more Jews in the occupied
Palestinian territories. According to the statistical report noted above,
the Israeli settler population grew to 490,493 as of 30 January, a rise of
almost 3.2 per cent over thirteen months. The illegal settler population
has risen by 16.5 per cent since the group began compiling statistics in
2017.

"There's a tremendous amount of [settlement] construction going on," said
the group's CEO, Baruch Gordon, including some in his community of Beit El,
near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. "Right now there's 350 units
going up that will probably be finished within a year, year and a half. So
when that hits, that's going to increase the size of our town by about 25
per cent."

The settler population, explained Gordon, tends to be younger and more
religious, with a higher average birth rate. Many Israelis are drawn to the
state-subsidised settlements for the quality of life. "Just like in
America, people moved out of Manhattan and went to the suburbs and found
that they could live in more open spaces, and the same is happening in
Israel."

Data <https://www.ochaopt.org/data/demolition> from the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this month revealed that
over 1,300
Palestinians
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220301-over-1300-palestinians-displaced-from-home-demolitions-since-biden-took-office/>,
including children, have been displaced as a result of the rapid surge in
home demolitions since Biden took office. Palestinians have also been
evicted from their homes in occupied Jerusalem, which are then handed over
to settlers.

Activists condemn US President Joe Biden's refusal to take any practical
steps and apply meaningful pressure to the apartheid regime in Israel
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/>
to end such practices which are akin to crimes against humanity and ethnic
cleansing. This, they point out, undermines the credibility of his declared
public opposition to settlement expansion and home demolitions.
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