Members of the Settlement “Directorate” formed by the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, after his appointment as Minister Responsible for Settlements in the Ministry of Security, intend to hold a meeting of the Supreme Planning Committee of the “Civil Administration”, affiliated with the Israeli Army, with the aim of approving the construction of 7,000 new housing units in Settlements in the West Bank.

The Ynet website reported today, Friday, that members of the Directorate are seeking to speed up the approval of 7,000 new housing units in the settlements, including more than 2,000 housing units that will be finally approved. This settlement plan includes expanding settlements, legitimizing random settlement outposts, and increasing the number of settlers.

The Israeli political level must approve holding a meeting of the Supreme Planning Committee in the Civil Administration, but planning the amount of permits to build housing units in the settlements began some time ago.

The push for these settlement plans comes at a time when the administration of US President Joe Biden is pushing a comprehensive plan for the Palestinian situation after the end of the war on Gaza, which includes the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, so that a “developed Palestinian authority” will hand over governance in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, after many years, according to the American plan, in addition to normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Ynet quoted the Chairman of the Settlement Bloc Council, Gush Etzion, and the Chairman of the Settlements Council, Shlomo Neeman, as saying that the Supreme Planning Committee has not met since last June. He added, "Our silence so far stems from the realization that the State of Israel exists in a very complex period, while strategic relations with the United States are conducted according to the needs of war."

Neeman considered that "the time has now come to end the construction freeze and liberate us from the disgraceful American directives that apparently prevent construction" in the settlements.

He continued, "Any housing unit that is not planned this year will not be built in the next three years. The Israeli government and its president must realize that we have reached the stage in which the enemy will receive a response not only in Gaza and Lebanon, but in Judea and Samaria as well."