The Israeli government is moving forward to legalize 35% of the settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, as part of a plan that includes “regulating 70 out of 200 settlement outposts located in Area C,” according to a report issued by the Bimkom - Planning and Human Rights Association, on Wednesday.

The report stated that the Minister of Finance and Minister of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, “has been taking a step since February of this year to regularize 35% of the settlement outposts currently existing on the lands of Area C in the West Bank, despite the damage to the rule of law, spatial planning in the West Bank, and the Israeli economy, and despite the fact that the majority of the ‘sites designated for settlement’ are useless to regularize, or the chances of regularizing them are slim.”

According to the information presented in the report, "the step that Israel is pushing for includes settling 63 sites in Area C, where there are currently 70 out of 200 settlement outposts in these areas."

The report indicated that "as part of this step, the Israeli government is working to immediately connect it to water and electricity networks, build public buildings in it, and stop the legal enforcement procedures against it."

He stated that "based on an analysis of the manner in which Israel seized land, it becomes clear that 49 out of 63 sites were seized on private Palestinian land, while unproven land was seized in five additional settlement outposts."

The report stressed that "legally, the step being pushed by Minister Smotrich goes beyond the law applied in the occupied territories, which limits the issue of connecting infrastructure to buildings built with a building permit only."

In this context, the report indicates that “discrimination in planning against the Palestinian population is getting worse, as this step excludes illegal construction for Jews, while the law prohibiting construction without a permit is strictly applied against Palestinians in the West Bank.”

To illustrate the discrimination in planning against Palestinians in Area C, the report reviewed “recent data indicating that since 2011, the Israeli authorities have approved only 7 out of 115 settlement plans submitted for existing Palestinian buildings for Palestinians,” stressing that “all of this is happening in light of a large gap in the area of land allocated for development for each of the two population groups in the West Bank; while the area on which Palestinians can legally build constitutes only 0.5% of the area of Area C, the approved plans for settlements extend over 28% of the area of Area C.”

The report stressed that "the Israeli government's decision empties the planning process of its content and harms the motives for legal and organized planning. This is because it allows the establishment of effective settlements, connected to infrastructure, despite the lack of approval of a plan that is supposed to constitute the legal basis for construction. In addition, from an economic standpoint," stressing that "implementing the government's decision will cost the Israeli public billions of shekels, most of which will be wasted, as this includes connecting the infrastructure of dozens of small and isolated settlement outposts, and constructing public buildings and security facilities, while settling most of them will be linked to the demolition of many buildings if plans are prepared for the settlement outposts and if the owners of the buildings wish to obtain building permits."

The report examined the settlement outposts that were classified as settlement sites, and found that most of them do not meet the basic conditions for promoting a settlement plan. In 32 of these sites, there is no feasibility for presenting a settlement plan, while the feasibility of 12 of these sites is low, no more, and in addition to them, 6 sites have medium feasibility for their settlement, and only in 9 sites is there high feasibility, according to the report.

According to the report, "even for the points for which there is some merit in settling, nearly half of them have been subject to planning settlement attempts in the past, and these attempts have not progressed."

He stated that “the obstacles to its settlement include: the lack of feasibility of legal access routes due to their passage through Palestinian lands, the difficult terrain, the difficulty of determining the scope of jurisdiction, and the unsuitability of state lands for development.”

"The Israeli government's decision shows that illegal construction by settlers is what drives spatial planning in Area C," said Bimkom - Planning and Human Rights. "Instead of the Civil Administration planning the area under its responsibility according to planning considerations and for the benefit of the protected Palestinian population, the reality is shaped by the settlers and according to their interests."

The association stressed that the settlers “impose facts on the ground, and the planning system subsequently, under the direction of the political level, settles and expands the construction; thus, the planning system is used as a tool in the hands of the settlers to achieve their goals of seizing as much land as possible, while excluding Palestinians from the area, and creating spatial fragmentation that prevents the possibility of Palestinian development.”