Israel approves illegal settlement plan that would split occupied West Bank....not even trying to hide the genocide

Palestinian hamlets are seen at the E1 area, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, between the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim and the occupied West Bank town of Eizariya [File: Nasser Nasser/AP]

Aug. 20, 2025  - Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank that experts say would damage plans for any future territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who announced the plan on August 14, hailed the decision as “historic” and framed the approval as a rebuke to Western countries that announced their plans to recognise a Palestinian state in recent weeks.

“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” Smotrich, a settler himself, said on Wednesday.

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