The Israeli “Security Cabinet” has secretly approved the construction of 22 new colonies in the occupied West Bank, including the reconstruction of Homesh and Sanur, two colonies previously dismantled under Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan.
This decision, initiated by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, was made two weeks ago and includes settlements across Mateh Binyamin, the Dead Sea region, the Jordan Valley, and Mount Hebron. The names of the colonies remain temporary.
It is worth mentioning that Mateh Binyamin Regional Council is a regional council governing 47 illegal Israeli colonies and colonist outposts across the occupied West Bank.
Additionally, the Cabinet approved a proposal to resume Israeli land registration procedures in Area C (%62 of the occupied West Bank), aiming to counter Palestinian land registration efforts, which Israel claims are “unauthorized.”
The resolution states that Palestinian land registration documents, maps, and approvals will hold “no legal status in Israel,” and that army has been instructed to block Palestinian land registration activities.
Israeli “Strategic Affairs” Minister Ron Dermer has reportedly proposed applying Israeli sovereignty over 65% of the West Bank in what he called “response to European recognition of a Palestinian state, particularly by France.”
According to reports, Yisrael Gantz, head of the West Bank “Settlements Council,” presented a plan to Trump administration officials and U.S. defense and foreign ministry representatives, advocating for Israeli control over 65% of the West Bank, while Palestinians would be confined to 20 isolated enclaves without political autonomy.
The plan suggests that Israeli law would be enforced across 65% of the West Bank, “preventing Palestinians from forming a unified national entity.”
Gantz reportedly argued that U.S. approval is essential to blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state, linking the proposal to French President Emmanuel Macron’s push for Palestinian recognition.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has warned major world powers that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state “would prompt Israel to impose sovereignty over the West Bank.”
Sa’ar told British and French officials that any unilateral move against Israel would be met with “Israeli countermeasures.”
These developments come ahead of an international conference scheduled for June 17-20 in New York, led by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed at securing recognition of a Palestinian state.
Israel has strongly opposed Macron’s initiative, accusing him of “undermining moral values in light of the October 7 attacks.”
While the United States has declined to participate, key European nations, including Germany, have rejected the French proposal, while Spain and Malta have expressed support.
On the ground, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have escalated their invasions and violations across the occupied West Bank, with dozens of colonizers also attacking Palestinian homes, uprooting lands, burning cars and torching farmlands, while Israeli occupation soldiers uprooted trees.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
