[1andrew1]

Whilst we're all focused on the starvation and bombings in Gaza, an Israeli Minister is focused on territorial expansion.

Far-right Israeli minister vows settlement push to ‘bury’ Palestinian state

Bezalel Smotrich revives plan that would divide occupied West Bank

Israel’s finance minister is reviving plans for a long-shelved settlement expansion outside Jerusalem, promising that it will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The proposed block of about 3,000 houses, known colloquially as the E1 Plan, has been repeatedly floated by successive rightwing Israeli governments and shelved after fierce international opposition.

But far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich — who also has some authority in the ministry of defence, which oversees Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories — vowed last night to fast-track the plan.

The plan is designed to split East Jerusalem — which Palestinians claim for their proposed capital — from the occupied West Bank, by building what would essentially amount to a new neighbourhood in the already sprawling Ma’ale Adumim settlement, which lies between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

That would place a large block of Jewish-Israeli housing — which in the West Bank comes with security perimeters that extend far beyond the settlement itself — between the major Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, dividing the West Bank into northern and southern sections.

“This is Zionism at its best — building, settling, and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” Smotrich said in a statement.

Israeli governments stretching back to the 1970s have used Jewish settlements to strengthen their hold over the West Bank, wrested from Jordan in the 1967 war.

But Israel’s current government is racing to approve as many as it can in strategic locations along the West Bank to splinter the territory and foil building international pressure for a Palestinian state.

https://www.ft.com/content/7a2c37ae-...5-9f2a28321579