Overview
- Israel's cabinet is scheduled to discuss a proposal on Thursday that Peace Now and Axios say would allocate 1 billion shekels to settlement infrastructure in the occupied West Bank.
- A draft resolution reported by Peace Now and Axios says the funds would pay for access roads, land preparation, sewage and water systems and temporary residential compounds.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is driving the initiative and his office says the measures would strengthen existing sites; Smotrich also announced an expansion of more than 2,000 homes in three settlements last week.
- Rights groups warn the move would bypass normal Israeli planning procedures and create new facts on the ground, while reporting differs on timing because some outlets say the cabinet postponed the vote and referred it to the Security Cabinet.
- The plan occurs against longstanding international opposition to West Bank settlements, with U.N. bodies and most countries calling them illegal, about 700,000 Israeli settlers living among 2.7 million Palestinians, and recent international measures targeting settler violence.