An Israeli minister announced on Thursday plans to rebuild Sa-Nur, a settlement in the occupied West Bank that was evacuated two decades ago, as the far right spearheads a major settlement expansion push.
Sa-Nur's settlers were evicted in 2005 as part of Israel's so-called disengagement policy that also saw the country withdrawing troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Many in the Israeli settler movement have since called to return to Sa-Nur and other evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank.
On a visit to the area on Thursday along with families who say they are preparing to move there, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that "we are correcting the mistake of the expulsion" in 2005.
"Even back then, we knew that... we would one day return to all the places we were driven out of," said the far-right minister who lives in a settlement.
"That applies to Gaza, and it's even more true here."
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law and seen by the international community as a major obstacle to lasting peace, undermining the territorial integrity of any future Palestinian state.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority issued a strong condemnation for Thursday's visit, which it regards as part of Israel's "plans to entrench the gradual annexation of the West Bank, posing a direct threat to the possibility of implementing the two-state solution".
In a statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry said the push "to revive settlements that were evacuated 20 years ago" would lead to further confiscation of Palestinian lands.
In May, Israel announced the creation of 22 settlements, including Sa-Nur and Homesh—two of the four northern West Bank settlements that were evacuated in 2005.
Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said some of the 22 settlements the government announced as new had in fact already existed on the ground.
Some are neighborhoods that were upgraded to independent settlements, and others are unrecognized outposts given formal status under Israeli law, according to Peace New.
The West Bank is home to some three million Palestinians as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Settlement expansion in the West Bank has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967, but it has intensified significantly under the current government alongside the displacement of Palestinian farming communities, particularly since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
With AFP
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