The United Nations human rights chief on Friday condemned Israeli plans to build more than 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, warning that the settlement expansion amounted to a war crime.
The Israeli government has avoided criticism from the United States and others to press ahead with its building plans, which come as tensions have soared in the West Bank since an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked a wide-ranging war in Gaza.
“The West Bank is already in crisis,” said UN rights chief Volker Türk, “yet settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels and risk eliminating any practical possibility establishment of a viable Palestinian state”.
About 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army rules about 2.7 million Palestinians. Much of the Israeli right believes that Israel should control the West Bank forever, while the Palestinians see the region as integral to their aspirations for an independent state.
Mr Türk’s comments accompanied a report released by his office, which said settlement expansion and a dramatic increase in violence and discrimination against Palestinians, particularly since October 7, “have led the West Bank to brink of destruction”.
Settler violence had already reached record levels in 2023, with 835 incidents recorded before the October 7 attack. Since then, settler violence has soared, the UN said, with another 603 settler attacks reported.
The UN reported that nine Palestinians were killed by settlers using firearms and 396 were killed by Israeli security forces, while two other Palestinian deaths could not be attributed.
More than 1,200 Palestinian herders have been forced from their homes as a direct result of settler violence and nearly 600 Palestinians, the UN said.
Israel’s latest plan to build 3,476 new settler homes follows construction of 23,000 new homes in the 12 months ending in October, the UN human rights office said, representing the fastest pace of expansion since monitoring began in 2017.
The expansion represents a transfer of Israel’s population into occupied territories, which is prohibited by international law and constitutes a war crime, the UN said.
The policies of Israel’s current government appear to be aligned to an unprecedented degree with the goals of the settler movement to extend long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and firmly incorporate that occupied territory into Israel, the UN said.
He mentioned the appointment of Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance and settlement minister, as an “additional minister” in the defense ministry with extensive powers in the West Bank, including land designation, planning and property demolitions. Israel had recorded 468,000 Jewish Israelis in the West Bank at the end of 2022, the report noted, and in May 2023, Mr. Smotrich unveiled a two-year plan to attract another half a million Israelis to move there.
