JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s West Bank settler population has now surpassed 500,000, crossing an important threshold, a pro-settler group said Thursday. Settler leaders predict faster population growth under Israel’s new ultra-nationalist government.
Report by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com The settled population grew to 502,991 as of Jan. 1, up more than 2.5% in 12 months and nearly 16% over the past five years, according to official figures.
“We’ve reached a huge milestone,” said the group’s director, Baruch Gordon, a resident of the Beit El settlement. “We’re here to stop.”
The milestone comes as Israel’s new government, formed by an ultra-nationalist party opposed to Palestinian statehood, has made settlement expansion a priority. The government has pledged to legalize wildcat outposts that have long enjoyed tacit government support and ramp up approvals and construction of settler homes around the West Bank.
“I think this government will build more in the next few years than the government has built in the past 20 years,” Gordon said.
Settlements have flourished under successive Israeli governments, including at the height of the peace process in the 1990s. Even Israel’s short-lived previous government, including both pro-Palestinian statehood parties and those against it, continued to build settlements.
The report comes as a fresh wave of violence is rocking the region and comes days after a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pledged support for an independent Palestinian state. The settler population has continued to grow under the Biden administration, despite renewed calls by the United States to rein in construction after years of President Donald Trump’s hands-off approach.
The settler population report excludes affiliated East Jerusalem, which is home to more than 200,000 settlers. There are approximately 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians seek an independent state in these territories.
Although Israel withdrew its troops and thousands of settlers from Gaza in 2005, it has pushed ahead with settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Dozens of settlements are scattered across the territory, ranging from as small as a few mobile homes to large cities with their own shopping malls and public transport.
Much of the international community considers settlements to be illegal and an obstacle to peace. The Palestinians see them as a land grab, ruining their chances of creating a viable, contiguous state.
“All settlements are illegal. There is no legitimacy in the presence of settlements or settlers in the Palestinian territories,” said Nabil Abu Rudene, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “The increase in the number of settlers is the result of the Israeli government’s policy of not believing in a two-state solution,” which would create an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Israel claims the West Bank is disputed territory rather than occupied territory, saying the term denies the Jewish historical presence in the land. It believes the fate of the settlements should be part of negotiations to end the conflict.
Peace efforts have been stalled for nearly 15 years, while Israel continues to build more settlements on the ground, and Palestinian political rivalry complicates the peace process.
The settlers and their many supporters in the government see the West Bank as the biblical and historic heartland of the Jewish people and oppose any partition.
Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank live under a two-tiered legal system that grants special status to settlers and apply most of Israeli law to them, including the right to vote in Israeli elections and the ability to receive certain public services. Palestinians live under Israeli military rule and do not enjoy the legal rights and protections that settlers enjoy.
Unrestricted military occupation has led three prominent human rights organizations to conclude that Israel is committing the international crime of apartheid The Palestinians are systematically denied equal rights. Israel rejects the allegations as an attack on its existence as a Jewish-majority state, pointing to the achievements of its Palestinian-born citizens to counter the argument.
The increasingly authoritarian and unpopular Palestinian Authority, established through a deal with Israel in the 1990s, administers parts of the West Bank, while the Islamist militant group Hamas controls Gaza, which is under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
