LONDON: Israel’s finance minister said on Monday that the Israeli government had begun a “settlement revolution” that would eventually extend to the Negev and Galilee.
“I’ve got news for you: We’ve only just begun the revolution in settlement. We’ll get to the Negev and the Galilee too,” Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X.
יש לי חדשות בשבילכם: רק התחלנו את המהפכה בהתיישבות. נגיע גם לנגב ולגליל. pic.twitter.com/hTB1xkLKGU
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) July 6, 2026
His comments came just two days after Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan to establish 13 new settlements in the central occupied West Bank, a move Palestinian officials said would further isolate East Jerusalem from surrounding Palestinian communities.
The new settlements will be located in strategically important areas.
Palestinian officials and rights groups said the expansion would deepen Israeli control over the occupied territory and further undermine the prospects for a contiguous Palestinian state.
Israel has accelerated its settlement expansion since 2022, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power at the head of the most right-wing coalition in the country’s history, including ministers with close ties to the settler movement.
That policy shift has led to a sharp increase in state support for settlements, according to the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies.
The number of newly established settlement outposts rose to 86 last year, from 64 in 2024 — aided by $20 million in government funding — 32 in 2023 and an annual average of about eight between 2012 and 2022, it said.
