IS NETANYAHU SITTING ON A POWDER KEG?

Giugno 22, 2023

IS NETANYAHU SITTING ON A POWDER KEG?

The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments in the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions and reliable foresight on future scenarios. Today, we turn the spotlight on Israel, focusing on the recent spiking violence in the West Bank and PM Netanyahu’s announcement on new settlement expansion projects.

Instability is on the rise in the West Bank. On June 18, the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that it was moving forward with plans to build over 4,000 new housing units there. In the meantime, it passed a resolution granting the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – a staunch supporter of Israel’s annexation of the West Bank – vast powers to accelerate settlement construction. Since the start of its term in January, Netanyahu’s coalition (described by many as the most right-wing in Israel’s history) endorsed the construction of more than 7,000 new housing units in the West Bank. Any additional approvals by Israel’s Supreme Planning Council next week will move this number closer (if not well beyond) to the target of 10,000 units announced for 2023. Understandably, a similar expansion represents a significant source of tensions and violence in occupied territories, where Palestinian armed resistance is assuming new dimensions. In the days following the prime minister’s announcement, the Israeli army carried out one of the largest raids in years on the Jenin refugee camp – employing also combat helicopters, while deadly clashes erupted between Palestinians and settlers in the Eli area. The prospect of increased settlement activity in the West Bank also threatens to put Netanyahu on a collision course with the United States.

The experts of the ISPI MED network react to Israel’s latest efforts to speed up plans for new settlements in the occupied West Bank and the resulting tensions with the Palestinians.