created a new Israeli settler agency, led by Smotrich, within the Defense Ministry to manage Jewish and Palestinian construction in the 60% of the West Bank over which Israel has control.
As finance minister, Smotrich can funnel taxpayer funds to West Bank infrastructure projects. Israel’s 2024 budget earmarks an all-time high of $960 million — a quarter of all Transportation Ministry funds — for a highway network better connecting Israel to the West Bank. The settlers are just over 5% of Israel’s population.
While Smotrich’s new settler agency now handles the territory’s land-use issues, COGAT, the military body that oversees the Civil Administration, retains specific responsibilities over more than 2 million Palestinians. Rights groups and others have compared the division along ethnic lines to “Some half-million settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel captured along with east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war.
This year’s demolitions are up slightly from last year, which saw the most demolitions since at least 2006, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
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