JERUSALEM (AP) – The population of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has grown at a much higher rate than the country as a whole in the past four years, a pro-settler group said on Wednesday, a period that coincides with unprecedented acceptance of settlement activity by the Trump administration. .
The West Bank Jewish Population Statistics Report shows that the population of settlers grows by about 13% from the beginning of 2017 to 475,481. During the same period, Israel’s population grew by about 8% to nearly 9.3 million, according to the government.
The group’s report, which is based on official government data, does not include the East Jerusalem annex, where there are more than 200,000 settlers.
Baruch Gordon, the director of Jewish population statistics in the West Bank, downplayed the influence of U.S. politics, saying the annual growth rate has slowed in recent years even before the coronavirus pandemic. According to their figures, the West Bank settler population grew by 2.62% in 2020, compared to 1.7% for Israel as a whole. In 2016, the population of settlers grew by 3.59%.
“I don’t think any U.S. president can influence that much, because growth on the ground depends (depends on) the decisions of the internal Israeli government on how much to build and not to do,” he said.
Many settlers are religious Jews who tend to have larger families, driving population growth, and many Israelis are attracted to settlements because they offer more affordable housing.
Gordon expects growth to continue, even if President Joe Biden pressures Israel to curb it. “The facts on the ground are stronger than any U.S. foreign policy,” he said.
Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and the Palestinians want both to be part of their future state. Palestinians and much of the international community see settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to creating a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.
Settlers and their supporters see the West Bank as the historical and biblical center of the Jewish people and oppose any partition.
The administration of former President Donald Trump abandoned decades of U.S. policy in accepting settlements and launched a Middle East plan in which Israel would have been able to keep them all, including the smallest settlements located. at the bottom of the occupied territory. Last year, Mike Pompeo became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit a settlement.
The Palestinians angrily rejected the plan and Biden is likely to abandon it. He opposes the expansion of settlements and has said he hopes to reactivate peace negotiations.
By not opposing the construction of new settlements – as his predecessors on both sides had done – Trump encouraged his growth, further complicating efforts to achieve a two-state solution, which is still widely seen in international level as the only way to solve the previous decades. Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli authorities advance plans to build nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements just days before Trump leaves office. Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, says Israel approved or advanced the construction of more than 12,000 settlement houses by 2020, the highest number in a single year since it began recording statistics in 2012.
Israel is also moving forward with huge infrastructure projects which will more closely relate the settlements to their major cities and lay the groundwork for future growth.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the growth of settlements on “the former US administration and the current Israeli government,” reiterating that they are “illegal under international law.” .
One of Israel’s leading human rights groups, B’Tselem, released a report earlier this month arguing that Israel has become an apartheid system., partly due to the permanence of the settlements. Although the settlers are Israeli citizens, the 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under different forms of Israeli military government.
Inequality has been exposed during Israel’s response to the coronavirus. Settlers are included in Israel’s successful vaccination campaign, while Palestinians in the West Bank must rely on the Palestinian Authority, which is struggling to secure its own supply of vaccines. Israel says it is not responsible for immunizing Palestinians and that the Palestinian Authority has not publicly requested Israel’s help.
Israel rejects the label of apartheid, noting that its own Arab population has citizenship, including the right to vote, and is vaccinated. It also administers vaccines to Palestinians in East Jerusalem, most of whom have permanent residence but no citizenship.