Acceleration of Settlement Activity
10/5/2025 – Union for Justice Foundation
Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, constitutes a flagrant and ongoing violation of international law. The pace of this unlawful activity has accelerated, with this month alone witnessing the approval and examination of plans for the construction of thousands of new settlement units, alongside measures aimed at entrenching and expanding the settlement fait accompli. This article analyses the legal dimensions of this acceleration in light of international law, drawing on the data contained in the referenced report, and clarifies its implications for the rights of the Palestinian people and the prospects for a just and lasting peace.
Illegality of Settlement under International Law
The international community, through numerous United Nations resolutions and the opinions of leading publicists in international law, concurs that Israeli settlements established in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 are illegal. This illegality is grounded in fundamental principles of international law, most notably:
– Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949): This article prohibits an occupying power from deporting or transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Building settlements and transferring Israeli civilians thereto constitutes a direct breach of this prohibition.
– Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: The Statute classifies “the direct or indirect transfer by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” as a war crime.
– United Nations Security Council and General Assembly resolutions: Numerous resolutions—most recently Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016)—affirm that Israel’s establishment of settlements in the territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity, constitutes a flagrant violation under international law, and represents a major obstacle to the achievement of the two‑state solution and the attainment of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.
Acceleration of Settlement Activity in March 2025: Evidence from the Report
The March 2025 violations summary provides compelling evidence of an accelerated pace of settlement activities, which may be summarised as follows:
– Quantitative expansion of settlement units:
The occupying authorities examined 45 master plans to expand West Bank and Jerusalem settlements, approving 16 of them while depositing 19 others. These plans targeted 3,280 dunums of Palestinian land. More alarming still, the volume of approvals for new housing units during the period from the beginning of January until 19 March 2025 exceeded the total approvals granted throughout 2024. Some 10,503 housing units were advanced in this short period of 2025, compared with 9,971 units approved in the whole of 2024.
According to information available to the Union for Justice Foundation, the approvals and discussions held in the Israeli Higher Planning Council during March 2025 included:
– On 5 March, approval of 1,408 housing units in four settlements.
– On 12 March, discussion of 1,439 new housing units in six settlements.
– On 19 March, discussion of approval for 1,211 new housing units in four settlements.
– On 26 March, deliberation on approval of 1,344 new housing units in the “Ma’ale Adumim” and “Kokhav Ya’akov” settlements established on Jerusalem land.
Modification of planning mechanisms to accelerate settlement:
The report notes that the Israeli Higher Planning Council has convened weekly since December 2024 to discuss the construction of hundreds of new housing units, especially after the requirement for the Israeli Minister of Defence to approve settlement plans was abolished. These weekly meetings aim to “normalise settlement planning, reduce international public criticism, and accelerate settlement expansion.”
– “Regularisation” of outposts and expansion of existing settlements:
In the last third of March, the Israeli security cabinet decided to separate 13 settlements previously considered neighbourhoods of larger settlements in the West Bank and grant them independent legal status, raising the number of settlements recognised by Israel in the West Bank to 140. This decision seeks to “regularise illegal outposts by designating them as neighbourhoods of existing settlements; the new decision transforms these neighbourhoods into fully independent settlements.” Six attempts to establish new agricultural and pastoral outposts were also documented during the month.
– Infrastructure projects to entrench settlement and effect de facto annexation:
At month’s end the security cabinet allocated 335 million shekels to build a road between al‑‘Eizariya and az‑Za‘ayyem. The report states that this road “will enable the Occupation to close off a wide area in the heart of the West Bank to Palestinians, create a separate road network by diverting Palestinian traffic to a special bypass road, and annex the entire Ma’ale Adumim area.” According to Peace Now, the project aims to “facilitate the annexation of approximately 3 per cent of West Bank land to Israel.”
Legal Implications of the Acceleration of Settlement Activity
The documented acceleration of settlement activity in March 2025 carries serious legal consequences:
– Aggravation of the war crime: The scale and intensity of approvals for new settlement units, and the policies adopted to hasten them, not only indicate the continuation of the war crime of population transfer but also its systematic aggravation and deepening.
– Undermining the Palestinian people’s right to self‑determination: Settlement expansion entails the confiscation of additional Palestinian land (March plans alone targeted 3,280 dunums), the fragmentation of the territorial contiguity of Palestinian lands, the isolation of Palestinian population centres, and the seizure of natural resources. All of this directly undermines the Palestinian people’s right to self‑determination on their land and to establish an independent, viable state.
– Creation of irreversible facts on the ground: Israeli policies clearly aim to create “facts on the ground” that render a two‑state solution based on the 1967 borders impossible. Settlement infrastructure projects, such as the aforementioned roads, are an integral part of this strategy.
– Close linkage with other violations: Settlement expansion is organically connected to other international‑law violations, such as the demolition of Palestinian homes, the forcible transfer of population, restrictions on freedom of movement, and settler violence, violations that the report also documents in other contexts.
Role of Changes in Israeli Domestic Policies
An important internal factor contributing to the acceleration of settlement activity is the “abolition of the requirement for the Israeli Minister of Defence to approve settlement plans.” This change in Israeli domestic policy clearly seeks to remove bureaucratic or political obstacles to settlement expansion, demonstrating a premeditated intent to speed up this unlawful process.
The data presented depict a bleak picture of deliberate, systematic acceleration in Israeli settlement activity. These activities not only constitute a persistent and flagrant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions; they also amount to an ongoing war crime and a direct affront to the Palestinian people’s right to self‑determination and the possibility of achieving a just and comprehensive peace.
The international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, bears a legal and moral responsibility to act swiftly and decisively to halt these violations. Mere formal condemnations are insufficient; practical measures are required, including holding Israeli officials accountable for these crimes, activating mechanisms to ensure non‑recognition of the unlawful situation arising from settlement activity, and taking steps to guarantee the protection of the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights. Continued silence or inaction will only entrench the occupation, deepen injustice, and push the prospects for a just peace ever farther away.
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