Israel's Smotrich takes measures to fast-track West Bank settlement building

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken new measures to ensure the acceleration of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, with minimal US involvement or political approval. 

Smotrich has been seeking to expand land seizures throughout occupied Palestinian territory - outlawed under international law - via a new mechanism that will allow for weekly settlement building permits, which previously took months to be approved.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth (Ynet), these measures have been taken despite US-Israeli tensions over illegal settlements and violent settler activity, as well as guidelines set by the United States that allow Israel to build a few settlements only near the designated "Green Line".

This 1949 armistice line is an area that separates the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip from Israel.

Ynet reported that Smotrich's Settlement Administration, which is responsible for land seizures in the West Bank, aims at normalising settlement planning by holding meetings on a weekly basis, where discussions would lead to the approval of new settlements. 

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