Plan for Israeli Settlements Advances and Will ‘Bury’ Palestinian Statehood, Minister Vows

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Thursday that a plan to significantly expand a settlement near occupied East Jerusalem had won approval, and that it would thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Mr. Smotrich said about 3,400 new housing units would be built in key Israeli-occupied territory. But the announcement does not mean the plan will necessarily gain final approval — a procedural step remains.

The government body that approves such plans, the Supreme Planning Council, generally publishes information about its decisions within days or weeks after a meeting, but does not tend to issue statements. It did not make one on Thursday about Mr. Smotrich’s statement.

The announcement comes after Australia, Britain, Canada, France and other nations pledged to soon recognize Palestinian statehood amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Those countries say that recognition is part of an effort to restart negotiations over a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This plan buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” Mr. Smotrich said on Thursday, addressing a gathering of journalists and settlement leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. “Anyone in the world today who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground. Not in documents, not in decisions or declarations — but in facts.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, in an interview on Wednesday with Newsmax, also dismissed any recognition of Palestinian statehood and the prospects of a two-state solution, saying Israel had already tried that route. “In the international community it’s become a slogan, two-state solution,” he said. “Who said it’s the solution? It’s probably the problem. I say it’s the two-state illusion.”