The Higher Planning Council will convene on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, to discuss the approval of 1,170 housing units across four settlements: Gvaot, Itamar, Shaarei Tikva, and Givat Zeev. Of these, 756 units are planned for Gvaot, a settlement adjacent to the Palestinian village of Nahalin, where approximately 50 families currently reside.
In July 2024, the council approved the deposit of 250 housing units in Gvaot. With the expected approval on February 26, 2025, the settlement is set to expand twentyfold.
Since early December 2024, the Higher Planning Council has been holding weekly meetings to advance settlement housing projects, with approvals at each session ranging from several hundred to over a thousand units.
Settlement Plans for Discussion on February 26, 2025:
| Settlement | Plan Status | Plan Number | Housing Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Itamar | Deposit | 6/3/163 | 284 |
| Shaarei Tikva | Validation | 7/122 | 6 |
| Gvaot | Deposit | ב/1/2/418 | 756 |
| Givat Zeev | Deposit | 1/2/26/220 | 112 |
| Givat Zeev | Deposit | 31/10/220 | 12 |
| Total | 1,170 |
The shift to approving plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in these areas but also accelerates it. With the plans set for discussion on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, the total number of units promoted since the transition to weekly approvals will reach 7,458 housing units in just three months.
One of the changes made by the Netanyahu-Smotrich government in June 2023 was the elimination of the requirement for the defense minister’s approval at each stage of settlement plan advancement. Previously, every construction plan in settlements required prior approval from the defense minister. In recent years, the defense minister had limited settlement plan advancements to approximately four times a year, with thousands of housing units being approved in a single session of the Higher Planning Council. However, in recent weeks, the Higher Planning Council has shifted to weekly meetings, approving several hundred housing units in each session. This move seeks to normalize planning in settlements while attracting less public and international attention and criticism.
Peace Now: “The Israeli government is making clear, week after week, and day after day, what it envisions for our future: a future of permanent illegal occupation, apartheid, dispossession, and violence. These approvals of settlement housing units will not bring security to Israelis or Palestinians—on the contrary, they will deepen the conflict, fuel violence, and push a political solution further away. This reckless expansion policy must be stopped before it is too late.”