The Higher Planning Council (HPC) will discuss the advancement of 682 housing units in three settlements on Wednesday (January 29, 2025): Halamish, Mitzad, and Peduel.
In the case of Halamish (Neve Tzuf), the plan to advance 531 housing units means more than doubling the number of settlement residents. As a reminder, since the beginning of December 2024, weekly discussions have been held to advance housing units in settlements. The number of housing units advanced each week varies, but the advancement of 682 units in the January 29, 2025 discussion is a record number for one week.
Since the establishment of the current Netanyahu government, record numbers of housing units have been advanced in the West Bank. In 2023, the Higher Planning Council approved 12,349 housing units, which was an all-time high.
In 2024, 9,884 housing units were approved. The transition to approving plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in these territories but also intensifies it.
One of the changes made by the Netanyahu-Smotrich government in June 2023 was the elimination of the need for defense minister approval for 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 has 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. In recent weeks, we have witnessed a change where the Higher Planning Council meets every week and approves several hundred housing units in each meeting. In this way, the government seeks to normalize settlement planning and attract less public and international attention and criticism.
Settlement | Plan Status | Plan Number | Housing Units |
---|---|---|---|
Halamish (Neve Tzuf) | Deposit | 1/ 7/ 203 | 531 |
Mitzad (Asfar) | Deposit | 3/ 2/ 414 | 126 |
Peduel | Validation | 12/ 160 | 25 |
Total | 682 |