loading

Promotion of 655 Housing Units in the West Bank

The Higher Planning Council will discuss the advancement of 655 housing units in two settlements on Wednesday (February 2, 2025): Kochav Yaakov, and Beitar Illit. As a reminder, since the beginning of December 2024, weekly discussions have been held to advance housing units in settlements.

Settlement Plan Status Plan Number Housing Units
Kochav Yaakov (Tel Zion) Validation 242/2 627
Beitar Illit Validation /2/3 א/ 7/ 426 28
655

The settlement of Kochav Yaakov includes Tel Zion, which is officially considered a neighborhood of Kochav Yaakov but is managed separately. The plan for the settlement, set to be discussed on Wednesday, aims to expand the ultra-Orthodox community of Tel Zion.

The shift to approving plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in these areas but also accelerates it. For instance, in December 2024 and January 2025 alone, 3,615 housing units were advanced. With the plans set for discussion on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the total number of units promoted since the transition to weekly approvals will reach 4,270—More than the 4,227 units approved in all of 2022.

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 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. 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 planning in settlements and attract less public and international attention and criticism.