The official Hebrew Broadcasting Authority reported that Smotrich asked the Higher Planning Council to hold a meeting to discuss the approval of the construction of new units in Sanur, which was evacuated in 2005 as part of the "disengagement" plan.
According to a statement by Smotrich, the plan includes commercial areas, road construction, and the building of schools and kindergartens, considering the move a correction of what he called "a historical injustice and the realization of the Zionist vision on the ground."
In May 2024, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a directive to apply the "disengagement" in the northern West Bank to the settlements of Sanur, Ganim and Kadim, in addition to the original order that applied only to the settlement of Homesh.
The “disengagement” is a unilateral Israeli plan implemented in the summer of 2005 by the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under which settlements and army camps in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank were evacuated.
In March 2024, the Knesset (parliament) approved the cancellation of the "disengagement" plan and a new law was passed called the "Repeal of the Disengagement Law".
In a related context, Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Ministry of Defense, announced the signing of an agreement to transfer Israeli army camps from the Beit El settlement, which is built on Palestinian lands confiscated from the cities of Al-Bireh and Ramallah, which allows for the construction of 1,200 new settlement units and almost doubles the area of the settlement.
He said in a post on the X platform that this step comes as part of what he described as "continuing the development of settlements".
On December 11, the cabinet approved the legalization and legalization of 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Channel 14 at the time, which was met with a widespread wave of Arab condemnation.
In response, the Palestinian government called on the international community to take effective action to halt Israeli settlement activity. Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa stated that the escalating settlement decisions, demolitions, and settler attacks "undermine the chances for peace and target the two-state solution," urging concrete steps that go beyond mere statements of condemnation.
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the decision to establish new settlements to be a "war crime under international law," warning that it perpetuates policies of annexation and settlement and undermines any prospect of establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers reside in the occupied West Bank, including 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2013, settlement activity and violations in the West Bank have escalated, resulting in the deaths of over 1,100 Palestinians and injuries to nearly 11,000, according to official Palestinian figures. There are warnings that formally annexing the West Bank would effectively eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution.
