Middle EastAnalysis

Israeli settlers delight in Donald Trump’s return

Settlers hope that ‘extremist and violent’ sanctions imposed by the Biden administration will be removed

Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Knesset meeting in Jerusalem. He has made significant changes on the ground since he was given control of civilian affairs in the West Bank in July 2023. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich during a Knesset meeting in Jerusalem. He has made significant changes on the ground since he was given control of civilian affairs in the West Bank in July 2023. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
Mark Weiss's picture
Mark Weiss in Jerusalem
Fri Nov 08 2024 - 15:22

Jewish settlers have expressed delight over Donald Trump’s victory and hope that Israeli sovereignty over at least some of the occupied West Bank can be established during his second term in office.

Another priority will be to remove the sanctions imposed on individual settlers and settler groups, termed “extremist and violent”, by the Biden administration.

The radical right in Israel also wants to re-establish settlements inside the Gaza Strip, but this is connected to developments on the ground, and a ceasefire resulting in an Israeli military withdrawal could scuttle any such plans.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law but during the first Trump administration, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the legality of individual settlements should be decided by the Israeli courts. This stance was in turn rescinded by the Biden administration.

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Israel’s ongoing wars on Gaza and Lebanon and need for US weapons and diplomatic support meant planning permission for settlement expansion was put on hold over recent months. The settlers now expect this to change and anticipate a massive surge in settlement construction across the West Bank.

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“A great burden has been lifted, a great weight,” said Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria regional council in the northern West Bank. “The American pressure affected everything regarding security and the settlements. I believe that this pressure will stop or weaken. It’s still too early to know what will change, but it’s clear that the Israeli government won’t be able to come and say that there is American pressure.”

Dagan has devoted time and energy cultivating ties with leading Republicans, including senior officials in Donald Trump’s first administration, as well as with leading evangelical supporters of the Republican Party. His efforts seem to have paid off as he has been invited by top Republican officials to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in Washington on January 20th.

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a resident of the settlement of Kedumim near Nablus, and the head of the far-right Religious Zionist party, has made significant changes on the ground since he was given control of civilian affairs in the West Bank – a role previously under the purview of the defence minister. Now the settlers will want to authorise the illegal hilltop outposts, turning them into fully fledged settlements, and set in motion an initiative to apply Israeli sovereignty in what the right refers to as Judea and Samaria, the Biblical term for the West Bank.

After an Israeli settler attack on a site in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE
After an Israeli settler attack on a site in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE

Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party, and a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement adjacent to Hebron, said in the Knesset on Wednesday that “this is the time for sovereignty”.

Settler leaders have already earmarked two areas of the occupied territory, which was captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day war, as a priority for annexation: the Jordan Valley, the strategically important strip of land that runs along the border with Jordan, and Ma’ale Adumim, a city of almost 40,000, 7km east of Jerusalem, which blocks potential Palestinian territorial contiguity between Ramallah and Bethlehem.

Shai Alon, the mayor of the settlement of Beit El, north of Jerusalem, said Trump’s election heralded a “golden age” for West Bank settlements and an opportunity to bury the idea of a two-state solution.

“This is an unparalleled opportunity to act with great resolve in the Judea and Samaria region, to put an end to the murderous terrorism here, and to continue Israeli construction widely and extensively in all our territory,” he declared. “This is the time to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria and to recognise the region is part of the complete Israel.”