Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Tuesday voted to repeal a 2005 act that saw four Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank dismantled while Israel withdrew its military, as well as around 8,000 civilian residents, from the Gaza Strip. This development could pave the way for an official return to the abandoned West Bank areas, further deepening the crisis with the Palestinian Authority. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, in which settler leaders and their allies are heavily represented, has been pushing for more settlement activity in the territory.
The international community, including the United States, Israel’s closest ally, considers settlements illegal and opposes the expansion of Israeli construction in the West Bank, which is claimed by the Palestinians for a future independent state.
Israel evacuated the four settlements and unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza Strip, which included 21 Israeli settlements, under the 2005 legislation. Since then, Israeli citizens have been officially banned from returning to those locations, though the Israeli military has allowed activists to visit and pray there.
Netanyahu’s government has put settlement expansion at the top of its agenda and has already advanced thousands of new settlement housing units and retroactively authorized nine wildcat outposts in the West Bank.
The ultranationalist members of Netanyahu’s coalition pushed for a repeal of the ban on the northern West Bank settlements. The legislation passed in an overnight vote 31-18 in the 120-seat Knesset. The remaining lawmakers did not vote.
The repeal comes against the backdrop of the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting in recent years, and as concerns grow of intensified violence during Ramadan, which will start this week.