New financial allocations to enhance -traffic safety- for settlers on roads in the West Bank.

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The ‘National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that Israeli Knesset Finance Committee approved on July 23 the transfer of NIS one billion to strengthen the settlement infrastructure in the West Bank and confirm its annexation - along with the Jordan Valley - to the occupying state. In a joint statement issued by the Israeli Transportation Minister, Miri Regev and extremist FM Smotrich, they agreed to continue investment in settlements and enhanced road safety for settlers in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley by approving the transfer of NIS 160 million for road 437, a bypass road in the Jerusalem and its surroundings, linking the Ramallah Governorate with Jerusalem villages, such as, Hizma and Anana. This is part of the settlement road network aimed at facilitating the movement of settlers and expanding existing settlements in the area.
Furthermore, NIS 361 million were allocated for Highway 45, which runs along the eastern border of occupied Jerusalem and isolates large areas of Palestinian land with a minimal population, NIS 100 million were allocated for installing lighting and renovating roads throughout the West Bank, and NIS 50 million for preliminary and detailed planning in preparation for the construction of the Ma ale Homesh road, NI9S 25 million were allocated to advance legal proceedings related to road 90, which extends through the Jordan Valley from northern Palestine to its south in Um al-Rashrash, and NIS 47 million for the completion of the Arroub bypass road.
The budget also included NIS 128 million for road 55, which connects Kfar Saba in the 1948 territories to the settlements in the Qalqilya Governorate - the section between Mashtal and Alfei Menashe -, and NIS 47 million shekels roadc 446 in the Salfeet Governorate, from the Laved Checkpoint to the Shilat Junction, southwest of Ramallah.
Regev said, ‘The approved transfers represent a -dir-ect continuation of a clear policy to effectively impose sovereignty - sovereignty is the Israeli term for annexation - through field work, continuing to connect settlements, strengthening road safety, and reducing gaps for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of citizens living in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.’ Smotrich said, ‘This is how we are effectively exercising sovereignty, this is how we are bringing in a million new settlers, and this is how we are taking the idea of establishing a Palestinian ‘terrorist state’ off the table.’
The massive investment we are leading in the government s transportation infrastructure in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley is part of a clear strategic plan, ‘to strengthen settlements and to geographically and politically connect the area to the State of Israel, and to transform sovereignty into an established fact on the ground,’
However, Smotrich was clear on that as he at the Religious Zionism Conference last year clearly stated that ‘Anyone who wants to bring a million settlers to Judea and Samaria must ensure that there are building sites. We need roads, and the Minister of Transportation and I have included in the next 5-year plan about NIS 7 billion for this purpose. This is truly a revolution.
‘I tell you that this is the most important revolution, If within 5 to 7 years it is possible to reach a transportation station from anywhere in Binyamin (in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate), Samaria (the northern West Bank),´-or-the Jordan Valley in 15 minutes, and from there to a public transportation infrastructure, and then in another 15 minutes you are connected to Gush Dan (Greater Tel Aviv), then this is a revolution: This is how a million settlers are brought to Judea and Samaria.’
This is what has recently emerged regarding road construction, dissemination, and development plans in the West Bank, whether through the Knesset´-or-government decisions, the Council of Ministers,´-or-ministries. This doesn’t of course include what is hidden and is only circulated in the media to a-limit-ed extent. Comments on this phenomenon have begun to flow. The scale of Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is usually measured by the number of housing units approved for construction, planned new neighborhoods, and the establishment of settlement outposts. In recent years, agricultural and pastoral farms have also emerged as a means of settlement expansion.
However, in particular, the extensive development of the factor that connects all of these components – roads - completely disappears under the radar, during the current Israeli government s term, there has been a noticeable rush to pave ‘illegal’ roads, according to the occupation laws and with -dir-ect´-or-in-dir-ect government support, in addition to settlement roads officially approved by the government at a cost of billions of shekels. There are billions of shekels in investments in central roads, and an additional 100 km of unofficial roads in just one year, and explicit statements by Smotrich and other Israeli officials regarding their goal, ‘a million Israelis and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank as to do that.According to these officials and the leaders of the settlement councils, the new roads being paved in the occupied territories are changing the reality of daily life and imposing new facts on the ground.
The official authorities don’t publish any information about the new roads that the settlers themselves have begun paving in the occupied territories. A report by the Israeli organization Peace Now reveals their extent, based primarily on a comparison of aerial photographs of the area, the report states that between 2023 - 2024, they pved about 139 unofficial roads totaling 116 km.
This figure doesn’t include the renovation and development carried out during the same period on existing -dir-t roads. Twenty-five roads were paved to establish new settlement outposts, 31 to expand existing ones, and eight roads between an existing outpost and a nearby settlement. In addition, 46 roads were paved to provide access to areas where there is currently no permanent settler presence, and where, according to the report, new outposts are likely to be established in the future.
These roads weren’t built according to a government plan, nor have they been legally licensed. Two-thirds of them pass through private Palestinian land and are for the exclusive use of settlers, with Palestinians prohibited from using them. The construction of these unofficial roads is supported and funded by the government.
One of the funding agencies is the Settlement Department of the World Zionist Organization -which is itself government-funded-. At the Religious Zionism Conference last June, the department s -dir-ector general, Hoshayya Harari, presented how the department invested about NIS 75 million in 2023 to support farms and settlement outposts, of which NIS 7.7 million were allocated to paving roads for these outposts.
Another funding stream for unofficial roads comes -dir-ectly from the Settlement Ministry s budget, which supports land patrol units operated by settlement councils to prevent planning and building violations and the seizure of state land. The units can receive government support for patrolling equipment within the settlement councils, including paving trails and closing areas, as well as paving´-or-renovating -dir-t roads. Promises of support don t stay on paper. Settlement Ministry documents show that last year, the Hebron Hills Regional Council received NIS 1.1 million to support a project that included paving a trail to protect state land in the Susya area.
The Gush Etzion Settlement Council received NIS 958,000 to improve existing roads to protect state land in the hills, while the Binyamin Settlement Council received about NIS 1.9 million for six different road-paving projects. This is only a partial list. On the other hand, there are those who claim the exact opposite-;- Regavim filed a petition with the Supreme Court demanding that law enforcement authorities in the occupied territories take action against an illegal road built by Palestinians in southern Hebron on state land. Last month, the organization published a map claiming that Palestinians have paved 106 km of new roads over the past year. Regavim s website states, ‘These roads are the infrastructure for establishing a Palestinian state.’
If we go back a little, to the first months of the formation of the current Israeli government, Israeli FM Smotrich agreed with Transportation Minister Miri Regev, as part of the government s plan to impose what it calls sovereignty (the annexation plan), to allocate billions of shekels to develop roads and infrastructure for settlements in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and to include them in the 2024 general budget.
The Israeli government allocated about NIS 4 billion for this purpose within the general budget, in addition to NIS 160 million included in the Ministry of Transportation s budget. These amounts mean that 25.69% of the budget allocated for the "implementation of the strategic plan" for road construction in Israel has been allocated and earmarked for infrastructure projects and settlement roads in the West Bank. These huge sums are out of a total of NIS 13.687 billion allocated for infrastructure projects in Israel. The allocated budget includes half a billion shekels to expand the settlement road from the Ariel settlement junction to the Tapuah settlement in the Salfeet Governorate.
It was also decided to allocate NIS 150 million to develop the road network near the Alfei Menashe settlement, south of Qalqilia, and allocate a budget of NIS 200 million to build a bypass road for the town of Al-Funduq. A budget of NIS 366 million was allocated to modernize and expand the road leading to the Beit El settlement. A budget of NIS 136 million was allocated to expand the road leading to the Beit El settlement, and a budget of NIS 2 billion was allocated to develop and expand the settlement road no. 60, including the Hawara bypass road.
According to the understandings, NIS 156 million were allocated to develop a junction and main roads near Issawiya for the benefit of settlers, NIS 80 million to expand the eastern bypass road in Jerusalem, which serves settlements in the Jerusalem area as far as Bethlehem and Hebron, in addition to allocating a budget of NIS 300 million to build a settlement road linking the settlement of Magron in the Qalandia crossing area.
The Peace Now Movement reported that the Higher Planning Council began the latest destructive activities of the occupation authorities, discussing the progress achieved in the deposit phase plan, which includes 350 housing units in the settlement of Psagot (plan 222/5). The plan proposes a demolition and reconstruction project ‘urban renewal’ for plots of land located on the western side of the settlement.
It stated that in Dec. 2024, the commander of the Central Command of the occupation army signed a military order applying Israeli urban renewal laws to construction in the settlements, which allows the allocation of government budgets for planning evacuation and reconstruction projects, in addition to other plans classified as urban renewal, within the framework of what the Higher Planning Council decides in its meetings to advance housing projects in the settlements as part of the transition to a weekly approval process for construction in the settlements, until the plans scheduled for approval reached a total of 21,027 housing units since the beginning of 2025, which is clearly a record number.
Meanwhile, at a time when the Netherlands is imposing sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, declaring them persona non grata, and while the occupied West Bank is witnessing an unprecedented escalation in settler terrorism, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir boasted at a conference of his Otzma Yehudit party last week that he had changed the way police in the West Bank deal with settlers involved in terrorist attacks and criminal acts in the occupied West Bank since taking office, according to Haaretz. He noted that he had put an end to the persecution of the terrorist organization, which calls itself the "Hilltop Youth." Speaking at an Otzma Yehudit conference, he said, ‘Before I took office, the police would chase the hilltop youth and run after 14-year-olds, harassing them.
That doesn t exist during my term. And I m proud that I changed that. MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party said at the same conference, demagogically and misleadingly, that the government is waging ‘world wars against legal professionals and senior members of the army command, who do not distinguish between enemy and civilian, and who care about the rights of terrorists rather than the rights of citizens.
Ben-Gvir s statements came as the commander of the Israeli police s central unit in the West Bank, Avishai Moalem, is being investigated. He is suspected of deliberately ignoring intelligence information about attacks carried out by settlers in order to curry favor with Ben-Gvir and secure a promotion.

List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Forcing the Qaraeen family to forcibly self-demolish their home in the Al-Farouq neighborhood in Jabal Mukaber, to avoid paying heavy fines and having the demolition carried out by the occupation bulldozers.
- Demolishing the residential building of 6 residential apartments of the Halwani family in the Beit Hanina town, north of Jerusalem, displacing about 30 people. The occupation forces also forced citizen Yousef Qaraeen, from the town of Jabal Mukaber, to self-demolish his home, under the pretext of building without a permit, after imposing several financial fines on Qaraeen, amounting to more than NIS 100,000.
- Demolishing 2 two homes belonging to the Alqam family in Hen Al-Lawza in the town of Silwan, without prior warning, despite the lawyer bringing a court order preventing the demolition.
- Demolishing a residential facility, a laundry, and a fence in the same neighborhood, belonging to Jerusalemite Hani Al-Salaymeh.
Hebron:
- Injuring 2 citizens in a settler attack on the village of Um al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta area, while they were on their lands. The settlers opened fire at them, wounding one citizen with live bullets. Another citizen was injured after being beaten by a settler.
- Moreover, the young man, Awda al-Hathalin, died of his wounds after being -dir-ectly shot by an Israeli settler in the village of Umm al-Khair. Ibrahim Eid al-Hathalin, 60 was also martyred after falling while trying to help the residents confront the settlers’ attack.
- Dashing Ahmed Shuaib al-Hathalin, he was transferred to Abu al-Hasan al-Qasim Hospital in Yatta for treatment.
Bethlehem:
- Attacking citizens in the Deir Alla area in the Kisan desert, wreaking havoc on its contents, destroying solar panels and the water network, seizing property, and displacing ten families. Noting that the Deir Alla area contains 18 houses, and they uprooted 300 two-year-old olive saplings, destroyed a nature reserve established on an area of 100 dunams, including barracks, trees, surveillance cameras, water tanks, and water wells, and seized solar panels and electric generators.
- Notifying the halt of construction on an inhabited villa belonging to the citizen Nabil Ishaq Najajreh, a two-story house under construction for the citizen Khaled Ahmed Fanoun, and four agricultural rooms belonging to the brothers Theeb and Khader Abdul Hamid Najajreh, Mansor Musa Najajreh, and Mah’d Moh’d Najajreh in the village of Nahalin.
- Notifying the demolition of all 35 homes in the village of Al-Nu man, under the pretext of lacking a license, they are inhabited, the newest of which has been inhabited for 35 years, and the oldest for 75 years.
- Demolishing 2 homes and 4 agricultural rooms as part of the policy of forced displacement and tightening the noose on citizens in areas C in Wadi Rahal,
Ramallah:
- Killing Khamis Abdul Latif Ayyad in the town of Silwad after settlers attacked the town in the early hours of the morning, setting fire to several vehicles and homes. During the raid, Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition and tear gas canisters at civilians, killing Ayyad. Settler attacks extended to include the villages of Rammun and Abu Falah, where they set fire to citizens property, including cars and homes.
- Injuring a young man was injured by shrapnel from Israeli occupation forces bullets following clashes that erupted in the town of Deir Jarir after confronting settlers who tried to storm the town. In Turmus Ayya, dozens of settlers attacked citizens lands and property and cut down dozens of fruitful olive trees in the village plain, settlers seized part of agricultural land belonging to a resident and turned it into a landfill serving the industrial zone of the Shiloh settlement adjacent to the town.
- Injuring a 14-year-old child was injured in the village of Al-Mughayir, they stormed the village from the eastern side. A young man was also injured in a settler attack on the Al-Manateer and Al-Kassara areas east of Kafr Malik, and chicken farms on the outskirts of the town. Unarmed young men from the village confronted them, firing bullets at the young men, which resulted in a young man being injured by a bullet in his hand. They also attacked homes. Citizens set fire to two vehicles, completely destroying them. They also wrote racist and threatening slogans on the outer wall of a house.
Nablus:
- Setting fire to a tire repair shop in the town of Bazariya.
- Cutting down dozens of olive trees in the ‘Wa r Jama’ area of the village s lands and stole water tanks from the ‘Wadi Haj Issa’ area in the village of Jurish.
- Destroying 2 water wells in the towns of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, and seized a pump and agricultural tools.
- Burning agricultural lands in the village of Burqa and fired tear gas bombs at homes.
Jenin:
- Bulldozing agricultural lands belonging to citizens of Khirbet Masoud, southwest of Jenin, to expand a pastoral settlement outpost. It was established on treasury lands dating back to 2019, but the settler recently began placing signs inside lands registered as ‘Tabu’, and began bulldozing them and paving roads inside them, no more than ten meters away from the homes of the residents, in a clear and disturbing escalation that threatens the security of citizens.
Salfeet:
- Attacking farmers in the lands of the village of Farkha and released their sheep to graze on lands planted with olive trees in the ‘Al-Safaha’ area before attacking the farmers who tried to prevent them from destroying their crops, under -dir-ect protection from the occupation forces.
Jordan Valley:
- Releasing their sheep into the homes of citizens, destroying their property and livestock fodder near the village of Shalal al-Auja. Others attacked a solar energy system belonging to citizens in the al-Maita community in the northern Jordan Valley, which supplies residents with modest electricity. Others continued to fence off lands they had confiscated near the homes and tents of residents in Khirbet Nab Ghazal al-Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Stealing a water tank and punctured the tires of an agricultural tractor n the al-Maita area in the northern Jordan Valley, under the protection of the occupation forces, settlers bulldozed vast areas of agricultural land belonging to residents of Shalal al-Auja village, extending over vast fertile areas, in a clear attempt to impose a new fait accompli as a prelude to seizing these lands and expanding settlements.

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