Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Thursday the creation in the occupied West Bank of 22 new settlements, illegal under the international law. “We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” the minister said on X, using the Israeli term for the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. “Next step: sovereignty!” he added.
