In full view and hearing of the international community, the Israeli occupation continues to implement its settlement plans in the West Bank, in a blatant defiance of international law and United Nations resolutions, and in a persistent effort to impose a new reality on the ground based on the confiscation of Palestinian land, the displacement of its residents, and the expansion of settlements.

The occupation authorities have announced the designation of an additional 370 dunams of land as “state-owned land” northeast of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, paving the way for the establishment of a new settlement city called “Mishmar Yehuda” north of the town of Al-Ubeidiya in Bethlehem Governorate. This would bring the total area allocated to the project to approximately 3,750 dunams.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is spearheading the project as part of a broader effort to strengthen the settlement belt surrounding Jerusalem from the east and to connect settlement blocs with one another. In practice, this would sever the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and isolate Palestinian cities and towns from their geographical surroundings.

Attempts to establish this settlement date back to the early 1980s, confirming that the project is neither a temporary measure nor an isolated decision, but rather part of an accumulated settlement policy aimed at altering the demographic and geographic reality of Palestinian land and imposing an irreversible fait accompli.

These measures coincide with Israeli statements and positions that clearly reveal a drive toward consolidating a reality based on the displacement of Palestinians, the annexation of the West Bank, and the entrenchment of a single Jewish state, to the point of treating the establishment of a Palestinian state as nothing more than an “Arab illusion.”

Insan Organization for Rights and Freedoms considers the continuation of these policies a systematic violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them their right to liberate their land, as well as an assault on land ownership and the right of residents to remain on their land. It also constitutes a direct threat to any political settlement based on the two-state solution.

The organization warns that the international community’s continued reliance solely on statements of concern and condemnation, without taking practical measures to halt settlement expansion and hold those responsible accountable, encourages the Israeli occupation to advance further with its annexation and displacement project, turning violations of international law into a permanent reality imposed through force.

International silence in the face of this settlement expansion threatens not only Palestinians, but also opens the door to the collapse of the international legal order, threatens security and stability throughout the region, and pushes the countries and peoples of the region toward further tension and conflict. This could lead to consequences extending beyond the borders of the Palestinian territories to affect the entire region.

Accordingly, the organization calls on the international community, the United Nations, and the states party to the Geneva Conventions to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and to act urgently to halt settlement expansion, protect Palestinian civilians, prevent annexation and displacement measures, and ensure accountability for those responsible for these violations, before international silence turns into actual complicity in entrenching an irreversible settlement reality.