How Israel's settlement expansion defies international law
Over the past two years, Israel has intensified the construction of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, thumbing its nose at international law, the United Nations, and even its own claims of pursuing peace. Despite repeated condemnations, including UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016), which unequivocally declares that settlements “have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation under international law,” Israel continues to expand its settler presence — deepening the entrenchment of occupation and eroding any realistic prospect of a two-state solution.
According to United Nations and peace monitoring groups, the last two years have seen record-breaking approvals for settlement housing units, many in sensitive areas deliberately chosen to sever Palestinian territorial continuity. The expansion around Jerusalem and deep into the heart of the West Bank has created a web of Israeli-only roads, security zones, and military outposts that effectively fragment Palestinian land into isolated cantons reminiscent of the Bantustan in South Africa during apartheid. This is not accidental; it is a deliberate strategy of annexation by stealth.
The global community’s response has been one of predictable hand-wringing but little else. The United States, while occasionally expressing “concern,” has repeatedly shielded Israel from accountability, vetoing or diluting resolutions that could impose real consequences. Meanwhile, European governments issue statements of disapproval while continuing trade and military cooperation. The message is clear: Israel can defy international law with impunity.
The consequences for Palestinians are devastating. Families are being uprooted from lands they have farmed for generations. Access to water, roads, and employment is being systematically denied. Violence from emboldened settlers, often under the watchful eye of the Israeli military, has surged. This daily reality reinforces apartheid-like conditions - one legal system for settlers and another, oppressive one for Palestinians.
The continued construction of settlements is not only a legal and moral outrage; it is a calculated policy to make Palestinian statehood impossible. If the international community truly believes in the rule of law, it must move beyond condemnation to tangible action - sanctions, boycotts, and accountability measures. Until then, every new brick laid in a West Bank settlement is another step away from justice, peace, and the moral credibility of the world order itself.
Adiel Ismail
Mount View