RAMALLAH, April 4, 2026 (WAFA) – A new report by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements affirmed that the Israeli government continues to reduce funding for various ministries while allocating more funds to support settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank.
The Bureau's weekly settlement report, issued today, Saturday, relied on recent findings by Peace Now, which stated that Benjamin Netanyahu's government, since taking office in late 2022, has accelerated the pace of planning and construction in West Bank settlements and allocated significant sums of public funds to colonists, resulting in the displacement of Palestinians from their lands and homes.
The Israeli government increased its defense spending in the budget by approximately 42 billion shekels in March 2026 to cover the costs of a potential war with Iran, while simultaneously cutting ministry budgets, increasing borrowing, and raising the deficit, all while leaving settlement funding unaffected.
It highlighted plans to allocate around 2.75 billion shekels over the next five years for settlement development, in addition to hundreds of millions of shekels for establishing new settlements, legalizing outposts, and providing financial grants to existing settlements.
According to the report, the government allocated 550 million shekels to bolster security measures in settlements, 100 million shekels for bus protection, and 125 million shekels for paving security roads. Meanwhile, over the past two weeks, more than 222 kilometers of roads were constructed in the West Bank in the past two years, have reportedly been constructed in the West Bank, nearly half of them on privately owned Palestinian land.
The report also outlined projects such as a land registration programs in Area C, with a budget of approximately 244.1 million shekels, warning that such measures could lead to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians. This is in addition to significant investments in tourism and settlement projects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In this context, the report documented ongoing attacks by colonists and Israeli forces in various West Bank governorates. These attacks included house demolitions, physical assaults, property theft, destruction of agricultural land, arson of vehicles, and the establishment of new settlement outposts.
The Israeli government has allocated approximately 800 million shekels to bolster settlement activity along the eastern border of the occupied territories. This includes establishing farms and educational institutions (such as pre-military academies and religious schools), as well as expanding existing settlements.
The plan encompasses a 15-kilometer-long strip along the eastern border, stretching from Eilat to the Sea of Galilee, and encompassing a significant portion of the West Bank.
Furthermore, since late 2022, the Netanyahu government has also adopted a series of decisions to fund tourism projects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of its efforts to consolidate and deepen Israeli control. It has allocated approximately 949 million shekels to settlement tourism projects, of which around 489 million shekels were specifically earmarked for this purpose.
The report highlighted how colonists have exploited the ongoing war with Iran to intensify attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, noting pressures from religious and right-wing figures on the Israeli government to avoid holding perpetrators accountable.
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