Palestinians fear expanded Israeli settlements

Significance

Encouraged by a supportive US administration, Israel is pressing ahead with plans to expand existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank and even to regularise outposts established without the government’s sanction. Palestinians complain that this policy is steadily eroding the prospects for a two-state solution.

Impacts

• Rising despair and internal divisions could stoke a new round of violent Palestinian protest.
• The dispute over the legitimacy of settlements could assist right-wing efforts to limit the power of Israel's Supreme Court.
• Controversy over settlements may undermine US attempts to forge an alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran.