Israeli plan to Judaize the Galilee and Negev and bring in a million settlers

The Israeli occupation government is moving to expand settlement and Judaization projects in the Galilee and Negev, with a plan led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlement Minister Orit Strock, aiming to bring in a million settlers and establish dozens of new towns, in order to change the demographic and geographic reality in areas of the Palestinian interior occupied in 1948.

The Israeli occupation government is moving to expand settlement and Judaization projects to include the Galilee and Negev regions, through a plan that includes bringing in about a million settlers and establishing dozens of new towns, in an effort to bring about demographic and geographic changes in areas of the Palestinian interior occupied in 1948. The plan is led by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in cooperation with Settlement Minister Orit Strock, as part of a government approach focused on increasing Jewish settlement presence in the Galilee and Negev, and limiting urban expansion of Arab towns. Strock's statements reveal the demographic dimension of the plan, as she spoke about what she described as a loss of 'control, sovereignty, and demographic majority' in the Galilee and Negev, calling for the use of the term 'Judaization' explicitly, and considering it part of the Zionist project. The plan includes measures targeting what Strock described as the 'triangle of obstacles', which includes planning policies, land prices, and demographic and community standards, aimed at facilitating the establishment of new Jewish communities. These policies also raise concerns about reducing opportunities for urban expansion of Arab towns, and enhancing control over land and open spaces in the Galilee and Negev. Observers believe that the expansion of these policies represents a shift in the scope of Israeli settlement projects, which are no longer concentrated in the occupied West Bank, but extend to the Galilee and Negev, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens live.