Settlements, protests, and accountability: Israel's political crosscurrents

Smotrich approves 229 housing units in Judea and Samaria as Vizhnitz Hasidim protest outside the Attorney General's office.

Settlements, protests, and accountability: Israel's political crosscurrents — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich today secured approval for 229 new housing units in Judea and Samaria, including 156 in Otniel that will double the community's size.[^1] Smotrich said the step "fortifies settlements against the left's intentions to evacuate communities, and uproots the idea of establishing a terrorist state."[^2] The approval comes amid a dramatic acceleration in settlement jurisdiction orders: since October 2023, Israeli officials have issued 114 military orders—roughly equal to the total over the previous 22 years—adding about 6,200 acres to settlement jurisdictions and establishing 53 new settlements, according to human rights organization Bimkom.[^3] Hundreds of young men from the Vizhnitz Hasidic center, led by the Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager, set up a temporary study hall opposite the Attorney General's office in Jerusalem this evening.[^4] Bereaved father Yehoshua Shani, who lost his son Captain Uri Mordechai Shani, joined the learners and said: "This is the right place to protest, in front of the Attorney General."[^5] The protest follows Rabbi Aryeh Yazdi's recent cursing of IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir during an anti-draft protest; his son Yehuda denied on 103FM that his father receives state funding, claiming he "gets no shekel" from the state. At the Sha'ar HaNegev junction on Wednesday, a rally marked 1,000 days since the October 7 attack. Yael Adar, mother of Tamir Adar who was murdered and whose body was held by Hamas, asked why a commission of inquiry had not been established: "Some don't want the truth to be exposed." Ali Al-Ziyadna, whose brother and nephew were kidnapped and murdered, accused the far-right government of negligence, saying "they gave up on our children to keep their seats." The government's avoidance of a state commission of inquiry, participants charged, reflects political survival interests over accountability. Haredi national service surges, daycare tragedy, and Sara Netanyahu's outburst — At an appreciation event for Haredim serving in security tracks, National-Civil Service Authority director Reuven Pinsky revealed a