Settlement construction in Judea and Samaria surged during the first year of the Trump presidency, a left-wing Israeli activist group said Sunday.
Releasing a report that adds to Palestinian mistrust of the U.S. administration, Peace Now said Israel began construction of 2,783 settlement homes in 2017. That was about 17% higher than the annual average since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first took office in 2009.
The report said 78% of the new homes are in outlying settlements that would likely have to be evicted if a Palestinian state is established, with 234 units, 8% of the total, in tiny outposts not authorized even by the government.
The Palestinians and most of the international community consider the Israeli settlement enterprise to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
While a string of previous Republican and Democratic presidents have opposed settlement construction, President Donald Trump has taken a softer line. He has at times asked Israel to show restraint, but has avoided the strong condemnations voiced by his predecessors. His Middle East peace team, led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, is dominated by people with close ties to the settlement movement.
Peace Now, a left-wing NGO, said its information was collected through aerial surveys and inspections by monitors on the ground.
However, its report stopped short of blaming the jump in construction exclusively on the policies led by Trump's White House.
Netanyahu has been a strong supporter of the settlements throughout his career, and his coalition is dominated by religious and nationalist hard-liners aligned with the settlement movement.
"The steady pace of construction and building deep in the West Bank attest to Prime Minister Netanyahu's steadfast abetting of the settlement enterprise," the report said. "It is also apparent that the new U.S. presidency in 2017 had no marginal deterrent effect on these Israeli unilateral moves."
The settlement movement has issued its own data showing growth in settler communities.
Last month, using official government data, a settler leader said the Judea and Samaria settler population grew by 3.4% last year to more than 435,000 people, nearly double the growth rate of Israel's overall population.
For the Palestinians, Peace Now's report was another cause for mistrust of the U.S. administration, just as the White House is trying to wrap up a Middle East peace initiative.
The Palestinians have severed most contacts with the White House since December, when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Palestinians view the move as being unfairly biased toward Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict and have already rejected the U.S. peace plan, even before it has been made public.
Nabil Shaath, a top adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the figures prove that Netanyahu is "not interested in peace" and is destroying hopes for a two-state solution.
"Netanyahu is continuing his settlement project, enjoying the fact that the U.S. is silent," he said. "These numbers are very dangerous. We condemn it, and will continue working politically to stop it."
