The left-wing Zionist movement "Peace Now," which opposes settlement construction, revealed on Friday that the Supreme Planning Council of the Israeli Civil Administration will discuss a plan to build 1,211 settlement units in the West Bank next Wednesday.

In a statement, it said that among these plans are two large plans in the Ma'ale Amos settlement, south of the Bethlehem Governorate in the southern occupied West Bank (a total of 561 settlement units), which expand the settlement northward and aim to create continuity with the Ivey Nahal settlement. In fact, Ivey Nahal is defined as a neighborhood of Ma'ale Amos, but it operates as a separate settlement.

Peace Now noted that since the beginning of December 2024, the Supreme Planning Council has been holding weekly discussions to advance settlement units in the settlements.

It stated that the move toward approving settlement plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in the Palestinian territories, but also intensifies it.

It noted that since the beginning of 2025, and with the plans scheduled to be approved next week, the Supreme Planning Council has succeeded in building 10,167 settlement units in less than three months.

Among the changes made by the Netanyahu-Smotrich government in June 2023 was the abolition of the requirement for the Defense Minister's approval for each stage of advancing settlement plans.

Until this decision, any progress in a construction plan in the settlements required prior approval from the Defense Minister.

In recent years, the Israeli Defense Minister decided that plans in the settlements would only be presented approximately four times a year.

Consequently, at each meeting of the Supreme Planning Council, thousands of settlement units were approved at once.

It added, "In recent weeks, we have witnessed a change, with the Supreme Planning Council meeting every two weeks and approving the construction of hundreds of settlement units at each meeting."

In this way, the Israeli government seeks to normalize planning in the settlements and attract less public and international attention and criticism.

Since the formation of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, a coalition of far-right parties, it has escalated its settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The United Nations considers Israeli settlements illegal and has unsuccessfully called for their cessation, warning that they undermine the chances of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to the principle of a two-state solution (a Palestinian state alongside a Zionist state).