Resistance to the Wall and Settlement: The Tax Incentives Law for Settlements as a New Tool to Accelerate Settlement Expansion in the West Bank

SadaNews - The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission stated on Thursday evening that it is following with great concern the Israeli Knesset's approval of a new law that grants extensive tax incentives to residents of dozens of settlements established in the occupied Palestinian land, in a move that reaffirms the Israeli occupation government's insistence on utilizing all Israeli resources to deepen the colonial settlement project and enhance the attractiveness of the settlements at the expense of the national rights of the Palestinian people.

According to the new law, the residents of 58 settlements will enjoy tax reductions of up to 7% on income tax, with a cap of 10,000 shekels annually per individual, while the annual cost of these privileges is estimated at about 130 million shekels, reflecting the scale of direct financial support that the occupation government allocates to the settlements and their residents.

The head of the commission, Minister Muaid Shabaan, stated that this law constitutes a new link in the system of incentives and facilities provided by successive Israeli governments to the settlers, which include infrastructure, housing, services, education, and transportation, with the aim of encouraging migration to the settlements, enhancing their demographic growth, and solidifying their presence on the occupied Palestinian land.

He affirmed that the security justifications presented by the occupation government to justify these privileges are merely a political cover for expansionist colonial policies, especially since the settlements benefiting from the law are witnessing accelerated population growth and already enjoy high levels of government support compared to other areas within Israel.

Shabaan added: This law reflects the extent of influence that the settlement movement has begun to exert within Israeli decision-making institutions, where legislation and financial policies are increasingly becoming tools to serve the agenda of annexation and colonial expansion, thus ensuring the entrenchment of the realities imposed by the settlements on the ground over the past decades.

He emphasized that the continued provision of economic privileges to settlements established illegally under international law represents a direct encouragement for settlement expansion, solidifying a discriminatory system that allocates resources and advantages to settlers at the expense of the Palestinian people living under occupation.

Shabaan considered that this law falls within a comprehensive package of legislative, administrative, and financial measures implemented by the occupation government with the aim of enhancing settlement and expediting the actual annexation plans for the West Bank, in a blatant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions that affirm the illegality of the Israeli settlements established in the occupied Palestinian land.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission called on the international community to treat these policies as part of an integrated colonial system that does not only encompass settlement construction, but also includes directing public resources and economic incentives to serve an illegal colonial settlement project aimed at changing the demographic, geographic, and political reality of the occupied Palestinian land.

Shabaan concluded that the occupation government no longer views the occupied Palestinian land as land under occupation governed by international law but rather treats it as a political and electoral asset used in the competition among extreme right-wing parties. The financial and tax incentives and economic benefits granted to settlers come in the context of a fierce race to attract the settlement movement's audience and enhance its demographic presence in the West Bank, within a vision that aims to expand settlements and accelerate the imposition of facts on the ground. These policies are part of declared Israeli plans targeting the doubling of the number of settlers, foremost of which is the so-called plan for a million settlers, transforming settlement from an expansionary colonial project into a central tool for reshaping Palestinian geography and cutting off any possibility of establishing an independent and geographically contiguous Palestinian state.