“There will be no Palestinian state,” says Netanyahu

Premier signs plan to double population of Jewish Megacolony in the occupied West Bank. Expansion project can further fragment the Palestinian territory. “This land belongs to us,” says Netanyahu in ceremony.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (11/09) that “there will be no Palestinian state.”

The speech was given during the signing ceremony of the Plan for the expansion of the Israeli Megacolony of Maale Adumim, in the occupied West Bank, in an area near East Jerusalem.

“What we are doing here is to fulfill a vision,” said Netanyahu, adding that the expansion of the colony aims to realize a “non -biblical, but current” promise: “We said there would be no Palestinian state, and no doubt there will be no Palestinian state!”. “This land belongs to us,” added Netanyahu.

The project of expansion of the colony, promoted by ultranationalist sectors of Israel, risks decisively dividing the Palestinian territory. The plan foresees the construction of 3,400 settlers for the so -called E1 area, ranging from East Jerusalem to Maale Adumim.

Thus, the expanded colony can fragment the West Bank into two separate enclaves, making it even more difficult to form a state for the Palestinian population of the area;

At the ceremony, Netanyahu stated that, with the expansion plan, the population of Maale Adumim, from about 40,000 people, could grow to 70,000 over the next five years.

“The Bible says, ‘How Jerusalem has mountains around it.’ It is a simple grammatical error. How Jerusalem has cities around him!” Said Netanyahu.

The expansion plan was announced in August by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, from the far right. By announcing a plan, Smotrich, himself a settler who lives in the occupied West Bank, made it clear that the expansion aims to “bury” the possibility of an independent Palestinian state.

The expansion occurs in parallel to the war led by Israel in the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory. In May, Israel had also announced the creation of 22 new colonies in the occupied West Bank.

Maale ADUMIM is already the largest Israeli colony in West Bank in terms of occupied area, and one of the largest in population.

The approval of the construction of more than 3,000 houses in the area was criticized by the Palestinian authorities and various human rights organizations. European governments, including Germany, also positioned themselves against expansion.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the plan, warning that he threatens the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state and represents an “existential threat” to the solution of two states.

The entire Israeli presence in West Bank is illegal, according to the International Court of Justice, which asked Israel to evacuate its settlers from this territory, dismantle its settlements, ensure the return of Palestinians and remove the wall with which the territory isolates.

Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler himself, and one of the main promoters of Maale Adumim’s expansion | Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

X-ray of the colonies

The Jewish colonies or settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have constantly expanded since the six -day war in 1967, when Israel occupied the territories, where about 3 million Palestinians live. In recent decades, however, the creation of new colonies had slowed, with Israel focusing on the expansion of existing settlements.

In 2023, Israel kept and supported 144 colonies in the West Bank and 12 in East Jerusalem. Some of these colonies have already become true cities ingrown in Palestinian territories, such as Beitar Illit, which has over 60,000 settlers. In all, about 700,000 settlers live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Expansion works of the Giv’at Ze’ev Colony in West Bank in 2021. Colony houses more than 20,000 people. | Ahmad Gharabi/AFP

There are also more than a hundred unofficial colonies, known as “advanced stations”, which are usually installed by armed settlers without official endorsement of the Israeli government. However, it is common for many of these “advanced posts” to be recognized later as Official “settlements” of Israel.

Although they do not officially do part of the territory of Israel, all settlements have a whole structure of services guaranteed by the country, such as water, electricity and army protection.

The settlers are also subject to Israeli law and have representation in Parliament, unlike Palestinians, who have no representation and are subject to military law. In many cases, colonies are installed in strategic locations, resulting in the separation of Palestinian cities from each other and making it difficult to travel.

A part of these settlers is also formed by non-Israelis. In 2015, an Oxorfd University survey estimated that at least 60,000 US -born Jews lived in colonies installed in the occupied West Bank.

Most of the international community considers illegal settlements and an obstacle to a lasting peace solution in the region. Settlements are also failed by the United Nations, which consider that because of them the Palestinians almost do not have a territory that makes a solution of two states viable.

Violent actions of extremist settlers, especially in establishing “advanced posts”, have also led the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom to impose sanctions against individuals living on the colonies.

Originally published by DW on 9/11/2025