AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn now to the West Bank. Israel’s government has granted final approval to a settlement project that would effectively split the occupied West Bank in two, sabotaging efforts at creating a future Palestinian state. The “E-1” settlement would see the construction of about 3,400 new housing units, would sever one of the last remaining territorial links between major Palestinian cities like Ramallah in the northern West Bank and southern cities like Bethlehem.

Israel’s plans for the settlement quickly drew international outrage, the U.N. secretary-general condemning it as an “existential threat to the two-State solution.”

Last week, the far-right Israeli politician, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, celebrated the plan at a news conference.

BEZALEL SMOTRICH: [translated] We stand here in Ma’ale Adumim and clearly announce the seal has broken. The E-1 plan, Mevaseret Adumim, is hitting the road. … For over two decades, we were told, “Soon it’s coming, right after the elections.” And today, we are finally fulfilling the promise and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem, our one and only capital, a strategic security and demographic connection that ensures our united capital for generations to come. …

Whoever in the world is trying to recognize a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground, not with documents, nor with decisions or statements, but with facts, facts of houses, facts of neighborhoods, roads and of more and more Jewish families building lives. It will speak of the false Palestinian dream. We will continue to build a fulfilling Jewish reality. This reality definitively buries the idea of a Palestinian state, simply because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist based in Ramallah.

Mariam, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you respond to these developments that occurred on Wednesday, the approval of the E-1 settlement plan and what this means?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: So, this is the initial approval. The formal approval is to go next week in the Israeli Knesset. But what this means is exactly, in Smotrich’s words, which are genocidal in intent, the erasure of Palestinians and blatantly saying that “we are going to bury” any prospects of a Palestinian state. And this comes as the symbolic and very hollow threats by international leaders to recognize a Palestinian state.

Now, on the ground, the reality has been that Israeli settlers and settlements have been further encroaching on Palestinians. But it’s not just in forcibly pushing Palestinians out. It is lethal. We have had at least 32 Palestinians killed at the hands of armed Israelis in the West Bank in the last 21 months. That’s an average of at least one Palestinian killed by these armed Israelis per month. So, what we’re seeing on the ground is the actual manifestation. But it’s not something that will happen; it is something that has been happening right now for years, actually. The E-1 plan has been since the '90s. It's not new. It’s just the international community has been delaying consequences for Israel instead of actually taking action.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly what it is, how it cuts up the occupied West Bank.

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: So, the approval for the Ma’ale Adumim settlements will further break territorial continuity for Palestinians. That means the center of the West Bank, areas like Ramallah, which is near Jerusalem, is going to be divided from areas in the north, like Jenin, Tulkarem, which have faced the largest displacement campaign since 1967 at the hands of the Israeli army. And it further breaks it away from the southern areas, areas such as Hebron.

So, Palestinians are unable to reach each other. Now, this is strategic. It is tactical. It means that Palestinians are unable to organize and are unable to live collectively. And we need to remember that the West Bank is the prize for Israel. While they’re obliterating Gaza, which is 365 kilometers squared, the West Bank is nearly 6,000 kilometers squared in size, and it has been the prize for Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the timing of this, as Hamas has signaled it agrees to the latest proposal from regional mediators for a ceasefire in Gaza?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. So, as we are seeing Israel continue to protract any agreement in terms of ending the war on Gaza, what they’re doing is, within that delay, they’re trying to take as much as possible from the West Bank. Now, this is a double form play, right? In Gaza, they are trying to pretend that they’re wanting to reach an agreement, while in the West Bank they’re actually escalating in violence. So, it’s a tag team for Israel. It is not a genuine and sincere attempt at ending the annihilation of Palestinian human life. And as we’ve heard Smotrich say, he doesn’t want — Israelis don’t want Palestinians on this land. And again, that is genocidal intent.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the role, Mariam, of the Palestinian Authority in the displacement of Palestinians throughout the West Bank, and how many Palestinians there are there?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. So, the Palestinian Authority has been complicit and collaborating with Israel for decades against Palestinians. We have especially seen this during the Israeli Operation Iron Wall, where thousands of Palestinians were displaced in the north. The Palestinian Authority continued to target any form of resistance that Palestinians had in the West Bank. And now you’ve heard also the foreign minister of the PA call for the disarming, again, also of Gaza.

Now, what that means is that it exposes Palestinians to be even more vulnerable to Israeli attacks. And this is dangerous, because we are seeing alarming, alarming rates of Palestinians being displaced in the West Bank, forcibly displaced, often at gunpoint, by Israelis. And the Palestinian Authority does not intervene, where we even have the Israeli army and settlers coming to areas such as Ramallah, the de facto headquarters of the PA, the only armed group that is available for Palestinians right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the Israeli military is calling up about 60,000 reservists ahead of this expanded ground offensive on Gaza City, where there are a million Palestinians. Can you talk about the approach to Gaza and to the West Bank right now by the Israeli military, the Israeli government?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes. The Israeli military right now is seeking to destroy what little remains of Gaza. Now, the deployment of such a large number of Israeli soldiers, especially in light of ongoing protests, you know, in Tel Aviv against the Israeli government, means that what’s left in the West Bank are the armed Israelis within the settlement. So, they’re going, again, to destroy — attempt to destroy what little remains in Gaza militarily. And in the West Bank, it’s going to — we’re witnessing already an unleashing of these armed Israeli militia groups that are state-backed. So, Israel is not engaging in just a war on Gaza. We need to remember this. It is engaging in a war of annihilation of Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, on the issue of the Israeli protests, up to a million Israelis demanding a ceasefire, criticizing Netanyahu, what does that mean to you? Is that a shift in Israeli public opinion?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I don’t think it’s a shift. It’s the expected response. They are not calling for a ceasefire, and we need to be very clear about that. They’re calling for the release of the hostages. The intent of these protests is not to preserve human life. It is not to honor international law. It is to try and bring the hostages home, right? And in that regards, it’s not even anti government. It’s just anti-current strategic movement. But in the West Bank, again, you don’t see any calls to end the occupation of the West Bank. You don’t see any calls that emphasize the colonial nature of Israel. So they’re very insincere. And again, they highlight that this is very a selfish call for Israeli self-preservation, rather than respect to human life.

AMY GOODMAN: Mariam Barghouti, I want to thank you for being with us, Palestinian writer, journalist, based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we hear, from our archive, Lonnie Bunch, the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: The Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara in our Democracy Now! studio.