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Get you up to speed: Israel approves $37m to seize more than 70 occupied West Bank sites
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich announced a $37 million funding allocation for the control of over 70 historical sites in the occupied West Bank. The approval comes amid ongoing settlement expansion, with reports indicating an increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the region.
The Israeli Finance Ministry’s recent funding allocation follows a 250 million shekel initiative approved in May aimed at archaeological claims throughout the West Bank. There remains no official timeline for the implementation of the new funding, nor details on the specific historical sites targeted by Israel.
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich described the funding allocation as “a Zionist act of the highest order,” aiming to establish new visitor centres and research facilities at Jewish heritage locations. In response to ongoing tensions, the Knesset’s Finance Committee recently approved an additional 300 million shekels to further support the Settlements Ministry, indicating continued commitment to settlement expansion despite international legal concerns.
What remains unclear — It is not specified which historical sites in the occupied West Bank will be targeted by the new funding allocation.
Israel allocates £37 million to seize over 70 sites in occupied West Bank
News|Israel-Palestine conflictIsrael approves $37m to seize more than 70 occupied West Bank sites
The allocated funding seeks to accelerate Israel’s control of historical landmarks across the occupied West Bank.
Published On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026
Published On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has announced a 113 million shekel ($37m) allocation to take control of more than 70 historical sites across the occupied West Bank.
The funding, approved by a government steering committee on Tuesday, builds on a 250 million shekel ($83m) plan approved in May aimed at claiming archaeological sites across the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and elsewhere.
The committee said in a statement that the Settlements Ministry is set to receive 157 million shekels ($52m) in direct funding, along with a further 142 million shekels ($47m) in commitment authorisations.
The new allocation lands on the same day that the Knesset’s Finance Committee separately approved close to 300 million shekels (about $99m) in direct funding and commitments to Israel’s Settlements Ministry.
“This is a Zionist act of the highest order. A people without a past has no future,” Smotrich said, describing plans for new visitor centres and research facilities.
Israel designates the landmarks as Jewish heritage locations, as it seeks to extend state control over Palestinian property and territory.
The occupied West Bank is home to thousands of archeological and heritage sites, some of which date back hundreds of years.
While Smotrich did not name the specific sites, Palestinian media reported that the plans aim to take over Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem – a site Smotrich has previously sought to bring under Israeli control. About 104 settlements and 160 outposts have been approved in the occupied West Bank since 2022, according to Smotrich.
The Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Israel’s funding for illegal settlement expansion has continued amid an intensified campaign of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, with more than 11,000 settler and military attacks across the region so far this year, according to Palestinian media.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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