Animated map shows spread of illegal Israeli settlements across Palestine

Israeli settlements are Jewish-only communities built illegally on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.These settlements often look like ordinary suburbs: uniform townhouses, red-tiled roofs, and neat lawns, perched atop hills that give them a commanding view of the Palestinian towns and villages carved up to make room for them.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Why Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in West Bank are pogromslist 2 of 4Bezalel Smotrich’s long struggle to annex the West Bank for Israellist 3 of 4Why ‘pogrom’ best describes what’s happening in the occupied West Banklist 4 of 4Who are the ‘Hilltop Girls’ behind Israel’s ‘soft settlement’ strategy?end of listIn this visual explainer, Al Jazeera maps the spread of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts, and the settler pogroms accompanying them, now at their highest levels on record.The spread of Israeli settlements and outpostsSettlements predate the creation of Israel in 1948, but their number and scale expanded dramatically after Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.Over the past six decades, the settlement network has grown from scattered hilltop outpost...