NJN Welcomes Congressional Push to Expose Israeli Settlement Spending Amid Record Expansion
June 15, 2026 — New Jewish Narrative welcomed a letter signed by 42 members of Congress, led by Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), demanding transparency about Israeli government spending on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
The letter is a response from Congress to the Israeli government’s aggressive settlement expansion and the Trump administration’s failure to confront it.
2025 was the worst year on record for settlements: 86 new outposts established, 54 new settlements formally approved by the government (ten times more than the previous year), and nearly 30,000 housing units advanced through planning approvals (more than double the previous annual record). The surge has continued unabated into 2026. According to Peace Now, more than 6,200 housing units have already been advanced this year, with Israel's Higher Planning Council now approving settlement plans on a weekly basis.
The letter calls on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to comply with a law on the books since 1992 (22 U.S.C. § 2186) requiring the executive branch to report annually to Congress on Israel's settlement expenditures. For more than a decade, the State Department failed to provide the figures, shielding the true cost of the settlement enterprise from congressional and public scrutiny. The Castro-Van Hollen letter demands that the administration follow the law and share with Congress the calculated figures for each fiscal year from 2013 to the present, along with the methodology behind them.
"The Israeli government is building settlements at a pace we have never seen before, with the explicit goal of making Israel’s control of the West Bank permanent," said Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of New Jewish Narrative. "For too long, the costs of the settlement enterprise have been hidden from public view. Congress is asking a simple question: How much is being spent to sabotage the possibility of a two-state solution? The American people deserve an answer."
