ON ITS website, the Shomron Liaison Office makes an earnest pitch for would-be settlers to join the movement.

''Have you heard about the growth of hilltop communities in Judea and Samaria?'' reads a flyer.

''Do you want to be part of the action? Become a pioneer and claim your stake in Jewish history.''

Promoting a six-day volunteer program at the outpost of El Matan that is home to about 11 families, the flyer promises room, board and other activities including building and planting.

Visitors to Samaria are also invited to show their ''appreciation for the dedicated pioneers of the Jewish communities'' by nominating their favourite outpost for a ''UN-Habitat prize for human settlement''.

Despite the international clamour over settlements in the West Bank, there seems to be no shortage of ideologically motivated Israelis and new immigrants aspiring to make a home there.

According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the settler population in the West Bank rose 5 per cent last year to 289,600 people, compared with population growth of 1.8 per cent in Israel last year.

Built on land occupied by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War but never officially annexed by the state, the settlements have become Israel's single most costly civil and military project in the 41 years since.

''It's very difficult to put an exact figure on what the settlements actually cost us each year,'' says Hagit Ofran, director of the Settlement Watch project of the Israeli Peace Now movement.

''There is the high cost of security, and then different budget allocations made each year by a range of government agencies and departments.

''We also argue that Israel pays a high price for the settlements in terms of the damage it does to society and our international standing.''

In annual terms, Peace Now estimates a headline figure of about 2.5 billion shekels ($A780 million) a year, spent by the State of Israel to maintain the settlements.

That includes $350 million transferred directly to local councils in the West Bank, or about 9 per cent of the total Ministry of Finance payments to Israeli councils on an annual basis, even though the settler population only amounts to 3.8 per cent of the Israeli population.

''Therefore, we estimate that the settlements get double the budget allocations of other councils,'' says Ms Ofran.

Other costs include infrastructure, road upgrades, subsidised public transport, agriculture subsidies and the deployment of about 10,000 troops from the Israel Defence Forces' West Bank division to maintain security.

West Bank settlers in designated preferred areas are also entitled to a range of economic benefits not available to ordinary Israelis, such as subsidised housing loans and a 70 per cent discount on the price of land.

New factories in the West Bank are exempt from company tax for their first two years and receive a generous tax discount for the next five years.

These figures do not include the $4 billion set aside for the construction of the 790-kilometre Separation Wall that divides Israel and some of the larger settlement blocks from Palestinian land.

But while the price of maintaining the settlements is significant, the single biggest cost to Israeli taxpayers will come when a Palestinian state is finally established.

With the most likely boundaries for a future Palestinian state to encompass all of the land east of the Separation Wall, Israel would have to evacuate up to 80,000 Jewish settlers.

Based on the per capita outlay of withdrawing 8000 settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israeli human rights group The Adva Centre estimates that the price tag for such a move will be up to $30 billion.