Settlement & Annexation Report: September 26, 2025

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

September 26, 2025

Trump Says No to Israeli Annexation
United Nations Adds 68 New Companies to List of Businesses Supporting the Settlement Enterprise
Bonus Reads

Trump Says No to Israeli Annexation

President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he “will not allow” Israel to formally annex the West Bank, saying further “It’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.” Netanyahu has reportedly been preparing an de jure annexation plan to appease members of his cabinets, framed as a response to international recognition of a Palestinian state. However, a senior government official has told the press that Trump actually helped Netanyahu out of yet another jam, providing him cover with his coalition partners to defer formal annexation and preserve the Abraham Accords.

International pressure against annexation has continued to mount, including new warnings from Saudi Arabia and France and a lot of attention at the UN gathering this week in NY. Nonetheless, Israeli officials surrounding Netanyahu have taken to social media to react to Trump’s comments and urge Netanyahu to move forward with unilateral annexation. On the same day as Trump’s comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a reporter that Israel is considering areas of the West Bank that are not under PA control, saying Israel has no interest in annexing Palestinians. This plan hints at a plan introduced by Smotrich weeks before to annex 82% of the West Bank, leaving six discontiguous Palestinian population centers under Palestinian control, surrounded entirely by Israel.

United Nations Adds 68 New Companies to List of Businesses Supporting the Settlement Enterprise

The United Nations updated its database of businesses involved in building, maintaining, securing, and servicing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.Sixty-eight new companies were added to the list, including German construction giant Heidelberg, while seven companies were removed from the list.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the UN human rights office said in a statement:

“Businesses working in contexts of conflict have a due diligence responsibility to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses. We call on businesses to take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts of their activities.”

As a reminder, on February 12, 2020, following nearly four years of delay, the UNHRC published a (non-comprehensive) database of businesses involved in building, maintaining, securing, and servicing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The database was requested by members of the Council in March 2016, in order to assist member states in complying with international legal obligations with regards to doing business with companies involved in activities which violate the human rights of people around the world. The publication of the database was repeatedly been delayed due to heavy pressure from Israel and the United States, neither of which are members of the Human Rights Council. Even before its publication, Israel and the U.S. argued that the database would by definition be anti-Israel and antisemitic. From the start they also labeled the database a “blacklist,” even though the database itself neither calls for nor imposes any punitive consequences on the listed businesses.

Bonus Reads

“Top Israeli Official Overseeing West Bank Land Removed After Disputes With Smotrich Allies” (Haaretz, 9/24/25)
“Settler Takeover or Hotel? Fate of One of Israel’s Most Beautiful Buildings Now in Doubt” (Haaretz, 9/21/25)
“Israeli Police Didn’t Actually Investigate the Settler Incident, but Still Made a Firm Conclusion” (Haaretz, 9/26/25)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

September 12, 2025

Netanyahu Signs Final Approval of E-1, Celebrates End of Palestinian State
Netanyahu Delays Discussion of Plan to Annex the Jordan Valley
‘Formalizing Apartheid’: Smotrich Presents Plan to Annex 82% of the West Bank
State Land Declaration to Legalize Havat Gilad Outpost
Settlers Establish New Enclave on Key Hebron Street (Currently) Open to Palestinians
West Bank News & Analysis
East Jerusalem News & Analysis
Bonus Reads

Netanyahu Signs Final Approval of E-1, Celebrates End of Palestinian State

On September 11th, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held a ceremony in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to celebrate the signing of the E-1 settlement framework plan, the final approval for the construction of a settlement designed to foreclose any possibility of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is happy to state the intention behind the settlement, saying at the ceremony that “We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us.”

Bezalel Smotrich also attended the ceremony, where he told Bibi in front of the crowd:

“Mr. Prime Minister, all of us, soon, will thank you and congratulate and celebrate together the application of sovereignty throughout Judea and Samaria.”

The signing of the E-1 framework was done as part of a massive umbrella agreement worth billions of shekels to develop the wider Ma’ale Adumim and E-1 area. Peace Now reports that the framework includes a government commitment to invest 3 billion shekels in infrastructure for the construction of 7,600 housing units, of which about 3,400 are in E1. The plan seeks to double the population of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and build new roads, public institutions, and other infrastructure – – furthering Israel’s de facto annexation of a huge area east of Jerusalem.

Ir Amim said in a statement:

“Today, the Israeli Government is expected to sign a government umbrella agreement with the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which will allocate 3 billion NIS to finance and accelerate the development of the E1 and Ma’ale Adumim area. The signing ceremony will be attended by the Israeli Prime Minister, underscoring the high-level political backing for this move.

In other words, annexation par excellence.

For perspective: an umbrella agreement was signed with the Jerusalem Municipality seven years ago for the city’s development that totaled just 1 billion NIS. Despite the fact that Jerusalem has 25 times more residents than Maaleh Adumim, the settlement will receive triple what was allocated to the Jerusalem municipality.

This comes on the heels of last month’s approval of the E1 settlement plans and publication of tenders for 3300 new housing units between Maaleh Adumim and the Mishor Adumim industrial zone. Following the recent intervention by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a percentage of these housing units will likely be sold at discounted rates as part of a government subsidized housing lottery.

Annexation and entrenchment of Israeli apartheid on full throttle.”

Netanyahu Delays Discussion of Plan to Annex the Jordan Valley

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the Security Cabinet’s discussion of his plan to formally annex the Jordan Valley (some 30% of the West Bank). Israel Hayom reports that in preparing the plan for discussion in the Security Cabinet, Ron Dermer (Netanyahu’s Strategic Affairs Minister) worked with U.S. officials to OK the Jordan Valley plan and believes that, contrary to annexation of the full West Bank, the annexation of the Jordan Valley would receive bipartisan support in the United States. Netanyahu and Dermer reportedly framed the annexation push as a response to increasing diplomatic pressure on Israel vis a vis Gaza, particularly European promises to recognize a State of Palestine

Rumors of Netanyahu’s intent to advance the annexation of the Jordan Valley were followed quickly by two significant, headline-grabbing responses. First, Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly debuted his own plan for annexation – a plan that would see Israel annex 82% of the West Bank (for more, see below), a plan that far overshadows the Netanyahu-Dermer plan. Second and in response to Smotrich’s plan, the UAE released a statement saying that annexation is a “red line” and “means there can be no lasting peace” and would “end the pursuit of regional integration” (hinting at ending the Abraham Accords, which the UAE signed in 2020). Only after the UAE statement was it reported that Netanyahu pulled Jordan Valley annexation off of the agenda for the Cabinet meeting scheduled for September 4th.

Netanyahu’s plan for a more limited annexation of the Jordan Valley is nothing new (and is of course being actively carried out in a de facto manner). Netanyahu has pushed for the de jure annexation of the Jordan Valley since at least 2019.

The Jordan Valley is home to around 65,000 Palestinians, though ~10,000 settlers have managed to exert their control over nearly 85% of the Valley. On a weekly basis, FMEP shares reporting from the ground of settler attacks on PAlestinians communities in the Jordan Valley, new outposts, more declarations of state land or closed military zones – – all of which have violently coerced many Palestinians into leaving while Israel silently annexes the Jordan Valley.

‘Formalizing Apartheid’: Smotrich Presents Plan to Annex 82% of the West Bank

On September 2nd, Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich held a press conference to unveil his proposal to annex 82% of the West Bank, a plan accompanied by a map (emblazoned with a government logo) leaving only six major Palestinian population centers as un-annexed land, entirely surrounded by the Israeli state. Smotrich publicly promoted his plan days after reporting that suggested Netanyahu was prepared to advance a plan to annex the Jordan Valley, which constitutes 30% of the West Bank – much less than Smotrich and his settlers allies are aiming for, and indeed working to achieve.

While showing off his proposed map, Smotrich said:

“We have no desire to apply our sovereignty over a population that seeks our destruction. Enemies must be fought, not allowed a comfortable life. Therefore, the overriding principle for applying sovereignty is: maximum land with minimum population.”

Smotrich estimated 80,000 Palestinians live on land that he proposes annexing to Israel, and those Palestinians will be offered the status currently held only by Palestinian East Jerusalemites — a status short of full citizenship and which denies Palestinians the right to vote for the government that rules their lives. However, as Haaretz notes, Smotrich’s assertion that 80,000 live in areas his map shows as future Israeli territory does not comport with known demographics. For example, Smotrich’s map shows all of Bethlehem and its surrounding lands as annexed to Israel, and it’s estimated that the population of this area is around 200,000 Palestinians.

Smotrich proposes the un-annexed Palestinian population centers will be islands of land administered by “regional civilian management alternatives,” calling for the Palestinian Authority to be dismantled. Knesset Member Aido Touma-Sliman said:

“Smotrich’s annexation map is the clearest expression yet of this government’s fascism. It seeks to erase an entire people by redrawing borders with brutality and arrogance, turning the West Bank into fragmented prisons with no geographic continuity under Israeli sovereignty. It exposes a regime no longer hiding behind false claims of democracy, but openly pursuing fascist control over millions of Palestinians. The international community must not look away. Every endorsement, every silence, every normalization in the face of this map is complicity in the crime of apartheid and in the erasure of the Palestinian people’s right to exist.”

Smotrich’s public pitch for annexing the majority of the West Bank (and formalizing apartheid) received harsh criticism from many corners of the international community – most notably from Israel’s Abraham Accords core partner the UAE. The Trump Administration, on the other hand, not only refrained from criticism of Smotrich but repeatedly clarified for Israeli news outlets that the U.S. has never expressed opposition to Israeli annexation plans.

To be clear, Smotrich’s plan proposes a large scale of annexation of the West Bank that he is already implementing in a de facto nature (he has admitted as much repeatedly). Since taking control over the Settlements Administration, a new division created within the Israeli Defense Ministry, Smotrich has acted as the reigning sovereign of the West Bank. With authority over all civilian matters in the West Bank and significant input on security matters, Smotrich has undertaken a mass-scale effort to annex land, increase the number of settlers, demolish/displace Palestinian communities, and hollow out the Palestinian Authority. Smotrich has fundamentally transformed Israel’s governance of the West Bank, bringing the West Bank under Israeli civilian authority and virtually eliminating the thin facade of separation between how Israel governs the occupied territories and how it governs its own sovereign territory

State Land Declaration to Legalize Havat Gilad Outpost

Peace Now reports the Israel Civil Administration has declared a huge area of land (112 acres) near Nablus to be “state land.” The land historically belonged to the Palestinian villages of Tell, Jit, and Far’ata, but in 2002 settlers illegally built the Havat Gilad outpost on privately owned land in the area and have since lobbied the Israeli government to legalize the outpost.

However – the land that has been seized does not include the land on which structures in the Havat Gilad outpost are currently built, and the seized land is, according to The Times of Israel, a “tortuously drawn and include islands of land within the state land zone that may be privately owned by Palestinians.”

Peace Now says this is an Israeli effort to establish a new settlement, not to legalize the Havat Gilad outpost. Peace Now explained:

“…the state has declared land about one kilometer south of the outpost as “state land” for the purpose of “legalizing” it. However, the declared lands show that the vast majority of the outpost’s houses are built on private land and therefore cannot be legalized. To make the outpost “legal” according to Israel’s own rules (all settlements are illegal under international law), the existing houses would have to be demolished and the outpost rebuilt elsewhere, about a kilometer away from its current location.

It is already clear, however, that in practice no buildings will be demolished; instead, new construction will simply be added on the declared land. For decades the government has allowed the outpost to continue to seize private land and has refrained from removing the settlers. It is hard to believe that now, as it promotes formal ‘regularization,’ it will suddenly demolish homes.”

As Kerem Navot has chronicled, the Havat Gilad outpost has been the subject of controversy since it was first established by settlers in 2002. Since then, the outpost has become a source of radical, serious, and frequent violence against Palestinians. In 2014, two Havat Gilad settlers were sentenced to prison for setting Palestinian vehicles on fire in a price-tag attack; its residents have also been documented harassing Palestinian farmers and denying them access to their own lands. The Israeli NGO Yesh Din – which has documented violence emanating from Havat Gilad, including against Yesh Din employees – has filed several petitions against the outpost, including a 2010 case that resulted in the demolition of some of the outpost’s structures that were built on land Israel recognized as privately-owned by Palestinians. Yesh Din’s investigation shows that Havat Gilad was built on lands that the Israeli Civil Administration has now declared to be “state land” have in fact been continuously cultivated and privately owned by Palestinians; most of the outpost’s structures have standing (but unenforced) demolition orders issued against them.

In 2018, the Israeli government came under intense pressure from the settler lobby to legalize Havat Gilad in response to a Palestinian terror attack that killed a Havat Gilad settler — and came very close to doing so. At the time, the government ran into difficulties in legalizing the outpost because some of the illegal buildings were located on land Israel recognized as privately-owned by Palestinians, and the government could not – at that time – find a legal means by which to expropriate it. Meanwhile, the settler killed in the attack was subsequently buried at the outpost, and as Al-Monitor explains, the presence of a cemetery in the outpost makes its future evacuation nearly impossible. Kerem Navot’s Dror Etkes spoke to Haaretz around this same time about the phenomenon of settlers being buried in the West Bank:

“Etkes tells Haaretz he believes the choice of where the cemeteries are situated – particularly when they lie on private land some distance from the nearest homes – is not a coincidence. ‘I work on the assumption that there are always deliberate intentions afoot,’ he says. The placement of a cemetery ‘is not chosen for no reason. It is a very long-term investment – and in Judaism, whoever buries people in a certain place does so on the understanding they will not be removed. Obviously, there is deliberate intent lurking behind the location of these cemeteries,’ Etkes continues, ‘and it may be assumed that whoever buries the dead on private Palestinian land knows exactly what he’s doing.’”

Settlers Establish New Enclave on Key Hebron Street (Currently) Open to Palestinians

Settlers have taken over a building on Shallala Street in Hebron, one of the main access streets available for Palestinians to reach the Old City of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque. Shallala Street runs parallel to Shuhada Street, which is closed to Palestinians. Peace Now warns the new enclave raises concern that the Israeli government or army may move to close the street to Palestinians in order to provide security to the settlers.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“This settlement is a direct initiative of the government. The Custodian of Government Property allocated the building to the settlers, and the army opened a special passage for them to enter. The goal of establishing a settlement in the heart of Hebron’s casbah is to seize new areas of the city and displace Palestinians from them, similar to what was done in the city center around the existing settlements. The settlement in Hebron is the ugliest face of Israeli control in the territories. Nowhere else in the West Bank is apartheid so blatant. Establishing a new settlement in Hebron is a provocation that harms Israel’s political and security interests.”

On the same day as Smotrich’s presentation, Israeli forces arrested the mayor of Hebron, Tayseer Abu Sneineh. Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank and is home to 800,000 Palestinians. Some 500 messianic Israeli settlers have been imposing their presence in the city’s old town since the 1980s, and Abu Sneineh is known for his role in a Fatah cell that planned and carried out the shooting of six Israeli and Jewish settlers in the city’s old town in 1980, locally known as the “Dabuya Operation.” After his initial arrest, Abu Sneineh was later released in a prisoner swap in 1983 alongside other members of the cell.

Abu Sneineh’s arrest came days after Israeli media outlets reported that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was considering the establishment of a tribal “emirate” in Hebron, separate from the Palestinian Authority, which first surfaced in the pages of the Wall Street Journal last July.

Local Palestinian media speculated as to whether Abu Sneineh’s arrest was possibly a prelude to removing potential sources of local opposition to annexation, especially given Abu Sneineh’s

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement and annexation activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

January 31, 2025

Bill to Allow Israelis to Buy West Bank Land Advances in Knesset
Weekly Settlement Advancements Continue for Ninth Week
On First Day in Office, Trump Cancels Sanctions on Violent Settlers
Bonus Reads

Bill to Allow Israelis to Buy West Bank Land Advances in Knesset

On January 29th, the Israeli Knesset’s plenum approved the preliminary reading of a bill (58 – 33) that will allow Israelis to purchase land in the West Bank without any restrictions. In response, Peace Now called this “annexation and apartheid.”

Under the current law, private, non-Arab individuals cannot purchase land in the West Bank. In 1971, the law was amended to add a loophole allowing companies registered to operate in the West Bank (like the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund) to purchase property, and often do so only to give it to Israeli settlers. This additional change would open the door for private purchases across the West Bank by settlers and their backers, including in the heart of Palestinian cities. Notably, Israeli security officials have in the past objected to changing this law, based on their recognition of the fact that settlers implanting themselves wherever they want in the West Bank – including in acts intended to be deliberately provocative – will be a security nightmare for the IDF and will enable settlers and their financial patrons to further hijack the national security agenda of the state of Israel.

MK Aida Touma-Sliman wrote:

“Annexation on steroids: The bill that was approved in preliminary reading in the Knesset plenary now removes another obstacle on the way to a complete takeover of the West Bank. In serious violation of international law, Israel behaves as a sovereign in an occupied territory and promotes de jure annexation, a colonialism that is brazenly called “equality”. The approval of the bill today is a direct continuation of structural changes carried out in the area, including construction permits, declaration of state lands, construction of outposts in Area B, road construction, transfer of civil administration powers to Messianic ministers and more. The annexation is no longer crawling, not racing, it is carried out slowly but surely.”

Peace Now writes:

“This is yet another annexation move initiated by the messianic right. The proposal seeks to allow settlers to purchase land without any oversight throughout the West Bank, effectively making them ‘landlords’ in the West Bank in both symbolic and practical terms. The bill would give a small number of extremist settlers the ability to acquire land and later establish settlements, whether in the heart of Hebron or anywhere else and drag the IDF to risk soldiers’ lives and protect them. Furthermore, the Knesset has no authority to legislate laws for areas that are not under Israeli sovereignty, and the attempt to apply Knesset laws to the occupied territory constitutes annexation and a blatant violation of international law.”

Yesh Din explains:

“The law aims to ease the purchase of land in the occupied territory by settlers and to expand the settlement enterprise. It seeks to establish permanent changes in land ownership in the West Bank by enabling, for the first time, individual Israelis to buy land directly instead of the current requirement to buy land through companies registered with the Civil Administration Companies Registry. This kind of ownership would be permanent and irreversible.

The name of the law and its explanatory notes are misleading. The bill presents itself as fixing an ongoing injustice of alleged discrimination against settlers. In reality, the land regime in the West Bank enacts blatant discrimination in which 99% of the public (‘state’) lands are allocated to settlements. If the legislation is fully enacted, it will not only futher entrench the existing discrimination but ease and facilitate the purchase of West Bank lands by Israeli settlers.

Additionally, and no less significantly, legislation by the Israeli Knesset regarding the occupied territory constitutes the application of Israeli sovereignty to the occupied land, in violation of international law, which prohibits annexation.”

Weekly Settlement Advancements Continue for Ninth Week

Peace Now reports the Israeli High Planning Council advanced plans for the construction of 682 settlement units on January 29th. The units are planned for three settlements:

Halamish – plans for 531 new units were deposited for public review. If approved, these plans will double the number of houses there.
Mitzad – plans for 126 new units were deposited for public review. And,
Peduel – plans for 25 new units received final approval.

This marks the continuation of the weekly convening of the High Planning Council in order to greenlight massive settlement construction.

On First Day in Office, Trump Cancels Sanctions on Violent Settlers

On January 20th – the same day he took office – President Trump announced that he will rescind the February 2024 Executive Order under which the Biden Administration implemented sanctions against Israeli settlers and settler-aligned organizations alleged to have participated in violence in the West Bank. The U.S. Treasury Department officially lifted the sanctions on January 24th.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Trump’s move an “expression of your deep connection to the Jewish people and our historical right to our land.”

Executive Order 14115 issued on Feb. 1, 2024, which authorized the imposition of certain sanctions “on Persons Undermining Peace,

In a statement, the U.S. advocacy group DAWN said in a statement:

“President Trump’s decision to revoke the U.S. government’s only sanctions against violent settlers and malign settlement organizations driving land theft and settler violence isn’t only a slap in the face to millions of Palestinians enduring decades of terrorist pogroms, but erodes what little hope we have that Trump will succeed in establishing a Palestinian state,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. “Instead, Trump is kowtowing to his vicious pro-Israel donor base who were apoplectic at efforts to hold extremist Israelis accountable and convinced him to revoke the sanctions.”

Bonus Reads

“Humanitarian Situation Update #260 | West Bank” (OCHA)
“As Ceasefire Nears, Jared Kushner’s New Investments Could Boost Israeli Settlements” (The Lever)
“US: Sanction Jewish National Fund-Israel (KKL-JNF) for Funding Settlement Expansion and Fostering Settler Violence” (DAWN)
“From Gaza to the West Bank: Israel’s Shifting Fire and the Cost of Impunity” (CIHRS)
“Jenin is ‘only the beginning’: Israel moves its war on Palestinians to the West Bank” (Mondoweiss)
“Israel is shifting its battlefield from Gaza to the West Bank” (The New Arab)
“Online Calls to Action Preceded a Settler Onslaught in the West Bank, and Once Again Palestinians Were Left Unprotected” (Haaretz)
“Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich Appoints West Bank Council Chief as Ministry Director” (Haaretz)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 20, 2024

De Facto Annexation: Israel Applies Domestic Urban Renewal Law to Settlements, Easing High-Density Construction
High Court Orders Illegal Settler Construction Dismantled
Knesset Caucus to Push Bill Preventing West Bank Exit
Israeli Demolitions Continue Alarming Spike
Israel is Expanding Settlements in the Golan Heights, As Army Moves to Expand Occupation of Syrian Land
Bonus Reads

De Facto Annexation: Israel Applies Domestic Urban Renewal Law to Settlements, Easing High-Density Construction

In an act of de facto annexation of the settlements, Peace Now reports that the Israeli Commander of the Central Command has signed a military order applying domestic Israeli laws on urban renewal. The order establishes a new body called the “Government Authority for Urban Renewal in Judea and Samara,” to be staffed and funded with the same people and budgets as the domestic domestic authority – essentially just expanding the jurisdiction of the existing body. This authority, which is funded by Israeli taxpayer money, will be able to incentivize large-scale, high-density settlement housing projects through various tax breaks and exemptions, in so doing diverting public funds to the settlements. Public reporting suggests that up to 10,000 new settlement housing units can be advanced through this new authority in 2025.

Peace Now explains:

“This means that government budgets can now be directed to assist in the planning and implementation of eviction-rebuild projects or other urban renewal projects in settlements, and to encourage massive, high-density construction. In recent years, settlements have begun to build high-rise buildings, even towers. The new military order will make it easier for settlers to advance construction plans in built-up areas using the evacuation-reconstruction method, so that both the developers, the current homeowners, and the settlement enterprise will benefit from the change, while Israeli interests will lose out.”

High Court Orders Illegal Settler Construction Dismantled

Emek Shaveh and Yesh Din report that the Israeli High Court of Justice has accepted a petition to stop the illegal settlement construction at the historical and sacred site Nabi Abner, located northwest of Ramallah (jointly filed by Emek Shaveh, Yesh Din, and the Palestinian residents of Ras Karakar and Deir Ammar on whose land the site is located). In its decision, the High Court criticized the State for its involvement and facilitation of illegal settler construction on the land – and ordered that the buildings and infrastructure be dismantled, and that the site be restored to its previous condition within six months.

Indeed, settlers began harassing Palestinians at the Nabi Abner site more than seven years ago. The IDF opted to prevent Palestinians from accessing their historical land instead of preventing settlers from illegally entering the area, violently harassing the landowners, and harming the agriculture they tended to. Eventually, settlers had full control of the site, even building concrete pools and pergolas to transform it into an Israeli tourist site. The construction damaged antiquities at the site, which included ancient springs, aqueducts, artifacts as well as the ruins of a Palestinians village.

Yesh Din posted on X:

“The ruling upholds Palestinians’ rights to property and free access to heritage and recreational sites. This is a significant and just victory. After seven years of legal and public struggle, the Court ruled what should have been self-evident: the state is obligated to protect Palestinians’ property rights and allow them to preserve their heritage, even when settlers seek to turn the site into a recreational site for themselves.”

Emek Shaveh said in a statement:

“We welcome the court’s ruling following a lengthy legal and public struggle which affirmed the obvious: The state is obligated to protect the property rights of Palestinians and allow them to preserve their heritage even when settlers desire to turn the site into their personal recreational and leisure destination.”

Knesset Caucus to Push Bill Preventing West Bank Exit

The Israeli Knesset is set to revive a bill that is proposed at blocking any future decision by the Israeli government to cede territory in the West Bank and Israeli territorial waters in the context of a peace deal. Current Israeli Basic Law requires a public referendum or special majority vote in the Knesset for any proposal to cede territory in Israel, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights – – but the law does not currently include the West Bank. The proposed bill would add the West Bank and Israeli territorial waters to the covered territories.

In a statement accompanying the bill, the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus (which will reportedly be submitted soon) says that the bill is intended to “effectively prevent the establishment of a Palestinians state in any future arrangement.” The focus on Israeli territorial waters comes in light of Yair Lapid’s 2022 maritime agreement with Lebanon.

Israeli Demolitions Continue Alarming Spike

OCHA reports that on on December 16th Israeli forces carried out the demolition of two Palestinian structures, rendering 78 Palestinians displaced – which is the highest number of Palestinians displaced in a single day from demolitions due to a lack of building permits since October 2023. Those were just 2 of 76 structures that were demolitions between December 10 – 16, of which 60 were in the West Bank and 9 were in East Jerusalem.

The demolitions are part of an alarming and still unfolding surge in demolitions targeting Palestinians in East Jerusalem, particularly in sensitive areas where Israel has plans for settler-backed tourism projects that erase Palestinian history and presence in the city. Since January 2024, 17 structures have been demolished (either directly by Israel or by Palestinians who opted to self-demolish and avoid Israeli fees) in the Al-Bustan section of Silwan. 104 Palestinians have been displaced as a result.

Israel is Expanding Settlements in the Golan Heights, As Army Moves to Expand Occupation of Syrian Land

On December 15th the Israeli government approved a plan to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, an area that Israel occupied in 1967 and illegally annexed in 1981 (its annexation of that territory had been rejected by the international community until the U.S. became the first and only nation to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019). Netanyahu called the settlement expansion plan necessary for Israeli security, saying he aimed to double the Israeli presence there. There are currently ~20,000 Israelis living in 30 settlements in the Golan Heights.

The move to entrench Israeli civilian settlement in the Golan Heights comes against the backdrop of Israel’s incursion deeper into Syrian land – into the so-called Buffer Zone – following the fall of the Assad regime. Syrians who live in the area that has recently come under Israeli control are already voicing fear that Israel is planning to exploit the weak and distracted new regime in order to solidify a long-term occupation of the area. Netanyahu has declared that Israel will occupy the Syrian land for the foreseeable future. A resident now under Israeli occupation told Haaretz:

“We’re used to the fact that in Israel’s view, there is no free withdrawal, so the expansion of its area of control wasn’t done solely for military and security reasons, but mainly to extort the new government in Damascus.”

On X, footage has emerged of Israeli forces opening fire at a group of Syrians gathered to protest Israel’s expanded presence in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Bonus

“Israeli Settlers Set West Bank Mosque on Fire, Spray-paint anti-Arab Statements” (Haaretz)
“US won’t sanction Smotrich and Ben Gvir before end of Biden’s term — officials” (The Times of Israel)
“DF admits settler group crossed northern border into Lebanon this month” (The Times of Israel)
“Meet the far-right settler Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped to be the next Israeli ambassador to the U.S.” (Mondoweiss)
“Huckabee addresses settlement-focused One Israel Fund as ‘quirky right-wing’ cause goes ‘mainstream’” (eJewishPhilanthropy)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 15, 2024

Yesh Din Files High Court Petition to Stop Jordan Valley Regional Council
Construction Starts on New Settlement, Ariel West
IDF Demolishes Outpost Near Ofra
Subcommittee Hearing Defends Settler Violence, Points Finger at Human Rights Activists
US Announces New Sanctions on Three Individuals & Two Outposts
Bonus Reads

Yesh Din Files High Court Petition to Stop Jordan Valley Regional Council

On March 7th the Israeli NGO Yesh Din assisted Palestinians in the Jordan Valley to file a petition with the High Court of Justice seeking to force the IDF Central Command to prevent settlers and settler regional councils in the Jordan Valley from illegally seizing and ransoming herds of livestock belonging to Palestinians, and to return all livestock currently confiscated and funds paid to the regional council for the return of livestock. Since October 7th, Yesh Din has documented several instances of settlers conspiring with the Jordan Valley Regional Council to confiscate herds of livestock belonging to Palestinians based on the claim that they are illegally grazing in the Regional Council’s jurisdiction, and then demanding exorbitant fees for their return. Yesh Din identifies this not only as an illegal practice, but as a policy “designed to annex and take over Areas C while pushing Palestinians out…to force Palestinian communities from their homes.”

The IDF’s own legal council has recently issued a legal opinion confirming that settler municipalities do not have jurisdiction or authority to enforce any laws or regulations against Palestinians. But the settler regional council rejected this opinion, saying that its jurisdiction applies to an area of land – not just a certain type of people (i.e. Israeli settlers). As a reminder, the West Bank remains under Israeli military rule via the Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF. Israel has extended its domestic laws to settlers, so that settlers are subject to Israeli domestic law and Palestinians remain under military rule. In this case, the settler regional argues that it has authority over land, and any Palestinians (and their property) who enter that land.

Yesh Din explains why this is a significant legal claim:

“The danger posed by the pretension of the regional council, which seeks to hold the power to regulate the grazing of Palestinian herders, has enormous ramifications. This is a new and predatory form of economic violence by settlers and an authority that has distinct annexationist aspects, as it expresses the degradation of the military commander’s responsibility in the occupied territory and the assignment of its authorities to civilian governmental bodies.”

Over the past six months, settlers have regional councils have repeatedly kidnapped herds of livestock and demanded exorbitant fees

Construction Starts on New Settlement, Ariel West

Peace Now reports that Israel has begun construction of a new settlement, Ariel West, plans for which were first made public in November 2021 and tenders were issued in May 2023 — all under the guise of a plan to “expand” the Ariel settlement [for more on how this plan was kept quiet, see Peace Now’s detailed history]. The Ariel West settlement is being built on a hilltop located 1.2 miles away from Ariel, in an area that is non-contiguous with the built-up area of the current Ariel settlement. To perpetuate the framing of this new construction as the growth of an existing settlement rather than a new settlement – settlers and the government call Ariel West the“Amririm Neighborhood.” The new settlement will be directly adjacent to the Palestinian village of Salfit, further limiting the future development of Salfit and restricting Palestinian agricultural workers’ access to land, as illustrated in this video by Peace Now.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The construction of Ariel West, a new settlement deep in the West Bank, just before Ramadan and amidst the imminent danger of escalation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is further proof that the Israeli government is seeking violent escalation and opening a third front of war. It is also further proof, for anyone still in doubt, that it is doing all it can to destroy the possibility of the two-state solution. Israeli citizens deserve a better government, and its actions and decisions are endangering the lives and futures of both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as that of the entire region. The construction of a new settlement is part of recent initiatives amidst the ongoing war, aimed at advancing thousands of housing units in the territories, declaring thousands of dunams as state land, and approving significant budgets for settlements in the 2024 budget.”

IDF Demolishes Outpost Near Ofra

The Times of Israel reports that on March 11th, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished an illegal outpost known as “Or Ahuvia,” located close to the Ofra settlement north east of Ramallah. The IDF forced settlers to leave the area, demolished a rudimentary house, and confiscated other materials – saying that the outpost was built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land.

The “Or Ahuvia” or “Ma’aleh Ahuvia” outpost was originally erected (and demolished) in 2022 in memory of Ahuvia Sandak, a settler “hilltop youth” who died when the car he was traveling crashed as it was fleeing Israeli police with a group of settler youth who allegedly has been stoning Palestinian cars. Settlers and their supporters have painted Israeli police as perpetrators of a crime of negligence (or worse) against the settler youth; the Knesset has taken up the issue; and Sandak has been memorialized as a hero and a martyr to the cause of Greater Israel.

Subcommittee Hearing Defends Settler Violence, Points Finger at Human Rights Activists

At the demand of settler groups, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee convened a subcommittee hearing on March 12th to hear testimony regarding the alleged “harassment” perpetrated by human rights defenders against Israeli security personal. MK Merav Michaeli denounced the hearing saying the chairman, Tzvi Succot, seeks to “present an upside down and false world.” MK Limor Son Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) said at the hearing:

“They [pro-Palestinian activists] are aggressive to IDF soldiers, to settlers, they damage property, they blacken Israel’s name around the world, engage in the demonization and delegitimization of Israel and damage our image.”

The hearing turned out to be more than a smear campaign against human rights defenders, but also a defense of extremists settlers. The senior police commander in the West Bank perpetuated the claim that settler violence is over exaggerated, testifying to the committee that 50% of complaints regarding settler violence turn out to be false.

US Announces New Sanctions on Three Individuals & Two Outposts

On March 14th the U.S. government announced it had imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two settlement outposts, adding to the four individuals it had previously sanctioned. This is the first time the U.S. has imposed sanctions on entities (the two outposts) in addition to individuals – demonstrating the possible far-reaching targets of U.S. sanction authority. The settlers and outposts were documented to have taken part in (or be a base of action for) acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The two outposts sanctioned are known as “Moshe’s Farm” and “Zvi’s Farm” – and the individuals are the leaders of those outposts.

The U.S. Department of State said in a statement:

“Today, we are taking further action to promote accountability for those perpetuating violence and causing turmoil in the West Bank by imposing sanctions on three Israeli individuals and two associated entities involved in undermining stability in the West Bank. There is no justification for extremist violence against civilians or forcing families from their homes, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, race, or religion. The United States is committed to enduring peace and prosperity for Palestinians and Israelis alike and will continue to use all available tools to promote accountability for those engaging in actions that threaten the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank.”

Bonus Reads

“Norway Advises Against Trade, Business With Israeli Settlements” (Bloomberg)
“The government is tightening its grip on Israeli settlements – the Pole is considering stopping the sale” (NRK)
“Israel deploys 15,000 troops in West Bank as Ramadan starts” (Mondoweiss)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 15, 2023

Israel Expropriates More Land in Silwan For the Settler-Backed Cable Car Project
Key Hearing on Givat Shaked Settlement Scheduled for Next Week
Israel Government Planning Decision to Extend Domestic Construction Laws to Settlements (An Act of De Facto Annexation)
Hamoked Seam Zone Petition Rejected by Supreme Court
US Delays Rifles to Israel Over Settler Violence
International Bans on Violent Settlers Grow, Even as Criteria is Unclear
Bonus Reads

Israel Expropriates More Land in Silwan For the Settler-Backed Cable Car Project

According to reports, on December 10th the Jerusalem Municipality announced the expropriation of 10 dunams (~3 acres) of land in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan in order to enable the construction of the cable car project, which is promoted by (and designed to benefit) the Elad settler organization. Peace Now reports that the new expropriations are supposed to be “temporary”, and will expire in eight years, in order to allow the Municipality to survey and test the land to determine the final location of the giant pillars which will support the cable car. Once the location for the pillars is determined, that land will be permanently expropriated.

Image by Peace Now

Palestinian landowners were given 60 days to file objections to the “temporary” and future expropriation of their land.

As a reminder, the Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative backed by the powerful, state-backed Elad settler group and advanced by the Israeli Tourism Ministry. While public efforts to “sell” the cable car plan focused on its purported role in helping to grow Jerusalem’s tourism industry or in serving supposedly vital transportation needs, in reality the purpose of the project is to further entrench settler control in Silwan, via archeology and tourism sites, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. The State of Israel was forced to publicly admit that the implementation of the cable car project will require the confiscation of privately owned Palestinian land in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Notably, the cable car line is slated to terminate at the settler-run Kedem Center compound (Elad’s large tourism center, currently under construction at the entrance of the Silwan neighborhood, in the shadows of the Old City’s walls and Al-Aqsa Mosque).

The cable car project received final approval in May 2022, but the tender for construction has yet to be issued. Emek Shaveh speculates that the cable car tender might be issued on Jerusalem Day – which will be celebrated with ultranationalist, racist parades through the Old City next week — on May 18th and 19th. Emek Shaveh further warns that several other settler projects in East Jerusalem, including the Ben Hinnom suspension bridge and the zip line over the Peace Forest, are nearing completion and might also be part of Jerusalem Day celebrations.

Emek Shaveh and other non-governmental organizations, including Who Profits and Terrestrial Jerusalem, have repeatedly challenged (and provided evidence discrediting) the government’s contention that the cable car will serve a legitimate transportation need in Jerusalem, and have clearly enumerated the obvious political drivers behind the plan, the archeological heresies it validates, and the severe negative impacts the cable car project will have on Palestinian residents of Silwan. All objections to the plan were dismissed in May 2022.

Following the recent expropriation, Daniel Seidemann of Terrestrial Jerusalem says:

”Before relating to the significant geopolitical impact of the plan it is important to emphasize: the cable car is a crime against Jerusalem, regardless of who rules the city. Only those utterly detached from Jerusalem and its precious unique character could consider acting in a manner that will contribute to the transformation of Jerusalem into a Biblically themed theme park – the disneyfication of Jerusalem. The cable car was initiated by the settlers in Silwan, who were actively involved in promoting the plan.The cable car is part of a much broader scheme to seamlessly integrate occupied East Jerusalem into pr-1967 Israel, by surrounding the religious and historical core of the city with biblically motivated settlements and settlement-related projects. The settlers aspire by these means to transform their settlement enclave into an extension of pre-’67 Israel so as to include the settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan.”

Key Hearing on Givat Shaked Settlement Scheduled for Next Week

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem District Planning Committee is scheduled to meet on December 19th for a hearing on objections to the Givat Shaked settlement submitted by the public. This hearing is one step towards the approval of the settlement plan, which outlines 700 settlement units (in 4 high-rise towers and several six-story buildings), a school, and commercial buildings, all to be built on a highly sensitive and geopolitically critical sliver of land located within the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. Ir Amim further notes that the plan is advancing at a rapid pace, with this hearing coming just days after the close of the objection period.

The plan for Givat HaShaked is unprecedented, according to the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem, in that it is the first settlement of this size that that Israeli government will establish within a Palestinian neighborhood. Beit Safafa is already in the process of being completely surrounded by Israeli development (for Jewish Israelis) — most notably the new Givat Hamatos settlement, which the government is expanding.

The Israeli NGOs Bimkom and Ir Amim filed a joint objection to the Givat Shaked plan, contesting two factors:

That the plan itself is unjust and discriminatory, the land designated for the settlement is inside of the Palestinian neighborhood Beit Safafa and should be used to address the severe housing crisis faced and lack of schools by Palestinian East Jerusalemites.
The improper and exceptional role that the Israeli General Custodian has played in initiating a settlement plan for land which it does not own, but which it is a caretaker until the heirs of the land are located (more below).

As a reminder, the Israeli government has been sitting on plans for Givat HaShaked for decades, but has refrained from implementing them because doing so would require the government to seize a sizeable amount of land in East Jerusalem, some of which is privately owned by Palestinian residents of Sharafat (a section of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa). Other parts of the land proposed to be used for the Givat HaShaked settlement plan are managed by the Israeli General Custodian (but neither owned or claimed by the government of Israel) – a fact Ir Amim calls “highly unusual and seemingly marks a new phenomenon.” The Israeli General Custodian is empowered by the State to act as a caretaker of land that has unknown ownership until the heirs are located. In an attempt to explain why the General Custodian has the authority to approve a plan for construction on land that the State does not own, the Israeli Justice Ministry told Haaretz that the plan for Givat HaShaked increased the value of the land and that “by law, the administrator general is obligated to care for the assets under his management in a way that will benefit their private owners.” This answer implies, bizarrely, that if and when Palestinian heirs are located, they will be somehow better off with their land having been used to build a settlement.

Another important facet of how Givat HaShaked is being advanced now is the decision by the Israeli government in late 2020 to initiate a (typically secret) registration process for land in East Jerusalem, including in the Sharafat area. At this time, it is unknown whether the land managed by the General Custodian in Sharafat (and designated for the new settlement) has been – or is in the process of being – registered. On that uncertainty, Ir Amim writes:

“…in the event that it is the same location [where formal land registration has taken place], this move would constitute yet another brazen example of how the settlement of title procedures are repeatedly being used to aid state authorities and settler groups in taking over more land in East Jerusalem…Although portrayed as a measure to ostensibly benefit Palestinian residents, there has been grave alarm that these [land registration and settlement of title] procedures would in fact be exploited to confiscate Palestinian land for political purposes, leading to the expansion of Jewish settlement and widespread Palestinian dispossession in the city.”

For a deep dive into land registration in East Jerusalem, please listen to a new FMEP podcast featuring Kristin McCarthy (FMEP) in conversation with Amy Cohen (Ir Amim).

Israel Government Planning Decision to Extend Domestic Construction Laws to Settlements (An Act of De Facto Annexation)

On X, Itay Ephstein (Senior Humanitarian Law and Policy Consultant and Special Advisor to the Norwegian Refugee Council) reports that the Israeli government is preparing to present within 30 days a detailed ordinance which, if approved, would extend Israel’s domestic planning and construction law to its settlements the West Bank. This would further Israel’s de facto and bureaucratic annexation of the West Bank through the application of Israeli domestic law in the occupied territory, and it would likely lead to a massive construction boom in the settlements. Currently, planning and construction in the West Bank is governed by the Israeli Defense Ministry within which Bezalel Smotrich serves as a civilian ministry in charge of all construction matters in Area C of the West Bank.

Hamoked Seam Zone Petition Rejected by Supreme Court

Hamoked reports that the Israeli Supreme Court has rejected two (1, 2) of its recent petitions seeking relief for Palestinian landowners and farmers who have been denied access to their agricultural land in the Seam Zone, the sizeable amount of West Bank land trapped between the Israeli separation wall the 1967 Green Line (i.e. land that was de facto annexed to Israel when Israel built the separation wall along a route the cuts deeply into the West Bank). The Court rejected the petitions in agreement with the State’s contention that, given the events of October 7th and after, it is dangerous to let Palestinians cross the wall and the military cannot supply the necessary troops to operate the designated gates where farmers can cross through the wall and access their land.

Hamoked reports that the Court accepted the security argument without dispute, and did not even discuss Israel’s legal obligations, under both Israeli and international law. Beyond the legal infringement on the rights of landowners, the inability of PAlstinians to harvest their crops not only deprives them of profit this year, but crops can suffer if not harvested – impacting production for years to come.

US Delays Rifles to Israel Over Settler Violence

Axios reports that the Biden Administration is slow-walking the sale of >20,000 M-16 rifles to the Israeli state amidst concern the rifles will end up in the hands of settlers and pressure on Israel to mitigate settler violence in the West Bank.

Despite holding up the sale of rifles, the Biden Administration has simultaneously bypassed Congress to finalize the sale of 14,000 tank shells to Israel for its war on Gaza (worth $106 million). According to Politico, the sale transfers not only 14,000 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer tank cartridges, but also includes the provision of U.S. support, engineering and logistics.

The juxtaposition of these sales tracks with the Biden Administration’s increasingly focal concern for settler terrorism in the West Bank alongside its tight embrace of Israeli military actions in Gaza and in the West Bank.

International Bans on Violent Settlers Grow, Even as Criteria is Unclear

The United Kingdom is the latest government to announce that it will ban Israeli settlers who participate in violent crimes in the West Bank. European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell also announced his support for the EU imposing such a ban.

Though the number of countries to announce a settler ban policy, the mechanics for creating a list of sanctioned settlers is very murky. Haaretz reports that the countries who have announced the new ban policy are struggling with creating the criteria by which names can be added to a list of banned settlers. The U.S. appears to be operating independently of its allies’ complementary efforts to decided criteria and create a list. Part of the impetus behind the actions of these governments is the lack of prosecution and accountability by the Israeli government for settlers who have been involved in violent crimes, so relying on Israeli government actions cannot reasonably serve as a basis for action. And as the Israeli NGO Yesh Din has thoroughly documented for years – only 7% of crimes by settlers that are reported by Palestinians to the Israeli police (which is likely only a fraction of all the crimes) results in an indictment, even though video footage of settler crimes is now commonplace.

In its December 14th report, OCHA documents the following data on settler violence since October 7th

Settlers are responsible for the death of 8 Paletinians and injuries to 85.
Settlers have perpetrated at least 343 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in Palestinian casualties (35 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (263 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (45 incidents);
Settler violence has contributed to the displacement of at least 189 Palestinian households comprising 1,257 people, including 582 children;

Bonus Reads

”Far-right minister calls for Israel to ‘fully occupy’ Gaza, reestablish settlements” (The Times of Israel)
“How Israeli settler violence is forcing Palestinians to flee their homes – video” (The Guardian)
“European Financial Institutions’ Continued Complicity in the Illegal Israeli Settlement Enterprise” (Don’t Buy Into Occupation)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 9, 2023

NEXT WEEK – E-1 Back On the Agenda
Israel Advances Plan for Massive New Industrial Zone
Israel Quietly Expropriated Land to Facilitate the Retroactive Legalization of Havat Gilad
Israel Allows Settlers to Operate Farms inside the Masafer Yatta Firing Zone, From Which Palestinians Are Being Forcibly Displaced
Armenian Orthodox Church Sells Key Jerusalem Properties to an Israeli Investor
Israel Preps New Laws to “Judaize” the Galilee, Subsidize Jewish-Only Communities in Galilee, Negev, and West Bank
17 Israeli Human Rights Orgs Issue Status Report on Occupation
Yesh Din Re-Releases “Annexation Database”
Bonus Reads

NEXT WEEK – E-1 Back On the Agenda

The High Planning Council’s Subcommittee for Objections is set to hold a third and final meeting on Monday June 12th to discuss objections that have been filed against the construction of the E-1 settlement, planned for an area just northeast of Jerusalem. Construction of this settlement would have severe geopolitical implications (cutting the West Bank in half, cutting it off from East Jerusalem); would necessitate the forcible transfer of several bedouin communities (a war crime); and affect thousands of Palestinians (shredding the fabric of life).

Assuming there is not another last-minute decision to take E-1 off the agenda (something that could well happen, and has happened repeatedly) this upcoming meeting promises to be a decisive one for the long-pending E-1 plan. It could very well result in the Committee – which is now under the authority of longtime settler advocate, Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich – granting final approval to the highly contentious plan.

As a reminder: in its current form, the E-1 plan provides for the construction of 3,412 new settlement units on a site located northeast of Jerusalem. The site is home to several Palestinian bedouin communities, comprising 3,000 people, including Khan al-Ahmar, which Israel is planning to forcibly relocate. Long called a “doomsday” settlement by supporters of a two-state solution, construction of the E-1 settlement would sever East Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland, preventing East Jerusalem from ever functioning as a viable Palestinian capital. It would also cut the West Bank effectively in half, isolating the northern West Bank from the southern West Bank and foreclosing the possibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state with territorial contiguity.

Israel’s “answer” to that latter concern has long been to argue that Palestinians don’t need territorial contiguity, and that new roads can instead provide “transportational continuity,” via a plan called the “Sovereignty Road. If built, the “Sovereignty Road” will seal and divert Palestinian traffic around the area where Israel intends to build the E-1 settlement. In March 2023 Israel announced that construction of this so-called “Sovereignty Road” was set to begin in May 2023. There have since been reports that Israeli authorities have issued notices to Palestinian landowners whose land will be seized for construction of the road, undertaken prep work for construction, and has allocated millions of shekels to fund components of the road.

And another reminder: there have been attempts to promote the E-1 plan since the early 1990s, but due to wall-to-wall international opposition, the plan was not advanced until 2012. At that time Netaynuahu ordered it to be approved for deposit for public review (a key step in the approval process), ostensibly as payback for the Palestinians seeking recognition at the United Nations. Following an outcry from the international community, the plan again went into a sort of dormancy, only to be put back on the agenda by Netanyahu in February 2020, when he was facing his third round of elections in two years. Also, as a reminder: under the Trump Plan (which the Biden Administration has yet to comment on), the area where E-1 is located is slated to become part of Israel.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The advancement of construction in E1 is another step in the current Israeli government’s actions, which since its establishment, has been establishing new settlements, returning settlers to the northern West Bank, and now working to create conditions for the annexation of the West Bank. Just last week, the Israeli government violated its commitment to the US government and re-established the outpost of Homesh in the northern West Bank. Next week it will violate an Israeli commitment again by promoting the construction plan in E1. This pro-settler and annexationist government seems to continue to act according to a systematic plan that leads us to a reality of apartheid, undermining the chances of a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israeli public and our friends around the world must wake up and stop Israel from falling into the abyss.”

Israel Advances Plan for Massive New Industrial Zone

Peace Now reports that on June 2nd the Israeli High Planning Council deposited for public review a plan for the establishment of a massive new settlement industrial zone (called “Sha’ar Shomron”) to be located on lands historically belonging to the Palestinian villages of Siniria, Rafat, and Az-Zawiya in the northern West Bank. In addition to planning for industrial complexes and commercial areas, the plan also provides for the construction of educational buildings, office complexes, sports facilities, recreational areas, and tourism sites – and there is a future plan to connect the new industrial zone to the Israeli railway grid. The new settlement industrial zone is slated to be built directly adjacent to the Green Line, contributing to the erasure of the Green Line and Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

Peace Now further reports that if the plan is approved, this will likely be the largest Israeli industrial zone in the West Bank, with 2,700 dunams of land, of which 2 million square meters will be for industrial use. Further, Peace Now notes that there is a “lack of need for an additional industrial zone”, especially in this area given that the Ariel and Barkan Industrial Zones are nearby.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The settlement enterprise is about to receive tremendous economic support in the form of a 2 million square meter industrial zone that will greatly benefit the Shomron Regional Council, strengthen its economy, and, as in previous cases, provide very little, if anything at all, to the Palestinian villages and Palestinians themselves. The Sha’ar Shomron industrial zone is set to deeply integrate Israel’s economy into the occupation mechanism and turn thousands of Israelis into workers for the benefit of the settlement enterprise. This is a hazardous industrial settlement, not only for the Palestinians whose lands it is being built on but for the entire Israeli and Palestinian public. There is no economic prosperity here but rather another expression of the settlement enterprise and the occupation.”

For decades Israel has used industrial zones as another tool to expand and deepen control over West Bank land and natural resources. Industrial zones perpetuate Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). Presented as benefiting both Israelis and Palestinians, it is in fact Orwellian to label such initiatives as “coexistence” programs, or to suggest that they offer the Palestinians benefits they should welcome. Importantly, jobs in industrial zones – often the only jobs available for Palestinians living under an Israeli occupation that prevents the development of any normal Palestinian economy – are widely viewed by Palestinians as a double-edged sword. The NGO Who Profits explained:

“Israeli Industrial Zones constitute a foundational pillar of the economy of the occupation. They contribute to the economic development of the settlements, which are in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, while relying on the de-development of the Palestinian economy and the exploitation of Palestinian land and labor…The Industrial Zones in the oPt form part of a practice of ‘financial annexation’ which is an essential component of the broader policy of annexation taking place.”

Israel Quietly Expropriated Land to Facilitate the Retroactive Legalization of Havat Gilad

The anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot (aka Naboth’s Vineyard) reports that on May 2, 2023 the Israeli Custodian of Abandoned and Government Property – Yossi Segal – signed a military order declaring a small tract of land in the West Bank to be “state land.” The small tract of land happens to be where settlers have been allowed to illegally build the Havat Gilad outpost, despite the fact that aerial imagery shows that that area had been continuously cultivated by Palestinians prior to settlers taking over the land (and therefore cannot be taken over by Israel as “state land”). Nonetheless, settlers have been allowed to illegally build on this land, illegal activity which is now being rewarded and further incentivized by Segal’s move to expropriate the land – a move that paves the way for the retroactive legalization of the outpost.

As Kerem Navot chronicles, the Havat Gilad outpost has been the subject of controversy since it was first established by settlers in 2002. Since then, the outpost has become a source of radical, serious, and frequent violence against Palestinians. In 2014, two Havat Gilad settlers were sentenced to prison for setting Palestinian vehicles on fire in a price-tag attack; its residents have also been documented harassing Palestinian farmers and denying them access to their own lands. The Israeli NGO Yesh Din – which has documented violence emanating from Havat Gilad, including against Yesh Din employees – has filed several petitions against the outpost, including a 2010 case that resulted in the demolition of some of the outpost’s structures that were built on land Israel recognized as privately-owned by Palestinians. Yesh Din’s investigation shows that Havat Gilad was built on lands that the Israeli Civil Administration has now declared to be “state land” have in fact been continuously cultivated and privately owned by Palestinians; most of the outpost’s structures have standing (but unenforced) demolition orders issued against them.

“Etkes tells Haaretz he believes the choice of where the cemeteries are situated – particularly when they lie on private land some distance from the nearest homes – is not a coincidence. ‘I work on the assumption that there are always deliberate intentions afoot,’ he says. The placement of a cemetery ‘is not chosen for no reason. It is a very long-term investment – and in Judaism, whoever buries people in a certain place does so on the understanding they will not be removed. Obviously, there is deliberate intent lurking behind the location of these cemeteries,’ Etkes continues, ‘and it may be assumed that whoever buries the dead on private Palestinian land knows exactly what he’s doing.’”

Israel Allows Settlers to Operate Farms inside the Masafer Yatta Firing Zone, From Which Palestinians Are Being Forcibly Displaced

Amira Hass reports for Haaretz that Israel is allowing settlers to operate six sheep herding farms [what Americans would call “ranches”] in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills, which Israel has declared a “firing zone”, thereby making it illegal for civilians to enter, live, or farm on the land. This settler activity is being allowed while Israel is simultaneously pursuing the mass forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the area, based on the argument that their lives and homes in a firing zone are illegal. According to a settler from an illegal outpost, the IDF has even provided “grazing permits” to settlers authorizing their activities in the area.

The phenomenon of settlers using agricultural and farming outposts as a highly efficient means of taking control of land (a few farmers can easily take control over vast amounts of herding/grazing lands) has been thoroughly documented by Kerem Navot, which calls it “Israel’s most significant mechanism for dispossessing Palestinian communities.”

Two of the settler farms were established before the May 2022 ruling by the Israeli High Court which authorized the expulsion of Palestinians from the area, the other four were established after. Predictably, though these farms may have started as bare-bones operations, Palestinians now report:

“continuous and brisk activity around these farms, with trucks unloading, a cement truck laying down a concrete surface and all-terrain vehicles entering and leaving the farms, as well as people on horseback…Palestinians in the area say that they often see soldiers in the vicinity of Israeli shepherds, accompanying them within the firing zone.”

In stark contrast to the tolerance and assistance the IDF gives to settlers in the area who have illegally built outposts and these sheep farms, the nearby Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta are ruthlessly tormented, harassed, and attacked by Israeli settlers and the IDF. In a shocking and heartbreaking examination of what life in Masafer Yatta have become for Palestinians, Palestinian journalist and activist Hamdan Mohammed Al-Huraini quotes Issa Makhamra, a resident, who said:

“Everything is forbidden under the pretext that we live in a firing zone, even grazing sheep. Whenever we go anywhere, they set up a checkpoint. When I want to go to the city, I have to pass through this checkpoint, and I am stopped and detained for long hours. I swear to you, if the army could keep sunlight and air from us, they would do it.”

Armenian Orthodox Church Sells Key Jerusalem Properties to an Israeli Investor

The Associated Press reports that in a highly controversial move, the Armenian Orthodox Church signed a 99-year lease giving several church properties in the Old City of Jerusalem to an Australian-Israeli businessman, Danny Rothman (sometimes referred to as Danny Rubenstein). The lease reportedly includes the Hadiqat Al-Baqar (The Cows’ Garden) and its surrounding properties, including the Qishla building in Bab al-Khalil (Jaffa Gate), located in the Armenian Quarter. Rumors of this sale first surfaced in 2021, but recently a sign was placed on one of the tracts saying the land is the property of Xana Capital, the company which Danny Rothman owns. According to a bishop involved in the sale, Rothman and his business Xana Capital plans to develop the land into a luxury resort managed by a Dubai-based company.

The Armenian Archbishop, Nourhan Manougian, alleged that the Church’s real estate official and priest – Baret Yeretsian – sold the land in a “fraudulent and deceitful” deal that he was unaware of. Yeretsian, in turn, said he carried out the deal at the direction of Manougian. Both Manougian and Yeretsian have been forced into hiding due to communal outrage, with Yeretsian fleeing a mob attack with help from Israeli security forces and then relocating to California. Manougian has barricaded himself inside of a convent in the Old City, and protesters have staged weekly protests outside.

Dimitri Diliani, president of the National Christian Coalition of the Holy Land, told the AP: “From a Palestinian point of view, this is treason. From a peace activist point of view, this undermines possible solutions to the conflict.

Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Ambassador to Denmark, told the New Arab: “It’s a huge tract of land. By conceding it, they are erasing the Armenian presence historically, demographically, and culturally.”

In the wake of this deal coming to light, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have both suspended recognition of Manougian’s authority, rendering him unable to sign contracts, complete transactions, or make decisions in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

Israel Preps New Laws to “Judaize” the Galilee, Subsidize Jewish-Only Communities in Galilee, Negev, and West Bank

Two weeks ago, the Israeli security cabinet quietly organized an effort to draft and pass new laws designed to encourage Israeli Jews to move to the Galilee region of Israel, where Palestinian citizens of Israel are the majority. There are two main components of this effort so far:

Amending the “admission committees” law to expand the number of Israel communities permitted to use such committees to screen future residents — a tool used primarily if not exclusively to prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from moving into communities that residents want to preserve as Jewish-only towns and neighborhoods. The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation granted government-backing to this proposed law weeks ago, and it recently passed its first reading in the Knesset.
A law that will see the government subsidize land for “communities” that (in the eyes of the Israeli government) suffer from “demographic or security hardships” (which per a key backer of the law does not include Arab areas of Israel, as “Arab settlement does not suffer from similar hardships” as Jewish settlement). This law would in effect see the Israeli government subsidizing Jewish Israelis moving to areas like the Galilee and the Negev — and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being pushed by Religious Zionism lawmakers to extend this plan to settlements in the West Bank.

Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“The bill is part of a broader agenda that is euphemistically called ‘Zionism,’ but whose essence is Jewish supremacy in the spirit of the nation-state law. It’s a follow-up to the cabinet discussion of a resolution meant to give Jews preference in land allocations.”

17 Israeli Human Rights Orgs Issue Status Report on Occupation

On the 56th anniversary of the Occupation, a group of 17 Israel human rights organizations came together to author and publish a concise and highly relevant joint “Situation Report” on the state of the occupation. The report covers four main themes: security forces’ violence, annexation, displacement, and attacks on NGOs.

On annexation, the report covers several important issues that are being closely monitored:

Structural changes to Israeli governance which amount to annexation of the West Bank;
Settlement expansion;
The completion of the Eastern Ring Road (aka the Apartheid Road);
The “seam zone” permit regime; and,
Gaza.

The report’s annexation section concludes with the following warnings:

» Changes advanced by Israel’s 37th government, even if not implemented in full, will lead to an irreversible transformation of the West Bank and will cement Israel’s control of the oPt’s Palestinian population and its property. The government’s policies are concurrently advanced via administrative tools, structural changes, legal reforms and huge budget allocations to settler causes. These should not be viewed piecemeal, but as a harmonized policy to accelerate the West Bank’s annexation.

» An exponential increase of the settler population is planned, paired with an unprecedented settlement-expansion drive. Building plans in over 37 settlements have already been approved and ten illegal outposts legalized – with legalization of a further 70 in the pipeline.

» Israel’s current government policies and its Jewish-supremacy ideology will further erode Palestinians’ rights and legal protections under military law, augmenting the West Bank’s dual legal system’s apartheid character. Palestinians’ diminished capacity to be served by the ICA has already been further hampered, and additional restrictions are expected.

» Large-scale construction plans are in place for the E1 area, including the Eastern Ring Road and a new settlement of 3,400 housing units. If realized, these projects will de facto annex strategic parts of Area C, east of Jerusalem, depleting much of East Jerusalem’s land reserves and further fragmenting the West Bank. Annexation of this area has been vehemently and successfully opposed by the international community in the past.

» With all eyes on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Gaza and its population continue to be largely overlooked and its isolation from the West Bank and the outside world has been accepted as an insoluble reality. Palestinians in Gaza continue to live on the perpetual edge of a humanitarian crisis. Israel’s current government’s annexation policies and cementing of an apartheid regime will further increase Gaza’s isolation and its population’s unbearable predicament.

Yesh Din Re-Releases “Annexation Database”

The Israeli NGO Yesh Din has re-released an updated and incredibly useful database of Israeli laws – past, present, and pending; enacted and abandoned – that amount to annexation of West Bank land. The Annexation Legislation Database categorizes annexation bills into four types:

The application of Israeli law and sovereignty;
Direct legislation by the Knesset on the occupied territory;
The transfer of authorities away from the military commander;
The blurring of the Green Line.

The re-released database is complemented by a powerful article by Yesh Din’s longtime legal advisor Michael Sfard (who is a legal advisor to a host of anti-occupation, anti-apartheid, anti-settlement groups) in Foreign Policy, entitled “Israel Is Officially Annexing the West Bank.” Sfard writes:

“The high road to legal annexation is an official, public declaration, as Putin made when he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. But annexation does not necessarily involve pomp and ceremony. It can happen in dull, windowless offices and through seemingly dreary administrative and bureaucratic actions.

Exposing Israel’s annexation requires zooming out. This is what the international community fails to do, and it is why Israel’s brazen violation of international law has not drawn the ire it deserves. International discourse is hung up on the ceremonial, formal version of annexation—Putin’s annexation, which was rightly met with rebuke and sanctions. The world does not know how to deal with Netanyahu’s tactics.

Though it was not accompanied by a grand statement, the Israeli defense ministry’s portfolio transfer to Smotrich amounts to an act of de jure annexation of the West Bank—and is a dangerous step toward entrenching apartheid within the territory.”

Bonus Reads

“Tantura massacre: Palestinian families call on Israel to mark site of mass graves” (Middle East Eye)
“Israeli settlers encircling Jerusalem, EU envoys warn” (EU Observer)
“Palestinian Forum Highlights Threats of Autonomous Weapons” (Human Rights Watch)
“Settlement expansion is obstacle to peace, Blinken tells US Israel lobby” (Reuters)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

May 7, 2021

Protests Against Dispossession Continue in Sheikh Jarrah, as Israeli Court Delays Decision
Israel Has Been Conducting a Secretive Land Registration Process in Sheikh Jarrah, Excluding Palestinians
Har Homa E Settlement Plan Granted Approval, With Minor Conditions
Knesset Attempts Fast-Track Vote on Two Key Bills: One to Authorize Outposts; Another to Cancel 2005 Disengagement
Bibi Reportedly Dismisses U.S. Concerns Over Settlements
Construction Begins on New “Legal” Settlement in Southern West Bank, Foreshadowing More to Come
Following Deadly Drive-By-Shooting, Settlers Establish New Outpost & Terrorize Palestinians Near Nablus
Al Haq Report on Palestinian Workers in Settlements & the Complicity of Multinational Corporations
Bonus Reads

Comments or questions? Email Kristin McCarthy – kmccarthy@fmep.org.

Protests Against Dispossession Continue in Sheikh Jarrah, as Israeli Court Delays Decision

On May 2nd, the date set by the Israeli Supreme Court for the forced dispossession of four Palestinians families from their longtime homes in Sheikh Jarrah in favor of Israeli settlers, the Supreme Court delayed the evictions and gave the parties four days (until May 6th) to consider a proposed “solution.” The Court’s suggested “solution” was that the Palestinians acknowledge Jewish ownership of the land, and in exchange be allowed to remain there as tenants – paying rent to the settlers – but only until the original tenant dies. At that time, the remaining family members would have to vacate the premises and the settlers would take control of the homes

In a powerful statement issued on May 2nd, the four families targeted for dispossession this week rejected that proposal outright, saying:

“We the four Sheikh Jarrah families firmly reject the terms of this agreement, for these are our homes and settlers are not our landlords. The inherently unjust system of Israel’s colonial courts is not considering the questioning of illegal settlers’ ownership and has already decided on the families’ dispossession.” This pattern of elongating the legal process is common practice to dull popular resistance and public opinion protesting these expansionist colonial efforts. As the threat of expulsion from our home remains as imminent as ever, we will continue our international campaign to stop this ethnic cleansing”

On May 6th, the Court once again delayed the dispossession, and said it would reconvene a three judge panel on May 10th to decide whether to allow the Palestinian families to continue appealing their eviction cases. Ir Amim reports that the likelihood of the panel ruling in the Palestinians’ favor is “slim.”

The date the Supreme Court chose for handing down its decision – May 10th – also happens to be Jerusalem Day. This is the day when as many as 25,000 Israeli settlers and fellow right-winger fanatics engage in an annual provocation against Palestinians, with a parade through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and neighboring areas of East Jerusalem to “celebrate” Israel’s capture of the city in 1967 (called “The Dance of Flags,” including racist chants and signs). Given the high tension in Jerusalem over the pending Sheikh Jarrah evictions, as well as over the recent protests over Israel’s closure of the area around Damascus Gate, the end of Ramadan, and the killings over the past two days of several Palestinains in the West Bank, Jerusalem Day poses a significant threat of escalation, and has already elicited warnings from the Israeli Chief of Police to reroute the parade. So far, those warnings appear to be falling on deaf ears.

To be clear: escalation has already begun. Shortly following the Supreme Court’s second delay, dozens of Israeli protestors marched through Salah Eddin Street (the major commercial thoroughfare in Palestinian East Jerusalem), and were reportedly “throwing stones at Palestinian cars and demanding the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah.” Not long after that, the head of the Otzma Yehudit party Itamar Ben-Gvir (a devotee of Kahanism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians) set up a tent-office in Sheikh Jarrah across from where Palestinians had prepared an iftar celebration. Settlers then began taunting the Palestinians sitting down for dinner, which escalated into clashes when a settler sprayed what appeared to be pepper spray. Later that evening, Israeli forces were seen protecting the “office” and the settlers there – including Jerusalem Deputy Mayor and settler empresario Arieh King, who was caught on video telling an injured Palestinian that the Israeli police ought to have shot him in the head.

On Friday morning May 7th, Sheikh Jarrah residents report that the Israeli police have cordoned off the neighborhood, and are checking IDs before permitting entry. Overnight raids and arrests of Palestinians also continue to be reported, with 15 arrested overnight on May 7th (settlers faced no arrests or punishments, despite being filmed shooting guns)

Prie Minister Netanyahu is reportedly proposing a permanent police presence in Sheikh Jarrah to protect the settlers — an arrangement much like the prevailing reality in Hebron

For a Palestinian view on what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah (and a plethora of additional resources on this topic), check out this FMEP webinar from May 6, 2021, and on Twitter you can follow #SaveSheikhJarrah for the latest news.

Israel Has Been Conducting a Secretive Land Registration Process in Sheikh Jarrah, Excluding Palestinians

Ir Amim and Bimkom report that Israeli authorities have been carrying out a secretive land registration process for the benefit of settlers in the Umm Haroun section of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, and have already registered several plots of land to Jewish Israeli owners. Palestinian residents – inlcuding 45 families (40 houses) living on the plots of land secretly registered to the settlers – were not notified by Israeli authorities that the registraiton process was taking place, as is required by Israeli law. The stakes, as noted by Bimkom and Ir Amim, are high not only for Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah who are being targeted at this time, but also for Palestinians across East Jerusalem, as any land registration process – let alone a secretive process undertaken for the benefit of Israeli Jews – can lead to “widespread Palestinian dispossession in the city.”

On May 2nd, Ir Amim and Bimkom filed an urgent petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice asking the Court to freeze the registration process and “expunge all invalid land registration as a result of this unethical procedure”. On May 3rd, the Israeli court issued a temporary injunction stopping the process at least until a ruling can be made on the case. The State has until June 3, 2021 to submit a response to the petition.

Har Homa E Settlement Plan Granted Approval, With Minor Conditions

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem District Committee has granted its conditional final approval to a plan to build 540 new settlement units in the new Har Homa E settlement. The conditions outline a few minor modifications to the plan (like more clearly marking bike trails) which will not take much time. Once those modifications are made the plan will be formally approved via publication without requiring another meeting of the Committee.

Because the land on which the new settlement will be built is privately-owned, building plans will not be subject to a government-run tender process. Ir Amim reports that once the plan is published, building permits can theoretically be issued any time (though technical obstacles might delay things but not change the inevitability of construction).

Reminder: Although the Har Homa E plan is framed as merely an expansion of the Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem, it is more properly understood as a new settlement since the buildings will be built in an open area that is not contiguous with the built-up area of Har Homa. The plan calls for 540 new settlement units to be built in the area between the Har Homa settlement and the site of the planned Givat Hamatos settlement (tenders for which were issued in January 2021). Meaning that the new construction is a significant step towards completing a ring of Israeli settlements on Jerusalem’s southern edge and encircling the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa.

Knesset Attempts Fast-Track Vote on Two Key Bills: One to Authorize Outposts; Another to Cancel 2005 Disengagement

On May 4th, the Knesset Arrangements Committee voted in favor of fast-tracking two settlement-related bills. The first would cancel the 2005 Disengagement Law, thereby allowing settlers to re-establish the four settlements in the northern West Bank which were evacuated under that law (which settlers have been attempting to do on their own, illegally but with significant political support, for years). The second would grant retroactive authorization (i.e., legalize) the nearly 70 outposts that Israel has failed to find any other way to legalize (because they were built on land even Israel recognizes is privately owned by Palestinians). Now on a fasttrack, the bills can be called for its first vote at any time after May 5th (to pass, all bills most be voted on three times in the Knesset and sent to committees for approval).

The fast-tracking of these bills at this time is an attempt to get the bills passed into law before a new government is formed or new elections are called, and to use the issue of settlements as a political weapon against parties that oppose the bills. The Times of Israel reports that internal politics will likely see the bills languish as parties jockey to form a new governing coalition. The bills are a source of division between parties that are currently deep in negotiations to form a governing coalition – led by Yair Lapid and the Yesh Atid party (which opposes the bill).

When asked for comment on the outpost legalization bill by the Times of Israel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department gave its most substantive comments on settlements yet, saying:

“We are deeply concerned about the potential ‘legalization’ of outposts that have long been deemed illegal under Israeli law…As we have long said, it is critical that Israel refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions or take us further away from peace. This includes evictions, settlement activity and home demolitions, and certainly includes the legalization of Israeli outposts in the West Bank that have long been illegal even under Israeli law.”

Bibi Reportedly Dismisses U.S. Concerns Over Settlements

According to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 News, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has on three separate occasions over the past month rebuffed U.S. diplomats’ concerns regarding Israel’s settlement activities.

The first communication was from Jonathan Shrier, the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy (the ranking U.S. diplomat in Israel, in the absence of an Ambassador). Shrier was reported to have relayed U.S. concerns over the approval of the Har Homa E settlement plans earlier this month, but the concerns were dismissed.

The second communication came from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (a top official in the Biden White House), who reportedly expressed U.S. concerns over the approval of the Har Homa E settlement as well as settlement construction in the West Bank. The Times of Israel reports that Netanyahu responded, “Jerusalem is not a settlement, but the capital of Israel.”

The third communication came May 5th regarding the violence in Sheikh Jarrah; that communication was reportedly also rebuffed. Perhaps suggesting that there is growing frustration with the issue inside the Biden Administration, a day later, on May 6th, the U.S. the Department of State issued its most pointed public statement on Israeli settlement activity yet.

Construction Begins on New “Legal” Settlement in Southern West Bank, Foreshadowing More to Come

This week settlers celebrated the start of construction on 164 settlement units in the new (or at least, newly-legal under Israeli law) Ibei Hanachal settlement, located between Bethlehem and Hebron in the southern West Bank. This comes nearly one year after Israel began clearing the land to prepare for construction.

Ibei Hanachal was established illegally by settlers in 1999, but was granted retroactive approval as a neighborhood of the Ma’ale Amos settlement by the Israeli government in August 2019. Declaring illegal outposts to be neighborhoods of settlements – even outposts that are non-contiguous with the allegedly parent settlement, as is the case with Ibei Hanachal – is one of the legal mechanisms that Israel has found to retroactively “legalize” illegal outposts. In this way, Israel has not only been “legalizing” construction by settlers that violates Israel law, but has in effect been establishing brand new settlements – like Ibei Hanachal.

Elsewhere, construction has reportedly started on 164 units in the Neve Daniel settlement, located on the southwestern border of lands belonging to Bethlehem

The news of these new construction starts is a reminder that the massive number of settlement approvals the Israeli government granted during the Trump era will soon potentially translate into a massive number of settlement construction starts during the Biden Administration. The AP reported earlier this month:

“Israel has also laid the groundwork for a massive construction boom in the years to come, advancing plans for 12,159 settler homes in 2020. That was the highest number since Peace Now started collecting data in 2012. It usually takes one to three years for construction to begin after a project has been approved. Unlike his immediate predecessors, who largely confined settlement construction to major blocs that Israel expects to keep in any peace agreement, Netanyahu has encouraged construction in remote areas deep inside the West Bank, further scrambling any potential blueprint for resolving the conflict. Settler advocates have repeatedly said that it would take several years for Trump’s support to manifest in actual construction. Peace Now said that trend is now in its early stages and expected to gain steam. “2020 was really the first year where everything that was being built was more or less because of what was approved at the beginning of the Trump presidency,” said Peace Now spokesman Brian Reeves. “It’s the settlement approvals that are actually more important than construction.””

Following Deadly Drive-By-Shooting, Settlers Establish New Outpost & Terrorize Palestinians Near Nablus

In the wake of a drive-by-shooting at a junction in the northern West Bank that left one Israeli dead and two others injured, settlers have been exacting their revenge. In addition to raiding a village and allegedly setting fields on fire in Burin – settlers have also established an outpost south of Nablus, on a hilltop known as Jabal Sbeih.

The new outpost consists of a few mobile homes, which settlers were able to move into the area uncontested while the IDF enforced a closure in the Nablus area while hunting down the suspect of the drive by shooting.

Al Haq Report on Palestinian Workers in Settlements & the Complicity of Multinational Corporations

In a new report entitled “Captive Markets, Captive Lives: Palestinian Workers in Israeli Settlements,” Al-Haq explains the circumstances that Palestinians who work in settlements face, including discrimination, dangerous conditions, violence, and shame. In 2019, Al Haq estimated there were between 23,000 and 34,000 such workers.

The report also briefly examines the activity of two multinational corporations in the settlement economy – Heidelberg Cement and General Mills. The report directly addresses and repudiates the claim put forth by settlers and these corporations that jobs are a net gain for Palestinians who would otherwise be unemployed if not for jobs in settlements.

Al-Haq writes:

“Palestinian labour rights in Israeli settlements are almost non-existent. The deliberate lack of regulation of labour rights by Israeli authorities empowers settlers by encouraging further violations of Palestinian workers’ rights with no accountability. Palestinians working in Israeli settlements in the West Bank are treated under the outdated Jordanian labour law while their Israeli counterparts are treated under Israeli labour law leading to a complete denial of access to social and health benefits. Many workers are denied health care when injured while on-duty. Workers with permanent disabilities due to work related injuries are not compensated. Meanwhile families of victims are not even compensated in the event of death on duty. As this report has shown, Palestinian workers are not provided with the necessary protective equipment and are constantly exposed to hazardous waste and material. At the same time, Palestinian workers’ unions are targeted by Israeli employers in an attempt to thwart unionization efforts. Accordingly, this report dispels the myth that international companies provide necessary work and benefits to the Palestinian workforce that justifies their illegal operations in the OPT. Instead, the ugly truth unfolds of international and Israeli companies exploiting a captive Palestinian workforce in a captive economy, in companies operating on unlawfully appropriated Palestinian lands, pillaging the natural resources and subsistence of the Palestinian people, and maintained by a lethal military occupation and apartheid regime under the wilful profiting eye of the international community.”

Bonus Reads

“This Checkpoint Revitalized the Palestinian City of Jenin. Why Has Israel Refused to Reopen It?” (Haaretz)
“Settlers to sue B’Tselem for alleging they set Palestinian fields ablaze” (Jerusalem Post)
“Palestinian fears rise as settlers visit synagogue ruins in Jericho” (Al-Monitor)
“Jerusalem’s Jewish majority hits new low” (Arutz Sheva)
“Israel Blew Up Their Houses in 1966. Now It Claims Their Village Never Existed” (Haaretz)
“Over 180 Israeli Intellectuals, Scientists Warn ICC: Don’t Rely on Israel to Probe War Crimes” (Haaretz)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

April 29, 2021

Sheikh Jarrah Evictions Set for May 2nd; Protests & Diplomacy Ratchet Up
Resources for Understanding Recent Protests and Violence in Jerusalem
WZO Admits It Gave Palestinian Land to Settlers Without Written Agreements
Jewish National Fund Delays Decision on Formalizing Policy on West Bank Land Purchases
Ariel University Giving Academic Credit for Outpost Volunteers
IDF Stops Settler Attempt to Establish Yeshiva on Site of Dismantled Homesh Settlement
Settlers Celebrate Israeli Independence Day
Settler-Run Chamber of Commerce Planning a Hotel in Hebron in Partnership with Palestinian Businessman Ahsraf Jabari
Smotrich’s Party Files Bill for Outpost Legalization
Roundup of Settler Violence This Week
Human Rights Watch: Israel is Guilty of the Crime of Apartheid
Bonus Reads

Comments or questions? Email Kristin McCarthy – kmccarthy@fmep.org.

Sheikh Jarrah Evictions Set for May 2nd; Protests & Diplomacy Ratchet Up

Over the past two weeks, activist groups have stepped up advocacy efforts to stop the impending dispossession of 8 Palestinian families (87 individuals) from their longtime homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem in favor of settlers. The eviction of four families has been set by Israeli courts for May 2nd, and three more families face eviction in August.

The Times of Israel reports that Jordan – which was the governing authority in East Jerusalem from 1948 until 1967 – has also gotten involved, and is said to have found “documents proving that the [Jordanian] ministry of development that built these houses had in 1956 finalized lease agreements for homes in Sheikh Jarrah.” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that the documents are contracts between Jordan and the Palestinian tenants, and were certified at the time by UNRWA. Such documents might help Palestinians disprove the settlers’ contention that the homes were originally owned by Jews who fled during the 1948 war. Israeli law allows such Jews – and their descendants – to reclaim their lost properties in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, while denying Palestinians any such right to reclaim properties they were forced to abandon in 1967 or 1948 inside what is today Israel.

On April 22, 2021 a group of 500 Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah and 191 organizational signers sent a letter to the International Criminal Court. The letter calls on the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor to publicly condemn the evictions and investigate what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah as part of the ICC’s larger investigation into the situation in Palestine. The families write:

“If the forced evictions move forward, we will be subjected to other Israeli policies that together make-up Israeli practices that result in the widespread and systematic transfer of the Palestinian Jerusalemite population. If we set up a tent outside our houses, the Israeli occupying forces will demolish it, as part of its widespread and systematic policy of demolition of Palestinian property. If we rent a home outside Jerusalem because we cannot afford to rent in Jerusalem, we will be at risk of having our residency status revoked and not be allowed to enter Jerusalem, pursuant to Israel’s residency revocation policy, which requires Palestinian Jerusalemites to constantly prove their “center of life” is in the city”

On April 16th, hundreds of protestors rallied in Sheikh Jarrah to bring attention to the pending mass displacement. At the protest, former Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abd al-Qadir told the Times of Israel:

“These protests are an expression of our rejection of the decisions of Israeli courts in expelling the residents of Sheikh Jarrah. This is ethnic cleansing and expulsion at the barrel of a gun.”

Resources for Understanding Recent Protests and Violence in Jerusalem

Since the beginning of Ramadan, Israel’s decision to close the plaza in front of the Damascus Gate – the main gate used by Palestinians to access Jerusalem’s Old City – sparked an outbreak of violence in Jerusalem (Israel subsequently reopened the plaza, but the situation on the ground is still volatile). Several FMEP grantees, partners, and other notable sources have published resources that help contextualize and assess exactly what is happening. Below are resources and excerpts most relevant to settlement observers seeking understanding of how current events fit into the larger picture of Israeli intentions and actions in Jerusalem, including the aforementioned impending dispossessions in Sheikh Jarrah.

Ir Amim published an update under the subject, “Closure of Damascus Gate Plaza & Aggressive Police Measures.” In the brief Ir Amim summarizes exactly what is happening:

“Many of the incidents of friction and confrontation in the area stem from the closure of the Damascus Gate steps and unprovoked police aggression and use of excessive force towards Palestinians, which disrupt the peace and lead to escalation. Over the past week, Palestinian youth have protested the plaza’s closure. The Israel police dispersed them with disproportionate use of force. The police claim that there have been incidents of Palestinians throwing stones at police, and indeed Israeli vehicles were damaged amid the confrontations. However, during the last few nights, police forces have assaulted Palestinians in the Damascus Gate area with no prior provocation on their part, including the use of stun grenades and the deployment of mounted police charging into hundreds of Palestinians who were solely visiting the Old City for Ramadan…

In tandem, right-wing Jewish extremists and nationalist organizations have been exploiting the friction to further incite and call for retaliation (both on social media and mainstream media) against the Palestinian protests and isolated incidents of Palestinian harassment of Haredi Jews. On Monday, Knesset Members from the extremist rightwing Religious Zionism party went to Damascus Gate in a hostile and provocative call to “show Palestinians who’s boss.”

In recent days, large groups of nationalistic Israeli youth have rallied in West Jerusalem’s city center shouting “death to Arabs,” while hunting down and attacking Palestinian pedestrians, which has led to clashes between Jews and Palestinians. In contrast to the police’s aggressive operations at the Damascus Gate, serious measures by the police to disperse these groups or protect attacked Palestinians have not been observed. These groups have called to gather tonight in Jerusalem, marching from the City Hall Square to Damascus Gate and the Old City with the intent of clashing with Palestinians “to teach them a lesson.”

Emek Shaveh published a brief entitled “The Last Gate,” exploring how the state of Israel has spent the past several years asserting more and more control over key archeological sites in and around the Old City, and why the Damascus Gate is a hugely important part of that still unfolding story. Emek Shaveh writes:

“Over the past two decades, the Old City’s Historic Basin has undergone unprecedented development. The State of Israel has invested billions of shekels in tourism projects and archaeological excavations alone, whether in the neighborhood of Silwan, excavations of the Western Wall tunnels, or on the Mount of Olives, among other initiatives. As noted, Damascus Gate is just the latest in this chain of investments. Damascus Gate is the most convenient gate from which to enter the Old City. It has a broad entrance and does not require walking uphill, as with Jaffa Gate or Zion Gate. Moreover, it is close to the center of Jerusalem. While Israel claims that it aims to develop the area around the gate, it is effectively redefining its character, promoting tourism, and increasing Israeli presence so as to diminish or conceal the Palestinian character of the area. The recent clashes along the stone steps of Damascus Gate plaza should be considered in the context of this development boom. Perhaps the authorities’ concern with young Palestinians sitting on the steps was just another chapter in the struggle over identity, belonging, and sovereignty, as with many in the Old City’s Historic Basin. After so many changes to the gates of the Old City, Damascus Gate is one of the last bastions of this ongoing struggle.”

The PLO Negotiation Affairs Unit issued a policy brief entitled “Occupied Jerusalem Protests Apartheid,” in it, writing:

“Since the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, the Israeli occupying authorities have been intensifying their restrictive and oppressive policies against the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem as part of their continuous attempts to ultimately alter the Arab and Palestinian character of the city in defiance of international legitimacy. Such cruel acts are part and parcel of Israel’s illegal policies and practices, mainly its colonial- settlement expansion, home demolitions, and forced evictions of Palestinian families, including in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, in addition to its current denial for Palestinians in Jerusalem from running as candidates or participating in the upcoming Palestinian elections. In this context, it’s imperative to point out that seven Palestinian families currently face the risk of imminent forcible eviction from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood by 2 May 2021. Seventy Palestinian families live in this part of Sheikh Jarrah, 34 of which are undergoing a battle in the occupying power’s legal system to confront the threat of forcible transfer, a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which allows Israeli settlers to replace Palestinians and take over their homes. Israel’s illegal policies throughout occupied Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, are rooted in an extremist ideology that enforces Jewish supremacy over the indigenous Palestinian population as articulated in the “Jewish Nation-State Law” of 2018 that legitimizes Israel’s institutionalized discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel and turns a de facto reality on the ground to a de jure apartheid regime for all Palestinians in historic Palestine.“

WZO Admits It Gave Palestinian Land to Settlers Without Written Agreements

On April 26th, the Israeli High Court of Justice held a hearing on a petition filed by Palestinian landowners seeking the cancellation of a 1969 military seizure order which included a parcel of their land, and seeking the removal of settlers who have since been allowed by the State of Israel to live there and build a successful company growing date palms. The Palestinian landowners had previously filed a petition solely seeking the removal of the settlers, but the petition was denied by the High Court. The new petition seeks to cancel the underlying seizure of the land by the State.

To date, the Israeli government – along with the World Zionist Organization, to whom the State transferred the land in question – have not provided the Court with any documentation regarding the assignment of the land to the Israel settlers. Though the land was part of the military seizure order, a lawyer representing the WZO actually conceded that the land was given to the settlers without a written agreement, but suggested that it was approved by the Israeli Cabinet. Leading up to this admission, High Court President Esther Hayut rebuked Roi Shweika, the lawyer for the state, asking:

“How can it be that the state gives land to a person and there are no agreements and they don’t know for how long, especially when it’s not state land? Whoever heard of such a thing?…What efforts have you made to ask the people to produce the agreements that they have? If they don’t have agreements to produce, that raises a suspicion that there are no agreements.”

Haaretz also reported out a truly unbelievable intervention by the settler-owner of the date farm company, Ayala Smith:

Smith “To the best of my knowledge, the land has been worked since 1982, and more than 30 years went by before [the Palestinian owner] opened his mouth for the first time. I’m there every day, raising the best dates in the world, not him.”

Chief Justice Esther Hayut replied: “They weren’t given access to the land. They told him he couldn’t enter. Instead, they let you come in and you raised the best dates in the world. It borders on provocation to argue that.”

Jewish National Fund Delays Decision on Formalizing Policy on West Bank Land Purchases

The Chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Israel (JNF-KKL), Avraham Duvdevani, postponed a final vote by the Board of Directors – originally scheduled for April 22nd – on whether to formally adopt a policy of purchasing land in the West Bank for settlement construction. In anticipation of the policy’s adoption, the JNF-KKL Board voted in February 2021 to allocate nearly $12 million towards the purchase of land in the West Bank.

The decision to postpone the vote follows weeks of outcry from a Jewish organizations who donate to and promote the work of the JNF around the world. A new date for the vote has not yet been announced. As a reminder, the proposed policy is little more than a shift in public relations strategies. The JNF has long worked in support of settlements, but until this point has preferred to leave its settlement-related activities deliberately obscured.

Ariel University Giving Academic Credit for Outpost Volunteers

Haaretz reports that Ariel University, located in the Ariel settlement in the heart of the northern West Bank, is offering academic credit to students who volunteer as farmhands and security guards at unauthorized/illegal settlement outposts across the West Bank. The volunteer program is run through an organization called Hashomer Yosh (“Guardians of Judea and Samaria”), a group touted by the Chairman of Ariel University for its work against “those who want to disturb the right of the people of Israel to settle in the land and to develop agriculture.” The program was described on the Ariel University website as “linking the students with the national Zionist task of contemporary agriculture.””

Haaretz reports that the academic program placed five students at three outposts, including the Bar Yosef outpost which was founded by an individual who has been repeatedly filmed harassing Palestinians. Ariel University staff defended the program by arguing that the outposts in question are known to be built on “state land” (suggesting that their unauthorized status is a mere technicality). Of course, as is the case with all unauthorized outposts, these proto-settlements were built without formal permission or building permits in contravention of Israeli military law which governs the occupied West Bank, and are therefore illegal even under Israeli law.

Israeli attorney Eitay Mack has filed a complaint against the program, asking the Israeli Attorney General and the Israeli Council on Higher Education (which admitted Ariel University as a member in April 2019) to examine the legality of the program. The complaint has been assigned to Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri.

Commenting on the program, Ariel University told Haaretz:

“In the framework of the law encouraging significant volunteering in the community, like other institutions, the university works with many and varied entities with expertise in placing volunteers in the community. In that framework, Hashomer Yosh received approval as an entity using volunteers for the current academic year.”

IDF Stops Settler Attempt to Establish Yeshiva on Site of Dismantled Homesh Settlement

On April 26th, the Israeli army removed settlers who had built a makeshift religious school (a yeshiva) and housing for students at the site of the dismantled settlement of Homesh in the northern West Bank. Undeterred, the settlers returned to the site the next day to hold classes.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the settlers brought in modular structures and plywood to build the housing, and used a large tent for the yeshiva itself. It is unclear how long the settlers had been allowed to remain at the site prior to their removal this week.

As a reminder: Homesh is one of four settlements in the northern West Bank that Israel dismantled in 2005 under the Disengagement Law, which primarily removed all Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. After Israel removed settlers from these four sites, the IDF issued military orders barring Palestinians from entering the areas, let alone building in them. At the same time, settlers have regularly entered the areas and even repeatedly built a yeshiva at the Homesh site. Settlers have been openly obsessed with the desire to re-establish Homesh, hosting religious events and protests at the site of Homesh, some of which have been attended by Israeli MKs and politicians.

Settlers Celebrate Israeli Independence Day

Settlers celebrated Israeli Independence Day with continued efforts to advance the Greater Israel cause – and to remind the Palestinians who is in charge – across the West Bank, including:

Northern West Bank: Settlers continue to agitate for the reconstruction of the Sa-Nur settlement in the northern West Bank, which Israel removed settlers from and dismantled as part of the 2005 Gaza withdrawal along with three other nearby settlements (Homesh, Ganim, and Kadim). On Israeli Independence Day, April 15th, thousands of Israeli settlers visited the site of the evacuated Sa-Nur settlement, an area which – despite removing the settlers from – has not been returned by Israel to Palestinian control, but instead maintains a military closure of the area. The festive event, which included performances and crafts, was organized by the Samaria Regional Council, in violation of the military closure. Instead of enforcing the order, the IDF allowed settlers to freely come and go via pre-arranged shuttles. Arutz Sheva reports that the event was the largest gathering of Israelis at the event since 2005.

Jordan Valley: In the Jordan Valley, settlers held a parade of cars and armed guards near the Palestinian village of Tubas – an event which caused panic amongst school children. I

Southern West Bank: Settlers living in tiny enclaves in the center of Hebron held celebrations that included a huge fireworks show (something Palestinians would likely never be allowed to do).

Settler-Run Chamber of Commerce Planning a Hotel in Hebron in Partnership with Palestinian Businessman Ahsraf Jabari

A settler leader in the city center of Hebron, Hillel Horowitz, is hatching a plan to build a hotel near the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque, and he is seeking financial investment from Palestinian businessman Ashraf Jabari. Jabari is known for co-founding the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce (JSCC) alongside settlers, and for his tight embrace of the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan. Jabari has been widely criticized by his peers and family.

Hillel pitched the idea while attending an iftar dinner at Jabari’s home in Hebron, an event organized by the JSCC. The Jerusalem Post reports that the pitch was greeted with applause from all in attendance.

Smotrich’s Party Files Bill for Outpost Legalization

Though participating in a mandate-less government, a member of MK Bezalal Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party filed a bill in the Knesset to grant unilateral authorization about 70 outposts in the West Bank that were built without the necessary permissions from the state of Israel. The Jerusalem Posts reports that there are enough votes to pass the bill, but given the state of continuous elections and coalition talks in Israel it is unclear if the Knesset will remain in session long enough to bring the bill to a vote.

The Jerusalem Post reports that an explanatory text of the bill claims that the proposed law is in line with a decision the Security Cabinet took in 2017, when it tasked a new committee – headed by notorious settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein – to prepare individualized plans for each outpost to gain retroactive legalization based on the passage of the Regulation Law and the recommendations in the Zandberg Report.

Bills similar to this have been filed several times in the past, and the Israeli government has debated granting retroactive authorization to the outposts via a government decision – and came close to doing so in the waning days of the Trump Administration.

Settler leaders offered their support for the bill. Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shlomo Ne’eman said:

“We trust that all the right-wing factions and the government will support this law, and will authorize these communities quickly.”

Mateh Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz said:

“The time has come to complete the work and give the tens of thousands of residents sent by the Israeli governments basic rights.There is no need to wait for the formation of a new government. The Knesset can and must do so now.”

Round-up of Settler Violence this Week

Violence is a key tool settlers use to take over and control more land across the West Bank. Many instances of settler violence towards Palestinians made headlines this week, including:

“Soldier shoots and kills Palestinian protestor during dispersal of weekly protest against illegal outpost” (B’Tselem)
“Israel settlers set fire to cars in Jerusalem chanting ‘May your village burn’” (MEMO)
“Palestinian cars set on fire in Beit Iksa in apparent Jewish attack” (i24 News)
“Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians spike to 210 so far this year, says UN” (The Nation)

Human Rights Watch: Israel is Guilty of the Crime of Apartheid

In a new report, entitled “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” Human Rights Watch declared that Israel’s policy towards Palestinians – defined in the report as “to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and to discriminate against them” – amounts to crimes against humanity, specifically the crimes of apartheid and persecution. Settlements, settlers, and annexation figure heavily into the facts and analysis that lead to the report’s conclusion.

You can read the full report here.

You can read a helpful Q&A about the report here.

For reaction to and analysis of the report, see coverage in FMEP’s daily news roundup from April 27th (date of the report’s publication), 28th, and 29th. You can subscribe to FMEP’s daily news round up here. Highlights include:

“One system, one policy’: Why Human Rights Watch is charging Israel with apartheid” (+972 Magazine // Amjad Iraqi interviews Omar Shakir)
“Say Israel is committing apartheid? It’s not a decision we reached lightly.” (The Forward // Eric Goldstein)
“Israel Has No Place Left to Hide” (Medium // Sam Bahour)
“B’Tselem on Human Rights Watch report: an urgent wake-up call” (B’Tselem press release)
“US dismisses apartheid accusations against Israel” (Al Anadolu)
“Even ‘apartheid’ doesn’t capture fullness of our Palestinian suffering. But it helps.” (The Forward // Mohammed Shehade)
“We Can Keep Lying to Ourselves on ‘Apartheid,’ but Israel Has Crossed the Line” (Haaretz // Gideon Levy)
“US Disagrees that Israel Carrying out ‘Apartheid’” (Ashraq Al-Awsat)

Bonus Reads

“The Master Plan for Building in Jerusalem? Preserve a Jewish Majority” (Haaretz)
“Foreign Ministry: Palestine waiting for a strong US position against settlements” (Jerusalem Post)
“’Death to Arabs’: Palestinians Need International Protection From Israel’s Racist Jewish Thugs” (Haaretz)
“Israeli Settlements Could Be Headed for Self-destruction, and It Has Nothing to With the Occupation” (Haaretz)
“Israeli Settler Slapped a Palestinian Activist. A Jerusalem Court Slapped Her Back” (Haaretz)
“’Like Spy Agencies’: Inside East Jerusalem’s Jewish Settlement” (Haaretz)
“What Is Israel Planning, Expulsion by Bus or by Truck?” (Haaretz)
“To Jaffa Arabs, Sales of ‘Absentee Ownership’ Properties Aim to Expel Them From the City” (Haaretz)
“Israel Using Drones to Tear Gas Palestinian Demonstrators in West Bank” (Haaretz)

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 18, 2020

Draft Government Decision on Outposts Provides for Expropriating Private Palestinian Land for the Settlements & Retroactively Legalization of 43 Outposts
Knesset Advances Bill to Grant Retroactive Legalization to 65 Outposts
Tender Published for 290 Units in the Gilo Settlement, More to Come
New Evidence Showing Settler Council Funds Illegal Outposts via Amana; Petition on Amana Funding to be Heard by High Court in Coming Days
Israel Sovereignty Movement Launches New Campaign for Annexation
Israel’s Escalating Assault on Palestinian Life in Area C
Bonus Reads

by Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

Draft Government Decision on Outposts Provides for Expropriating Private Palestinian Land for the Settlements & Retroactively Legalization of 43 Outposts

Peace Now has reported the details of a draft government decision on outposts, which Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz is currently holding back from coming up for a Cabinet vote (despite the fact that one of his key advisors reportedly helped draft the decision). With the measure blocked in the Cabinet, proponents of the legalization effort may try to bypass the government by going for Knesset approval of a bill to accomplish a similar goal (see below).

With respect to the details of the initiative: contrary to previous reporting on the matter, the effort does not relate to outposts built illegally on “state land,” but rather deals with 43 illegal outposts built either entirely or partially on land that is privately owned by Palestinians. According to Peace Now, the draft government decision seeks to:

Establish a new mechanism for expropriating privately owned Palestinian land for the outposts/settlements. The decision calls for the recruitment of 17 staff (5 real estate coordinators, 3 legal advisers, 2 real estate department workers, 5 planning bureau workers and 2 coordinators) who would be tasked with finding legal means by which to declare private Palestinian land to be “state land” if there is an outpost built on it. According to Peace Now, the new staff will use recommendations from the Zandberg report and of Attorney General Mandelblit to accomplish this goal. To review, the 2018 Zandberg report suggested that, in order to legalize outposts, the government can and should (thorough explanation of these points can be found here):
- Implement the “market regulation” principle to its fullest extent.
- Expropriate of privately owned Palestinian land for “public use.”
- Adopt a principle of flexibility in defining “adjacent areas.”
- Establish new, official settlements (in the case where outposts cannot be regulated based on the prior three points).
- End the work of the Israeli “Blue Line Team,” which maps the legal status of land in the West Bank.
- Allow regional Settlement Councils to provide municipal services to (currently) unauthorized outposts.
Approve 31 outposts as “neighborhoods” of existing settlements that are fully authorized by the Israel government. By doing so, Israel hopes it might avoid international consternation involved in establishing new settlements. Despite the legal turn of tongue, the authorization of outposts as new neighborhoods of existing settlements should be understood as the establishment of new settlements, especially but not solely because in many if not most cases the outposts are not contiguous with the built up part of settlements or even within the recognized borders of settlements’ Master Plans. For a list of these outposts, see the Peace Now report.
Approve the authorization of 12 independent outposts, creating 11 fully fledged new settlements. For a list of these outposts, see the Peace Now report.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The proposed resolution awards a prize for systematic delinquency and gives the green light for the continued takeover of Palestinian land in a way that would never have been considered legal within Israel proper. Beyond the value and moral damage that the decision produces, it promotes the de facto annexation of the West Bank, without public debate and against the wishes of most Israeli citizens who breathed a sigh of relief with the cancellation of the annexation plans. The fact that the government found it appropriate to allocate tens of millions of shekels for the move, precisely in the midst of an economic crisis, also shows how flawed and distorted its priorities are, as well as its contempt for the electorate. It can still be stopped. We hope that the government will show responsibility and avoid the move. ”

Knesset Advances Bill to Grant Retroactive Legalization to 65 Outposts

In light of Benny Gantz’s delay in granting approval to a draft government decision on outposts, the Knesset has advanced a bill to grant retroactive legalization to 65 outposts (distinct from the initiative described above). The bill – introduced by far right-wing MK Bezalel Smotrich (Tkuma) and the Land of Israel Lobby (which he chairs), passed its first reading on December 16th. It will need to pass three more readings before becoming law. Smotrich said he hopes to expedite the next three readings before the year’s end (i.e. next week), while continuing to call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to approve a government decision on the matter.

The legislation would, if passed, require the government to treat the 65 outposts as if they were legal – and would direct the government to complete the formal legalization process for the outposts within two years. In the interim, the state would be obligated to connect the outposts to Israeli municipal utilities like water, internet, phone, and also allow the granting of mortgages to settlers living on land.

Notably, the bill enjoys broad support in the Knesset and passed by a 60 to 40 vote. Support for the bill includes Netanyahu’s Likud Party, Naftali Bennet’s Yamina Party, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu Party. And, despite official opposition to the bill, Gantz allowed four members of his Blue & White Party to vote in its favor – showing that there might be an even broader base of support. As part of its campaign to push the bill forward, a Knesset committee devoted to legalizing all outposts ran a survey of 502 Israeli adults that found 73% of respondents who identify as “centrist” or support the Blue & White party are in favor of the outpost legalization bill.

Commenting on passage of the bill in its first reading, the Land of Israel Lobby said:

“A huge majority of the elected Knesset members support the moral and humane process of regulating the young settlements.”

Tender Published for 290 Units in the Gilo Settlement, More to Come

Ir Amim reports that the Israel Lands Authority published a tender for the construction of 290 new units in the Gilo settlement, located in southern Jerusalem between the isolated Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Ir Amim reports that the proposed new units will be built within the built-up area of the settlement, meaning that this plan will not expand the footprint of the Gilo settlement.

Ir Amim further reports that Israeli authorities are advancing two more plans to expand Gilo:

On December 21st, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee discussed a plan to build 253 new settlement units in Gilo. If implemented, the construction would expand the footprint of Gilo eastwards towards the West Bank city of Beit Jala.
Another plan for 464 units in the Gilo settlement has been scheduled for final discussion on January 4, 2021. This plan would replace and add to existing apartments in the settlement.

New Evidence Showing Settler Council Funds Illegal Outposts via Amana; Petition on Amana Funding to be Heard by High Court in Coming Days

Days before the High Court will once again takes up a petition seeking to bar governmental funding from going to the radical Amana settler group – which is engaged in illegal outpost activity – a new trove of documents has once again proven that settler councils have been secretly funneling money to Amana, explicitly to support the establishment and development of illegal outposts.

This week, after a year-long battle led by the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, the Gush Etzion Regional Council (a settler body governing settlement affairs in part of the southern West Bank) was forced to release documents that revealed its financial relationship with Amana, the largest and most powerful settler organization devoted to advancing settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Those documents show how the Council diverted nearly $500,000 (1.6 million shekels) in 2018 and 2019 to Amana directly in support of the establishment and development of illegal outposts.

The financial relationship between settler councils and Amana is not entirely new information (see here), but these newly-released documents specifically reveal that Amana is behind the recent trend of establishing farming outposts. As Peace Now has previously explained, these agricultural/farm-based outposts enable a small number of settlers, with few resources, to take over large tracts of land by grazing cattle in the area. These settlers often push Palestinians off that land, sometimes violently. Peace Now has documented the establishment of at least 35 such agricultural outposts since 2006.

The new documents show that the Council’s funds were earmarked specifically to support these farming outposts, including over $250,000 (900,000 shekels) for their development. The docs also show that the Council paid 20% of the salary of a full time Amana staff “coordinator” for these outposts. The documents further showed the Council directed ~$195,000 (NIS 632,065) to the Makhrour outpost, ~$31,000 (NIS 100,733) in the Tekoa agricultural outpost, and ~$16,000 (NIS 52,650) in the Pnei Kedem agricultural outpost (for the purchase of a truck).

The data comes at an interesting time, given the expectation that the High Court will soon hold a hearing on a petition regarding government funding to Amana. To review, in February 2019, Peace Now submitted a petition seeking to bar settler regional councils from funding Amana, arguing that Amana engages in illegal activity and should therefore not be eligible to receive funds from the government whose laws it is violating. The petition also notes that legally, public entities cannot transfer money to private organizations like Amana. In December 2019, the High Court said that while this petition is pending any government funding of Amana must receive the Court’s approval first. The case is scheduled for a hearing this Sunday, December the 20th.

Peace Now wrote:

“Amana and the regional councils in the territories have established a sophisticated mechanism to exploit the public coffers for illegal activity and to create facts on the ground. There is no limit to the chutzpah of the settlement heads. On one hand, they build outposts, with far-reaching diplomatic consequences, with public funds, and on the other hand, they cry to the government and ask for their criminality ==to be retroactively legalized. What a responsible and fair government needs to do is shut the spigot to Amana and immediately evacuate the illegal outposts.” And, “the regional councils and Amana go to great efforts to hide the information about their financial sources and illegal activities. Even with the legal process in Peace Now’s petition against granting support money to Amana, the councils have refused to provide basic information on the amount of funds transferred to Amana and their use. Amana received tens of millions of shekels from the regional councils every year, and the information received about the activities in Gush Etzion in 2018 and 2019 is just the tip of the iceberg. Peace Now uncovered the mechanism behind the illegal outposts in its “Unraveling the Mechanism behind Illegal Outposts” report which describes the operation by local authorities in the West Bank, together with Amana and the Settlement Division, to support illegal outposts and construction in the settlements, but not all financial sources have been clarified. The support by the Gush Etzion Regional Council is only a small part of Amana’s multi-million shekels operation in this illegal activity, with far-reaching ramifications for Israel’s future.”

Or Sadan, a lawyer with the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, said in a statement:

“The information that was received from the Gush Etzion Regional Council emphasizes, once again, the importance of the Israeli Freedom of Information Law. The information shows how public funds are being transferred to activities beyond the Green Line, with questionable legality. The fight against this kind of activity must be based on solid information directly from public authorities.”

Israel Sovereignty Movement Launches New Campaign for Annexation

The Israeli Sovereignty Movement – an Israeli nongovernmental organization- has launched a new campaign pushing for Israel to move ahead with unilateral annexation of the West Bank before the inauguration of a new U.S. president. On the first night of Hanukkah, the Sovereignty Movement co-hosted a virtual event titled “Lighting Sovereignty over the Jordan Valley,” drawing participation of 30 government officials, including the government’s coalition chairman Miki Zohar (Likud). The event was also sponsored by the US-based Zionist Organization of America, the settler group Regavim, the Israel Forever Foundation, and Americans for a Safe Israel.

At the event, the hosts touted new polling that shows 56% of the general Israeli public supports the annexation of the Jordan Valley, including 80% of respondents who identify as “right-wing.”

The Sovereignty Movement – an offshoot of the Women in Green organization – has established and expanded its influence over Israeli politicians and public discourse over the past two years. Nadia Matar, one of the co-founders, told JNS:

“[the] overwhelming majority of the Israeli public believes that sovereignty should be applied over the Jordan Valley, and now that the left is once again raising the issue of the ‘two-state solution,’ the focus should be on the application of sovereignty.”

At the event, MK Zohar said:

“I think that Israel should work towards applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and also take the opportunity to advance the application of sovereignty over many communities in Judea and Samaria, if not all of them. It’s an opportunity that might not present itself again.”

Israel’s Escalating Assault on Palestinian Life in Area C

Directly from OCHA [emphasis added by FMEP]:

“In November, the Israeli authorities demolished, forced people to demolish, or seized 178 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank: this is the highest such figure in a single month since OCHA began systematically documenting this practice in 2009. This month’s incidents resulted in the displacement of 158 people and otherwise affected the livelihoods or access to services of over 1,000 others. All structures, except for one demolished on punitive grounds, were located in Area C or East Jerusalem and were targeted due to a lack of building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

Of the affected structures, 43 had been provided as humanitarian aid, for a total cost of 82,000 euros. It is the largest number of EU-funded structures targeted in a single month since January 2017, bringing the total number of such structures demolished or seized since the start of 2020 to 114.

About 50 per cent of all structures targeted this month were in small herding communities in sections of Area C designated closed for Israeli military training (‘firing zones’). The largest such incident took place on 3 November in Humsa Al Bqai’a, in the northern Jordan Valley, where the Israeli authorities demolished 83 structures, or about three-quarter of the community, including 29 structures provided as humanitarian aid. A total of 73 people, including 41 children were displaced as a result, but have been able to remain in the area following the delivery of emergency shelters and other assistance.

Additional 13 structures were targeted in the Massafer Yatta area of Hebron, most of which is also declared a ‘firing zone’. This included a donor-funded water network, part of which had already been dismantled in October, which served some 700 people from four communities. This incident took place on 25 November on the basis of an expedited procedure (Military Order 1797), while legal partners were presenting the case in court, to try and halt the removal of the network.

Nearly 30 per cent of Area C, where 38 Palestinian communities (5,000 people) are located, is designated as ‘firing zones’. These communities, many of which have existed in the area since prior to the start of the Israeli occupation, have limited access to basic services and are at heightened risk of forcible transfer. At east ten unauthorized Israeli settlement outposts are also located either partially or completely in ‘firing zones’.”

Read the full OCHA report here.

Bonus Reads

“Deprived a Voice: An Investigation into Shrinking Space in Area C” (Al-Haq)
“After 60 years, East Jerusalem Palestinians face eviction under Israeli settler rulings” (Reuters)
“Palestine’s Cultural Property and the Israeli Occupation” (PLO-NAD)
“Tourism and Israel’s Settler Colonial Project Seeking Ethical Alternatives” (Al-Shabaka)
“‘Temporarily Uprooted’ Gaza Settlements Among ‘Miracles’ in Israeli Learning Kits” (Haaretz)

Trump Says No to Israeli Annexation

United Nations Adds 68 New Companies to List of Businesses Supporting the Settlement Enterprise

Bonus Reads

Netanyahu Signs Final Approval of E-1, Celebrates End of Palestinian State

Netanyahu Delays Discussion of Plan to Annex the Jordan Valley

‘Formalizing Apartheid’: Smotrich Presents Plan to Annex 82% of the West Bank

State Land Declaration to Legalize Havat Gilad Outpost

Settlers Establish New Enclave on Key Hebron Street (Currently) Open to Palestinians

West Bank News & Analysis

East Jerusalem News & Analysis

Bonus Reads

Bill to Allow Israelis to Buy West Bank Land Advances in Knesset

Weekly Settlement Advancements Continue for Ninth Week

On First Day in Office, Trump Cancels Sanctions on Violent Settlers

Bonus Reads

De Facto Annexation: Israel Applies Domestic Urban Renewal Law to Settlements, Easing High-Density Construction

High Court Orders Illegal Settler Construction Dismantled

Knesset Caucus to Push Bill Preventing West Bank Exit

Israeli Demolitions Continue Alarming Spike

Israel is Expanding Settlements in the Golan Heights, As Army Moves to Expand Occupation of Syrian Land

Bonus

Yesh Din Files High Court Petition to Stop Jordan Valley Regional Council

Construction Starts on New Settlement, Ariel West

IDF Demolishes Outpost Near Ofra

Subcommittee Hearing Defends Settler Violence, Points Finger at Human Rights Activists

US Announces New Sanctions on Three Individuals & Two Outposts

Bonus Reads

Israel Expropriates More Land in Silwan For the Settler-Backed Cable Car Project

Key Hearing on Givat Shaked Settlement Scheduled for Next Week

Israel Government Planning Decision to Extend Domestic Construction Laws to Settlements (An Act of De Facto Annexation)

Hamoked Seam Zone Petition Rejected by Supreme Court

US Delays Rifles to Israel Over Settler Violence

International Bans on Violent Settlers Grow, Even as Criteria is Unclear

Bonus Reads

NEXT WEEK – E-1 Back On the Agenda

Israel Advances Plan for Massive New Industrial Zone

Israel Quietly Expropriated Land to Facilitate the Retroactive Legalization of Havat Gilad

Israel Allows Settlers to Operate Farms inside the Masafer Yatta Firing Zone, From Which Palestinians Are Being Forcibly Displaced

Armenian Orthodox Church Sells Key Jerusalem Properties to an Israeli Investor

Israel Preps New Laws to “Judaize” the Galilee, Subsidize Jewish-Only Communities in Galilee, Negev, and West Bank

17 Israeli Human Rights Orgs Issue Status Report on Occupation

Yesh Din Re-Releases “Annexation Database”

Bonus Reads

Protests Against Dispossession Continue in Sheikh Jarrah, as Israeli Court Delays Decision

Israel Has Been Conducting a Secretive Land Registration Process in Sheikh Jarrah, Excluding Palestinians

Har Homa E Settlement Plan Granted Approval, With Minor Conditions

Knesset Attempts Fast-Track Vote on Two Key Bills: One to Authorize Outposts; Another to Cancel 2005 Disengagement

Bibi Reportedly Dismisses U.S. Concerns Over Settlements

Construction Begins on New “Legal” Settlement in Southern West Bank, Foreshadowing More to Come

Following Deadly Drive-By-Shooting, Settlers Establish New Outpost & Terrorize Palestinians Near Nablus

Al Haq Report on Palestinian Workers in Settlements & the Complicity of Multinational Corporations

Bonus Reads

Sheikh Jarrah Evictions Set for May 2nd; Protests & Diplomacy Ratchet Up

Resources for Understanding Recent Protests and Violence in Jerusalem

WZO Admits It Gave Palestinian Land to Settlers Without Written Agreements

Jewish National Fund Delays Decision on Formalizing Policy on West Bank Land Purchases

Ariel University Giving Academic Credit for Outpost Volunteers

IDF Stops Settler Attempt to Establish Yeshiva on Site of Dismantled Homesh Settlement

Settlers Celebrate Israeli Independence Day

Settler-Run Chamber of Commerce Planning a Hotel in Hebron in Partnership with Palestinian Businessman Ahsraf Jabari

Smotrich’s Party Files Bill for Outpost Legalization

Round-up of Settler Violence this Week

Human Rights Watch: Israel is Guilty of the Crime of Apartheid

Bonus Reads

Draft Government Decision on Outposts Provides for Expropriating Private Palestinian Land for the Settlements & Retroactively Legalization of 43 Outposts

Knesset Advances Bill to Grant Retroactive Legalization to 65 Outposts

Tender Published for 290 Units in the Gilo Settlement, More to Come

New Evidence Showing Settler Council Funds Illegal Outposts via Amana; Petition on Amana Funding to be Heard by High Court in Coming Days

Israel Sovereignty Movement Launches New Campaign for Annexation

Israel’s Escalating Assault on Palestinian Life in Area C

Bonus Reads