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

November 7, 2025

1. Tenders Issued for New Neighborhood in Geva Benaymin Settlement
2. Israel Advances Plans for 1,985 New Settlement Units
3. Israel Delivers Demolition Notices to Entire Village of Umm Al Kheir in South Hebron Hills
4. Israel Allocates $12 Million to Deepen Control Over West Bank Archaeology Sites
5. Settler Violence & The Olive Harvest
6. Bonus Reads

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Tenders Issued for New Neighborhood in Geva Benaymin Settlement

Peace Now reports that on November 4th the Israeli Housing Ministry published tenders for the construction of 342 new settlement units – establishing a new neighborhood in the Geva Benyamin (aka Adam) settlement. The new construction will expand the settlement northward towards the Jaba’ bedouin community, and connect the settlement to an outpost established by settlers in February 2025. Since the outpost was established, settlers have routinely and violently attacked the Jaba’ community.

Peace Now warned: 

“Since the beginning of 2025, tenders have been published for a total of 5,667 housing units in settlements – an all-time record and about 50% more than the previous peak year, 2018, when tenders were published for 3,808 units. If the tenders published this year are built, these homes would add roughly 25,000 settlers to the West Bank.”

Israel Advances Plans for 1,985 New Settlement Units

Peace Now reports that on November 5th, the High Planning Council advanced plans for the construction of 1,985 new settlement units across the West Bank.

Since the beginning of 2025, including the plans slated for approval this week, Israel has advanced a total of 28,195 settlement units — setting a record for annual numbers. See Peace Now’s records here.

The plans that received final approval this week include:

• 133 new units in the Kfar Tapuach settlement, located south of Nablus.
• 80 units in the Etz Efraim settlement, located south of Qalqilya and on the Israel-annexed side of the Separation Barrier.
• 178 units in the Ganei Modi’in settlement, located on the Israel-annexed side of the Separation Barrier in the northern West Bank.

The plans which were deposited for public review this week include:

• 720 units in the Avnei Hefetz settlement, located just east of Tulkarem;
• 568 units in the Einav settlement, located east of Tulkarem and east of the Avnei Hefetz settlement.
• 48 units in the Etz Efraim settlement (in addition to the plans which received final approval).
• 258 units in the Rosh Tzurim settlement, located south of Bethlehem in the Etzion settlement bloc.

Israel Delivers Demolition Notices to Entire Village of Umm Al Kheir in South Hebron Hills

On October 28th, the Israeli Civil Administration delivered demolition notices to 13 structures (including 11 homes) in the village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills – a village that is almost entirely surrounded by Israeli settlements and violent outposts. The residents were given four days to appeal the demolition notices, which were issued due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits (the buildings are over a decade old).

These notices come only a few weeks after the Jerusalem District Court attempted to temporarily stop settlers from establishing another new outpost literally next to homes in the Umm Al-Khair.

For an in-depth background of Umm al-Khair is its struggle to stay on its land despite settler and state violence, see Peace Now’s reporting and 972 Magazine’s repository of stories on the village – including several written by Awdah Hathaleen, a native of Umm Al-Khair who was murdered by an internationally sanctioned settler earlier this year (a settler who is facing no legal repercussions for the murder).

Israel Allocates $12 Million to Deepen Control Over West Bank Archaeology Sites

Emek Shaveh reports that on October 26th the Israeli government allocated an additional $12million (NIS 33.6 million)to renovate and strengthen Israeli control over archaeological sites in the West Bank. The government had previously allocated $33 million (NIS 120 million) in 2023 to the same project as well as a special budget of NIS 32 million for the Sebastia site alone.

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said: ““will not wait for the formal imposition of sovereignty over the West Bank.” As a reminder, in July 2024 the Israeli government gave the Civil Administrative sweeping powers over archaeological sites in Area B of the West Bank.

Emek Shaveh said in a statement:

“The government decision to redirect funds from other offices to sites in the West Bank reflects the ministers’ true priorities. At a time when health, welfare, and education systems have been severely impacted by two years of war and soaring defence spending, the government is diverting critical resources to advance the settlers’ long-standing agenda: expanding control over territory through archaeology.

By declaring more areas as archaeological sites “off limits” to Palestinians and developing them as tourist attractions to draw mainstream Israeli visitors into the settlements, the government is instrumentalising antiquities both as a bureaucratic tool for displacement and annexation, and as a means of shaping a biblical-nationalist narrative that excludes other histories and denies Palestinian connection to the land.”

Settler Violence & The Olive Harvest

Settlers have continued to terrorize Palestinians harvesting olives during the 2025 harvest season, with virtually no recourse or accountability. Over the course of October, OCHA recorded the highest monthly number of Israeli settler attacks since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006, documented 260 attacks – an average of 8 per day. In addition Palestinians continue to suffer from increasingly restrictive Israeli policies that limit access to agricultural land located near settlements and/or the Separation Barrier. Adding to the heightened settler violence, the Israeli government has undertaken a deportation campaign against international solidarity activists who, for years, have accompanied Palestinians during harvest season as a protective presence.

Since October 21st, there have been at least 104 attacks, 20 of which were directly related to the olive harvest, including the following incidents of note over the past two weeks:

• Mikhmas: On October 20th, settlers from a newly established outpost attacked a group of Palestinians and solidarity activists in the bedouin villages of Mikhmas and al-Ara’ara, located north of Jerusalem. The settlers threw stones at the Palestinians and set a house and olive trees on fire. Then, on October 23rd settlers cut the water pipelines which serviced Mikhmas. On October 25th, settlers violently attacked Mikhmas, burning six structures and injuring Palestinians and solidarity activists. Many residents of Mikhmas have left the village under the coercive displacement policies of the state and the escalating violence of the settlers – which goes unpunished. OCHA has documented 
• Al-Mughayyir: On October 24th dozens attacked al-Mughayyir during the night, setting cars on fire. This is the 43rd time this year that settlers have attacked Al-Mughayyir, a town that is surrounded by seven outposts.
• Samu, South Hebron Hills: Settlers were filmed ransacking a farm and torturing livestock – including baby lamb – in a small village in the South Hebron. Six lambs were killed and four were severely injured. 
• Beit Ummar: Wafa News reports that on October 29th settlers cut down approximately 50 olive trees and stole construction equipment. Israeli settlers and soldiers have carried out more than 250 attacks on Palestinian olive farmers since the harvest began earlier this month, according to the Ramallah-based Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission
• Qarawat Bani Hassan: On November 4th, settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives alongside a large group of volunteers (including American volunteers). As filmed by the harvesters, settlers flew a drone directly into the crowd of activists injuring one, and then proceeded to shoot live ammunition into the air, threatening to shoot the volunteers while they attempted to retrieve the drone. Haaretz reports the settlers were part of the security unit of the nearby Revava settlement.

The continued violence prompted the following statement by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:

“Reports of attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank continue. Many are related to Palestinians’ attempts to harvest their olive crops. Palestinians have been killed and injured. Their homes and property damaged. Their livestock attacked. More trees have been damaged and more communities affected this year than in the previous six years. The failure to prevent or punish such attacks is inconsistent with international law. Palestinians must be protected. Impunity cannot prevail. Perpetrators must be held accountable.”

Bonus Reads

1. “The Business of Apartheid: What Companies and Investors Should Know” (AFSC, 10/30/25)
2. “How one road and an Israeli settlement could end dreams for this Palestinian city” (Los Angeles Times, 10/24/25)
3. “Israel’s Education Commissar Wants to Force Settler Indoctrination in Schools” (Haaretz, 10/29/25)
4. “Smotrich proposes weekly protest in ‘Sovereignty Square’ to push for Judea and Samaria annexation” (World Israel News, 10/26/25)

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.

July 12, 2024

1. A Stunning, Expansive Time for Israel’s West Bank Annexation
2. Civil Admin Seizes Patchwork of Plots as “State Land” in Order to Legalize the Evyatar Outpost
3. Government Establishes Jurisdiction for New Settlement on World Heritage Site Near Bethlehem
4. Settlers Takeover New Building in Hebron
5. Historic Year for Land Grabs: Israel Seizes Over 3,000 Acres in the Jordan Valley as “State Land”
6. Civil Admin Advances Plans to Legalize Three Outposts & Build 5k New Units Across West Bank
7. Israeli Cabinet Gives Civil Admin Authority Over Antiquity Sites in Area B
8. Israeli Cabinet Supports Knesset Considers Bill to Transfer West Bank Antiquities Control from Civil Admin to Domestic Body
9. U.S. Issues New Round of Sanctions Against Settlers & Settler Organizations
10. Israeli Court Orders 11 Families Out of Homes in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan
11. Israeli Court Rules to Demolish Wadi Hilweh Info Center in Silwan
12. Israeli Court Tells Settlers To Leave Khalidi Library in Old City of Jerusalem
13. Israel to Advance 6,000+ Settlement Units in East Jerusalem in Coming Weeks
14. Amidst Wave of Violence, Settlers Lead Progrom On Massafer Yatta Region
15. Ariel Settlers Close Access Road to Palestinians
16. IDF Demolishes Outposts, Clashes With Settlers
17. Bonus Reads

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A Stunning, Expansive Time for Israel’s West Bank Annexation

Over the past two weeks, Israel has unleashed a flurry of settlement activity that makes its annexation of the West Bank complete. Even a small sampling of those acts, detailed below along with other news, are stunning when taken together. Indeed, Israeli National Missions Minister Orti Strock called this “a miraculous time,” referring to the control her and her allies have over key government bodies and how easy it is for them to fund settlement construction. Strock is a member of the Religious Zionism party, along with Bezalel Smotrich.

Renowned Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard encapsulates this time powerfully in an article entitled, “Smotrich Has Completed Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank”:

“The only thing the annexationist criminals must be saying to themselves now is: why did we wait for 57 years? It’s so easy.”

Civil Admin Seizes Patchwork of Plots as “State Land” in Order to Legalize the Evyatar Outpost

On July 8th, the Israeli government declared 16 acres (66 dunams) of land south of Nablus as Israeli “state land” in order to pave the way for the legalization of the Evyatar outpost. Palestinians who have private ownership claims to the land have 45 days in which to submit an appeal. The declaration is the result of three years of “work” by Smotrich’s Settlements Administration to examine the status of the land in order to find a way for the state to take control of the land in order to legalize the outpost. The declaration comes one week after the Israeli Security of Cabinet decided in favor of legalizing the Evyatar outpost along with four other outposts.

The Evyatar outpost was illegally built by settlers on a strategic hilltop named Mount Sabih, located just south of Nablus on land historically belonging to nearby Palestinian villages Beita, Yatma, and Qablan. It was evacuated by the Israeli government in 2021 in the context of an agreement with settlers that left all construction at the site in place, maintained an IDF presence at the site, and made clear the government’s intent to legalize settlement at the site in the future – a goal which was made more than official when it was agreed to in writing as part of the coalition agreements that formed the current Israeli government.

To underscore the absurdity which has characterized the State’s blatant intent to legalize Evyatar even though Israeli law makes that an impossibility because parts of the land are recognized by the State as privately owned by Palestinians (which is the only reason Evyatar has yet to be legalized), the State’s new declaration of “state land” is a complete patchwork. The order does not include the land on which the central square of the outpost is built, nor does it include 11 buildings, or, very importantly, the access road leading from the main road to the outpost. The implications of this patchwork is that even though the privately owned land was not seized, Palestinians will remain unable to access the land and will, in practice, lose that land as well as land abutting the settlement as it grows, expands, and establishes control over the area with the assistance of the IDF.

Peace Now reports that this is the fifth “state land” declaration so far in 2024 bringing the total land in the West Bank taken into Israeli control this year to 5,879 acres (23,572 dunams), breaking all previous annual records combined. Israel invented the concept of “state land” in order to find means by which to confiscate land in the occupied West Bank, and to do so Israel cites Ottoman law which provided that land which has not been cultivated in consecutives years becomes the property of the sovereign. Peace Now explains:

“The declaration process is essentially a legal maneuver developed by Israel to circumvent the prohibition in international law against expropriating private property of the occupied population for the benefit of the occupying power. To “convert” private land into public land (termed “state land”) without expropriating it, Israel claims that it is not changing the land’s status but merely “declaring” it officially.

According to Israel’s interpretation of Ottoman land law, which underpins the land laws in the occupied territories, if a landowner does not cultivate their land for several years, the land is no longer theirs and becomes public property. To this end, the mapping personnel of the Civil Administration, now operating under the Settlements Administration with legal counsel under Minister Smotrich, examine aerial photographs to identify uncultivated lands and mark them as “state land.”

The declaration map for the Evyatar outpost shows that there were indeed several cultivated lands, even by Israel’s stringent interpretation. For example, the declaration creates an enclave of about 3.5 dunams in the middle of the area designated for the settlement, considered private land. In principle, Israel would argue that it is not expropriating this area and that the Palestinian landowners are still recognized as the owners. However, as in hundreds of similar cases, it is clear that they will not have access to their land and no possibility of using it when it is located in the middle of an Israeli settlement.

To enable an access road connecting the outpost to the main road without crossing private land, the map’s designers managed to “find” an 11-meter-long and 1.5-meter-wide corridor of land that they claim was uncultivated and thus considered state land. This interpretation of Ottoman law brings it to absurdity.

According to this, if a person has a plot and cultivates it intensively, but there is a small uncultivated strip on the edges, say a rock that cannot be plowed, that small part of the plot is not owned by the landowner. This interpretation is far removed from the purpose of the Ottoman law, which was to encourage the empire’s subjects to cultivate the lands to increase its tax revenues.

Regarding the access road – in any case, for modern vehicles, a road 1.5 meters wide is insufficient, and it is clear that to allow access to the settlement, the state will encroach on private Palestinian lands (requiring another legal maneuver). Thus, it can be said that this entire declaration of state land is essentially an unlawful expropriation under international law.”

Government Establishes Jurisdiction for New Settlement on World Heritage Site Near Bethlehem

On July 9th, the IDF Commander signed an order establishing the jurisdiction for a new settlement on the lands just west of Bethlehem, lands that are recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Notably, the jurisdiction for the new settlement, called “Nahal Heletz”, does not include the land on which two illegal outposts already exist on Battir’s land. The new settlement is being planned for land that is between Bethlehem and several villages to its west (Walaja, Battir, and Husan) –  meaning that construction on this land will sever the territorial continuity of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem region, and, in the words of Peace Now: “turn them [the villages] into an enclave within Israeli territory.”

There are several extraordinary facts about this land and Israel’s legal acrobatics to establish a new settlement at this location:

1. 1. The status of the land within the new jurisdiction is unclear, and quite possibly includes privately owned Palestinian land. The Israeli Blue Line Team (a government effort to precisely map the boundaries of state land in the West Bank) has prepared updated maps to show the boundaries of state land in the area, but has yet to release it – meaning that the status of the land is unclear. The jurisdiction appears to stretch beyond the previously understood boundaries of land that Israel seized as “state land” in the 1980s, onto land that is privately owned by Palestinians. The updated boundaries might change that fact in the eyes of the Israeli government. But,once the new Blue Line in the area is made public, Palestinians will/should be able to contest it.
   2. There is no access road to the area, and it is surrounded by privately owned Palestinian land. Israel will have to unilaterally expropriate privately owned Palestinian land in order to pave a road to the new settlement – – an extraordinary act which Israel has done in the past (having invented a legal basis on which to do it, a concept which considers Israeli settlers as part of the “local population” of the West Bank).
   3. The jurisdictional area established by this new order is too small for real development  – just under 30 acres (120 dunams). Peace Now explains that “small settlements severely impact open spaces, require substantial resources for infrastructure and transportation, and contradict fundamental planning principles. The sole reason for establishing such a settlement is political: the desire to prevent a Palestinian territorial continuity in the Bethlehem area and the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.”
   4. The jurisdiction is a stones throw away from Palestinian houses and Area B.

Settlers Takeover New Building in Hebron

Peace Now reports that in early June 2024 settlers have taken over a building (“Beit HaTkuma”) in Hebron and established a new settlement enclave there. The house, which settlers illegally entered once before but were removed under the Bennet-Lapid government, on the main road leading from the Kiryat Arba settlement to the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque.

Settlers claim to have purchased the house, which is a three-story building, from its Palestinians owners, and report that the Civil Administration has recently issued them a permit to begin the registration process. The timing of this permit coincides with the first days of Hillel Roth’s assumption of his role in the Defense Ministry as the civilian in charge of all land matters in the West Bank. Upon receiving the permit (allegedly), the settlers decided to enter and occupy the building although the permit does not provide for that. [map]

Historic Year for Land Grabs: Israel Seizes Over 3,000 Acres in the Jordan Valley as “State Land”

On June 25th, the head of the IDF signed an order declaring 3,138 acres (12,700 dunams) of land in the Jordan Valley as  “state land” – the largest state land seizure since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. This is the first declaration enacted under the authority of Hillel Roth, the new civilian deputy in the Civil Administration responsible for land policy in Area C of the West Bank. Peace Now reports that the legal opinion supporting this massive declaration of state land was crafted by lawyers in the Department of Defense and not legal advisors with the IDF.

Peace Now further reports:

“A significant part of the area that was declared as state land was previously defined as a nature reserve, and also as a “fire area”, for military use, for decades. Today’s announcement completes the Israeli takeover of this area that has been done so far through the declaration of the area as a military area and as a nature reserve – something that imposed many restrictions on the Palestinians’ ability to use their lands. The declaration creates a territorial continuity between the settlements in the Jordan Valley (Yifit and Masu’a) and the settlements at the eastern end of the mountainside (Gitit and Ma’ale Efraim).”

So far in 2024, Israel has declared 5,852 acres as “state land” a figure eclipsing any other year since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. The highest previous total was in 2014, and it was for 1,181 acres.

Civil Admin Advances Plans to Legalize Three Outposts & Build 5k New Units Across West Bank

On July 4th, the Israeli Civil Administration approved the advancement of plans for 5,295 settlement units, including plans which would in effect legalize three outposts under the guise of being “neighborhoods” of existing settlements. This is the first time the Civil Administration’s High Planning Council has met since it came under the authority of a civilian official, Hillel Roth, who was appointed by Bezalel Smotrich. The HPC last met in March 2024. The Associated Press has called Israel’s advancement of plans a “turbo charged settlement drive [that] threatens to further stoke tensions on the West Bank.”

The three outposts that are now on their way to legalization, once given final approval, are:

• Mahane Gadi – to be legalized as a neighborhood of the Masu’a settlement in the northern Jordan Valley. This outpost was built in 2018 on an abandoned Isareli military camp. The outpost currently functions as an educational campus and pre-military academy. Plans advanced this week are for the construction of 260 settlement units. Masu’a settlement, and its outpost satellites, were recently benefitted by the Israeli government’s massive declaration of state land that borders Masu’a.  
• Givat Hanan (Susya East) – to be legalized as a neighborhood of the Susya settlement located in the South Hebron Hills.
• Kedem Arava – it appears that the Kedem Arava outpost was legalized along with Beit Hogla in February 2023 (previously unclear), located south east of Jericho. Plans advanced this week are for 316 settlement units in the Kedem Arava outpost area, but filed as if they are plans for the Beit Hogla settlement. 

The settlement plans that were approved for validation (a near final step in the West Bank planning process) are:

• Beitar Illit – 298 settlement units. An additional 453 units were approved for deposit (751 settlement units total).
• Givat Zeev – 452 settlement units
• Mitzpe Yericho – 365 settlement units
• Nokdim – 290 settlement units
• Immanuel – 266 settlement units 
• Elon Moreh – 186 settlement units
• Kiryat Arba – 165 settlement units 
• Negohot – 158 settlement units
• Tzofim – 74 settlement units
• Ganei Modiin – 46 settlement units
• Etz Efraim – 12 settlement units. An additional 24 units were approved for deposit (36 units total)
• Eli – 24 settlement units
• Mitzad (Asfar) – 6 settlement units

The settlement plans that were approved for deposit (an earlier step in the West Bank planning process) are:

• Neria – 436 settlement units
• Modin Illit – 300 settlement units
• Gva’ot – 250 settlement units. There were over 1,000 plans for the Gva’ot settlement on the High Planning Council’s agenda, but only one plan was advanced, the rest continue to be worked on.
• Yakir – 168 settlement units. Haaretz reports that these units are slated to be built on land that is discontiguous from the built up area of the Yakir settlement,  on the far side of the settlement’s access road, effectively building a new settlement. The construction of these units requires the evacuation of a military base. 
• Kiryat Netafim – 136 settlement units
• Hagai – 135 settlement units
• Maale Shomron (Elamatan) – 120 settlement units
• Almon (Anatot) – 91 settlement units
• Shilo – 90 settlement units
• Pduel – 37 settlement units
• Revava – 16 settlement units
• Elkana – 8 settlement units
• Shaarei Tikva – 6 settlement units

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Netanyahu and Smotrich’s agenda became evident through the decisions of the Planning Council: approval for thousands of housing units, the establishment of three new settlements, and strategic appointments of Smotrich’s allies in key roles instead of military personnel underscore the annexation occurring in the West Bank. Our government continues to change the rules of the game in the occupied West Bank, leading to irreversible harm. While the north is neglected and citizens across the country are abandoned, with 120 hostages still in Gaza, the process of annexation and land theft continues to expand, contrary to Israeli interests. This annexationist government severely undermines the security and future of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the cost of this recklessness will be paid for generations to come. We must bring down the government before it’s too late.”

Israeli Cabinet Gives Civil Admin Authority Over Antiquity Sites in Area B

In late June, the Israeli Cabinet approved several punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority, measures which included usurping the Palestinian Authority’s singular responsibility for antiquity sites in Area B. Under the decision passed last week, the Civil Administration was granted enforcement powers over antiquity sites in Area B that are alleged to be damaged. 

Emek Shaveh explains why this is incredibly significant:

“Approximately 6,000 archaeological sites have been identified in the West Bank. Almost every village or settlement contains archaeological and historical remains that require archaeological supervision to prevent damage to sites, structures, or findings. Thousands of sites are located in Areas A and B…expanding the powers of the [Civil Administration] into these areas represents another Israeli departure from the Oslo Accords. The implications of the decision for Palestinian residents are far reaching. The Staff Officer for Archaeology [in the Civil Administration], which derives its authority from the antiquities law effective in the West Bank (the Jordanian Antiquities Law of 1966), will now be empowered to perform various enforcement actions in Area B including:

• Declaration of archaeological sites, determining their boundaries.
• Issuing work stoppage orders for any development within the boundaries of a declared site or a site suspected of containing archaeological remains.
• Imposing fines for damage to an antiquity site, whether the site is declared or not.
• Demolishing structures located within a declared archaeological site or one that will be declared in the future.
• Collecting information, investigating, and requesting the arrest of suspects in antiquities theft or illegal antiquities trade.

This decision taken together with other decisions for Area B aimed at promoting annexation will dramatically reduce Palestinian space. It should be noted that the SOA consistently avoids enforcing the law when it comes to heritage site destruction by settlers (this is true in Hebron, Battir, and in other places)….

The expansion of archaeological activity into the oPt, especially as reflected in this cabinet decision, indicates the government’s intention to promote annexation by any means. It also fundamentally challenges the possibility of conducting impartial archaeological-scientific activity as long as it operates as part of an oppressive mechanism under military auspices. Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank necessarily becomes an act of land appropriation and a deepening of Israel’s hold on the West Bank. This action violates international law and ethics, disregards the existence of the Palestinian community, and serves as a weapon for oppression.

The destruction of sites cannot and should not serve as a pretext for political action, and political action should not be disguised as archaeological activity. Blurring the distinction between heritage preservation and settlement and annexation activities turns the practice of archaeology into a weapon of oppression while undermining its professional legitimacy.”

Notably, Israel Hayom credits this Cabinet action to a settler group called “Keepers of the Eternal,” (or, “Guardians of Eternity” – an offshoot of Regavim) the leader of which called the new powers granted to the Civil Administration “dramatic.” FMEP has reported on this group repeatedly as it has increased its pressure on and work with the government to take control of West Bank antiquity sites. Dating back to June 2020, the “Guardians of Eternity” began surveying areas in the West Bank that Israel has designated as archaeological sites, looking for Palestinian construction (barred by Israel in such areas) that they could then use as a pretext to demand that Israeli authorities demolish it. The group systematically began communicating its findings to the Archaeology Unit of the Israeli Civil Administration.

Then in January 2021, the Israeli government committed funding to a settler initiative to surveil archeological sites under Palestinian control. While the objective of protecting antiquities might appear uncontroversial and apolitical, the true (and transparently self-evident) objectives behind this effort are: to support yet another pretext to surveil and police Palestinians; to establish and exploit yet another means to dispossess Palestinians of their properties; to expand/deepen Israeli control across the West Bank; and to further entrench Israeli technical, bureaucratic and legal paradigms that treat the West Bank as sovereign Israeli territory. It is the result of a campaign that has taken place over the past year in which settlers have escalated their calls for the Israeli government to seize antiquities and “heritage sites” located in Palestinian communities across the West Bank, especially in Area C, which Israel today treats as functionally (and legally) indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory. 

Israeli Cabinet Supports Knesset Considers Bill to Transfer West Bank Antiquities Control from Civil Admin to Domestic Body

Emek Shaveh reports that the Israeli cabinet gave its support to a bill in the Knesset that would transfer authority over West Bank antiquity sites from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration to the domestic Israeli Antiquities Authority, bringing the cultural, heritage, and archaeological sites in the West Bank under the direct control of the Israeli government in which West Bank Palestinians have no rights. 

The bill, as proposed by Likud’s Amit Halevi, explains that the move is justifiable because the West Bank antiquity sites (unbelievably) “have no historical or other connection to the Palestinian Authority.” The bill passed a preliminary vote in the Knesset on July 10th.

U.S. Issues New Round of Sanctions Against Settlers & Settler Organizations

On July 11th, the United States announced another round of sanctions targeting Israeli settlers and settler organizations it asserts are perpetrating violent crimes against Palestinians and Israeli solidarity activists in the West Bank. These sanctions expand the web or already sanctioned individuals and entities.

The individuals and entities sanctioned by the U.S. this week are:

• 1 settler organization: 
  • Lehava – a settler group led by Benzi Gopstein, who is already under U.S. sanctions.
• 3 individuals:
  • Issachar Manne – who established the Manne’s Farm outpost.
  • Reut Ben Haim – the co-head of the Tzav 9 settler group, which is already under U.S. sanctions;
  • Shlomo Sari – the co-head of the Tzav 9 settler group, which is already under U.S. sanctions;
• Four illegal outposts:
  • Meitarim Farm (established by Yinon Levi, who is already under U.S. sanctions);
  • HaMahoch Farm (established by Neria Ben Pazi, who is already under U.S. sanctions);
  • Neria’s Farm (established by Neria Ben Pazi, who is already under U.S. sanctions); and,
  • Manne’s Farm, established by Issachar Manne, who came under sanctions this week, and located in the South Herbon Hills.

Notably, The Times of Israel has previously reported that in 2021 a corporation owned by the Har Hebron Regional Council signed a legally binding contract with Yinon Levi (a previously sanctioned individual) to establish Meitarim Farm. This legal connection exposes the settlement municipality to US sanctions as well.

Aaron David Miler, a former state department Middle East negotiator now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tells The Guardian that the expanding targets of U.S. sanctions are creeping closer towards the Israeli government, saying:

“It appears that [the U.S. State Department] not just targeted extremist settlers but … introduced a linkage to territoriality by citing illegal outposts…It doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that the next target would be [Israeli] government financing for illegal outposts. And that would be a new departure to be sure.”

Sara Yager, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said:

“In this case we’re pleased that the Biden administration is going farther than before with the alert…Now it’s time for sanctions against the Israeli authorities that are approving and inciting. We want to see the US, UK, Canada and others focus on power behind all this in the West Bank.”

Israeli Court Orders 11 Families Out of Homes in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan

This week the Jerusalem District Court ruled on two significant cases affecting 11 Palestinian families in Silwan facing forcible eviction from their homes at the hands of the Ateret Cohanim settler organization. Both cases were found in favor of the settlers, leaving 11 families at risk of imminent mass displacement from East Jerusalem. The Palestinians plan to appeal the ruling to the Israeli Supreme Court – though it was only a month ago that the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the Shehadeh family whose case is similar to those decided this week.

On July 9th, the Israeli court rejected the final appeal of the Gheith and Abu Nab families (4 family units totalling 22 individuals) and ordered their immediate eviction. The families were also ordered to pay the legal fees incurred by Ateret Cohanim.

On July 10th, the Israeli court rejected the final appeal of the Rajabi family (7 family units, 65 individuals), ruling that the 66-member family must vacate their longtime home by January 2025.

In both cases, Ateret Cohanim claims ownership of the buildings becuase it gained control of the historic Benvenisti Trust, which oversaw the assets of Yemenite Jews who lived in Silwan in the 19th century. In 2001 the Israeli Charitable Trust Registrar granted Ateret Cohanim permission to revive the trust and become its trustees following 63 years of dormancy. In 2002, the Israeli Custodian General transferred ownership of the land in Batan al-Hawa to the Trust (i.e., to Ateret Cohanim). Since then, Ateret Cohanim has accelerated its multi-pronged campaign to remove Palestinians from their homes, claiming that the Palestinians are illegal squatters. Silwan is just one site of Ateret Cohanim’s work to establish Jewish enclaves inside densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, for the explicit purpose of “reclaiming” Palestinian parts of Jerusalem for Jews.

Ir Amim explains:

“These families are among some 85 Palestinian families, consisting of over 700 individuals, who face largescale displacement and settler takeovers of their homes in Batan al-Hawa. This is a result of eviction claims filed by a Jewish trust established in the 19th century, which is now controlled by the Ateret Cohanim settler group who is exploiting it to take over Palestinian homes. 

While carried out under a veneer of legitimacy, the proceedings are underpinned by discriminatory laws, political motivations, and a system that is rigged against Palestinians from the outset which deprives them of equal access to justice. Moreover, theses measures are a violation of international law and could amount to a form of forcible transfer. 

Rather than adjudicating these cases from a broader perspective, which includes moral, geopolitical, and humanitarian considerations, as well as international law, the Israeli judiciary is instead complicit with these moves.

These cases are part and parcel of a coordinated and systematic political campaign aimed at uprooting Palestinians and expanding Jewish settlement in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. While the eviction claims themselves are initiated by settlers, they are aided and abetted on all levels of the state, which carry far-reaching implications on the future of Jerusalem and the conflict as a whole.”

Israeli Court Rules to Demolish Wadi Hilweh Info Center in Silwan

On July 3rd, the Jerusalem Court of Local Affairs ruled that the Wadi Hilweh Information Center will be demolished within a year, and fined the Center over $5,000 (NIS 20,000). The Wadi Hilweh Information Center is run by prominent activist Jawad Siyam, who along with the center is a fixture in Silwan and an important interlocutor with diplomats and alternative tourism who are seeking to learn about Palestinian history in the area and current struggles to remain there while enduring state + settler harassment and displacement.

The Center was opened in 2009, at which time the Jerusalem Municipality issued a warning notice demanding the demolition of part of the building that was recently “renovated” (the roof was repaired) because the Center did not obtain an Israeli-issued building permit to do the work. The Center says that the building itself predates Israel’s control of the area in 1967. It currently stands in the shadow of the massive “City of David Visitors Center” complex that the Elad settler organization has built over the years.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Instead of taking care of all the residents of Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs, the Jerusalem Municipality works to harm the Palestinian residents and make their lives difficult. The tourist settlement in the Palestinian neighborhoods around the Old City, which is massively supported by the government, is aiming at erasing the Palestinian presence from the public space in East Jerusalem. The pressures exerted by the municipality against the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan and the intention to demolish it, are for the political purpose of not allowing the residents to organize and make their voices heard in the public domain.”

Israeli Court Tells Settlers To Leave Khalidi Library in Old City of Jerusalem

On June 30th, the Jerusalem District Court made a group of settlers vacate ta building in the Khalidi Library complex located in the Old City of Jerusalem after they broke into the building and occupied it three days prior. The library is within eyesight of the Western/Wailing Wall plaza (Kotel Plaza), on Chain Gate Road, which leads to the Haram al-Sharif. There is an IDF checkpoint right outside of the door, reflecting what an intensely sensitive area it is in.

The settlers had forged documents claiming to have purchased the building, but upon review of the Khalidi families’ own documents which show the family has owned the building for at least 160 years, the Court ordered the settlers to leave. There is another hearing set in the coming weeks which will allow the settlers, if they choose, to make their case.

Listen to Rashid Khalidi explain the history of the Khalidi Library, the current situation and its importance, and the ongoing fears of settler takeover in a conversation with FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart on a recent episode of FMEP’s “Occupied Thoughts” podcast. 

In a statement, the Khalidi family said:

“Despite this temporary success, there is an ongoing fear of settler violence and the chilling effect of the occupation. Two of the settlers involved have been identified as Eli Attal ad Erez Zaka, the former linked to previous takeovers of Palestinian properties in the old city. After today’s ruling, scores of settlers remain lingering  outside the house and on the rooftops filming and occasionally bagining on the doors and windows, posing a threat of breaking and entry and further illegal actions.”

Israel to Advance 6,000+ Settlement Units in East Jerusalem in Coming Weeks

Ir Amim reports that within the next two weeks Israel is planning to advance plans for 6,700 new settlement units in East Jerusalem. Plans to be advanced include:

• • Givat Hamatos  – plans for 3,500 new units, 1,300 new hotel rooms, five synagogues, and two mikvahs (ritual baths). This plan wouldl double the number of units in the settlement and expand its size by nearly 40%;
  • Gilo – two plans for a total of 1,288 new settlement units, expanding hte settlement to the south east, further choking the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa and severing neighborhoods in southern Jerusalem from the Bethlehem area;
  • Ramot – plans for 800 new settlement units.

Details of the plans slated for advancement are reported here by Ir Amim, and will be reported by FMEP in more detail when they are advanced.

Amidst Wave of Violence, Settlers Lead Progrom On Massafer Yatta Region

Palestinian residents in Masafer Yatta, an area of small villages in the South Hebron Hills, have been live streaming the frequent and intensifying terror that Israeli settlers have been inflicting on them for years. The terror peaked to unimaginable levels over the last weeks when, on multiple occasions, armed settlers descended on villages in the area inflicting terror, violence, and intimidation.

Eid Suleman, a prominent activist in Umm al-Khair, told the Associated Press:

“We know what this is. They’re trying to expel us out of here. The military did the dirty job last week and now the settlers are following up.”

Some of the events that have transpired include:

On June 26th, the IDF arrived in Umm al-Khair early in the morning and proceeded to demolish a third of Umm al-Khair’s structures (11 homes), leaving 38 people (30 children) homeless).

On July 1st, armed settlers descended on Umm al-Khair, some dressed as IDF officers, and fired live ammunition toward Palestinians, deployed tear gas, and attacked people with wooden sticks.  Israel soldiers and police were nearby but did not intervene.

On July 2nd, settlers were accompanied by Isreali soldiers as the entered the village of Umm al-Khair and built a tent in the center square, where 40 settlers gathered in a sort of celebration. When they eventually left, the settlers cut the water pipes supplying the village and warned of their plans to return the next day.

On July 3rd, settlers descended on the nearby village of Khalled al-Daba’a and set agricultural crops and trees on fire. The settlers then proceeded to march on the homes in the village carrying cans of gasoline and guns.

On July 4th, Palestinian residents reported that 100 settlers attacked the village of Khaled al-Daba, setting fire to fruit trees and shooting live ammunition directly towards Palestinians. Settlers proceeded to beat villages with sticks. Israeli forces arrested one Palestinian.

Settlers then moved to Mufagarah, a nearby village, where they destroyed vehicles and prevented emergency medical workers from reaching Palestinians and internationals in need. Palestinians report several Palestinians and two internationals were injured by the settlers.

On July 7th, the IDF arrested members of the Hureini family – who are all prominent activists in the area – who had called the police to report that settlers had shepherded flocks of sheep onto the Hureini’s land.

The Center for Jewish Nonviolence (which maintains a protective presence in Masafer Yatta and closely allied with the local population there) reports that “the attacks on Umm al-Khair after the demolition on Wednesday are being led by a settler named Shimon Atiya (or Atia), a leader of the nearby illegal outpost, Havat Shorashim (or “Roots Farm” in English). For months, he has been one of countless settlers acting with impunity while wreaking havoc on Palestinian communities across Area C.”

The events in Massafer Yatta bring into stark relief the intensity and persistence of settler terrorism in the West Bank, especially since October 7, 2023. AIDA (Association of International Development Agencies) has recorded 1,000 incidents of settler violence since October 7th.

The outgoing head of the Israeli Army’s Central Command, Yehuda Fuchs, used his farewell speech to criticize Israel policy makers for their failure to deter settler terrorism in the West Bank.

Ariel Settlers Close Access Road to Palestinians

The Mayor of the Ariel settlement has blockaded on the main access road leading to the nearby Palestinian village ofSalfit, boasting about his actions in an Instagram post. In addition to building a blockade of boulders and a welded gate, workers also destroyed parts of the road. The Civil Administration has attempted to remove the blockades and restore use of the road, but each time the settlers have re-constructed the blockade.

The Ariel settlement Mayor, Yair Chetboun, said in the video:

“Security is foremost upon us, upon the city. We trust the IDF, love the IDF, but if the senior levels don’t understand the importance of blockading this route – which led to attacks and enables car theft. We won’t permit such a reality. We are also operating on the political front but also on the ground.”

IDF Demolishes Outposts, Clashes With Settlers

On July 3rd, settlers clashed with Israeli authorities as they attempted to demolish the illegal outpost “Oz Zion B.” Haaretz reports that five settlers were arrested for violence against Israeli Border Police, and four were quickly released without questioning or restrictions. One settler who pepper sprayed an officer was brought to court for a hearing but later released and forbidden from going near the outpost.

The demolition of the outpost was reportedly ok’d by Prime Minister Netanyahu – going over the head of Bezalel Smotrich and the Settlement Administration, which has seized control of building enforcement in the West Bank. The outpost, according to the Shin Bet, was the source of violent terror.

Bonus Reads

1. “Road to Redemption: How Israel’s War Against Hamas Turned Into a Springboard for Jewish Settlement in Gaza” (Haaretz)
2. “A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years” (AP)
3. ​​“West Bank Annexation and Destabilization in the Shadow of the Israel-Hamas War” (J Street) 
4. “The Status of De Jure West Bank Annexation” (Israel Policy Forum)
5. “Mounting International Sanctions Against Powerful Israeli Settler Group Could Be Earth-shattering” (Haaretz)
6. “A warm relationship is being built between Judea, Samaria and America” (JNS)
7. “Why there is no uprising in the West Bank – yet” (Mondoweiss)
8. “In His Retirement Speech, Israel’s Top Officer in the West Bank Revealed the Hidden Truth” (Haaretz)
9. “The Companies Making it Easy to Buy in the West Bank” (The Intercept)

 

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 23, 2023

1. Smotrich Receives Near Unilateral Power Over Shortened Settlement Planning Process
2. Israel To Advance Plans for 4,799 New Settlement Units, Including Retroactive Authorization of an Outpost
3. Netanyahu Announces 1,000 New Units for the Eli Settlement in “Response” Palestinian Attack
4. Settlers Reoccupy Evyatar Outpost As Netanyahu Reportedly Decides to “Legalize” It & Ben Gvir Encourages More Illegal Settlement Activity
5. With Assistance from IDF, Settlers Establish a New Outpost Near Eli
6. Settler Violently Rampage Across West Bank with Little to No Repercussion
7. Eviction of Palestinian Ghaith-Sub Laban Family Scheduled
8. Bonus Reads

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Smotrich Receives Near Unilateral Power Over Shortened Settlement Planning Process

On Sunday, June 18th the Israeli Cabinet approved a measure that immediately expands Bezalel Smotrich’s authority over construction in existing settlements by significantly shortening the planning process and removing almost any role for Israeli politicians in that process, a lever which – for decades – has been utilized by successive Israeli governments to intervene in settlement planning usually in consideration of pressure from the international diplomatic community. Under the new procedures, political approval is only needed once at the very beginning stage of the planning process, whereas for the past three decades political approval was needed at each and every phase.

In Haaretz, Israel lawyers Ronit Levine-Schnur and Michael Saliternik explain:

“The requirement of the defense minister’s approval at each stage reflected the understanding that settlement construction, which is illegal under international law, has major legal, diplomatic and security implications. This requirement enabled government officials to halt or postpone construction in the settlements based on the changing political and security situation, and sharpened the distinction between construction within the state’s sovereign borders and construction on occupied land under Israel’s temporary military control….This week’s decision…is designed to prevent or significantly reduce not only the government’s but also the public’s and international community’s oversight of settlement construction.”

Removing the role of political figures surrenders the power of settlement planning and construction to an avowed annexationist whose agenda, at least in part, is to double the number of settlers while further entrenching Israeli domestic rule over settlers and leaving Palestinians under Israeli military rule. The Israeli Cabinet decision advances both of these goals: it differentiates settlement planning from planning for Palestinians (which remains a more complicated political-bureaucratic process in which Smotrich and Defense Minister Gallant both have power); and, as Smotrich and his allies are framing it, this procedural change “normalizes” the laws governing settlers by aligning them with Israeli domestic rule. In the words of Peace Now, “From a planning perspective, there is no difference between the Tel Aviv district and the ‘Judea and Samaria’ district, except for the initial decision by Minister Smotrich.”

The change is celebrated by settler leadership. Yisrael Gantz, head of the Benjamin Regional Council, said:

“This government resolution brings the residents of Judea and Samaria to the regular situation of the entire State of Israel,” said Gantz, using the biblical name for the West Bank region. “This step will turn construction in the settlements into something that is not newsworthy but rather, routine.”

Yossi Dagan, head Head of the Samaria Regional Council, said:

“We must stop treating residents of Judea and Samaria as second-class citizens. It’s unthinkable that only residents of Judea and Samaria need approval from the political echelon in order to build a home or a kindergarten.”

It’s worth re-sharing the latest legal analysis and commentary arguing that Israel has, even without a formal declaration, annexed the West Bank via bureaucratic transformations such as this: “A Theory of Annexation” (Berda, Meggido, & Levin-Schner, January 2023 – SSSN); “Israel is Officially Annexing the West Bank” (Sfard, June 2023 – Foreign Policy); and, “Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank Has Already Begun” (Scheindlin & Berda, June 2023 – Foreign Affairs); “This Decision by Israel Is as Dramatic as Attempts at Constitutional Change” (Levine-Schnur & Saliternik, June 2023 – Haaretz)

Peace Now further comments:

“The implication of this decision is that once Minister Smotrich decides and approves the advancement of construction plans in West Bank settlements, the plans will go directly to the planning committees in the West Bank (the Higher Planning Council), and the political and military echelon will have no authority to delay or influence the planning stages or the submitted plans. This process will allow unrestricted construction in the West Bank, disregarding security and diplomatic considerations, and perpetuating de facto annexation in the West Bank.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“The settlers’ patience has paid off. After 27 years, they have managed to bring about a change in the way the system operates. The government decided to give a messianic settler, one who favors Israeli sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel and supports Jewish supremacy, the power to speed up construction in the settlements…Smotrich and the settlers understood very well that Netanyahu’s utter dependence on the extreme right opened a historic window of opportunity for them, and they are exploiting every moment of it to take over more and more Palestinian land to build, alter the area irreversibly and entrench one large apartheid state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The crisis that Israel is mired in is a golden opportunity for the settlers and their destructive project.”

Israel To Advance Plans for 4,799 New Settlement Units, Including Retroactive Authorization of an Outpost

On the same day Smotrich was awarded new power to oversee settlement construction, the Israeli High Planning Council published an agenda for its June 26th meeting outlining plans for 4,799 settlement units which will be advanced, to include plans which would have the effect of retroactively legalizing the Palgei Maim outpost as a neighborhood of the Eli settlement. The June 26th meeting will be the second time the High Planning Council convenes this year, and could bring the total number of settlement units advanced in 2023 to 12,149 – – nearly three times more than in the entire 2022 year (4,427 units). Smotrich – who now has near unilateral authority over construction planning for settlements – gloated in a statement saying that 2023 has set “a record for the rate of settlement construction [planning] in the last decade” and:

“The construction boom in Judea and Samaria and in all parts of our country continues. As we promised, today we are advancing the construction of thousands more new units in Judea and Samaria… We will continue to develop the settlements and strengthen Israel’s hold on the territory.”

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The Israeli government is advancing us at an unprecedented pace towards the annexation of the West Bank. The promotion of nearly 5,000 housing units, including the authorization of a settlement in the heart of the West Bank, joins a series of destructive decisions that the government has advanced, including yesterday’s decision granting exclusive power to Minister Smotrich for promoting settlements in the occupied territories. As the world remains silent and public attention is focused on preventing the judicial coup, the government is rushing towards an annexation coup turning Israel into an apartheid state.”

Of the total number of units on the agenda, 1,434 units are set for final approval, including:

• Carmel – 42 units, expanding construction in the settlement towards the southeast.  This settlement is located in the South Hebron Hills, where Palestinians are facing ongoing displacement and forcible relocation.
• Elkana – 351 housing units. Elkana is located in the northern West Bank in an area where the Israeli separation barrier cuts deeply into the land in order to keep settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier. 
• Givat Ze’ev – three plans totalling 642 units. Givat Ze’ev is located north of Jerusalem.
• Revava – 399 housing units. Revava is located west of the Ariel settlement in the heart of the northern West Bank.

Of the total, 3,306 units will be approved for deposit (an earlier stages of the planning process):

• Adora – 310 housing units. If approved, this will triple the size of the Adora settlement. Adora is located west of Hebron.
• Beitar Illit – a total of 312 units in three plans. Beitar Illit is located west of Bethlehem.
• Eli – 142 units.
• Etz Efraim – 264 units in two plans. Etz Efraim is located near the Elkana settlement in the northern West Bank in an area where the Israeli separation barrier cuts deeply into the land in order to keep settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier. 
• Givat Ze’ev  – 228 units. Givat Ze’ev is located north of Jerusalem.
• Halamish (also called Neve Tzuf) – 330 units, which will significantly expand the Elisha “neighborhood” of the settlement, which began as an outpost that was retroactively legalized in 2015 as a neighborhood of Halamish. If approved, this will more than double the size of the Halamish settlement. Located between Ramallah and the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank.
• Hashmonaim – 150 units. Hashmonaim is located just over the 1967 Green Line, west of the Modin Illit settlement in the northern West Bank. 
• Karnei Shomron – 104 units in two plans. Karnei Shomron is located in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel has openly declared its intention to continue expanding settlements in this area with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area. 
• Ma’ale Adumim – 340 units. Located east of Jerusalem.
• Ma’ale Amos – 152 units. If approved, this will more than double the size of the Ma’ale Amos settlement, which is located between Bethlehem and Hebron.
• Metzad (Asfar) – 78 units.
• Kiryat Arba – 120 units. Located just outside of Hebron.
• Migdalim – 184 units. Located in the extreme south of the West Bank.
• Palgei Maim outpost – 347 units located within the Palgei Maim outpost. This plan will have the effect of retroactively legalizing the outpost as a neighborhood of the Eli settlement

Netanyahu Announces 1,000 New Units for the Eli Settlement in “Response” Palestinian Attack, Bringing Outpost Legalization Total to 3 This Week

In response to the murder of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen near the settlement of Eli on June 21st, the Israeli government announced that it is advancing plans for 1,000 new settlement units in Eli, which come in addition to the 499 units expected to be advanced by the High Planning Council at its meeting next week (see the above section). The decision was made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant, and Finance Minister Smotrich. The trio said in a statement:

“Our response to terror is to hit it hard and build in our land.”

According to Peace Now, the plans for 1,000 units announced by Netanyahu include three discrete schemes, inlcuding two plans to grant retroactive legalization and add hundreds of units in two outposts associated with Eli – HaYovel and Nof Harim. The third plan is for a new neighborhood in the Eli settlement consisting of 650 units. Recall that that part of what the High Planning Council is expected to advance next week is a plan to retroactively legalize and expand yet another outpost of the Eli settlement, called Palgei Maim outpost, meaning that the Eli settlement could see three of its outposts legalized soon. Peace Now comments on the totality of plans to expand the Eli settlement: 

“The implication of the government’s decisions in the past week is the doubling of the number of settlers residing at Eli while legalizing and expanding three outposts located at the edge of the settlement, in close proximity to the Palestinian villages of As-Sawiya (Palegi Mayim) and Karyut (Jubal).”

National Missions Orit Strock (Religious Zionism party) celebrated the announcement, saying: 

“1,000 more Jewish families in the place where Jewish lives were cut short. Every terrorist must know that this was the Zionist price tag for murdering Jews. In the place from where they try to uproot us – there we will deepen our roots. Not instead of eliminating the terrorists, not instead of the checkpoints, and not instead of drying up the terror swamp. But absolutely, as a necessary and clear Zionist step.’’

Settlers Reoccupy Evyatar Outpost As Netanyahu Reportedly Decides to “Legalize” It & Ben Gvir Encourages More Illegal Settlement Activity

Hundreds of settlers moved into the illegal Evyatar outpost on June 21st in an effort to permanently reoccupy the outpost. The massive action only escalates the demand that the government expedite the implementation of its decision (as agreed to in its coalition deals) to grant retroactive authorization to the outpost, and is now framing that demand as part of the government’s response to the murder of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen near the Eli settlement. According to Peace Now, Israeli press reports suggest that on June 21st Prime Minister Netanyahu made a final decision to grant retroactive authorization to the outpost. 

The area of the Evyatar outpost – located east of the Ariel settlement, closer to the Jordan Valley than to sovereign Israeli territory – remains a closed military zone, where Israelis and Palestinians are barred from entering. Nonetheless, the IDF appears to have deliberately decided to allow the settlers to enter the outpost area, and are now providing security for the settlers entering and leaving the area. All of this suggests that the settlers will not be removed from the site.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir traveled to the Evyatar outpost on June 23rd, congratulating the settlers and encouraging them to continue to establish new outposts and urging more violent action against Palestinians. Ben Gvir said:

“Run to the hilltops. Here, there should be a full settlement, not only here, but in all the hills around us. We should settle the Land of Israel, and at the same time, launch a military operation, take down buildings and eliminate terrorists. Not just one or two, but dozens and hundreds and if needed, thousands.”

MK Zvi Sukkot participated in the demonstration on June 21st, saying:

“We’ve returned home to Evyatar…Terrorists should know that any attack will only deepen the Jewish hold on the territory. Two years after being evacuated, the time has come for us to return forever.”

As a reminder, Evyatar is an illegal outpost (established by settlers in violation of Israeli law, in addition to international law) built on a hilltop that Palestinians have long known as Mt. Sabih, land which has historically belonged to the nearby Palestinian villages of Beita, Yatma, and Qablan. The outpost was evacuated by the Israeli government in 2021 in the context of an agreement with settlers that left all construction at the site in place, maintained an IDF presence at the site, and made clear the government’s intent to legalize settlement at the site in the future. Since then, re-establishment/legalization of Evyatar has been a regular demand of settlers and their political backers, and was agreed to in writing as part of the coalition agreements that formed the current Israeli government. 

In April 2023, settlers staged another march to demand Evyatar be reestablished, with march organizers hosting a carnival-like rally at the Evyatar site. Importantly and perhaps tellingly, Haaretz reports that the April march was the first time settlers have received approval to enter the Evyatar outpost since the aforementioned 2021 agreement. 

For full background on the Evyatar outpost saga, see previous FMEP reporting here.

With Assistance from IDF, Settlers Establish a New Outpost Near Eli

On evening of June 21st, a group of settlers moved five mobile homes to land near the Eli settlement but belonging to the Palestinian villages of Sinjil and Lubban ash-Sharqiya (a village settlers violently attacked the night before) in order to establish a new outpost, which they are calling “HaMor”. The Wafa news outlet reports that the IDF assisted the settlers efforts by leveling the ground with a tractor prior to their arrival with the mobile homes.

Peace Now has published pictures of this new outpost and reported:

“It appears that the outpost was established deliberately in a predetermined location, receiving support and funding from institutional sources, enabling the transportation of relatively spacious caravans, heavy equipment, and the commencement of infrastructure work.”

Peace Now further comments:

“Netanyahu’s government’s complicity in allowing and supporting settler outposts fuels an already volatile situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, intensifying violence against innocent Palestinians by extremist settlers. This flagrant disregard for justice and human rights undermines the prospects for a political resolution. The international community must vehemently condemn these actions and hold Israel accountable for its role. Moreover, the alarming rise in settler violence further exacerbates the situation. Urgent measures are imperative to prevent and punish such acts, fostering a culture of accountability and ensuring the safety and well-being of Palestinians. While the world remains silent and Israeli public attention is focused on preventing a judicial coup, the government is hastily moving towards an annexation coup, which will ultimately transform Israel into an apartheid state.”

Settler Violently Rampage Across West Bank with Little to No Repercussion

On June 20th hundreds of settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya in the northern West Bank where they attacked Palestinians and their property – injuring 11 and setting fires across the town that damaged 30 houses and 60 vehicles. When the IDF came to help the settlers leave the village after residents confronted them,  IDF  soldiers shot indiscriminately at Palestinians resulting in one death and several serious injuries.

Another group of settlers attacked Huwara, the village where settlers committed a pogrom earlier this year. Still another group of settlers attacked the village of Al Luban Al Sharqiya located near the Eli settlement. There, settlers attacked a 12-year old boy riding his bike, leaving him seriously injured.

The Times of Israel reports that four Israelis have been arrested in connection to these attacks. B’Tselem spokesperson Roy Yellin commented that, “We didn’t expect much…The rule is impunity from justice.” Yesh Din Executive Director Ziv Stahl called the arrests a “drop in the bucket” and told AP:

“(The army) had four months after (the attack in) Hawara to study how to deal with this and stop it,” she said. “But everything happened in broad daylight. They didn’t detain anyone on the scene. They allowed the settlers to do whatever they felt like doing.”

B’Tselem said in a statement: 

“Responsibility for deadly West Bank pogrom wave lies with Israel, which arms settler gangs and encourages them to attack Palestinians. Right after the deadly shooting near the settlement of Eli yesterday afternoon, settlers backed by the state began rioting across the West Bank, attacking Palestinians and their property.The rioting continues today, with one Palestinian reported killed and three others wounded by live fire in the village of Turmusaya. These events are not a single, isolated failure of the military or state, but a clear expression of Israel’s policy in the OpT. As part of this policy, Israel arms gangs of settlers and allows and even encourages them to attack Palestinians.”

Eviction of Palestinian Ghaith-Sub Laban Family Scheduled

Living under imminent risk of dispossession since June 11th, this week the Ghaith-Sub Laban family received an order from the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority stating that the couple will be evicted anytime between June 28th and July 13th. Ir Amim reports that Israeli authorities oftentimes state a window for carrying out forced evictions in order to “maintain an element of surprise to reduce anticipated resistance and ensure the eviction is carried out without disruption.” Ir Amim reports that the family – consisting of an elderly couple, Nora Ghaith and Mustafa Sub Laban – are presently living under extreme conditions, writing: 

“Over the course of the past few weeks, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has been subject to ongoing harassment by the police, private security guards, and settlers in the area. On numerous occasions, Israeli security forces arrived to their home demanding information and IDs of those present in the apartment, including activists, journalists, and diplomats. Beyond the looming threat of displacement, the continued uncertainty has added to their severe psychological distress.”

The Ghaith-Sub Laban family has spent more than 45 years in a legal battle against settlers (and the State) over their home in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Nora recently told Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy when asked if she has ever considered giving up her struggle:

“I will answer with a question. If you had been born in this house, and all your brothers and sisters had been born here, grown up in it, married in it, if your mother and father had died in it, your brother had been exiled from it – would you surrender and forsake it? I want an answer. Every minute that I remain in this house is another minute of protecting my childhood memories. Every minute is to feel embraced by family members who are no longer with us. I am never alone in this house, even when I am by myself – all my family and all my memories are always with me in this house. If they come to evict us, I will not open the door. But if I feel danger to myself and to my husband, I will surrender and forsake it in order to safeguard my family. If I am evicted, I will give the house to God. This house will remain a prison until it is liberated. I will return. And if not me, then my children. One day the occupation will end, and we will return.”

This family’s story is not unique, and the broader, systemic processes behind the forcible dispossession of Palestinians in Jerusalem is also discussed. In March 2023, FMEP hosted Rafat Sub Laban and Ir Amim’s Amy Cohen on a podcast – “‘We Are Determined to Stay”: One Palestinian Family’s Story of Dispossession in Jerusalem” – to discuss the Sub Laban case and how it relates to broader State-back settler efforts to dispossess Palestinians across Jerusalem.

A large consortium of Palestinian civil society groups released a joint statement on the Sub Laban family dispossession, which reads:

“Alarmed by the imminent forcible transfer of the Ghaith-Sub Laban family from their house in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is slated to occur sometime between 28 June and 13 July 2023, the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) vociferously assert that such manifestation of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba is a result of the international community’s deliberate failure and unwillingness to take effective and meaningful measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation, and settler-colonial apartheid regime…….For over 45 years, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family has endured a lengthy, exhausting, and unaffordable legal struggle, actively resisting recurring lawsuits, harassment, and efforts by Israel and settler organisations to forcibly displace them and seize their home for the purpose of expanding settlements in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem…Indeed, the Ghaith-Sub Laban’s case is not an isolated incident but rather emblematic of a larger widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population. The Israeli occupying authorities – mobilising its discriminatory judicial system – have consistently employed similar methods and policies to forcibly transfer dozens of Palestinian families from the Old City, Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and other neighbourhoods of the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem.”

Bonus Reads

1. “As Israel seeks West Bank expansion, a controversial outpost is revived” (Washington Post)
2. “In the West Bank, UNESCO site Battir could face a water shortage from a planned Israeli settlement” (AP)
3. “We’ve Found Something Settlers and Palestinians Agree On: How Ugly This Construction Is” (Haaretz)
4. “Israel’s annexation drive is behind escalations in the West Bank” (The New Arab)
5. “Jerusalem Permits Building U.S. Embassy on Disputed Site as Washington Mulls Location” (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.

January 10, 2020

1. ICC Opens Formal Investigation into Israeli War Crimes, Including Israeli Settlements
2. Israel to ICC: You Do Not Have Jurisdiction & You Will Not Stop Us from Advancing Settlements and Annexation
3. Following ICC Announcement, Israel Advances Plans for Nearly 2,000 Settlement Units
4. Following ICC Announcement, Israel Begins Planning Jordan Valley Annexation
5. Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 1: New Settlement Enclave in Palestinian Neighborhood
6. Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 2: Reports on Har Homa & Rumors on Givat Hamatos
7. Plan Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 3: Israel Approves Plans for Two More Settler-Run Tourist Sites in East Jerusalem
8. Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 4:  Tenders for Pisgat Zeev and Gilo
9. For Second Time, Israeli Court Rules Against Settler Claim to Bakri House in Hebron
10. Peace Now Wins Interim Decision Against Secretive Public Funding to Amana
11. Israeli Court Dismisses Palestinian Landowners’ Petition Against the Ofra Settlement
12. Bennett Launches Initiative to More Aggressively Police Palestinians in Area C
13. Bennett Appoints Key Settler Ally to Lead New Government Task Force on Area C Annexation Plans, Immediately Announces Plan to Legalize Settlements
14. Following ICC Announcement, Pompeo Says Israel Has “Fundamental Rights” to Land
15. Pro-Settlement Legal Forum Conference Draws Big Names, Big Promises
16. Bonus Reads

Comments/questions? Email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

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ICC Opens Formal Investigation into Israeli War Crimes, Including Israeli Settlements

On December 20, 2019 the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda announced that the court has found a reasonable basis upon which to open an investigation into Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Bensouda said that the preliminary investigation, launched five years ago, established sufficient evidence of war crimes, citing Israeli settlements and Israel’s conduct during its 2014 incursion into the Gaza Strip, which Israel gave the title “Operation Protective Edge”. The statement said that the Court found evidence that Hamas and armed Palestinian groups also committed war crimes during the 50 days of hostilities in 2014.

Before proceeding with a formal investigation, Bensouda requested a pre-trial chamber to rule on the Court’s territorial jurisdiction, as outlined in the Rome Statute, over the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Bensouda requested a ruling on the matter within 120 days. Bensouda has previously articulated her opinion on the matter, suggesting that questions regarding Palestinian statehood do not necessarily need to be resolved because Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute and formally became a “State Party” to the court. 

Israel to ICC: You Do Not Have Jurisdiction & You Will Not Stop Us from Advancing Settlements and Annexation

Prior to Bensouda’s announcement on December 20th that the ICC will proceed with an investigation into Israeli war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit published a 34-page legal opinion arguing that the Court does not have jurisdiction over those territories because Palestine does not meet the criteria for statehood, and non-sovereign entities cannot confer jurisdiction to the Court. Notably, that opinion doesn’t address (let alone dispute or challenge) the assertion that Israeli actions might constitute war crimes.

Going beyond Mandleblit’s legal arguments, Netanyahu launched a disingenuous attack on Bensouda’s criticism of Israeli settlements, saying:

“[Bensouda] says it is a crime, a war crime, for Jews to live in their homeland, the land of the Bible, the land of our forefathers.”

Netanyahu later said:

“This will not deter us — not in the slightest”

Netanyahu is riding a wave of defiant, ultra-confident language following his Dec. 27th victory in the Likud primaries, after which he promised to secure U.S. recognition for Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and all settlements in the West Bank. In his victory speech, Netanyahu laid out a 6-point plan he will implement if he goes on to win the March 2020 elections:

“First, we will finalize our borders; second, we will push the US to recognize our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea; third, we will push for US recognition of our extension of sovereignty over all the communities in Judea and Samaria, all of them without exception; fourth, we will push for a historic defense alliance with the US that will preserve Israeli freedom of action; fifth, stop Iran and its allies decisively; and sixth, push for normalization and agreements that will lead to peace accords with Arab countries. The opportunities are within reach.”

Demonstrating that Netanyahu means what he says, shortly following the ICC’s announcement his government advanced plans for nearly 2,000 settlement units and launched the planning process for annexing the Jordan Valley. Both of these items – in addition to several other significant settlement advancements which were not explicitly linked to the ICC’s announcement – are covered in detail below.

Following ICC Announcement, Israel Advances Plans for Nearly 2,000 Settlement Units 

Over the course of a two-day meeting Jan 5-6, 2020, the Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee approved plans for 1,936 settlement units, of which 786 units received final approval for construction. The Israeli Civil Administration is the body of the Defense Ministry which regulates all construction in the West Bank, both Palestinian and Israeli settler.

 The Civil Administration granted final approval to the following plans:

• A plan for 258 units in the unauthorized Haresha outpost, located east of Ramallah, to take them to the final stage of the approval process. If granted final approval, the plan will have the effect of retroactively legalizing the Haresha outpost. This outpost has been one of several test cases for the Israel government’s evolving legal justifications for granting retroactive approval to unauthorized outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land. In the case of Haresha, an outpost built on an island of “state land” surrounded by privately owned Palestinian land, then-Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked issued a new legal opinion in December 2018 outlining a legal basis for temporarily seizing the private Palestinian land for the construction of a tunnel road underneath it (essentially holding that Palestinian land rights – which can be temporarily infringed upon at any time for the sake of the settlements – do not extend below the ground’s surface). The tunnel road has not yet been constructed, an important qualification that Israel, to this point, has generally required outposts to meet prior to legalization. 
• 147 units in the Mitzpe Yericho settlement, located just west of the Palestinian city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. The plan will have the effect of retroactively legalizing existing illegal construction in the settlement.
• 120 units in the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area surrounding the settlement.
• 107 units in the Elon Moreh settlement, located east of Nablus.
• 100 units in the Halamish settlement, (where settlers have built a strategic outpost, with the protection of the IDF, in order to further restrict Palestinian access to the area);
• 25 units in the Peduel settlement, located in the northern West Bank and part of a string of settlements and unauthorized outposts – most notably Ariel – extending from the Green Line into the very heart of the West Bank and on towards the Jordan Valley.
• 12 units in the Ariel settlement, located in the central West Bank.
• 10 units in the Etz Efraim settlement, located in the northern West Bank, one of several settlements slated to become a “super settlement” area.
• 7 units in the Rechelim settlement, located east of the Ariel settlement and south of Nablus, in the heart of the West Bank.

The Civil Administration advanced the following plans:

• 224 units in the Talmon settlement, located west of Ramallah.
• 204 units in the Shilo settlement, located in the central West Bank.
• A plan for 180 units in the unauthorized Mitzpe Danny outpost, located east of Ramallah. If approved, the plan will have the effect of retroactively legalizing the outpost, which was built without Israeli permission in 1999 in an area that includes privately owned Palestinian land. The Binyamin Regional Council – a settler body acting as the municipal government for settlements in the central West Bank – has been angling to retroactively legalize Mitzpe Danny for some time. As part of that effort, the regional council successfully lobbied for approval of a plan to build an educational campus for settlers that will create a territorial link between the Maale Mikhmash settlement (which has official recognition from the government) and the outpost. That plan received final approval in January 2019.
• 160 units in the Kochav Yaakov settlement, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
• 92 units in the Tzofim settlement, one of the settlements that flank the Palestinian city of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.
• 91 units in the Almon settlement, located northeast of Jerusalem.
• 136 units in the Givat Zeev settlement, located south of Ramallah.
• 63 units in the Maale Adumim settlement, located just east of Jerusalem.
• A plan for 204 new units in the Shvut Rachel settlement, which only recently became an authorized settlement area when Israel extended the jurisdiction of the Shiloh settlement to include it as a “neighborhood” (along with three other outposts). 

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Despite lacking a clear mandate, for this caretaker government it’s business as usual – Continue the massive promotion of harmful and unnecessary construction in occupied territory and in places that Israel will have to evacuate. Netanyahu continues to sabotage the prospects of peace, dragging Israel into an anti-democratic one-state reality resembling apartheid.”

The Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing all the settlements, celebrated the approvals, saying in a statement:

“To our delight, construction in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley is commonplace and we are pleased to see that every few months plans are up in the Supreme Planning Council. The time has come for extremist Leftist organizations to accept that the U.S. has also declared that settling in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley is not contrary to international law and that applying Israeli sovereignty is a consensus in the State of Israel. After eight years of unprecedented construction freeze, the government regularly approves construction and we strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister and Defense Minister on their blessed work. We need more and more construction to promote the prosperity and growth of settlement.”

The head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Yisrael Gantz, spoke happily about the settlement advancements but also kept focused on the settlement movement’s ultimate demand: annexation.  Gantz told Arutz Sheva:

“This is undoubtedly an important and significant step. I hope we will soon be able to applaud the application of full Israeli sovereignty and the closure of the Civil Administration in order to truly develop the regions of our amazing country, in the same way that it is possible in the entire State of Israel.”

Despite the celebratory remarks, settlers were disappointed with the final number of settlement units, which fell short of the 3,000 units Netanyahu promised to advance on the eve of the Likud primary leadership vote (which went in Netanyahu’s favor). When promising the 3,000 units, Netanyahu also promised:

“We are going to bring [secure] US recognition for our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley [and] in all the settlements, those in the blocs and those that are beyond it.”

Following ICC Announcement, Israel Begins Planning Jordan Valley Annexation

On January 5th, the inter-ministerial committee created to plan the annexation of the Jordan Valley held its first meeting, in an effort to prepare an official proposal for how Israel can annex the Jordan Valley. The committee – dubbed the “Sovereignty Committee” – is headed by the Prime Minister’s Office Director General Ronen Peretz and includes representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces, and the National Security Council. 

The meeting took place despite (or perhaps because of) reports that Netanayhu put Jordan Valley annexation plans in a “deep freeze” following ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s announcement on Dec. 20th that the Court will open an investigation into war crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Following those reports, the head of the Yesha Council, the settler umbrella group, David ElHayani spoke to Netanyahu on the phone to gain reassurance that the annexation plan was not frozen, which Netanyahu reportedly gave him. 

Haaretz reports:

“Sources familiar with the establishment of the inter-ministerial committee told Haaretz that the insistence on moving forward with the discussions are mainly to show that the idea has not been abandoned due to international pressure.”

Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 1: New Settlement Enclave in Palestinian Neighborhood

On January 8th the Jerusalem District Planning Committee granted final approval to a new 75-unit settlement compound to be built in the heart of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. If built, it will be the first-ever authorized settlement project in Beit Hanina, located north of the Old City. 

The Beit Hanina settlement plan – as FMEP has previously reported – is backed and promoted by settlement impresario Aryeh King, and it provides for the construction of a total of 150 new units in the southern end of the Beit Hanina neighborhood. The land slated for the 150 units is privately owned,  53% of the land is owned by an Israeli who is supportive of the plan, and 47% by a Palestinian company who objects to the plan and has fought against it. Because the land has not been surveyed to demarcate the split ownership, Israeli planning authorities decided that the settlement plan is designated for the entire property, with construction rights split evenly between the parties, meaning the 75 units granted final approval on January 8th represent the Israeli-controlled half of the project. 

Ir Amim notes the larger picture of Isreali settlement activity north of the Old City:

“In close proximity to Ramat Shlomo to the southwest and Pisgat Zeev to the northeast, construction of this new compound may signal the beginning of a move to create contiguity between the two settlements, while fracturing the contiguous space between Bet Hanina and Shuafat. As exemplified by the ring of state-sponsored settlement strongholds throughout the Old City Basin, the establishment of a settler enclave in the midst of Beit Hanina will not only impact the fabric of this community, but will further erode opening conditions for a political solution to the conflict based on two capitals in Jerusalem.”

Ir Amim explains essential context:

“the plan will enable an ideologically driven settler outpost in the heart of Beit Hanina, a neighborhood located on the northern perimeter of East Jerusalem that has remained relatively untouched by Israeli settlement within its limits. Since the land in question is not far from Ramat Shlomo to the south-west and Pisgat Zeev to the north-east of it, its construction may mark the beginning of a far sweeping move to create contiguity between the two settlements, while driving a wedge between Bet Hanina and Shuafat.”

Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 2: Reports on Har Homa & Rumors on Givat Hamatos

On January 7th, the popular Isareli broadcaster network Kan reported that the Prime Minister’s office has blocked a plan to build 2,000 new settlement units in the settlement of Har Homa, citing “diplomatic difficulties.” In response to an inquiry, the office did not deny the report, but issued the following statement:

“Israel has built in Jerusalem, is building in Jerusalem and will continue building in Jerusalem — while exercising judgment.”

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann raised a key question and larger concerns about the reports concerning Har Homa, saying:

“The construction potential at Har Homa has been exhausted, and it’s not possible to build anything near 2,000 units. So what are they talking about? Something is clearly going on. Three possibilities come to mind, all problematic…Possibility no. 1: the nearby planned doomsday settlement of Givat Hamatos, which is awaiting tenders. Possibility no. 2: Hirbet Mazmoriyya, to the northeast of Har Homa. The lands owned by Palestinians that will have to be expropriated. Not likely. Too complicated and controversial. Possibility no. 3: the area wedged betw. Mar Elias Monastery, the Hebron Road,  the 300 Checkpoint, dubbed Bethlehem Gate or Har Homa West. The land is ownership is a mixture of Palestinian &Church lands, along with settlement developers.”

Ir Amim notes that, while reportedly stalling the Har Homa plan, Netanyahu is – in fact – simultaneously facing mounting pressure to issue tenders for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement, the site for which is the northern border of Har Homa. Ir Amim writes:

“Last week, rightwing groups launched a coordinated campaign to exert pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to advance construction in the area of Givat Hamatos, which has been essentially frozen for the past six years. While the approval of the plan for 2,610 housing units in the area was formally published in 2014, there has been no announcement of tenders since then. This has been largely attributed to international opposition, namely from the United States and Germany. Likely attempting to ratchet up pressure on Netanyahu in lead-up to the upcoming elections in March, the campaign has been spearheaded on a public level by rightwing organizations. Several prominent rabbis known for supporting the settler movement penned a letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to announce the tenders for Givat Hamatos, while rightwing media outlets have published daily articles demanding an ‘end to the freeze.’ A rightwing institute likewise published a lengthy paper on the significance of establishing a new settlement in the area as a means of thwarting any potential future division of Jerusalem within the framework of a resumed peace process.”

Plan Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 3: Israel Approves Plans for Two More Settler-Run Tourist Sites in East Jerusalem 

On December 25, 2019 the Jerusalem Local Planning approved two significant settler-backed schemes in East Jerusalem:

1. The committee approved the Israeli government’s plan to seize land in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in order to establish a park adjacent to the infamous Shepherd Hotel, an historic/iconic building that was taken over by the radical Ateret Chohanim settler organization in 2011. The new park – called “Hakidron Park” has been discussed and considered by Israeli governments for the past 15 years.
2. The committee also approved the Israeli government’s plan to confiscate land in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of East Jerusalem, for the purpose of opening a tourist and religious services center on the Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Jewish cemetery. The Jerusalem Municipality hired an architect, Arie Rahamivov, who is also employed by the radical Elad settler group for the planning and construction of their crown jewel: the Kedem Center in Silwan. The new center in Ras al Amud will be yet another tourist center under the management of Elad, which already operates another visitors center on the Mount of Olives.

Ir Amim writes:

“Approval of the aforementioned land expropriations would signal intent to begin construction at both sites and will help to further solidify the settlement ring around the Old City Basin. While both plans can be posited as innocuous municipal initiatives to serve local residents and visitors to the areas, such touristic projects play an integral role in expanding the scope of settlement strongholds in the area and creating a more contiguous Israeli space, while diffusing the political agenda behind these efforts.”

Plans Advance in East Jerusalem, Part 4:  Tenders for Pisgat Zeev and Gilo

Ir Amim reports that the Israel Lands Authority published construction tenders for the following East Jerusalem settlements in early January:

• 3 tenders for a total of 461 new settlement units in the Pisgat Zeev
• 1 tender for commercial buildings in the Gilo settlement, located 

For Second Time, Israeli Court Rules Against Settler Claim to Bakri House in Hebron

On December 23rd, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Palestinian Bakri family are the rightful owners of a disputed property in Hebron. This ruling should deal a final blow to the 18-year long legal battle settlers have waged to gain control of the Bakri family house (“should”, not “will”, because the settlers have repeated been dealt defeats in court and each time are able to manufacture a new claim or appeal) .

The ruling – which affirmed a March 2019 ruling by the Magistrate court, which the settlers had appealed – called for the immediate evacuation of the settlers whom Israel has permitted to illegally squat in the house while the legal processes were ongoing. For a full history of the Bakri house saga, see here.

Following the ruling, Peace Now said:

“[the] court again ruled that the settlers had forged [documents] and lied all along… We hope that after [almost] two decades of violence, lies and terror, justice will be carried out and the invaders will be evicted.”

Peace Now Wins Interim Decision Against Secretive Public Funding to Amana 

In response to a Peace Now petition, on December 31st the Israeli High Court issued an interim decision that requires state bodies to request approval from the court before transferring funds to Amana, a settlement body which is known to undertake illegal settlement activities across the West Bank. Peace Now filed the petition after discovering that state bodies have been secretly funneling money to Amana. 

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Amana is the most significant organization operating in the settlements. For decades, it has overseen the establishment of dozens of illegal outposts and neighborhoods with the help of massive budgets, some of which have been transferred from Israeli taxpayer money through local settlement authorities in violation of the law. The judges’ decision is a dramatic yet necessary step that limits, for the time being, this illicit transfer of funds to illegal projects in the settlements and outposts. We hope that in this spirit, the court will rule that public funds should no longer be transferred to Amana via subsidy procedures. This situation in which the State of Israel backs illegal activities with public funds is unconscionable, and we urge the Israeli government to put an end to it.”

Israeli Court Dismisses Palestinian Landowners’ Petition Against the Ofra Settlement

On January 6th, the Israeli High Court of Justice dismissed a petition filed by Palestinian landowners challenging the legality of the Ofra settlement. The petition was based on the fact that the settlement is partially built on privately owned Palestinian land. The court ruled that the majority of the settlement had been built on land expropriated by Israel, and that the minority of land that Palestinians claim ownership over was not enough to invalidate the entire Master Plan for the settlement. Further, the court stated that the settlement structures built on the privately owned Palestinian land were built by settlers “in good faith,” under the mistaken belief that land had also been expropriated by the Israeli government. 

This High Court ruling does not fix the legal status of Ofra settlement buildings, but it is nonetheless significant because it continues to deny Palestinians their property rights. Likewise, it gives a green light to  the use of the “market regulation” principle to expropriate land in order to retroactively legalize the structures. As a reminder, the “market regulation” principle – which was invented by the Israeli Attorney General – holds that if settlers acted “in good faith” when they built on privately owned Palestinian land, the state can expropriate that land, thereby making what was illegal before, now perfectly legal.

The Ofra settlement’s legal situation has long been an issue that the Israeli government has tried to fix.  Ofra was first established by settlers on land that the Jordanian government had expropriated in 1966, in order to build a military base (which was never built). The Israeli government used this pretext to expropriate the land in 1977, in order to recognize the Ofra settlement, which had been established illegally but with tacit cooperation of the government on the site two years earlier. However, the settlers built the majority of the Ofra settlement on land that was not expropriated by Israel in 1977 —  land that was in fact registered to Palestinians from the nearby village of Ein Yabroud. In light of the legal status of the land, no Israeli government has since found a way to fix the legal status of these homes (not for lack of trying) – meaning that the majority of the structures in Ofra were built without permits, making them illegal under Israeli law. 

Peace Now elaborates on what is at stake in the Ofra settlement case:

“Most of the houses built in Ofra (approximately 413 out of 625) were built on an area of ​​550 dunams of privately owned Palestinian land. In addition, hundreds of dunams of Palestinian private land were seized for roads in Ofra, as well as infrastructure and agricultural lands for the settlers. The only way to regulate the theft of these lands would be to expropriate them from the Palestinian landowners for the benefit of the settlers, in complete contradiction to the positions of previous Israeli governments and legal advisors, and contrary to binding rulings of the High Court. Although the current legal advisor (Avichai Mandelblit) allowed land expropriation in some places for settlement purposes (for example, in Haresha), in the regulation of massive land theft such as in Ofra the Israeli government would be crossing a new red line.”

FMEP documents the government’s efforts to expropriate Palestinian land for the settlements in its Annexation Policy Tables.

Bennett Launches Initiative to More Aggressively Demolish Palestinian Construction in Area C

Making the most of his appointment as Israeli Defense Minister in the current caretaker government, Naftali Bennett is pushing an initiative to annex Area C and to aggressively demolish Palestinian construction in the area (reminder: Area C constitutes nearly 60% of the West Bank; it is land that under Oslo II was supposed to have been “gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction”).

As part of his efforts, Bennett has launched legal research into how Israeli can bring settlement building in Area C under the direct authority of the Justice Ministry, cutting out the Civil Administration. This Civil Administration, it should be recalled, is the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry which acts as the sovereign power over the West Bank, in a system of governance Israel created based on its recognition of the different legal status of the area.  Bennett has called for that system to be disbanded (in addition to annexing Area C). To be clear: transferring the construction and planning processes in Area C to domestic Israeli jurisdiction would by any definition constitute the Israeli state extending its sovereignty over area — an act of annexation.

Bennett has requested that Defense Ministry officials present several legal options for how Israel can bring planning processes under the Justice Ministry (integrating the settlements into the normal planning process). The settler-run Arutz Sheva outlet attributes the following quote Bennett in a private meeting:

“We are in essence discussing applying procedural sovereignty only. Full sovereignty is under the authority of the political echelon, but this is a step in the right direction. There is no reason that residents of Judea and Samaria should continue being discriminated against. We must stop this. Residents of Beit El and Ariel are no less Zionist than residents of Kfar Saba and Tel Aviv. They pay taxes and serve in the army, and they need to receive the same services from the government.”

Bennett is also advancing several initiatives that will empower and compel the Civil Administration to more aggressively enforce demolition orders against Palestinian construction in Area C (based on Israel’s policy of not granting permits to Palestinians in Area C, nearly every Palestinian structure in this territory has a demolition order pending against it). Bennett is also eyeing ways to combat what he considers illegitimate and nefarious funding from the European Union to Palestinian communities living in Area C. Israel Hayom reports:

“Bennett’s plan to stop the Palestinians from chipping away at Area C demands action in four areas: Operational, economic, legal, and PR. He wants to change enforcement priorities to put an emphasis on eradicating illegal buildings in strategic locations rather than by numbers. For example, home demolitions would be carried out in accordance with Israeli interests, prioritizing illegal buildings next to roads or settlements. Bennett also instructed the Central Command and the Civil Administration to work more closely to implement his plan and asked that the Civil Administration report to him monthly to update him on progress. Meanwhile, the defense minister is weighing the possibility of allocating more resources to the Civil Administration for enforcement, which would entail hiring more personnel. Bennett also wants to take steps to stop the flow of European money that funds the illegal Palestinian construction in the first place, allowing the “Fayyad Plan” to flourish.”

Bennett Appoints Key Settler Ally to Lead New Government Task Force on Area C Annexation Plans, Immediately Announces Plan to Legalize Settlements

In addition to his new initiative targeting Palestinian construction in Area C, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced that he has created an inter-ministerial taskforce to develop settlement and annexation plans for the future of Area C in the West Bank.

Bennett’s chief of staff, Itay Hershkowitz, has been in weeks-long consultations with key settler leaders to decide what items to act on immediately. Haaretz reports their agenda includes:

1. Allowing Jews to privately purchase land in the West Bank. [See here for a detailed explanation of this complicated matter]
2. Connecting unauthorized outposts to water and electricity.
3. Granting official recognition to unauthorized outposts that are located near established settlements by recognizing them as “neighborhoods” of the settlement. 
4. Repealing a military order that empowers the Civil Administration to evict settlers from privately owned Palestinian land with or without a Palestinian-initiated petition to have the settlers removed.
5. Legalizing 30 sheep farms in the West Bank that are under pending demolition orders. 

On Thursday, Bennett announced that he has appointed West Bank settler Koby Eliraz to lead the new taskforce. Calling Eliraz a “bulldozer,”Bennett said:

“The territorial future of the Land of Israel is at stake. The State of Israel has simply not been up to the task of stopping [Palestinian construction]. We are changing direction and embarking on a battle that Israel must win… The defense establishment will fight for this territory, and it is essential for someone to lead this campaign.”

Eliraz previously served as Netanyahu’s settlement advisor, but was fired by the Prime Minister in June 2019 reportedly because he was believed to be allied too closely to Netanyahu rival Avigdor Liberman, who Netanyahu also dismissed. At the time of Eliraz’s firing, settler leaders were outraged and published a letter asking Netanyahu to reverse Eliraz’s firing, suggesting that Eliraz’s absence will hinder government efforts to retroactively legalize outposts. The letter noted:

“Kobi has taken care of Israeli settlement and its residents with great professionalism. He is credited for many advancements [on our behalf] in the fields of construction, infrastructure development, security and more.”

The Times of Israel observed, significantly, that the Yesha Council was able to get every single settlement Mayor to sign the letter in support of Eliraz, explaining:

“The Yesha Council in recent years has struggled to get all of its members on board with its initiative, but the umbrella group’s ability to gather the signatures of every Israeli mayor beyond the Green Line is testament to the broad respect that Eliraz holds among settler leader.”

Following ICC Announcement, Pompeo Says Israel Has “Fundamental Rights” to Land

At a press briefing on December 22nd, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not specifically address the ICC announcement, but made lengthy comments regarding statements from European countries and the European Union that were critical of the new U.S. position on settlements (that they are not “per se illegal” under international law). Pompeo’s comments hold relevance to the U.S. position on the ICC case and more generally on the U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

“First, the legal analysis that the EU performed [on settlements] we just think is wrong. We think they have an improper analysis of the international law surrounding this. So as the technical legal matter, [EU Foreign Minister] Ms. Mogherini just – she’s just wrong. And so we are doing our level best to demonstrate to them our legal theory, our understandings, and why it is that we’re convinced that under international law these settlements are not per se illegal. So we’re working that element of it as well. But at another level, and perhaps at the level that will lead to the right outcome, which is why we did this, this has to be resolved through political means, and we hope that all nations, including member nations inside of the EU and the EU itself and countries all over the world, will come to recognize the fundamental rights that the Israeli people have to this land, to this space. There are real security needs. The risk that is presented from the world as anti-Semitism is on the rise, we hope that every nation will recognize that and weigh in on this conflict in a way that is constructive, that will ultimately lead to the peace that is so desperately needed.” [Emphasis added by editor]

Pro-Settlement Legal Forum Conference Draws Big Names, Big Promises

The Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing advocacy organization that has enormous influence with senior Israeli – and increasingly American – government figures, hosted a “Conference on the Pompeo Doctrine” in Jerusalem, Jan. 7-8, 2020. The conference served as a gleeful celebration and forward-looking projection of what the new U.S. settlement policy towards settlements means for Israel. The conference drew participation from all the leading Israeli politicians and several senior members of the Trump Administration, including Secretary of State. Pompeo. Key quotes from the conference speakers are copied below.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:

 “We’re recognizing that these settlements don’t inherently violate international law. That is important. We’re disavowing the deeply flawed 1978 Hansell memo, and we’re returning to a balanced and sober Reagan-era approach. “In doing so, we’re advancing the cause of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” 

U.S. Ambassador David Friedman:

“…when we came into office the lingering issues included three of significant importance: the status of 1) Jerusalem, 2) the Golan Heights and 3) Judea and Samaria. We have approached them in ascending order of complexity…I thank God that President Trump had the courage and the wisdom to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move our embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv…In recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, President Trump, evaluating the continuous malign and barbarous threats posed by Syria, concluded that no northern boundary for Israel would be secure except a boundary that incorporated the Golan. He acted well within the language of 242. [Judea and Samaria] is certainly the most complicated of the issues because of the large indigenous Palestinian population. Over the years before we came into office, it’s only gotten more complicated and more challenging. The proverbial goalposts have moved and moved – to the point today where they are no longer even on the field….The Pompeo Doctrine does not resolve the conflict over Judea and Samaria. But it does move the goalposts back onto the field. It does not obfuscate the very real issue that 2 million or more Palestinians reside in Judea and Samaria, and we all wish that they live in dignity, in peace, and with independence, pride and opportunity. We are committed to find a way to make that happen. The Pompeo Doctrine says clearly that Israelis have a right to live in Judea and Samaria. But it doesn’t say that Palestinians don’t….it calls for a practical negotiated resolution of the conflict that improves lives on both sides.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said:

“I will not let any settlements be uprooted in any diplomatic plan. This idea of ethnic cleansing… it won’t happen. There is a window of opportunity. It opened, but it could close…There was no West Bank separate from the rest of the land. It was seen as the heart of the land. We never lost our right to live in Judea and Samaria. The only thing we lost temporarily was the ability to exercise the right. When Israel returned to the West Bank We didn’t return to a foreign land. That is a distortion of history. Jews lived in Jerusalem and Hebron for thousands of years consecutively…The Pompeo declaration about the status of the towns [in Judea and Samaria] establishes the truth that we are not strangers in our land. In a clearly defensive war, we returned… to the land where our forefathers put down roots thousands of years ago…Unlike some in Europe who think the Pompeo declaration distances peace, I think it will promote peace, because peace must be based on truth, not lies. Settlements are not the root of the conflict. We are standing with justice and the truth. It is a great struggle.”

Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Area C annexation and his initiatives in that regard:

“Our aim is that within a decade a million Israeli citizens will live in Judea and Samaria” and later “Our objective is that within a short amount of time, and we will work for it, we will apply [Israeli] sovereignty to all of Area C, not just the settlements, not just this bloc or another. We are embarking on a real and immediate battle for the future of the Land of Israel and the future of Area C. It started a month ago and I am announcing it here today. A month ago, I convened a meeting and I explained the clear directive, the State of Israel will do everything to ensure that these territories [Area C] will be part of the State of Israel.”

Likud MK and former Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat said:

“I am confident that Secretary Pompeo’s statement is an integral part of the American plan and is closely linked to Jared Kushner’s proposal advanced in Bahrain promoting significant economic investment in the Palestinian economy…Now is a perfect opportunity to similarly grow the communities throughout Judea and Samaria at a pace like never before. This declaration is a recognition of the legal and historic right of the Jewish people to live wherever we wish. This is how it should be in other parts of the world and certainly here in the Jewish State. This declaration is therefore an exceptional opportunity for Israel to ensure our continued growth and expansion throughout these areas. Israel needs to set a goal for the settlement of two million people in Judea and Samaria within fifty years. This is a commitment which requires that we already now lay the framework to make that possible and this is an investment which will also benefit the Palestinian people” [Editor’s note: Barkat has been working with Harvard Professor Michael Porter to promote an economic peace scheme, most recently speaking at Harvard about the plan in December 2019]

Eugene Kontorovich, Director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and a key shaper of anti-BDS/pro-settlement legislation in U.S. Congress and across state governments, said: 

“American Policy is now clearer than ever, Jews living in Judea and Samaria is not a crime. For decades, the obscure Carter-era memo was used as justification for anti-Israel policies despite the fact that its conclusions were rejected by subsequent administrations. Sec. Pompeo’s statement at the Kohelet conference today makes clear the U.S.’s wholesale rejection of the legal theory that holds that international law restricts Israeli Jews from moving into areas from which Jordan had ethnically cleansed them in 1949.”

Bonus Reads

1. “The Atarot Exception? Business and Human Rights Under Colonization” (Marya Farah in Jerusalem Quarterly)
2. “The Decade Israel Erased the Green Line” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Settlers are seizing ‘empty’ land. The Palestinian owners are fighting back” (+972)
4. “Israeli Right Wants to End Peace with Jordan” (Haaretz)
5. “Security official says police, courts scuttling efforts to curb settler violence” (The Times of Israel)

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.

April 12, 2019

1. In Largest Settlement Surge Since Trump, Israel Advances Plans for 3,659 Settlement Units – Including Plan to Retroactively Legalize the Haresha Outpost
2. Housing Ministry Publishes Tenders for 956 Settlement Units
3. Ariel Medical School Gets Approval, But Faces Two High Court Petitions
4. Settlers Celebrate Right-Wing Election Victory
5. AirBnb Reverses Settlement Policy
6. U.S. Ambassador Friedman Touts East Jerusalem Settlement Business as “Path to Peace”
7. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org

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In Largest Settlement Surge Since Trump, Israel Advances Plans for 3,659 Settlement Units – Including Plan to Retroactively Legalize the Haresha Outpost

Following up on FMEP’s reporting last week, on April 4th the Israeli Civil Administration Higher Planning Council (the body responsible for regulating all construction in the occupied West Bank) advanced plans for at least 3,659 settlement units, including a plan to retroactively legalize homes in the unauthorized Haresha outpost.

This is the largest batch of settlement plans advanced at one meeting by the High Planning Council since President Trump took office in January 2017; previous High Planning Council meetings (which happen every three months, per a reported agreement with the U.S. Administration) advanced plans on the order of 1,000 to 2,000 units.

Of the total units advanced on April 4th, the High Planning Council granted final approval for 1,226 new settlement, to be built entirely on the west side of the Israeli separation wall. These are:

• In Beitar Illit:
  • 31 new units
  • A 100 room building for the elderly, or a hotel
  • 

    Map by Peace Now

    A new pedestrian bridge over privately owned Palestinian land for Israeli settlers to use on the Sabbath (when observant Jews do not drive, and had to walk a long route in order to reach other parts of the settlement). 

• 603 new units in Maale Adumim
• A plan to retroactively legalize residential units in the Sde Bar settlement; Peace Now has not yet verified how many units are involved in this plan. Sde Bar was first established as an outpost of the Nokdim settlement in 1998, but Israel granted full approval to that outpost, recognizing it as an educational institute and a full-fledged settlement, in 2005. Settlers recently built a residential neighborhood there without Israeli authorization. The plan approved by the council on April 4th will grant retroactive authorization to those residential settlement units.
• 289 new units in the Alon settlement, located on the Palestinian side of the separation wall within sight of the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin village that Israel is prepared to forcibly relocate. There are plans to expand the neighboring Kfar Adumim settlement to takeover the land where Khan al-Ahmar currently stands.
• 110 new units in the Givat Zeev settlement.
• 108 new units in the Etz Efraim settlement.
• 85 new units in the Karnei Shomron settlement.

Of the total units advanced on April 4th, the High Planning Council also approved for deposit for public review plans for 2,433 new settlement units, the majority of which (1,198) will be built on the east side of the Israeli separation barrier, including:

• 1000 units in Efrat
• A plan to retroactively legalize 720 units in the Haresha outpost. This is part of the Israeli government’s ongoing efforts to retroactively legalize the outpost, which hinges on Israel’s ability to build a legal access road to the outpost. The Israeli government has found several creative solutions to that problem – like building a tunnel or building a bridge – all of which will undoubtedly infringe on the property rights and livelihoods of the Palestinian land owners.
• 210 units in Shiloh – expanding the footprint of the settlement to its north
• 147 units in Ariel.
• 147 units in Mitzpe Yericho.
• 114 units in Elon Moreh.
• 73 new units in Beitar Illit (in addition to the final approvals covered previously).
• 66 units in Oranit.
• 42 more units in Givat Zeev.
• 32 units in Beit Arie.
• 7 new units in Rehelim.
• An unverified number of new units in the following settlements: Paduel, Karnei Shomron, and Elkana.

Peace Now said in response:

“Netanyahu has decided, officially or unofficially, to annex the West Bank to Israel, otherwise one cannot explain the promotion of thousands of units for Israelis in the Occupied Territories. The construction of the settlements only makes it harder to end the occupation and to get to a two states peace agreement and is bad for the Israeli interest to remain a democratic and secured state.”

Housing Ministry Publishes Tenders for 956 Settlement Units

On April 4th the Israeli Ministry of Housing and the Israel Lands Authority met and published tenders for the construction of 956 new settlement units, including commercial complexes; 106 tenders are for plans in settlements east of the separation barrier. These units are in addition to the 3,659 units advanced this week by the Civil Administration’s High Planning Council (discussed above).

The published tenders are:

• 250 units in the Elkana settlement.
• 195 units in the Ariel settlement.
• 118 units in the Ofarim settlement.
• 112 in the Alfei Menashe settlement.
• 111 units in the Oranit settlement.
• 62 in the Adam (Geva Binyamin) settlement, located east of the separation barrier.
• 50 in the Emmanuel settlement.
• 44 units in the Maale Ephraim settlement, located east of the separation barrier.
• 14 units in the Beitar Illit settlement

As Peace Now explains, “some of the tenders are for units that were published in previous tenders but were not sold. The new tenders mean that the government is currently seeking to promote and build those units although failed to do so in the past.”

Ariel Medical School Gets Approval, But Faces High Court Petition

On April 12th, the Israel Higher Education Council voted to approve a new medical school in Ariel University, located in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. This approval contravenes the normal practice of the council, in that it ignores a vote to reject the school by the Higher Education Council’s own professional subcommittee. The medical school is slated to open this fall with significant financing from American casino magnate (and Trump supporter/financial backer) Sheldon Adelson.

However, the High Court of Justice is set to hear a petition regarding the unusual and scandal-ridden process by which the school gained approval at various stages of the planning process. The petition was filed by two Israeli academics – Prof. David Harel of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Alon Harel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – asserting that the approval “casts a heavy shadow on the decision making process in higher education.” It is unclear how the outcome of the petitions might affect the newly approved plan to open the medical school this fall.

Settlers Celebrate Right-Wing Election Victory

Settlers are mostly celebrating the results of Israel’s April 9th elections (in which West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians could not vote), which delivered incumbent Prime Minister Netanyahu an opportunity to form and lead the next government.

As has come to be expected, Netanyahu made an 11th hour election pitch by promising to start the process of annexation if he was reelected. Settlers received Netanyahu’s annexation promise and his reelection with predictable enthusiasm. The Yesha Council released a congratulatory statement saying:

“This morning we can say with certainty: In the face of all the campaigns and manipulations, the people of Israel chose the right. The people expressed their loyalty to the Land of Israel and chose in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. We congratulate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his election, and look forward to the establishment of a strong and broad right-wing government. In the next Knesset, too, we will continue to build, expand, legalize and jointly develop Israeli communities in the region.”

Not all settlers believe that Netanyahu will deliver on his promise to annex the settlements, but generally speaking, settlers dismiss the “will he/won’t he” debate (perhaps correctly) as a political decision that does not impact the reality of their presence on the ground.

Peace Now issued a sharp statement on the election results:

“Now the settlement lobby and its re-elected backers in the Knesset are doing what they know best – extorting and manipulating to save Netanyahu from prosecution in exchange for his compliance in working toward annexation. We at Peace Now were never relying on the election to change reality, but rather see grassroots public engagement as the only way to build pressure on the government. Now that Netanyahu has let the annexation genie out of the bag with his pre-election rhetoric, we stand even more equipped to go on the offense by showing fellow Israelis the bleak future the settler lobby and its Knesset backers are leading us, and what viable alternative path Israel can take toward a more prosperous, democratic, secure future.”

AirBnb Reverses Settlement Policy

On April 9th, AirBnB announced that it had reversed its decision to remove rental listings located inside of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite previously acknowledging that settlements “are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians,” and that the listings there “contribute to existing human suffering.”

AirBnB’s new announcement acknowledges (again) that settlements are “central to ongoing tensions,” but says it will nonetheless continue to allow those listings to remain on their website. Giving a nod to the controversial nature of this decision, AirBnB promised to donate all profits derived from West Bank settlement listings to humanitarian groups, but it conspicuously specified that these will be humanitarian groups working in other parts of the world (as opposed to with the Palestinians).

Omar Shakir, the Israel/Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch – which issued a significant and damning report on the issue of tourism being used to normalize occupation –  tweeted in reaction:

“Disappointing @Airbnb decision reverses their stance to fully respect rights. Donating profits from unlawful settlement listings does nothing to remedy ‘human suffering’ they’ve acknowledged causing. By continuing to do business in settlements, they remain complicit in abuses.”

Along with AirBnB’s policy reversal, it settled several lawsuits filed against AirBnB in U.S. courts. FMEP President Lara Friedman tweeted on this important element:

“And just like that, US courts let themselves becomes weapons used to legitimize the violation of intl law, the re-definition of ‘lsrael’ to mean ‘all the land between the river and the sea,’ & the re-definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ to mean ‘refusal to endorse/normalize occupation.’ This is part of a broader trend that very few people are paying any attention to, which is a dangerous mistake. By the time folks wake up it will likely be too late. [link to: https://forward.com/opinion/417058/opinion-the-surprising-new-battleground-in-the-war-against-palestinian/]”

The Center for Constitutional Rights – which recently intervened in the legal cases involving AirBnB –  issued a response saying:

“We are dismayed that Airbnb has caved to the legal bullying of Israeli settlers and re-listed properties in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Airbnb’s decision reflects an alarming lack of commitment to human rights. When we filed counterclaims on behalf of the Palestinians who actually own the land the listed properties unlawfully sit on, we laid out the international and domestic law violations committed by the settlers, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. In backing down from its decision not to list properties in occupied Palestinian territory, Airbnb is in breach of its international human rights obligations, and is discriminating against Palestinians.”

Amnesty International – which also published a report on the complicity of online rental companies who list properties in East Jerusalem and the West Bank – said in response to AirBnB:

“Airbnb’s decision to continue to allow accommodation listings in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is a reprehensible and cowardly move that will be another devastating blow for the human rights of Palestinians…Airbnb are trying to absolve themselves by stating they will donate the profits from these listings to charity, but that fails to change the fact that by continuing to drive tourism to illegal settlements they are helping to boost the settlement economy. In doing so, they are directly contributing to the maintenance and expansion of illegal settlements, a breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime under Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Airbnb had a clear opportunity to make the right decision to uphold human rights and use their influence to set a precedent in the tourism industry. Instead, they have chosen to bury their heads in the sand – ignoring blatant evidence that they are helping to fuel violations that cause immense suffering to Palestinians. Airbnb’s reversal demonstrates why we can’t just rely on companies to take the right decisions, and that we need governments to fulfil their obligations by intervening and passing laws obliging their companies to respect human rights.”

U.S. Ambassador Friedman Touts East Jerusalem Settlement Business as “Path to Peace”

U.S. Ambassador David Friedman tweeted his support for the new Rami Levy mall,  located in the Atarot settlement industrial zone within sight of Ramallah but inside the security barrier and within Israel’s municipal border, as expanded by Israel after the 1967 war.

Friedman said:

“Great morning at the new Atarot Mall in northern Jerusalem, anchored by a Rami Levy Supermarket. Was given a tour by Rami Levy himself. Israelis and Palestinians working, shopping and doing business together — a simple path to peace!”

FMEP President Lara Friedman tweeted in response:

“Amb Friedman & co’s special notion of peace, based on racist notion that unlike Jews who for 1000s of years refused to forsake their history/narrative, Palestinians will be beaten into submission or bribed into giving up basic human demand for freedom & equal rights.”

When the Rami Levy mall opened in January 2019, FMEP explained:

“The massive new mall is the crown jewel of the shopping empire built by Israeli businessman Rami Levy, who already operates a network of supermarkets in settlements. Like all of Levy’s projects (and settlement industrial zones in general), the new mall is branded as a socially-conscience, ‘coexistence’-building business initiative, with Levy and government officials praising the fact that the new mall will attract both Israeli and Palestinian shoppers and be home not only to Israeli businesses, but to to a few Palestinian-owned/operated businesses as well.”

The ‘coexistence’ argument is dismantled by the Israeli watchdog group Who Profits, which explained:

“The Jerusalem mall would mark a new stage in Levy’s involvement in the occupation economy…[which] began with providing services to Israeli settlers and continued with the exploitation of Palestinians as a cheap labor force in his supermarkets. He now appears to be turning his attention to massive construction projects on occupied Palestinian land and the exploitation of a Palestinian captive market in the East Jerusalem…Rami Levy is in a position that would allow him establish a large mall on “virgin land” because the Israeli authorities have prevented Palestinian businesses from competing with Israelis. Levy’s plan would take advantage of the fact that Palestinians do not have other large-scale retail facilities. A flourishing market in Bir Nabala was destroyed by Israel’s wall in the West Bank. And venturing into West Jerusalem is not an option for Palestinians, most of whom live below the poverty line. Although there is every likelihood that the Israeli authorities will portray Levy’s mall as beneficial to Palestinians, there are important facts to be remembered. Palestinians entering his mall will not be exercising the right of a consumer to informed choice. Rather, they will be captive clients — belonging to an occupied people.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Democracy, Israeli Style” (New York Times)
2. “Jerusalem is Finally Unified, In Opposition to this Plan” (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.

April 5, 2019

1. Israel Expected to Advance Nearly 5,000 Settlement Units
2. Glassman/Or Sameach Yeshiva Project at Entrance of Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood Approved for Public Deposit
3. Also in Sheikh Jarrah, The Sabbagh Family Receives Another Eviction Notice
4. New Settler Bypass Road Gets Go-Ahead After Deadly, Disputed Incident at Huwwara Interchange
5. Settlers Are Cultivating Palestinian Farmland Taken by the Construction of Israel’s Separation Wall
6. Transportation Ministry Voices New Concern About Elad’s Zipline Project in East Jerusalem
7. Yesh Din Issues Authoritative Report on Israel’s “Racist Endeavor” to Retroactively Authorize Outposts
8. Al-Haq Report: Israel Appropriated ‘Ein Fara Spring; TripAdvisor Now Promotes It as an Israeli Tourist Destination
9. Settler Leader: “Settlements are a Bridge to Socio Economic Peace”
10. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Israel Expected to Advance Nearly 5,000 Settlement Units

According to reports last week, Israeli planning bodies were expected to meet and advance plans for nearly 5,000 new settlement units at a meeting on April 1st. However, that meeting appears to have been delayed.

Nonetheless, it is worth reviewing the leaked details of the settlement plans slated to be advanced, of which 1,427 are reportedly set to receive final approval from the High Planning Council, including

• 603 new units in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement just east of Jerusalem;
• 325 new units in the Alon settlement, near the disputed Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem;
• 108 new units in the Etz Efraim settlement, in the northern West Bank, one of several settlements slated to become a “super settlement” area;
• 110 new units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement just north of Jerusalem;
• 281 new units in the Beitar Illit settlement.

A subcommittee of the Israeli Civil Administration was also set to meet on April 1st (no press reports indicate that the meeting actually happened), and was expected to advance plans for 3,474 new settlement units for public deposit, an earlier stage of the settlement planning process (reminder: all stages of the settlement planning process are significant, as each step through the publication of tenders is a political act of the Israeli government). The plans slated to be approved for public deposit include plans in settlement across the West Bank, reportedly include the following settlements:

• Elon Moreh, located east of Nablus in the central West Bank;
• Karnei Shomron, in the northern West Bank;
• Elkana and Oranit, which along with Etz Efraim, are slated to become a part of a “super settlement” area;
• Ariel in the central West Bank;
• Beit Aryeh northwest of Ramallah;
• Shiloh in the central West Bank;
• Talmon north of Ramallah.
• Peduel, in the northern West Bank but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier; and,
• Mitzpeh Yericho, just west of Jericho.

Glassman/Or Sameach Yeshiva Project at Entrance of Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood Approved for Public Deposit

On April 2nd, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved the Glassman/Or Sameach yeshiva project for public deposit. The plan, as FMEP has repeatedly covered, seeks to build a Jewish religious school (a yeshiva) at the entrance of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The yeshiva is one of several settlement projects set to flank the road leading into the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, designed to strengthen Israeli settlers’ hold on the neighborhood and seamlessly connect the growing settler enclave in Sheikh Jarrah with West Jerusalem.

Ir Amim warns and explains:

“[The Glassman/Or Sameach yeshiva] plan should be seen as an alarm bell in the context of Israel’s ramped up efforts to deepen its circle of control around the Old City Basin. The plan (Plan No. 68858)  calls for construction of an eleven-story building with eight levels above ground and three below, including a dormitory for hundreds of students and housing for faculty, to be located at the mouth of Sheikh Jarrah. It was submitted by the Ohr Somayach Institutions, to which the Israel Land Authority has already allotted land without a transparent tender process, and approved for deposit by the District Planning and Building Committee in July 2017.​”

In a detailed report on the Glassman yeshiva project, Terrestrial Jerusalem described it as:

“a clear effort to exploit Torah study to expand and normalize occupation in East Jerusalem (including by making the site politically untouchable, as it will now be linked with religious activities).”

Also in Sheikh Jarrah, The Sabbagh Family Receives Another Eviction Notice

On March 31st, the Palestinians Sabbagh family was handed another eviction notice, weeks after Israeli authorities rejected the family’s latest petition to reconsider the legal authority by which settlers are seeking to evict them from their home of 60+ years. Peace Now reports that the Sabbagh family is still attempting to delay their eviction, but is unlikely to succeed.

In a comprehensive briefing on the Sabbagh family’s protracted legal struggle, Ir Amim and Peace Now write:

“Increasingly, settler initiated, state-backed evictions of Palestinian families are being used as a strategy to help cement Israeli control over the area. Given their strategic location as gateways to the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah to the north of the Old City and Silwan to the south are the two neighborhoods under greatest pressure from Israeli settler groups. Some 150 families in these two areas alone are under threat of eviction…The Sabbagh family is only the latest family threatened with eviction in the Kerem Alja’oni section of Sheikh Jarrah. If evicted, their home will be the tenth to be seized by settlers. Roughly 30 Palestinian families are under threat of eviction and at least eleven have open court cases. Those cases were suspended pending the Supreme Court decision on the Sabbagh case; the recent removal of that stopgap could usher in a wave of new evictions. On the other side of Nablus road, in the Um Haroun section of Sheik Jarrah, an additional 40 or so families face the threat of eviction.”

New Settler Bypass Road Gets Go-Ahead After Deadly, Disputed Incident at Huwwara Interchange

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it approved the construction of a new bypass road to divert settler traffic around the Palestinian village of Huwwara. The new road will allow settlers to avoid the Huwwara interchange, a perpetually congested section of the main West Bank highway, Route 60, and an area that has been a site of Palestinian violence against the settlers, including a recent incident where a settler shot and killed a Palestinian teenager allegedly attacking the settler. Dubbed the “Huwwara Bypass,” the new road will be built on land historically a part of the Palestinian villages of Huwwara and Beita, which Israel seized for security reasons.

This road is one of five new bypass roads that Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to build under immense pressure from the settler lobby, known as the Yesha Council. It was one part of a massive security package that the Netanyahu government funded to the tune of $228 million in 2017. Peace Now detailed each of the five bypass roads slated for construction, and wrote:

“The planned roads…are meant to serve settlements located deep in the West Bank, which will not be a part of Israeli in the framework of an agreement according to the Geneva Initiative’s proposed border.Historically, the paving of bypass roads has led to an acceleration of the development of the adjacent settlements…Additionally, paving new roads in the West Bank entails the confiscation of private Palestinian lands. All of the roads are built due to needs of settlers rather than the needs of the Palestinians. In certain cases the roads can also be useful for Palestinians, but the majority of these roads are hardly used by Palestinians at all. This fact puts into question the Israeli legal argument behind the confiscation, as according to international law, the confiscation of lands must serve the local population, meaning the Palestinians.”

Transportation Ministry Voices New Concern About Elad’s Zipline Project in East Jerusalem

An official from the Israeli Transportation Ministry voiced reservations regarding the Elad settlement organization’s request to re-zone the “Peace Forest” as a “public use space” in order to allow for the construction of its zipline project there. At a meeting on April 1st (a previous meeting was covered by FMEP last week) to consider the request, a transportation official expressed concern that the project is a private commercial endeavor, not a public use project – meaning that the project might not be legal even if the forest were to be re-zoned for public use. The official said:

“[A zipline] constitutes commercial use: It’s not going to be operated by the municipality or a youth group. This alone is a reason not to approve the plan.”

The Haaretz report on the April 1st meeting also provides historical context on Elad’s illegal activities in the “Peace Forest” (which was established by the Jewish National Fund on privately owned land in East Jerusalem following the 1967 war) over the past 14 years. Haaretz writes:

“At first the NGO simply trespassed and built illegal structures there. But things changed and gradually various local and national bodies – including the Jerusalem Municipality, the Israel Land Authority, the Tourism Ministry and the JNF – began to grant Elad assistance. This assistance has included granting building permits retroactively, allocating land to the group without a proper bidding process, and generous funding to the tune of tens of millions of shekels…Most of Elad’s current focus is on managing and developing the City of David National Park in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and purchasing homes for Jews from the Arabs living there. But the NGO isn’t neglecting its other projects: It has been sponsoring activities in the Peace Forest since 2005, despite the fact that it has no ownership rights there or permits from the ILA (the legal owner of the land, which was expropriated from private Palestinian owners). These activities are essentially expanding Elad’s reach from Silwan into the entire historic basin of Jerusalem’s Old City, from the Mount of Olives to the Armon Hanatziv promenade (which actually consists of several different walkways, projects of the Jerusalem Foundation).”

Settlers Are Cultivating Palestinian Farmland Taken by the Construction of Israel’s Separation Wall

For the past six years, Israeli farmers have been farming Palestinian land that was left on the Israeli side of the separation barrier, an area Palestinian landowners are largely barred from entering.

When the separation wall was constructed in the early 2000s, it confiscated 35,000 acres (140,000 dunams) of Palestinian land as a result of its circuitous route that snakes deep inside of the West Bank. The land between the wall and the 1967 Green Line is commonly referred to as the “seam zone.”

Kerem Navot founder Dror Etkes – who obtained aerial photography documenting settler activity in the area – explained:

“One of the same plots to which landowners are barred from entering is located west of the Palestinian village of Nuba, about 15 kilometers northwest of Hebron. Nearly half of the village’s land was lost in 1948 because it remained west of the Green Line, and with the construction of the separation barrier in the area from 2005-2006, residents lost another 1,000 dunams that remained on the other side of the barrier. Although there’s an agricultural gate on site that was supposed to be used by landowners to reach their territory to the west, their entry has not been possible since the barrier was constructed. This ‘vacuum’ was identified by the ‘Mateh Yehuda Agricultural Association,’ which cultivates vast swaths of land that were transferred to Israeli moshavim in the area, including those west of the Green Line. After a few years in which the villagers didn’t access their land, the Agricultural Association decided that it was time to take over of one of the wadis in the area.”

Etkes separately told Haaretz:

“This story allows a peek into the jungle Israel created in areas left between the barrier and the Green Line. This area, called ‘the seam’ by Israel, is gradually becoming a looting ground for anyone who can grab a plot while exploiting a reality in which tens of thousands of West Bank residents are unable to reach their lands. All this proves that the route along which the barrier was built passes mostly through the West Bank, serving political interests, as anyone with eyes in his head saw and understood as the barrier was being built.”

Yesh Din Issues Authoritative Report on Israel’s “Racist Endeavor” to Retroactively Authorize Outposts

In a new report, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din analyzes the legal pretexts Israel has created to systematically legalize outposts across the West Bank that were built in contravention of Israeli law and on privately owned Palestinian land.

The report reviews and rebutts the findings of the “Zandberg Report”  – which (approvingly) outlined various legal tactics and tools the state can use to save those outposts.

Yesh Din found that the Zandberg Report’s recommendations allow for 99% of all unauthorized outposts to be retroactively approved within 2-3 years, anticipating that the government will declare 20 new settlements in the process.

Yesh Din’s report also examines how Israel has already undertaken the first step in this effort, by introducing the “market regulation” principle into the courts. If validated by the courts, the “market regulation” principle will provids legal cover to ‘regularize’ 2,700-3,000 illegal structures built on privately owned Palestinian land.

Yesh Din writes:

“The Zandberg Committee aids a racist endeavor whose essence is the dispossession of Palestinians from their land on the basis of ethnicity. The euphemisms used in the report and the legal terminology it employs do nothing to hide the fact that the ‘Regularization Committee’ report is, in fact, an expropriation report which provides the government more methods for normalizing and deepening the iniquity of Israel’s settlement policy: one area, the West Bank, with two populations – privileged Israeli citizens and Palestinians living under military rule, dispossessed and oppressed.”

Analyzing the Zandberg Report as an alternative to the settlement “Regulation Law,” Yesh Din states:

“The Zandberg Committee seemingly offers a more restrained framework for ‘regularization’ or retroactive authorization that purports to be less injurious than the ‘Regularization Law’ and relies on legal doctrines. In truth, however, the report cloaks landgrab, dispossession and expropriation on an extremely large scale – approaching that of the Regularization Law – in a shroud of legality.”

Al-Haq Report: Israel Appropriated ‘Ein Fara Spring; TripAdvisor Now Promotes It as an Israeli Tourist Destination

Al-Haq, the preeminent Palestinian human rights group, published a report documenting Israel’s appropriation of the ‘Ein Fara spring, located on the lands of the Palestinian village of Anata northeast of Jerusalem. The spring historically served as the primary source of drinking water and agricultural water for Anata and several surrounding villages.

Since 1967, Israel has appropriated the spring and its waters, and built five settlement on the surrounding land.

Israel renamed the spring the “En Prat Nature Reserve” and promotes religious tourism at the site, as does TripAdvisor.

Al-Haq writes:

“The appropriation of village lands, confiscation of water resources and continued denied access to Palestinians violates the right to self-determination, further breaches the prohibition of discrimination, the right to life including the duty to ensure access to water, the right to water, the rights of freedom of movement, the right to a livelihood, and cultural rights related to the integral use of the ‘Ein Fara spring to communal village life. Al-Haq reminds that Trip Advisor is advertising ‘En Prat Nature Reserve’ a settler tourism service, on its internet platform. Al-Haq stresses that Trip Advisor is providing an economic service for the benefit of Israeli settlements, which may amount to an involvement in settlement related activities.”

Settler Leader: “Settlements are a Bridge to Socio Economic Peace”

Writing in the Jewish News Syndicate, Yochai Dimri (chairman of Har Hevron Regional Council) makes a pitch for the Israeli public and elected officials to drop hopes of a “peace deal” in favor of socio-economic “co-existence” initiatives that normalize the settlements.

As FMEP has documented, this message lines up exactly with the activities and priorities of the Trump Administration, particularly with Amb. David Friedman who has been in partnership with the Har Hevron Regional Council to promote the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce as an Israeli-Palestinian business cooperative.

In a piece entitled – “Settlements are a Bridge to SocioEconomic Peace” – Dimri writes:

“The Barkan Industrial Park near Ariel is an outstanding model for collaboration between Jews and Arabs, and is the wellspring of local employment for both populations. A similar industrial area in Har Hevron is currently in the planning stages, and flourishing businesses and factories are expected to be established there to benefit the residents of Har Hevron and the Negev…The need of the hour is to expand collaborations to include health, education and other necessary areas as well—not through international initiatives, but through Israeli ones. Once Israel learns to view the settlement communities in Judea and Samaria as an asset and not a liability, as an impetus for change and not a roadblock, it will discover that they are not an obstacle to peace, but rather a bridge to achieving economic and social peace.”

FMEP’s Lara Friedman reacted to this notion in a recent op-ed:

“Last October, Friedman participated in a public event convened in the settlement of Ariel. The event, which featured Israeli settlers and a handful of Palestinians, promoted the view that the key to peace is not political agreements or negotiations. Rather, peace would come from economic and business cooperation between Palestinians (living under Israeli occupation, governed by Israeli military and military law designed to promote the interests and needs of Israel, entirely disenfranchised from the powers that control their lives) and settlers (living in settlements built on land taken from Palestinians, enjoying all the entitlements and protections of Israeli citizenship and law, and with representatives and allies at every level of Israeli government). This approach, not coincidentally, exemplifies a vision of ‘peace’ based on promises of improved quality of life for individual Palestinians, de-coupled from any pretense of helping Palestinians end an occupation that the United States no longer believes to exist, or achieve national self-determination that the United States no longer supports. Tweeting about that event, Friedman suggested that this kind of cooperation was precisely the kind of opportunity that the Palestinian people truly want and could have, if only their leadership would listen.”

Bonus Reads

1. “How Israel is Working to Remove Palestinians from Jerusalem” (The National)
2. “Annexation Will Free Israel from the Fake Commitment to Liberty and Equality” (Haaretz)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

June 15, 2018

1. “Greater Jerusalem” Annexation Bill Back on the Agenda
2. Expanding a Settlement, Suffocating a Village – Har Gilo West vs. al-Walajah
3. Full Steam Ahead on 325 New Settlement Units Near the E-1 Settlement Area
4. Plans for Largest-Ever Settlement Industrial Zone, as Part of “Super Settlement” Area
5. Israel Admits: We Gave Settlers Part of Silwan Without Checking Who Owned It
6. Despite Pay-Offs and Promises, Settlers Violently Resist Netiv Ha’avot Demolitions
7. New Bill Would Hand Over Area C to the World Zionist Organization
8. Settler Whistleblower: Not Concerned With Law, Only Concerned with Dispossessing Palestinians
9. MK Introduces Bill to Dismantle the Civil Administration, Annex the Settlements
10. Settlers Kill Knesset Plan to Complete the West Bank Barrier
11. While No One Was Watching, Jerusalem Suburb Has Been Annexing “No Man’s Land”
12. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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“Greater Jerusalem” Annexation Bill Back on the Agenda

Jerusalem Settlement watchdog Ir Amim reports this week that, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation (the body of Israeli Cabinet members which decides whether or not the  government will endorse legislation) is once again scheduled to discuss the “Greater Jerusalem” annexation bill. Members of the Ministerial Committee have long pushed for the Committee to consider the bill – with Ministers Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) and Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) eager to secure government support for it – but Prime Minister Netanyahu intervened at the last minute to take the bill off of the committee’s October 2017 agenda, relegating the bill to political uncertainty. At the time, reports insinuated that Netanyahu blocked consideration of the bill due to international pressure. At the time the Trump Administration publicly stated it would not oppose the bill, but reportedly it discouraged movement on the bill at that time, apparently over concerns that it would undermine ongoing US efforts to engage other regional parties.

FMEP has regularly reported on the “Greater Jerusalem” bill, which was introduced in July 2017 by two members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, Yoav Kisch and Yisrael Katz. The bill proposes absorbing 19 settlements into the Jerusalem municipality (an act of incremental de facto annexation), allowing the settlements to participate in Jerusalem elections and be counted in the Jerusalem census. Earlier versions of the bill also included a clause that would have applied Israeli domestic law to these same settlements – another means of de facto annexation – but the clause was stripped from the (ostensibly) final version that the Committee is now set to consider.

FMEP continues to track the Greater Jerusalem bill in its weekly settlement reports and in its tables tracking annexation policies.

Expanding a Settlement, Suffocating a Village – Har Gilo West vs. al-Walajah

The Planning and Building Committee of the Gush Etzion Regional Council met on March 25th to discuss a 330-unit plan to expand the Har Gilo settlement onto a non-contiguous plot of land that would effectively seal shut the Palestinian village of al-Walajah. The Council’s discussion of the plan kicks off the official planning process; the next step will be a discussion by the High Planning Council and then deposit of the plan for public review.

The plan – called “Har Gilo West” – will nearly double the population of Har Gilo by building what is by all measures a new settlement on the far side of the Palestinian village of al-Walajah.  Ir Amim explains:

“Though publicized as an expansion of the Har Gilo settlement, the area demarcated for the plan is clearly distinct from Har Gilo, with the Palestinian village of Walaja and the Separation Barrier positioned in between the two… In effect, along with Har Gilo, the new development would create a wall of settlement around the West Bank portion of Walaja, completing a series of steps to entirely seal the village off from its surroundings.

…In the last decade, Israeli authorities have established several dramatic facts on the ground – including completion of the Separation Barrier around Walaja and a national park built on its land – to strategically address Walaja’s obstruction of Israel’s plan to absorb the Gush Etzion bloc into Greater Jerusalem. Har Gilo West should be seen in the context of this overarching geo-political goal. It is one more measure in a series of steps to disconnect the built-up area of Walaja from its surroundings, create an isolated enclave out of the village, and enable a contiguous Israeli controlled territory from Jerusalem to the Gush Etzion Regional Council.”

FMEP has repeatedly documented various Israeli efforts to seal off al-Walajah from Jerusalem. Residents of al-Walajah have fought the growing encroachment by the nearby Etzion settlement bloc and the Israeli government’s attempt to de facto annex the bloc as part of “Greater Jerusalem.” Ir Amim explains several prongs of this effort, including a particularly unbelievable section of Israel’s separation barrier planned to almost completely encircle the village, to turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.

Full Steam Ahead on 325 New Settlement Units Near the E-1 Settlement Area

On June 14th, the Israeli Defense Ministry deposited for public review a plan, previously approved by Israeli High Planning Council, to build 325 settlement units in the Alon settlement, situated on the northern edge of the area slated for the E-1 settlement, east of Jerusalem. The plan includes a residential zone, a commercial area, a park, roads and public buildings.

As FMEP has reported on repeatedly, the E-1 area has long been slated for Israeli settlement construction, but plans have been continuously delayed by the Israeli political echelon – due in large part to pressure from past U.S. administrations and others in the international community. E-1 is often called a “doomsday settlement” because it will seal Palestinian East Jerusalem off from the West Bank to its east, and creating a land bridge from Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement that bisects the West Bank. The settlement will render the two-state solution impossible because it would preclude the ability to draw contiguous borders for a future Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann issued numerous warnings in 2017 that E-1 might be slated for advancement under the current settlement policy of the Netanyahu government and with no discernable counter-pressure from the Trump Administration. Seidemann warned in January 2017, “The main obstacle preventing a green light for E-1 has, until now, been wall-to-wall opposition from the international community, led by the United States (dating back to the era of President Clinton).”

Plans for Largest-Ever Settlement Industrial Zone, as part of “Super Settlement” Area

According to the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet, a number of settlement municipalities have agreed to a plan to build the largest-ever settlement industrial zone — in the area where Israel is planning to unite multiple settlements into one “super settlement area.”

FMEP reported on the future “super settlement” in February 2018, when rumors first broke about the government’s plan to unite several settlements (Elkana, Sha’arei Tikva, Etz Efraim, and Oranit). FMEP covered the story again in March 2018, when Palestinians began to protest the plan. By uniting the settlements, Israel will significantly increase the footprint of developed land, allowing for massive projects like the industrial zone. The four settlements and the land between them are located in the “seam-line” zone, the area created by the weaving route of the Israeli separation barrier that was built to keep many settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier despite being east of the 1967 Green Line.

The planning of the new mega industrial zone – which will cover 2 million square meters (nearly 500 acres) near the Shaarei Tikva, Elkana, and Etz Efraim settlements – has been delayed for nearly 10 years amidst disputes between competing settlement municipalities. Now, with the consensus amongst the planners, the proposal will be submitted for approval.

The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said:

“this is a historic move that is expected to change the face of settlement in Samaria in general and the settlements of Samaria Gate in particular. The new industrial zone is planned on an area of ​​3,000 dunams (340 acres) north and south of Highway 5, and it will include areas for commerce and high-tech offices, areas for regional public buildings, and industrial areas.”

With a consensus around the location and details of the planned industrial zone, Arutz Sheva speculates that construction will begin by the end of 2018. The plan includes a major upgrade to a settler transportation hub, known as the Sha’ar Shomron interchange, which is expected to be a stop on the future settler-only light rail line slated to cut across the West Bank.

Arutz Sheva also reports that settlers are ready to submit another plan for a new cemetery to  be located east of the area where the industrial zone will be built, to “provide a regional response to the needs of the towns in western Samaria.”

Israel Admits: We Gave Settlers Part of Silwan Without Checking Who Owned It

Palestinian residents of the Batan al-Hawa section of the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem have petitioned the High Court to stop the government facilitated settler takeover of a large area of their neighborhood and the eviction of 700 Palestinian residents.

In a hearing on the petition held on June 10th, the Israel government’s lawyer admitted that the State gave the land to the settler organization Ateret Cohanim without a proper investigation into the underlying legal status of the land and the buildings on it, but argued that the Palestinians’ petition should be dismissed because the land was granted to Ateret Cohanim  in 2002 (intimating that Palestinians should have petitioned against the move earlier). Ateret Cohanim facilitates and encourages Jewish Israelis to settle in Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Ir Amim reports that Ateret Cohanim’s takeover of land in Batan al-Hawa is, “the single largest takeover campaign in a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem since 1967.”

According to Ir Amim, 17 Palestinian families have been evicted from the homes on the land since the deed was transferred in 2002. 83 Palestinian families, approximately 700 people, remain the target of eviction. Ir Amim writes:

“This well organized Ateret Cohanim campaign represents not only the displacement of an entire community but also the direct involvement of the Israeli government in facilitating private settlement in the Old City and surrounding band of Palestinian neighborhoods. The government has acted through the General Custodian and the Registrar of Trusts (both under the Ministry of Justice) to facilitate settlers’ seizure of Batan al-Hawa, as well as increasing its security budget by 119% from 2009 – 2016 to ensure the protection of radical Jews settling in the hearts of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board also weighed in vehemently criticizing the Israeli government’s handling of the case. The Board wrote:

“The settlement in Batan al-Hawa is the most problematic of all the settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It is located in the heart of a crowded inner city, weighs heavily on the residents’ daily lives and is intended to prevent any diplomatic solution with the Palestinians. Every Jewish family there needs security that costs around 1 million shekels ($280,000) a year. But the damage doesn’t seem confined to Silwan. This settlement has also corrupted Israel’s bureaucracy.

When the administrator general and state prosecutors found that the 2002 decision had been mistaken, the only decent thing to do would have been to cancel it and freeze the eviction proceedings against the Palestinian families. Instead, government clerks and lawyers are fighting for eviction along with Ateret Cohanim. This is further proof of the extent to which the settlements have corrupted public administration in Israel. Now the issue rests with the High Court. Hopefully, despite the pressure being put on the justices, they will halt the oppression and corruption.”

On June 6, Peace Now published a backgrounder, “The Systematic dispossession of Palestinian neighborhoods in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.” Back in 2016, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem produced a comprehensive multi-media backgrounder on the threat to Batan al Hawa. Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann has also published extensive background and analysis on the assault on Batan al Hawa (here and here).

Despite Pay-Offs and Promises, Settlers Violently Resist Netiv Ha’avot Demolitions

Approximately 1,000 Israeli settlers and their sympathizers gathered to protest the long-planned, court-ordered demolition of 15 structures built on privately owned Palestinian land in the unauthorized Netiv Ha’avot outpost. The demolitions were completed on June 14th. Dozens of settlers barricaded themselves inside the last two structures to be demolished, some of whom hurled stones and other objects at Israeli policeman who were forced to drag them out of the buildings, resulting in thirteen injuries to police officers. Three suspects were arrested, but released a day later.

Touting the growing governmental effort to compensate the settlers of Netiv Ha’avot for paying a price for their illegal activity, several prominent leaders from the Jewish Home party joined protesters at the outpost during the demolitions, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who said:

“The evacuation is the result of a serious mistake. It began with an erroneous response from the state several years ago, but that was fixed from the root, and ended with an erroneous High Court decision. The news is that it ends here. In the past three years, we have changed the discourse. Instead of asking, ‘When are we evacuating?’ we’re asking, ‘How do we regulate?’”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett also attended and said:

“Whoever wishes to raze 15 homes will receive 350 on this hill. This is a difficult evening. It is incomprehensible to the residents of the Netiv Ha’avot neighborhood and to anyone who has settled the precious Land of Israel. It’s absurd. I cannot recall a legal action as irrational as this. The campaign will not be won until the prime minister abides in full and builds a huge neighborhood here on this hill.”

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) was also on hand and said:

“There’s no benefit in demolishing homes and driving people from their homes. The High Court hearing was conducted as if it was in Sodom and Gomorrah, but we won’t give in. We won’t let this keep us from settling throughout the Land of Israel.”

In contrast, Peace Now declared a partial victory against illegal settlement growth, saying:

“After 17 years of theft, evasions, delays, and manipulation, justice is being served as the private land on which the Nativ Ha’Avot outpost was built is being vacated, in line with the High Court of Justice’s ruling. We hope these evictions will send a clear message that crime does not pay, and that anyone who builds on land without authorization or even purchasing it first will ultimately be compelled to leave. Peace Now will continue to monitor all settlement construction in the West Bank, and will fight against any land theft or attempt to destroy the viability of a two-state solution.”

However – as the Jewish Home party leaders made clear – the victory is not complete, as the Netiv Ha’avot settlers have successfully waged a public shaming campaign against the government for failing to prevent the enforcement of its laws against the settlers. As reported succinctly by The Times of Israel, various arms of the Israeli government are currently working in concert to retroactively legalize the remaining structures in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost and to prepare plans for 350 new units there. In addition, the government has already rewarded Netiv Ha’avot with what is effectively a new outpost built for the settlers affected by the demolitions – settlers who will additionally receive a monetary compensation package paid for by Israeli taxpayers for their misfortune of having built illegally on land that is owned by Palestinians. For more background, see Peace Now’s comprehensive recap of the Netiv Ha’avot saga.

New Bill Would Hand Over Area C to the World Zionist Organization

Peace Now reports that the Knesset is moving a bill that would transfer the responsibility of “managing” rural land in Area C of the occupied West Bank to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), a body dedicated to the establishment and development of settlements, whose activities have been dogged by fraud and illegalities for decades.

The bill was introduced by MKs Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), Yoav Kisch (Likud), and David Bitan (Likud), and it passed through the first of three Knesset readings on June 13th. Reportedly, the bill will be put on hold for two weeks so the government has time to examine the possibility of achieving the same result through a Cabinet decision, avoiding the politics and pushback that might come in Knesset debate.

As Peace Now notes, under international law Israel, as an occupying power, cannot grant non-governmental organizations the authority to manage lands outside of its borders.

Peace Now said:

“The Knesset today approved a bill allowing five decades of land theft, delinquency and corruption under the guise of ‘unique characteristics and development of settlement.’ Despite stacks of State Comptroller reports, complaints from legal advisers and evidence of criminal offenses, the government is scandalously planning to give the biggest land thieves responsibility for managing the land distribution, which will continue to be done under the cover of darkness if the bill passes into law.”

Peace Now also provides an excellent overview of the activities the WZO has engaged in since 1968, when the Israeli government gave the organization’s Settlement Division the authority and the funding to build settlements in the occupied territory. The arrangement worked for the Israeli government, by contracting out settlement building the government found a way to escape the rules, restrictions, and transparency norms that inhibit government bodies from operating freely. Peace Now reports:

“The Settlement Division manages the land without any transparency, contrary to the rules of proper administration, without supervision, and sometimes with corruption and fraud. Thus, for example, the Settlement Division gave settlers in Amona, Giv’at Haulpana, Mitzpeh Kramim and others the rights to build on what was private land belonging to Palestinians.”

For more information on the WZO, and for background on a High Court case seeking to make the WZO’s land holdings public, see the Peace Now report. The legal issues with the WZO’s operations were highlighted in the official report by Talia Sasson, commissioned by Ariel Sharon. Also see media reports: here, here, here, and here, for example.

Settler Whistleblower: Not Concerned With Law, Only Concerned with Dispossessing Palestinians

The Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a comprehensive investigation into the leaders of the publicly-funded Regavim settler group. The group’s stated mission is “to ensure responsible, legal, accountable & environmentally friendly use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation.” The investigation reveals, however, that the organization’s efforts to identify and stop illegal construction are merely a tool to dispossess Palestinians of their land.

The Investigation found, in fact, that Regavim and its leader have a demonstrable disregard for the Israeli planning and building laws that they purport to be dedicated to enforcing, evidenced most plainly by the fact that 15 Regavim officers are living in structures built on privately owned Palestinian land, some with demolition orders issued against them. These include the building where Yehuda Eliyahu, the current executive director of Regavim, lives.

The outlaw behavior of Regavim leaders is more consequential than just 15 units.  The investigation also details how leaders of the group have helped to illegally establish settlements at the cost of Palestinians. Yediot Ahronot reports:

“Somehow, all this doesn’t prevent the movement and its representatives from appealing to the High Court of Justice in dozens of petitions, and to successfully act as the guarantors of law and order to eliminate construction violations. Among other things, Regavim operates in sensitive areas of international interest, such as a legal proceeding following which 76 members of [U.S.] Congress recently demanded that the government not demolish Palestinian homes.” [referring to Khan al-Ahmar]

Dror Etkes, founder of the anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot, commented:

“Regavim’s lie holds no water: they preach action against illegal construction, but live in illegally built homes. They talk about the ‘rule of law’ as they violently transgress it.  The findings exposed today indicate that Regavim is in fact an enemy of the principle of ‘rule of law,’ which its members use manipulatively to strip it of its meaning.”

J Street weighed in on the investigation, urging:

“Yedioth Ahronoth’s report underscores the long-term impact and agenda of the settlement movement. For decades, they have moved aggressively to build housing in — and push Palestinians out — of key parts of the occupied territory, with varyingly strong degrees of support from successive Israeli governments…The fanatical ideology of Regavim and the broader settler movement — along with their allies in the Netanyahu government and the Trump administration — must be confronted.”

The report and investigation was published two weeks after the Israeli High Court of Justice upheld demolition orders against the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin community, a case that Regavim and its supporters in the government (including Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich, who founded Regavim in 2006) have been pushing for years. MK Smotrich and Regavim are simultaneously pushing legislation like the settlement “Regulation Law,” which seeks to retroactively legalize Israeli settlement activity that does not comply with Israeli planning and building law. The Regulation Law, which FMEP has reported on extensively, will resolve the conundrum of demolishing unauthorized Palestinian building while legalizing unauthorize Israeli building by gutting the rule of law entirely.

MK Introduces Bill to Dismantle the Civil Administration, Annex the Settlements

Punctuating a busy week, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) announced that he has submitted a new bill to dismantle the Israeli Civil Administration, the governing body of the West Bank (operating under the Israeli Defense Ministry). Smotrich also featured prominently in the investigative report into Regavim (covered above), participated in the protests at the Netiv Ha’avot outpost (covered above), and saw his bill to empower the World Zionist Organization to manage Area C pass through its first reading (covered above).

According to a report by the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet, Smotrich alleged that the Civil Administration’s “lack of modern computing and mapping tools” is the real culprit behind the accidental, illegal settlement construction that necessitate legislation like the settlement “Regulation Law.”

Speaking at a conference organized by Regavim, Smotrich said:

“The Civil Administration has no normal website, no access to the public. A lot of the mistakes that led to the enactment of the [settlement] regulation law were caused by a lack of modern computing and mapping tools. There is very little organizational memory in the Civil Administration system because many of them are military personnel who change positions every two years. If I want to buy an apartment in Tel Aviv, within three minutes a document will arrive in my email. In order to sell or buy a house in Judea and Samaria, I have to enter a military base and go through an archaic system with a clerk who still works with binders and then wait for weeks to receive any documents. The bill sets a target date for the dismantling of the Civil Administration, and the Administration’s responsibilities will be distributed to the various government ministries, as already happens today, for example, in the Education Ministry. This is the right thing in terms of democracy, it is the right thing in terms of values, [and it puts us] on the path to normalization in Judea and Samaria. Also on the practical level it improves services to the citizens.”

The report on Smotrich’s new bill does not mention anything regarding the future of the Palestinians, who lives are governed, in virtually every aspect, by the Civil Administration.

Settlers Kill Knesset Plan to Complete the West Bank Barrier

Israeli settlers have successfully lobbied the Knesset to kill, for a third time, a bill to compel the Israeli government to finish building the West Bank the separation barrier. The Knesset voted to reject the bill 42-23. The government has failed to complete the construction, which began in 2002 amidst international outrage and allegations of war crimes, despite the adamant arguments of the Israeli government that the wall is a security necessity. According to B’Tselem, only 65% of the barrier has actually been erected – leaving significant gaps that seem to undermine the security logic of the barrier. Adding to that, 85% of the barrier is located inside West Bank territory, creating one form of de facto annexation of the areas on the Israeli side of the barrier, which include a long list of Israeli settlements and surrounding lands for their expansion.

In Al-Monitor, Mazal Mualem explains:

“…the right is concerned that an Israeli initiative of putting up a fence that separates West Bank settlements from Palestinian villages around them would constitute an official endorsement of a future border between Israel and a Palestinian state.”

The bill was pushed by members of the Zionist Union coalition on the left – without the support of the Joint List MKs (representing Palestinian citizens of Israel) – who stress the security imperative of closes the existing gaps. Avi Gabbay, head of the Labor Party, slammed the government’s foot-dragging, saying that delaying the completion of the barrier risks allowing the next terrorist attack Israel. Gabbay said the Netanyahu government is:

“simply afraid of settlers who don’t want to close the gaps for political considerations. These so-called political considerations damage the security of the State of Israel.”

Gabbay’s coalition partner, Tzipi Livni who heads the Zionist Union, explained the left-wing coalition’s rationale for supporting the barrier. Livni said:

“If you support the idea of two states for two people, you need to support this fence. At the beginning, we need a border between us and the Palestinians and then maybe in 50 years, when we live happily ever after, we can dismantle it. For now, this is the concept: security for Israelis but also dividing the land into two states for two peoples.”

The annexation of the West Bank land on the Israeli side of the barrier is an implicit assumption of Gabbay and Livni’s statements.

While No One Was Watching, Jerusalem Suburb Has Been Annexing “No Man’s Land”

For decades, the Israeli government has expanded the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mevasseret Zion into the no-man’s land between the internationally recognized 1967 Green Line and the Israeli separation barrier. Kerem Navot, an anti-settlement watchdog, recently discovered the cross-border expansion – which is plain to see on Google maps – of the neighborhood, along with a slew of other buildings, including a water facility and a synagogue. Additionally, the Israel Land Authority is advancing plans to build 300 new homes in the northern part of Mevasseret Zion, where it crosses over the Green Line.

Dror Etkes, the founder of Kerem Navot, told Haaretz:

“It’s obvious that the planners of this neighborhood knew very well where the Green Line runs. But they chose to ‘straighten’ the line there in order to make room for a few dozen more homes. It’s only natural that the state, which for decades has been investing massive resources in seizing control of the space of a neighboring people, should also expand communities situated within the Green Line into the West Bank. The amazing thing is that any sort of effort is being made still to maintain the distinction between communities within the Green Line and the settlements, since the declared policy of most of Israel’s governments in the past five decades was and remains the very opposite.”

A spokesman for the Mevasseret Zion neighborhood – whose residents almost certainly did not know they were living in a settlement –  issued a disgruntled statement regarding the discovery and the Israel Land Authority’s plan to expand the encroachment:

“The plan currently being promoted [by the Israel Land Authority] is vigorously opposed by the council and the local residents, and they are working together to block the project. The council and residents object to the plan going ahead with regard to both the areas across the Green Line and those in the permitted areas.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Ex-Jewish Agency Chief Slams Fellow Settlers Over Eviction of Neighboring Bedouin” (Haaretz)
2. “Israel’s New Tool for Disposessing Palestinians” (Haaretz)
3. “The Silent Transfer of Palestinians from Area C” (Ynet)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

November 30, 2017

1. Israeli Attorney General Argues Against “Regulation Law,” But Endorses its Goal
2. One Structure Demolished in the Netiv Ha’avot Outpost, But Will Others Follow?
3. Interior Ministry Pushes Plan for a New Settlement City in West Bank “Seam-Line” Region
4. Ir Amim & Bimkom Report – “Deliberately Planned: A Policy to Thwart Planning in the Palestinian Neighborhoods of Jerusalem”
5. UPDATES: Bedouin Communities Fight Eviction; Jerusalem “Supermajority” Bill Advances
6. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israeli Attorney General Argues Against “Regulation Law,” But Endorses its Goal

On November 22nd, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit issued his much-anticipated response to a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the “Regulation Law,” a law passed by the Knesset in February 2017 paving the way for the retroactive legalization of 55 Israeli outposts, 4,000 illegally constructed settlement units, and seizure of thousands of dunams of Palestinian agricultural land. Two petitions were filed against the law, one by a group of Israeli NGOs (ACRI, Peace Now, and Yesh Din),the second by a group of Palestinian NGOs including Al-Mezan and Adalah.

In a 72-page opinion, AG Mandleblit said the law is “a sweeping and injurious arrangement that does not meet the test of proportionality,” adding it “will also cause severe discrimination against the Palestinian population in the region.” At the same time, Mandelblit’s underlying argument – consistent with his actions and words in recent weeks – effectively endorsed the goal of retroactively legalizing the illegal construction and land seizures through other legal means.

The Palestinian NGOs sharply criticized the AG’s opinion, saying:

Although Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit maintains that the law should be repealed, his position is still problematic from the standpoint of international law. In parallel to his opposition to the law, the AG noted that “validating” the settlements is a worthy act and that the State of Israel now has a number of other tools at its disposal that allow it to “validate” Israeli construction on private Palestinian land that was transferred to a settlement “in good faith.”

In the AG’s response, he authorizes use of these tools including, amongst other measures, expropriation of Palestinian land for “public needs,” such “regulating” the construction of an access road to an illegal Israeli settlement outpost.

Adalah, JLAC, and Al Mezan emphasize that the AG’s position clashes directly with international law explicitly forbidding the construction of settlements and the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory – this is considered a war crime. International law specifically bans harm to Palestinian property in the West Bank for the purposes of development and expansion of settlements.

Peace Now, ACRI, and Yesh Din also issued a joint statement criticizing the Attorney General for his support for retroactive legalization by means other than the Regulation Law, saying:

…despite opposing the “Regularization Law”, Mandelblit has recently approved other legal steps to allow for the takeover of privately owned Palestinian land. During the past two weeks, the AG issued two legal opinions, one concerning land near the Haresha outpost and another in Ofra, in which he approved expropriation of private Palestinian land for the sole benefit of settlements. 

In his legal opinions Mandelblit fails to recognize that any takeover of private Palestinian land for the purpose of settlements stands in violation of IHL, specifically the laws of occupation that apply to the West Bank.

The undersigned organizations [ACRI, Peace Now, and Yesh Din] will continue to work against any government initiative, whether through legislation or by form of legal opinions, which violates human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank.

One Structure Demolished in the Netiv Ha’avot Outpost, But Will Others Follow?

On November 29th, the Israeli army razed an illegally-built structure in the unauthorized outpost of Netiv Ha’avot, near the Elazar settlement south of Jerusalem. Dozens of settlers protested the demolition by barricading themselves inside, forcing the Israeli army to remove them one-by-one against their protests before demolishing the building.

As FMEP reported in October, the Supreme Court upheld a 2016 decision ordering the demolition of 17 structures in Netiv Ha’avot that were built on privately owned Palestinian land. The structure razed on November 29th was the second to be demolished in accordance with this ruling, following the razing of  a memorial statue earlier this year. The remaining 15 structures are residential homes and must be demolished by March 2018, according to the court order.

However, Haaretz reports that Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit will soon decide whether to save six of the remaining structures from complete demolition by issuing building permits for the sections of the homes that were built (without permits) on Israeli state land. The six structures – unlike the remaining nine – were built mostly on land that has not been proven to be privately owned by Palestinians (allowing Israel to seize it as “state land”). As FMEP reported last month, the Supreme Court has already dismissed a similar petition submitted by the settlers arguing for partial demolitions; the AG’s issuance of building permits would circumvent the court’s decision. 

The Netiv Ha’avot settlers are also fighting to retroactively legalize the entire unauthorized Netiv Ha’avot outpost (not only the 17 structures that have been ordered to be demolished), which was built without permission from the Israeli government. In October, the High Planning Council advanced plans to build homes for Netiv Ha’avot residents in an alternate, ostensibly permitted, location; however, the plans specified a parcel of land that is also problematic under Israeli law because it is outside of the borders of any “legal” settlement. Indicative of how the settlement planning process often rewards illegal settlement activity with more settlement activity, the Council sought to address this challenge by ordering the borders of the nearby Alon Shvut settlement to be expanded to incorporate the land where the structures are planned to be built.

Interior Ministry Pushes Plan for a New Settlement City in West Bank “Seam-Line” Region

The Israeli Interior Ministry has reportedly recommended creating a new Israeli [settlement] city in the West Bank that unites four West Bank settlements – Etz Efraim, Sha’arei Tikva, Oranit and Elkana – allowing for increased construction on the land between them. The four settlements are all located in the “seam-line” zone, the area created by the weaving route of the Israeli separation barrier that was built to keep many settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier despite being east of the 1967 Green Line. 

FMEP will report more details on this story as it develops.

Ir Amim & Bimkom Report – “Deliberately Planned: A Policy to Thwart Planning in the Palestinian Neighborhoods of Jerusalem”

A new report by Ir Amim and Bimkom shines a harsh spotlight on the discriminatory urban planning process in East Jerusalem, as well as the increasing rate of home demolitions that, coupled with settlement expansion, are undermining the future of the Palestinian community there. In three case studies, the report’s authors look at how Israel deliberately blocks applications for planning and building in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, making it impossible for Palestinians to build legally.

Ir Amim & Bimkom write

This discrimination in planning is the product of a policy driven by demographic considerations – in particular, the objective of increasing the Israeli population while reducing the Palestinian population, with the underlying goal of ensuring Jewish demographic superiority….

The outcome of this policy has a devastating impact at both the individual and community levels. Barriers to legal building push many Palestinians to build without permits. Each year, the Jerusalem Municipality (herein, Municipality) and the District Planning Bureau (formerly under the auspices of the Interior Ministry and now the Finance Ministry), demolish dozens of housing units constructed without permits in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; in 2016 alone, the authorities demolished 123 housing units. The psychological and economic ramifications of this reality are profound. Moreover, inadequate planning prevents the construction of schools and the development of public spaces and employment and commercial zones, thereby weakening the community as a whole.

This treatment is clearly discriminatory, particularly when contrasted with the fact that the Israeli government continues to approve and fast-track approvals both for settlement planning in construction in major settlement neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and in settlement enclaves located in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. For details see this recent report from Peace Now.

UPDATES: Bedouin Communities Fight Eviction; Jerusalem “Supermajority” Bill Advances

• Over 100 Palestinians joined residents of Jabal al-Baba to protest the Bedouin community’s imminent eviction from the E-1 settlement area just east of Jerusalem.  The Jabal al-Baba community, which has lived in the area since it was expelled from the Negev in 1948, was given an eviction notice earlier this month demanding that it leave the area and stating that all structures there will be demolished. Jabal al-Baba is one of the many Bedouin communities located near Israeli settlements in Area C that are facing the imminent threat of eviction; the Khan al-Ahmar community (also located in the Maale Adumim/E-1 area) and two Jordan Valley bedouin villages have also been ordered to leave their land. The European Union has called on Israel to halt the planned demolitions. The EU statement also highlighted the impending demolition of Susiya, a Palestinian city in the South Hebron Hills. Both Susiya and Khan al-Ahmar were the subject of concern of a recent letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, signed by 10 U.S. Senators, demanding the demolitions be canceled and articulating serious concerns about the settlement enterprise, saying, “these communities are currently facing the imminent threat of evacuations and demolitions, and have been targeted by settlement movement activists seeking to entrench the Israeli occupation and prevent the ultimate creation of an independent Palestinian state.”
• The Knesset’s  Constitution, Law & Justice Committee voted to advance a bill that, if passed into law, will require a supermajority of votes in the Knesset to approve any deal that transfers sovereignty of any part of Jerusalem to a foreign power. This law would in effect give a minority in the Knesset veto power over any future peace deal with the Palestinians. The bill is now set for two final votes in the Knesset before becoming law. Ir Amim provides valuable analysis of the bill, and points out that the language is careful to differentiate between territorial concessions and municipal changes, a distinction that is apparently intended to support other pending legislation that would bureaucratically excise some Palestinian neighborhoods from Jerusalem – a move that the Knesset is also considering in order to manufacture and preserve a Jewish majority in the city.

Bonus Reads

• “UN Settlement Business Data Can Stem Abuse” (Human Rights Watch)
• “Border Homes, in Jerusalem but Not, Face an Existential Deadline” (New York Times)
• “Why Won’t Israel Let Me Mourn My Father?” (New York Times)
• “US Ambassador David Friedman Drops Out of West Bank Memorial Ceremony for Murdered US Citizen” (Jerusalem Post)

 

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FMEP has long been a trusted resource on settlement-related issues, reflecting both the excellent work of our grantees on the ground and our own in-house expertise. FMEP’s focus on settlements derives from our commitment to achieving lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and our recognition of the fact that Israeli settlements – established for the explicit purpose of dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of land and resources, and depriving them of the very possibility of self-determination in their own state with borders based on the 1967 lines – are antithetical to that goal.