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.

September 20, 2024

1. Israeli Supreme Court Orders Immediate Eviction in East Jerusalem, Fears of Mass Expulsion Grow
2. Residents of Zanuta Return to Land to Find Destruction, Israel “Offers” Permanent Displacement as Solution
3. UN Adopts on Resolution Calling for Israel to End Illegal Occupation of Palestinian Territory
4. Blinken Calls on Israel to Changes Rules of Engagement in the West Bank
5. Bonus Reads

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Israeli Supreme Court Orders Immediate Eviction in East Jerusalem, Fears of Mass Expulsion Grow

On September 10th, the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously rejected a final appeal submitted by the Ghaith family (15 people), affirming the District Court’s ruling to evict the family from their longtime home in favor of the Ateret Cohanim settler organization. The Ghaith family was ordered by the Court to immediately leave their home located in the Batan al-Hawa section of the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where 85 families face dispossession (details). Underscoring the struggle Palestinians face in Silwan to remain in their homes and on their land,  in addition to the eviction cases threatening mass displacement,  Israel is also carrying out an accelerated demolition campaign targeting Palestinians in Silwan over the past year.

Ir Amim reports that since October 7th there has been a dramatic spike in court decisions to evict Palestinians at the behest of settlers, with 14 families having been dispossessed in the past six months – including the Shehadeh family who were dispossessed of their home just one month ago. More – this is the second major case in the past two months that has seen a Palestinian family thrown out of their homes in Silwan – – setting an increasingly entrenched precedent for the cases that are still pending. All of these cases hinge on the settlers’ use of the discriminatory law (the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters law) and the Court’s continued acceptance of that law as a weapon by which to replace Palestinians with Jews. The law provides a right for Jews to reclaim property that was owned prior to 1948, but abandoned during war. Palestinians are provided no such right and further, as Ir Amim explains, “to the contrary, the 1950 Absentee Property Law enshrines that Palestinians who were forced to abandon their homes and lands in what became Israel after the war of 1948 can never retrieve them.”

Ir Amim writes:

“Although the Israeli government often characterize these cases as private real estate disputes, they are rather part and parcel of a systematic campaign aimed to cement Israeli control over the Old City Basin, the most religiously and politically sensitive part of Jerusalem. These measures are reinforced by a constellation of settler-operated tourist sites, which together, serve to alter the character of the space and forge a ring of Israeli control around the Old City. This creates an irreversible reality on the ground that deliberately erodes conditions for an agreed political resolution on Jerusalem and the rest of the territory. Such actions severely violate the individual and collective rights of Palestinians in the city, while carrying an acute humanitarian impact on the affected families.”

Noting that both the Ghaith family case and the Shehadeh family case (which one month ago concluded wit the dispossession of the family in favor of settlers) have been ruled on by conservative Israeli Justice Sohlberg, Peace Now says in a statement:

“If this eviction is carried out, God forbid, it will be an injustice and a crime against a vulnerable population under occupation in East Jerusalem, leaving an indelible stain on the State of Israel. The government can and must stop the forced displacement of an entire community and the responsibility lies on its shoulders. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) specifically referred in its opinion to the system of discriminatory laws and the Israeli settlement policy in East Jerusalem and determined that it is a violation of international law. Although the matter is political and the legal process is only the tool for its realization, it is important to emphasize that Judge Solberg’s decision stands in contrast to the decisions of other judges in the Supreme Court who have granted permission to appeal in similar cases. It seems that Judge Solberg is using his powers to prevent the discussion from reaching judges whose position is different from his own, precisely two days before the state’s position on the issue is supposed to be given to the court.”

Residents of Zanuta Return to Land to Find Destruction, Israel “Offers” Permanent Displacement as Solution

It has been nearly a year since the residents of Zanuta – a remote herding community in the South Hebron Hills – has been forcibly displaced from the lands under the shadow of continuous settler violence and lack of any action by the IDF to stop the terrorism, which only escalated in the wake of October 7th. In July 2024 the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that the State of Israel must facilitate their safe return to the land. Villagers started returning to the area in August to discover that in the intervening months, settlers have been allowed to enter the area and destroy nearly all of the houses, the small school, and the village’s health clinic. The village appeared ransacked. Only days after their initial return, the village was attacked by Yinon Levy (a settler under international sanctions for his involvement in violence) while the Israeli police and army watched.

With the legal assistance of Haqel, the villagers submitted a request with COGAT to restore and protect the village’s buildings. Instead of offering that small measure of justice, the Civil Administration responded by “offering” the villagers a chance to relocate their lives to land 2.5km away – land that Israel has declared to be “state land” but land that is adjacent to Areas A  and B (not situated solidly in Area C, as the current village is). The letter also stated that the Civil Administration will not permit any new construction in the current village and intends to carry out enforcement against buildings that lack Israeli permits in 30 days.

Haqel issued the following statement in response to the absurd proposal:

“the state is threatening the residents with destruction of the remainder of the demolished building in the village if the residents accept the offer to evacuate the village and move to the area adjacent to areas A and B. There is no doubt that the state’s proposal at the present time, precisely with the return of the residents to their village by order of the High Court after the previous violent expulsion, is intended to formalize and complete the deportation of the residents of the village of Zanuta where the settlers began their efforts to ethnically cleanse Area C of its Palestinian residents. The state ignores any historical and proprietary connection of the residents to the village who have in their possession documents proving their rights to hundreds of dunams of private land in the village and forcing them to be displaced to an area in which they have no property rights and where there are other Palestinian landowners present.”

UN Adopts on Resolution Calling for Israel to End Illegal Occupation of Palestinian Territory

On September 18th, the  United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months. The resolution further calls for member states to cease transferring arms to Israel that may be used in the occupied lands. Only 14 countries voted against the measure, including Israel and the United States. Kenneth Roth, founder and former director of Human Rights Watch, suggests that:

“The US government’s response suggests a refusal to recognize the new legal reality in which Israel now finds itself….The US government’s response to the general assembly resolution reflected (at least feigned) ignorance of the legal paradigm shift that has occurred. The Biden administration accused the general assembly of “ignoring Israel’s very real security concerns”, but that misses the point of the ICJ ruling. Those security concerns must be met from within Israel, not through occupation.”

While the resolution is non-binding, it provides decisive clarity that the majority of the world (124 out of 198) holds Israel’s occupation is illegal and should end. The resolution’s language is largely informed by the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice some two months ago.

Blinken Calls on Israel to Changes Rules of Engagement in the West Bank

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called upon Israel to change its rules of engagement in the West Bank after an American citizen, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot in the head and killed by an IDF soldier while participating in a protest against the Evyatar outpost in the Palestinian village of Beita. 

Eygi’s family said in a statement:

“Aysenur, an activist and volunteer, was peacefully standing for justice as an international observer and witness to Palestinian suffering. She was taking shelter in an olive grove when she was shot in the head and killed by a bullet from an Israeli soldier. This cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian.”

The family’s statement helps put the spotlight on the ongoing struggle of Palestinians from the area of Beita to stop the retroactive legalization of a violent outpost, which was established illegally 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. Palestinians have held weekly protests against the government’s plans and the continued presence of settlers in the area ever since – protests which have resulted in no fewer than seven Palestinian protesters dying as a result of the harsh and violent actions by the IDF to quash the protests. Then, on July 8, 2024, the Israeli government declared 16 acres (66 dunams) of land as Israeli “state land” in order to pave the way for the legalization of the Evyatar outpost. 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 was made one week after the Israeli Security of Cabinet decided in favor of legalizing the Evyatar outpost along with four other outposts.

Blinken said:

“We’ve long seen reports of the security forces looking the other way when extremist settlers use violence against Palestinians. We’ve seen reports of excessive force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians. It’s not acceptable. It has to change. And we’ll be making that clear to the senior-most members of the Israeli government.”

Bonus Reads

1. “IDF expands Judea and Samaria security guards authority” (JNS)
2. “A plan to liquidate northern Gaza is gaining steam” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Annexation, Expulsion and Israeli Settlements: Netanyahu Gears Up for Next Phase of Gaza War” (Haaretz)
4. “What Settler Violence Is Doing to Israel’ (The Atlantic)
5. “How extremist settlers in the West Bank became the law” (Financial Times)
6. “How the Israeli settlers movement shaped modern Israel” (The Conversation)
7. “Israel’s Existential Threat from Within” (NYT The Daily Podcast)

 

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 28, 2024

1. West Bank Annexation: Israeli Military Cedes Control of West Bank Civilian Affairs to Settler
2. In Secretly Recorded Tapes, Smotrich Confirms Israel is Annexing the West Bank via Bureaucracy
3. Israel Authorizes Five Outposts, Hints at Thousands of Units & More Annexation to Come
4. Knesset Forms Caucus to Push for Resettlement of Gaza
5. Canada Sanctions Prominent Settler Groups & Leaders
6. Israeli High Court Hears Petition Challenging De Facto Annexation in the Jordan Valley
7. Bonus Reads

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West Bank Annexation: Israeli Military Cedes Control of West Bank Civilian Affairs to Settler

In an act of de jure annexation of the West Bank, on May 29th the head of the Israeli Civil Administration signed an order ceding a significant part of the military’s authority over affairs in the West Bank to a newly created, civilian administrator who reports to Bezalel Smotrich. Filling that role is Hillel Roth,  a close ally of Smotrich and resident of the radical, violent Yitzhar settlement. Roth was appointed as Deputy head of the Civil Administration and now has authority over the enforcement of building regulations in settlements and outposts; West Bank real estate transactions; government property; land and water arrangements; protection of holy places (except the Cave of the Patriarchs, Rachel’s Tomb and Samuel’s Tomb); forestry laws; tourism; public bathing; planning of cities, villages and construction; some land registration processes; management and administration of regional councils; and many more.

Smotrich stressed that these changes are meant to be long lasting, and that if the current government changes, the architecture of annexation will remain.

This is a significant continuation of the transfer of control over the West Bank from the Israeli military – which has acted as the occupying power of the West Bank since 1967 – to Israeli civilian government elected by Israelis (and not Palestinians living in the West Bank) to advance Israeli state interests. It’s reasonable to expect that Roth, working in tandem with Smotrich, will continue to advance annexation, accelerate settlement construction, outpost legalization, and enforcement against Palestinian construction. To learn more about why this transfer of power matters, listen to a new FMEP podcast featuring FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Professor Yael Berda.

Longtime anti-settlement activist Yehuda Shaul described the step as “de jure annexation,” claiming that “Israeli civilian governance has been extended into the West Bank under Smotrich’s guidance.”

Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for Israel-Palestine at Crisis Group, told The Guardian: 

“The big story is that this is no longer ‘creeping annexation’ or ‘de facto annexation’, it is actual annexation…This is the legalisation [and] normalisation of a long-term policy. Smotrich is basically re-establishing the way in which the occupation works by taking a large part out of the hands of the military…Half the people he has brought in to the defence ministry are from [the pro-settler Israeli NGO] Regavim. The same people who worked at Regavim to disposess Palestinians in Area C are now in government positions.”

In Foreign Policy, David Rosenberg writes: 

“Control over public bathing may seem like a minor business on par with dog catching. But it is not: A big part of the contest for the future of the West Bank is about demographics—increasing the settler population—and control of land. The Settlements Administration is meant to give the settlers the tools to do that more effectively. The natural springs that dot the West Bank serve Palestinian farmers as well as Israeli bathers and constitute one of many battlegrounds for control of the land and its resources.”

In Secretly Recorded Tapes, Smotrich Confirms Israel is Annexing the West Bank via Bureaucracy

At a settler event on June 9th, members of the Peace Now team secretly recorded a speech Bezalel Smotrich made in which he detailed how the Israeli government is bringing the West Bank under Isreal’s civilian/domestic government through a series of administrative moves that were designed to obscure Israel’s annexation from the world, making it appear that the military is still in charge. Smotrich described the efforts as “mega dramatic” saying that the government is cementing its control over the Area C of the West Bank by transferring powers from the military to civilians, but doing it in a way that: 

“would be easier to swallow in the political and legal context, so that people wouldn’t say that we are now doing an annexation, and sovereignty, etc., so we did not change the legal status of the land. The military commander is still the sovereign.”

Smotrich went on to detail what the government has accomplished over the past several years, including the establishment of the Settlement Administration and the transfer of powersf from the military to that civilian body, establishing a legalization bypass route to grant outposts authorization, and the upcoming transfer of legal authority from the military to an official under Smotrich’s control. To read more about these moves, see Peace Now’s reporting.

Smotrich’s ultimate goal is, of course, to have no distinction between Israel’s governance regime over 48 Israel and the whole West Bank, not just Area C. A Palestinian settlement expert, Khalil Tafakji,  told Mondoweiss that the next logical step is for Smortich to set his sights on Area B, where the Palestinian Authority is empowered to oversee civilian affairs.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“Smotrich said out loud what Netanyahu is trying to hide. While all eyes are on what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza, they are also actively pursuing annexation of the West Bank. Since the war began over two dozen new outposts have been established, and a similar number of Palestinian communities have been forcibly displaced. And in a blatant violation of international law, the government has transferred power in the Occupied West Bank from the army to a civilian body. This illegal act of annexation makes clear that two legal systems are now officially at play for the Palestinians and one for Israeli settlers.”

Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, told The Guardian: 

“The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“Netanyahu, Smotrich and their colleagues are annexing the West Bank right now. They are instituting apartheid and destroying the two-state solution. And if they succeed, Israel will cease to exist as a democratic country.”

Israel Authorizes Five Outposts, Hints at Thousands of Units & More Annexation to Come

On June 27th, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved the retro legalization of five outposts along with a series of punitive sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. In announcing the decision, Smotrich said the Cabinet also approved the advancement of plans for thousands of new settlement units across the West Bank as well as forcible transfer of authority over a specific West Bank nature reserve in Area B from the Palestinian Authority to Israel (an act of de jure annexation). According to the Times of Israel the nature preserve, which is not named, has been an obsession of Regavim and other settler groups which allege the Palestinian Authority has been building there (entrenching a Palestinian presence on land the settlers want) and damaging heritage sites – which is a common and often baseless accusation settlers level against Palestinians.

The Prime Minister’s office has not independently confirmed the details of the Cabinet’s decisions, but the Cabinet Secretary Yehuda Fuchs did confirm the decision to legalize the five outposts. The outposts set to be legalized as full-fledge settlements – which will be afforded the ability to expand its territory, receive Israeli services, etc etc – are:

1. Evyatar, which was built on a strategic hilltop named Mount Sabih, located just south of Nablus on land historically belonging to nearby Palestinian villages Beita, Yatma, and Qablan. The history of the Evyatar outpost and the Israeli government’s efforts to legalize were headline news in 2021, with Palestinians staging regular protests against the outpost and settlers along with the IDF violently attacking those protests. Since 2021, the Israeli government has been “examining” the land in order to find a basis by which to declare the area as “state land” and allow settlers to once again live there. For further background, see here.
2. Sde Efraim;
3. Givat Asaf, located east of Ramallah;
4. Heletz, in the southern West Bank;
5. Adorayim, in the southern West Bank.

The proposal for authorizing these outposts was first promoted as a response to European states – Norway, Ireland, Spain, and Slovenia – announcing recognition of a Palestinian state. 

As a reminder, the Israeli government has spent decades finding means by which to grant authorization to outposts that settlers have illegally built (oftentimes with the open encouragement and funding of the government) throughout the West Bank. The outposts that, to date, are still illegal under Israeli law for the most part are either newly constructed outposts, or they are located on land that even the Israeli government has in the past recognized as privately owned Palestinian land. For the past five years at least, the Israeli government has been inventing new legal bases by which to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land in order to authorize those remaining and new illegal outposts – even tasking government teams to design legal pathways for each outpost to receive authorization. Newly invented legal tools have included most notably the Regulation Law (which was later overturned by the Israeli High Court), and the Market Regulation Principle, and the findings/recommendations of the 2018 Zandberg Report. It remains unclear what basis will be used for these five new outposts set for legalization, or if the Israeli government intends 

​​Knesset Forms Caucus to Push for Resettlement of Gaza

Two members of the Knesset recently launched the “Knesset Caucus for the Renewal of Settlement in the Gaza Strip.” The Caucus is dedicated to push legislation and policy in favor of establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza, an increasingly popular idea even beyond settlers and their allies. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 50% of Jewish Israelis support occupying the Gaza Strip after the war against Hamas ends — although it did not explicitly ask about settlement.

Canada Sanctions Prominent Settler Groups & Leaders

On June 27th, the government of Canada announced sanctions against 5 settler entities and 7 individuals, including prominent settler groups like Amana, Lehava, and the Hilltop Youth, as well as prominent settler leaders, including Daniella Weiss. Canada is the first foreign government to issue sanctions against Weiss or Amana, which is one of  the most powerful and well resourced settler organizations behind the illegal construction of outposts in the West Bank. Amna has also received Israeli government funding despite its very public involvement in illegal activities.

In a statement the Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said:

“We remain deeply concerned by extremist settler violence in the West Bank and condemn such acts, not only for the significant impact they have on Palestinian lives, but also for the corrosive impact they have on prospects for lasting peace. We call on authorities to ensure the protection of civilians and hold perpetrators of such violence accountable.”​​

Israeli High Court Hears Petition Challenging De Facto Annexation in the Jordan Valley 

On June 22nd, the Israeli High Court held a hearing on a case submitted by Palestinian herders in the Jordan Valley who have had their livestock seized by the Jordan Valley Regional Council. The Palestinians, whose petition is supported by Yesh Din, argue that the settler regional council does not have authority to enforce its bylaws on Palestinians. 

The three-judge panel appeared to at least partially sympathize with the legal argument of the Palestinians, which assert that the settlers do not have jurisdiction to regulate Palestinians or the land. Instead, one of the judges asked the settlers why they do not just call the Israeli Civil Administration to handle the issue.

Since October 7th, Yesh Din has documented several instances of settlers conspiring with the Jordan Valley Regional Council to confiscate herds of livestock belonging to Palestinians based on the claim that they are illegally grazing in the Regional Council’s jurisdiction, and then demanding exorbitant fees for their return. Yesh Din identifies this not only as an illegal practice, but as a policy “designed to annex and take over Areas C while pushing Palestinians out…to force Palestinian communities from their homes.

The IDF’s own legal council has issued a legal opinion confirming that settler municipalities do not have jurisdiction or authority to enforce any laws or regulations against Palestinians. But the settler regional council rejected this opinion, saying that its jurisdiction applies to an area of land (and anyone/thing who enters that land) – not just a certain type of people (i.e. Israeli settlers). 

Yesh Din explained why this is a significant legal claim:

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

Bonus Reads

1. “A settler shot my husband. Then Israel bulldozed my childhood home“ (+972)
2. “Is the US poised to sanction an Israeli minister for the first time?” (The Times of Israel)
3. “Settler Real Estate Company Allegedly Sold Land It Doesn’t Own. Israel Threatens Legal Action” (Haaretz)
4. “Israeli legal team seeks clarification on US sanctions against protest group” (JNS)

 

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.

April 14, 2023

1. Thousands of Israelis – Including Ministers Smotrich & Ben Gvir – March to West Bank Outpost Site
2. Somtrich Meets with Settler Leaders to Discuss Security Needs; Settler Calls for Collective Punishment of Palestinians
3. Bonus Reads

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Thousands of Israelis – Including Ministers Smotrich & Ben Gvir – March to West Bank Outpost Site

On April 10th, an estimated 50,000 Israelis were permitted to stage a massive march through a part of the West Bank that is the area of operations of some of the West Bank’s most extreme and violent settlers. At least 20 Israeli lawmakers and seven ministers participated in the march and subsequent rally, including longtime Greater Israeli acolytes Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who is the de facto sovereign authority in the West Bank.

The march started from the Tapuah Junction (itself located deep inside the West Bank) and ended at the site of the illegal Evyatar outpost in the central West Bank.  Organizers said the march was staged in response to the deaths of two British-Israeli sisters killed by a Palestinian gunman on April 9th (the girls’ mother was also wounded in the attack and later died).

As a reminder, Evyatar is an illegal outpost (established by settlers in violation of Israeli law, in addition to international law). 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. 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. This week’s march continued that campaign, with march organizers hosting a carnival-like rally at the Evyatar site and demanding that the government grant the outpost retroactive legalization. Importantly and perhaps tellingly, Haaretz reports that this is 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.

While marching, Minister Smotrich told Haaretz:

“We’re building here and financing roads and Infrastructure… God willing, we’ll bring here another half a million Jews on top the half a million that are all ready here.”

Revealingly, when asked why the government had not yet given the Evyatar outpost full authorization, Religious Zionism lawmaker Zvi Sukkot said that is will happen soon, explaining:

“There’s a certain order to these things..We got the responsibility for the Civil Administration only recently…legalizing such an outpost takes time. We’re not afraid of America.”

Ben Gvir said in a speech to the crowd:

“We’re returning home to the Land of Israel and to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem… We legalized nine outposts and god willing we’ll legalize and build more… The answer to terror is to keep on building more.”

The march ended on Mt. Sabih, where the outpost of Evyatar (currently uninhabited by settlers) still stands. Mt. Sabih is land that has historically belonged to the nearby Palestinian villages of Beita, Yatma, and Qablan. Palestinians from the area attempted to protest the march, and in response the IDF used tear gas and rubber coated bullets in order to keep Palestinians away from the thousands of marchers. 216 Palestinians were reportedly wounded as a result of IDF actions, 22 with wounds from rubber-tipped bullets and 2 by tear gas canisters to the head. Clearly identified members of the press were also targeted and injured, with camera capturing an Israeli soldier deliberately throwing a tear gas canister at a journalist. As a reminder: Evyatar became a recurring headline news story mostly as a result of the determined effort by Palestinians from Beita to protest the outpost and to resist the Israeli government’s efforts to retroactively legalize it. Along the way, Beita has seen incredible violence and tragedy in the past two years, as weekly protests near the site of Evyatar outpost have been met with harsh and violent actions by the IDF to quash the protests, resulting in the deaths of at least seven Palestinian protesters.

An entire Israeli army battalion was reassigned from other duties to protect the marchers, despite the fact that many senior security officials were reportedly opposed to the march, in large part because it forced the IDF to divert so many resources at a time when Israeli security forces are dealing with challenges in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, from Gaza, and from Lebanon (not to mention recent actions against Syria). These concerns notwithstanding, the head of IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, ultimately gave approval for the march to take place. 

Steps taken by the IDF to secure the event included closing a number of area roads, including Route 505, which connects the Nablus area to the Jordan Valley. Palestinian schools in the area were also closed and classes were held online (Palestinian schools are often targeted and damaged by settlers). And notably, the route of the march passed alongside the village of Huwara, which was the site of a recent pogrom carried out by settlers. 

Somtrich Meets with Settler Leaders to Discuss Security Needs; Settler Calls for Collective Punishment of Palestinians

On April 8th, Bezalel Smotrich – acting in his capacity as a minister within the Defense Ministry with virtually unchecked power over civil affairs in the West Bank – held a meeting with fourteen settler leaders to discuss the security situation in the West Bank. During the meeting, the settler leaders asked Smotrich for the following, to which Smotrich reportedly agreed:

• Additional IDF checkpoints throughout the West Bank; 
• An Israeli-led operation to collect weapons from Palestinians suspected of terrorist affiliations;
• Reinforcement of West Bank infrastructure, including investments in building new settlements.

Shlomo Ne’eman, Chairman of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and Head of the Yesha Council, called forthrightly for the “collective punishment” against all Palestinians in the West Bank, saying in a statement following the meeting:

“Our statement is sharp and clear: We will not allow the security of half a million residents of Judea and Samaria to be abandoned to the Oslo Accords, which for a long time have been immaterial. The Arab towns and villages of Judea and Samaria have become the headquarters for the enemy’s offensive operations against the citizens of Israel everywhere in the country, while the residents of Judea and Samaria are situated on the battlefront. We demand that the government provide a plan of action that takes on two angles, being sur mera ve’ase tov – turning away from evil and doing good.

Unwavering actions against the enemy also includes collective punishment and impairment to the Palestinian Authority, which produces terrorism, finances terror, and educates towards terror against development in Judea and Samaria without hesitation.

It is time to pass a government decision in support of building up Judea and Samaria, which means taking substantial steps immediately. The history of our country has proven that the most appropriate Zionist answer is to act harshly against the enemy and continue construction and development in the Jewish communities.

We thank our friend, Minister Smotrich, for convening this discussion and listening to us. The minister has accepted and agreed to our demands and pledges to act with the prime minister and the state security cabinet to realize these demands.

We have told him unequivocally: You are the state leadership; we trust you and will fully support you in every firm action taken. Our heroic residents are prepared to suffer for Israel’s victory against her enemies, but they will not agree to be used as moving targets in the land struggles of the Palestinian Authority.“

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel’s Ben-Gvir push for a National Guard could give him own militia” (Al-Monitor)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 10, 2023

1. As Part of Nof Zion Settlement Expansion, Israel Approves PlanNew Police Complex in East Jerusalem
2. Prime Minister Convenes Summit on Evyatar Outpost Legalization, No Decision Made (Yet)
3. Knesset Finalizes Draft of Bill to Reestablish Four Settlements in Northern West Bank
4. Key Developments on De Facto Annexation via Archaeology
5. Bonus Reads

→ Listen to FMEP’s Kristin McCarthy speak with Rafat Sub Laban (human rights lawyer) and Amy Cohen (Ir Amim) about the Sub Laban eviction case. On March 15th or anytime after, the Sub Laban family can be forcibly displaced from their home of 60+ year at the behest of settlers with the support of the State. You can listen, or watch, the conversation here.

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As Part of Nof Zion Settlement Expansion, Israel Approves PlanNew Police Complex in East Jerusalem

As anticipated, in its meeting on March 8th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved a plan to build a massive new Israeli security headquarters on the border of the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood, where the Nof Zion settlement enclave is located. The construction of the new police installment will allow the old station – currently located in Jabal Mukaber –  to be handed over to the Nof Zion settlement enclave for the already-approved expansion of that settlement, which includes the construction of a hotel on the site of the former police installment.

The new station faced opposition both Palestinians, anti-settlement groups (the station will be located over the Green Line) as well as ecological groups, the latter because the hill on which the new station will be built is known for its rare flowers as well as panoramic views of Jerusalem. The committee dismissed all objections to the plan, saying that the station is necessary for Israel’s security.

Prime Minister Convenes Summit on Evyatar Outpost Legalization, No Decision Made (Yet)

Channel 13 News reports that on March 5th, Prime Minister Netanyahu convened a high level meeting to discuss the government’s plan to reestablish the Evyatar outpost and yeshiva, a promise made by the Prime Minister to Ben Gvir in their coalition deal.  The meeting disbanded without a final decision, much to the dismay of Ben Gvir, Smotrich and the settlers who regularly (and illegally) go to the Evyatar site.

In attendance,was National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Finance Minister and Minister in the Ministry of Defense Bezalel Smotrich, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Colonel Ghasan Alyan, and other senior defense officials. Gallant and his allies opposed an immediate decision on Evyatar, citing security risks and rising tensions – especially with Ramadan around the corner.

Settlers attempted to visit the Evyatar outpost to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, but were removed by Israeli security forces. 

As a reminder, settlers agreed to temporarily leave the site of the Evyatar outpost in 2021 under terms of a government-brokered deal in which the government promised to undertake an “investigation” into the status of the land. That investigation has reportedly been concluded, and found that part of the land the outpost was illegally built on is “state land,” and part is privately owned by Palestinians. This report agrees with a 2022 opinion issued by then Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit supporting the retroactive authorization of Evyatar. The government deal with settlers also stipulated that the settlers’ illegal construction at the site would be left in place (i.e., did not demolish it) — including buildings and roads —  while the government carried out its investigation into the status of the land. In this way, the “compromise” left the outpost intact and allowed Israel to maintain complete control over the site during the “survey” process, clearly signaling that the government’s objective was never to enforce Israeli law, but, rather, was always about finding a legal and political “solution” to enable it to launder the settlers’ illegal actions and accommodate their demands. Indeed, the terms of the Evyatar “compromise” made clear that the government was confident that it would find a pretext on which to assert that the land on which the outpost stands is “state land,” which can be used by the state as it sees fit (which nearly 100% of the time means, will be used to benefit the settlers).

The Evyatar outpost was built illegally by settlers 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. Evyatar became a recurring headline news story mostly as a result of the determined effort by Palestinians from the nearby village of Beitar to protest the outpost and to resist the Israeli government’s efforts to retroactively legalize it. Palestinians staged regular protests near the site of Evyatar outpost, which resulted in no fewer than seven Palestinian protesters dying as a result of the harsh and violent actions by the IDF to quash the protests. 

Knesset Finalizes Draft of Bill to Reestablish Four Settlements in Northern West Bank

On March 9th, a Knesset panel finalized a draft bill that will repeal clauses of the 2005 Disengagement Law, which is required for the government’s plan to reestablish settlements in the northern West Bank that it dismantled as part of the disengagement deal (most notably, the Homesh settlement). The bill is now ready for its first reading and vote in the Knesset.

The agreed-upon draft will repeal clauses from the 2005 Disengagement Law that prohibit Israeli entry into the area of the former settlements, which brings the status of the land in line with the rest of Area C. Many lawmakers were pushing for the bill to also include articles that would give outright permission for the reestablishment of the areas – articles to permit Israelis to buy and own property/real estate – but the final text did not include those articles, nor does it apply any of the changes to Gaza.

Key Developments on De Facto Annexation via Archaeology

Emek Shaveh issued an update on several important issues that show how the Israeli government is continuing and in some cases accelerating the politicization of archaeology as a means to dispossess Palestinians and achieve the de facto annexation of lands in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

First, Emek Shave reports on structural changes in the ISraeli government that put some of the most radical members of the ruling coalition in charge of key archaeological portfolios with authority over West Bank heritage sites. A government decision transferred power over the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) from Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Heritage, which is headed by a member of Ben Gvir’s radical party (Amihai Eliyahu) – signaling “another step towards the extreme politicization of the authority.” In tandem, Amihai Eliyahu was given bureaucratic responsibility over the Civil Administration’s Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA), effectively bringing this official (who is seated in the Defense Ministry) under a civilian authority. The SOA is responsible for overseeing all antiquity sites in Area C of the West Bank. 

Emek Shaveh explains:

 “It is not surprising that the far-right party would choose the heritage portfolio. According to the coalition agreement, the purpose of the Ministry of Heritage ‘is to care for national heritage assets, engage in the exposure, conservation and reconstruction of these assets alongside entrenching Jewish and Zionist heritage.’ Indeed, the plans and structural changes within the ministries show that consolidating heritage governance on both sides of the Green Line under the Ministry of Heritage indicates a strategic decision to use all the available statutory mechanisms in order to apply full Israeli control over ancient sites in the Occupied Territories.”

Second, Emek Shaveh reports that the IAA – as part of its expanding activities in the West Bank – conducted an excavation in the southern West Bank and announced its plan to display its findings in an Israeli museum (both of which are illegal under international law). Further, Emek Shaveh warns that archaeological digs such as the one conducted recently have served historically as a pretext for the establishment of new settlements – like in the case of the Shiloh and Amona settlements. Emek Shaveh writes:

“Even if the initial intention does not include turning the site into a settlement, the establishment of a camp is a means of laying hold to an area and displacing Palestinians from their land. It goes without saying that once a[n archaeological] camp is established, military presence is needed to guard the Israelis staying on site. We can assume that this trend will only intensify under the current minister of heritage.”

You can read the full update by Emek Shaveh, which discusses further news, here.

Bonus Reads

1. “Six killed in Israeli raid on Jenin as settlers attack Palestinian town again” (Washington Post)
2. “Police minister clowns around with settlers for Purim in flashpoint Hebron” (The Times of Israel)
3. “West Bank, Gaza Palestinians to be banned from entering Israel during Purim” (The Times of Israel)
4. “Shrinking the Conflict: Debunking Israel’s New Strategy” (Wallid Habbas, Al-Shabaka – March 6, 2023)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 3, 2023

1. Israel’s Makes Clear No Concessions Were Made in Aqaba Agreement, Settlements & Annexation Will Proceed
2. Settlers Invade Evyatar Outpost Site as Calls for Legalization Grow
3. Israel Advances Massive Expansion of Nof Zion Settlement Enclave in East Jerusalem
4. Settlers Terrorize Huwara with IDF Assistance & Political Support
5. Israeli Comptroller Wants Israel to Finish the Wall, Fortify Settlement Industrial Zones
6. Bonus Reads

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Israel’s Makes Clear No Concessions Were Made in Aqaba Agreement, Settlements & Annexation Will Proceed

On February 26th, the United States, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel released a joint statement in which Israel agreed it will not “discuss new settlement construction plans for four months and will not authorize any new outposts for six months.”

To be clear, this statement is first and foremost a concession by the US, the PA, Egypt, and Jordan – in that it implicitly agrees that Israel may go ahead, after four months, with discussing new settlement construction plans, and after six months with authorizing any new outposts.

And equally clear: the “limits” in this agreement do not represent concession on the part of Israel. As has been Israel’s regular practice, the Higher Planning Council (the body within the Defense Ministry that oversees construction planning in the West Bank) has convened on a quarterly basis since the Obama Administration days, so agreeing to “stop discussion” for four months doesn’t delay or freeze anything, as much as it gives Israel “credit” for the standard pause between convenings. Likewise, with respect to Israel’s commitment to not authorize any new outposts for six months  — as FMEP has already described, this is by no means a limitation on Israel’s ability to authorize outposts through the trick of calling them “new neighborhoods” of existing settlements. It’s also clear that this agreement has no bearing on the massive advancement of settlement construction and approval of new settlements undertaken by the Israeli Security Cabinet and Higher Planning Council over the last two weeks.

Prime Minister Netanyahu himself made it abundantly clear that the Aqaba statement will not constrain, restrain, or delay Israel’s advancement of settlement construction and outpost authorization. Netanayhu tweeted: “There isn’t and there will not be any construction freeze…Constructions and authorization in Judea and Samaria will continue according to the original schedule of the Higher Planning Council.”

Bezalel Smotrich, Finance Minister & Minister of the newly created “Settlement Administration” in the Defense Ministry that has power over planning in the West Bank, posted a tweet saying:

“I have no idea what they talked about or didn’t talk about in Jordan…I heard about this superfluous conference from the media just like you. But one thing I do know: there will not be a freeze in the construction and development of settlements, not even for one day (this, on my authority). The IDF will continue to counter terrorism in all areas of Judea and Samaria without any limitation (we will confirm this with the cabinet). It’s very simple.”

Settlers Invade Evyatar Outpost Site as Calls for Legalization Grow

On February 26th, dozens of Israeli settlers illegally invaded and stayed overnight at the site of former Evyatar outpost, in an attempt to reestablish the outpost —  an action settlers say was in response to a nearby shooting attack in which a Palestinian gunman killed two settlers near the Palestinian village of Huwara. The IDF – under the command of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – attempted to quickly remove settlers from the area the night they arrived, but were reportedly unable to do so until the next day (because the settlers refused to leave and the IDF apparently lacked the will to force them). 

The Israeli coalition government – as part of the coalition deal – explicitly agreed to retroactively legalize Evyatar as a new settlement, but it was not one of the ten outposts granted legalization by the Israeli Security Cabinet on February 12th. Settlers and their allies have since poured on the pressure seeking to convince the govenment to greenlight the reestablishment of Evyatar. 

Itamar Ben Gvir – who demanded the fate of Evyatar be included in the coalition agreement – convened a meeting of his party members at the site of Evyatar after the settlers were evacuated, and noted that he had attempted to appeal to Netanyahu to stop the evacuation. Ben Gvir said he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister that day, pleading to allow the settlers to stay and for the outpost to be legalized as a means of fighting terrorism. Ben Gvir was one of many Israeli lawmakers from within the governing coalition to call for legalization. Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock said on radio, “The return to Evyatar is our mission and we intend to fulfill the agreement to return very soon.” On Feb. 28th, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly promised the legalization of Evyatar. 

On March 2nd, newly minted MK Tzvi Sukkot (Otzma Yehudit) – a criminal settler who replaced Smotrich upon his resignation from the Knesset to serve in the Cabinet – set up a tent at the site of Evyatar, calling it an parliamentary bureau. Sukkot’s “office” is ostensibly protected from removal by the IDF because of diplomatic immunity, and has been rewarded with a 500-person battalion of IDF officers deployed to the area in order to protect it. Sukkot also joined the settlers on March 26th who illegally invaded the area and stayed overnight in defiance of IDF attempts to clear the settlers from the outpost. Sukkot said:

“I set up my office here in Evyatar in order to monitor the implementation of the coalition agreement signed with our party, from up-close. This is one ‘stone’ on the way to our complete return to the community, as was agreed and as must be.I am working with all my might to ensure that the government keeps its promises and establishes a permanent community here.”

As a reminder, settlers agreed to temporarily leave the site of the Evyatar outpost in 2021 under terms of a government-brokered deal in which the government promised to undertake an “investigation” into the status of the land. That investigation has reportedly been concluded, and found that part of the land the outpost was illegally built on is “state land,” and part is privately owned by Palestinians. This report agrees with a 2022 opinion issued by then Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit supporting the retroactive authorization of Evyatar. The government deal with settlers also stipulated that the settlers’ illegal construction at the site would be left in place (i.e., did not demolish it) — including buildings and roads —  while the government carried out its investigation into the status of the land. In this way, the “compromise” left the outpost intact and allowed Israel to maintain complete control over the site during the “survey” process, clearly signaling that the government’s objective was never to enforce Israeli law, but, rather, was always about finding a legal and political “solution” to enable it to launder the settlers’ illegal actions and accommodate their demands. Indeed, the terms of the Evyatar “compromise” made clear that the government was confident that it would find a pretext on which to assert that the land on which the outpost stands is “state land,” which can be used by the state as it sees fit (which nearly 100% of the time means, will be used to benefit the settlers).

The Evyatar outpost was built illegally by settlers 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. Evyatar became a recurring headline news story mostly as a result of the determined effort by Palestinians from the nearby village of Beitar to protest the outpost and to resist the Israeli government’s efforts to retroactively legalize it. Palestinians staged regular protests near the site of Evyatar outpost, which resulted in no fewer than seven Palestinian protesters dying as a result of the harsh and violent actions by the IDF to quash the protests. 

Israel Advances Massive Expansion of Nof Zion Settlement Enclave in East Jerusalem

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee convened on March 1st and recommended approving a plan for public deposit (a last step before final approval) that would, if approved, massively expand the Nof Zion settlement enclave, located inside the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber. The Committee is set to reconvene on March 6th to actually approve the plan for public deposit.

Ir Amim writes: 

“After being postponed several times over the past few months, including in January, reportedly due to the US National Security Advisor’s visit to the region last month, the Israeli authorities are clearly hellbent on advancing this plan. The re-scheduling of this plan along with the resumption of promotion of the E1 plans follows swiftly on the heels of continuous empty commitments by the Israeli government to temporarily freeze settlement advancement among other measures to reduce tensions…Beyond its geopolitical implications, this is yet another example of the severe discrimination in urban planning and housing in East Jerusalem. Despite the plan being designated for the entrance of Jabal Mukabber, it is not intended for the community’s development needs, but rather the expansion of a Jewish settlement in the middle of a Palestinian neighborhood. It should be noted that Jabal Mukabber has been among the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem with the highest number of demolitions per year. Just today, the Israeli authorities razed a home in Jabal Mukabber, displacing a family, including two children.”

The plan – called “Nof Zahav” – would allow for 100 new residential units and 275 hotel rooms in the settlement enclave, which currently consists of 95 units, plus another  200 under construction. In order to provide sufficient land for this expansion, the Jerusalem Planning Committee is simultaneously advancing another plan to relocate an Israeli police station [the Oz station], currently located on the border of Jabal Mukaber, to a new site across the street. This will leave its original location free for the planned expansion of Nof Zion, while the new site will become a massive new Israeli security headquarters. Ir Amim filed a petition against the police station plan, arguing that it is an affront to the planning needs of the local community and that it represents a continuation of Israel’s systematic, city-wide discrimination against the housing, educational, and service-based needs of Palestinian neighborhoods. A decision on the police station relocation plan is expected soon. 

Settlers Terrorize Huwara with IDF Assistance & Political Support

Settlers committed a pogrom against Palestinian village of Huwara on February 26th. For eight hours, hundreds of settlers attacked Palestinians and their property, causing terror, far-reaching destruction, hundreds of injuries, and at least one death.

Al-Haq reports that the IDF not only failed to intervene but actually facilitated the settlers’ rampage in the first place.

Al Haq reports:

“The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) facilitated the settler attack, effectively laying siege to Huwwara by closing off all the entrances of the town, in advance of the attack, permitting the entrance of hundreds of settlers by foot, and preventing the entry of medics and journalists. During Israeli colonial settler attacks against Palestinians in Huwwara, and other nearby villages, Sameh Aqtash, 37, was killed, a further two Palestinians were shot and wounded, another stabbed, and a fourth beaten with an iron bar, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. The IOF openly accompanied the marauding settler mob, attacking Palestinians with military grade tear gas, leaving 95 Palestinians suffocated from tear gas inhalation.”

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights further reports:

“IOF closed all Nablus’ entrances and tightened the cordon off the village from three directions. Around half an hour later, at least 500 Israeli settlers started to gather at Huwara and Za’tara checkpoints surrounding Huwara village and down to the Yitzhar Bypass Road leading to “Yitzhar” settlement, which cordons off the village from the southwestern side, and amid the attendance of IOF and Israeli officials from the government at the scene. During their demonstration, the settlers intentionally carried out largescale attacks and violence acts against Palestinians and their property, houses, shops, and vehicles, and in Huwara village, and deliberately set them ablaze without any intervention from the IOF to stop them. The settlers’ attacks continued until 23:15, causing bruises to several Palestinians, completely burning 7 houses, 6 cars garages and 34 vehicles and breaking the windows of 25 houses by stone-throwing and the windows of 20 other vehicles were smashed as well.”

Settlers cited the murder of two Israelis – Hillel and Yagel Yaniv earlier in the day as the pretext for the pogrom. The two were killed by a Palestinian gunman on the main road near Huwara. Palestinians noted that this killing was in response to Israel’s military operation the day before in Nablus (near Huwara), in which 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 Palestinians were injured.

Bezalel Smotrich – who is effectively the sovereign authority over the West Bank – celebrated the pogrom and incited further genocidal, state-led violence. In a taped interview Smotrich said:

“The Palestinian village of Hawara should be wiped out of the earth. The Israeli government needs to do it and not private citizens”

Following widespread international condemnation, the IDF arrested six (or seven, per other reports) Israeli settlers, all for their conduct against Israeli soldiers (as opposed to for attack on Palestinians). All were swiftly ordered to be released by a Jerusalem court, but the Defense Ministry ordered two of them (one of whom is a minor) to be held in administrative detention (a tool rarely used with respect to Jewish detainees).  According to the Times of Israel, “A senior security official speaking to Channel 12 news claimed the pair were ‘planning and had carried out operations against IDF forces. [They] are extremely dangerous.’ According to Haaretz, a senior security source, possibly the same one, said they were involved in initiating the riots.”

Zvika Foghel,a criminal settler now serving in the Knesset – endorsed the pogrom and incited further violence, saying:

“A Huwara that is burning — that’s the only way we’ll achieve deterrence…We need to stop shying away from collective punishment.”  

The pogrom in Huwara happened one day before the U.S. State Department released its 2021 Country Report on Terrorism, in which for the first time the U.S. said that “Israeli security personnel often did not prevent settler attacks and rarely detained or charged perpetrators of settler violence.” Such facts have been documented by Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups for decades.

Israeli Comptroller Wants Israel to Finish the Wall, Fortify Settlement Industrial Zones

In its annual report released late February 2023, the State Comptroller’s Office slammed a wide range of government bodies for their failure to finish the West Bank separation barrier and over the state of security at settlement industrial zones.

On the separation barrier, the comptroller criticized the government and IDF for abandoning efforts to finish the project, for failing to fix damaged areas of the wall, and for decreasing the presence of the IDF along the barrier route. The Comptroller report said that there were 1.4 million instances of Palestinians crossing the barrier in 2021, about 6,000 per day. In response to the report, an IDF source said that the barrier is expected to be finished in late 2023 (or late 2024) and argued that the barrier is 82% effective except “in areas where it was decided operationally not to fix breakthroughs.” 

The Israeli Comptroller also harshly criticized the lack of fortification of the 35 settlement industrial zones in the West Bank. The report examined seven of the zones, finding deficiencies in the security systems in each. The report recommends the government formulate and fund a plan to improve security.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel has quietly annexed the West Bank and Biden stays silent” (Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss – 2/25/23)

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.

October 13, 2022

1. Nablus Region Broiling as Settlers Rampage
2. Senior Israel Officials Preside Over Cornerstone-Laying Ceremony for New Settler Tourist Project in East Jerusalem
3. Israel Antiquities Chief Releases Map of New Israeli National Park Near Jericho (in Area C)
4. Amidst Violent Surge, Settlers Demand Establishment of Evyatar Settlement & Yeshiva
5. Bonus Reads

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Nablus Region Broiling as Settlers Rampage

As violence continues to escalate across the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, this week settlers have continued, seemingly uninhibited, to instigate clashes with and terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank. Some key examples include the following (for an even more thorough listing, see the Palestine Center for Human Rights’ weekly report):

• On October 11th, Israeli settlers staged a massive march – explicitly designed to provoke Palestinians and demonstrate Israeli dominance/impunity – near the Palestinian town of Sebastia,  just north of Nablus. An Israeli soldier providing security to the settlers was shot and killed by a drive-by shooter as the march got underway. Following that shooting, the Palestinian militia group calling itself “Lion’s Den” claimed credit for the drive-by shooting, leading the Israeli army to completely shut down the city of Nablus – where the Lion’s Den is based – in response.
• Late in the evening on October 12th — while the Israeli army was keeping all the entrances and exits to Nablus closed in response to the October 11th shooting of an IDF soldier guarding a settler march — the IDF again provided security for settlers, this time enabling them to enter the city of Nablus (the IDF even transported settlers in military vehicles), ostensibly to visit Joseph’s Tomb and conduct religious prayer there (ostensibly because the timing/nature of the visit appeared to be largely if not entirely about provoking Palestinians). In the course of the operation, IDF soldiers exchanged gunfire with Palestinians; no injuries were reported on either side. 
• The following morning, October 13th, settlers marauded through and terrorized the Palestinian town of Huwara, located just south of the Nablus. Video footage documents IDF soldiers actively protecting (and therefore enabling) settlers who were brazenly committing crimes and assaulting Palestinians. The Palestinian Red Crescent reports 53 people were injured.

It’s worth recalling that settlers have staged several protests and marches over the past few weeks, ostensibly to pressure the Israeli government to intensify its ongoing military operation in the West Bank – which Israel has dubbed “Break the Wave” – a reference to recent attacks against Israeli civilians (and IDF soldiers, bearing in mind that when IDF personnel are injured/killed in any context by Palestinains, Israel in effect counts those IDF personnel as civilian victims of terrorism).  This operation involves Israel staging near daily raids into Palestinian cities in the West Bank — tactics that have led to numerous Palestinian deaths/injuries/detentions. 

Notably, the settler march held on October 11th attracted nearly 10,000 people  – including lawmakers Bezalel Smotrich and well-known Kahanist (who is likely to be a powerful plate in the next Israeli government) Itamar Ben-Gvir. The settlers paraded from the Shavei Shomron settlement to the nearby Palestinian town of Sebastia, where settlers have been engaged in an effort to take control over antiquity sites under Palestinian control in the city. At the conclusion of the march, settlers staged a festival in Sebastia with live music acts, speeches, and more.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan stated:

 “We came here today to wave the Israeli flag, to state that we won’t surrender to those who wish to kick us out of our land. We will continue to settle, march, and hike through our entire country. To answer terror we build the land of Israel. We are excited to see the thousands that are marching with us.”

Senior Israel Officials Preside Over Cornerstone-Laying Ceremony for New Settler Tourist Project in East Jerusalem

Emek Shaveh reports that a ceremony was held on October 6th to lay the cornerstone of a new pedestrian footbridge over the Ben Hinnom Valley/Wadi Rababa in Jerusalem. The bridge is a project pushed by settler groups and will serve to connect two settler-operated tourist facilities located in two Palestinian neighborhoods on opposite sides of the valley – one in Abu Tor and the other in Silwan. The ceremony was held at one of those settler-run tourist facilities – known as the “House in the Valley”, operated by the Elad Foundation – and was presided over by Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin, Israeli Transportation Minister Yoel Razvozov, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, and Israeli Antiquities Authority director general Eli Eskosido.

Emek Shaeh comments:

“The bridge is another project in a list of new projects which are transforming the valley, such as the cable car, and the Elad Foundation’s Farm in the Valley (also called Center for Ancient Agriculture). All of these are part of the larger strategy to establish a continuum of biblically themed tourism ventures and Jewish residential settlements in the Silwan-Hinnom Valley area using a variety of legal and administrative mechanisms to displace Palestinians from their homes, shrink their public spaces and downplay their heritage.”

At the cornerstone laying ceremony on October 6th, Minister Elkin confirmed the intent behind the bridge, saying: 

“the suspension bridge is an important strategic project led by the Ministry for Jerusalem Affairs and other partners. We are working to turn the Hinnom Valley into a developed tourism zone and in so doing achieve two additional goals: one is to strengthen the sense of security and sovereignty in the area, the other is to ease access to the Old City.” 

On the Abu Tor side of the bridge, the Elad settler organization runs and operates a cultural center and cafe named “House in the Valley,” which opened in 2019 after Elad evicted a Palestinian family and renovated the space. A week after Elad’s new cultural center was opened, the Jerusalem Municipality issued “gardening orders” to take control, for an initial period lasting 5 years (with the likelihood of extensions after that) of 12 nearby plots of privately-owned Palestinian land. “Gardening orders” allow Israel to “temporarily” take over privately owned land for what are ostensibly public purposes (like establishing a parking lot or public garden), based on the argument that the private owners are not presently using the land. In this case, Israel has in effect made rules that guarantee that the latter condition applies: as Emek Shaveh has noted, the 12 plots in question are located in an area declared by Israel to be a national park, meaning that private landowners are legally barred from using their own land.

On the Silwan side – a neighborhood where Elad (alongside other settler organizations, including Ateret Cohanim) is waging a house-by-house campaign to displace Palestinians in favor of settlers and settler-run tourist sites – the bridge will end near the Sambuski cemetery, which until recent years was a relatively unknown, neglected site that even Israel did not recognize as a holy site. Under the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan, the Sambuski cemetery was suddenly transformed into a place of prime historical and religious importance to Israel. The Emek Shaveh – which has a special expertise on archaeology and the weaponization of archaeology to serve the political agenda of the settlers and the state – wrote a report on exactly how the Trump “Vision” supports settler efforts to use Jerusalem’s history and antiquities to promote Israeli-Jewish hegemony and control over the city.

Israel Antiquities Chief Releases Map of New Israeli National Park Near Jericho (in Area C)

Emek Shaveh reports that Eli Eskosido, the Director General of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, has been sharing a map showing a new “Hasmonean Palaces National Park” on land located southwest of the Palestinian city of Jericho. Notably, the land in question is located in Area C of the West Bank – where the domestic Antiquities Authority does not, legally (under Israeli law and the Oslo Accords) have any jurisdiction. 

The Hasmonean Palaces archaeological site was identified in the Oslo Accords as a place of  “archaeological and historic importance to the Israeli side”,  granting the Israelis control over this enclave of land within a Palestinian population  center. However, the area has not been developed by the Israeli government. Emek Shaveh reports that while a National Park has been planned for the area, it does not currently exist. 

Bizarrely, the map promoted by Eskosido is emblazoned with the logos of domestic Israeli government bureaus, which – again – do not have any jurisdiction in the West Bank. A settler group focused on weaponizing archaeology to advance Israeli annexation in the West Bank, “Guardians of Eternity,” alleges that the site has been subject to damage by Palestinians over the years. Emek Shaveh reports that the Binyamin Regional Council – the municipal association in charge of settlements in the area – is reportedly interested in taking over direct management of the site. 

Emek Shaveh notes:

“The publication of the map by Mr. Eskosido is another manifestation of steps towards de facto annexation in the realm of antiquities which we wrote about earlier this year following the Knesset’s committee’s recommendation of expanding the Israel Antiquities Authority remit into Area C.

The investment in this site is an outcome of a persistent campaign by Guardians of Eternity (Regavim) and the Shiloh Forum which exploits historical, religious and cultural affinities of the Jewish people to sites in the West Bank with the aim of galvanizing the Israeli government to expand and deepen its control. This latest involvement by the IAA in the Hasmonean Palaces should be considered within this context. Although damage by Palestinians to the site is a problem, for the most part this takes the form of light construction. It is certainly not an expression of a Palestinian Authority led plan to destroy Jewish heritage in the West Bank as the settlers repeatedly claim.”

Amidst Violent Surge, Settlers Demand Establishment of Evyatar Settlement & Yeshiva

Over the Sukkot holiday, settlers in the northern West Bank staged a renewed push for the government, specifically Defense Minister Benny Gantz, to act in order to formally establish the Evyatar settlement and yeshiva, located on Palestinian lands just south of Nablus. In February 2022, the outgoing Israeli Attorney General issued an opinion that provides a basis for granting retroactive legalization to the Evyatar outpost (which would mean authorizing Evyatar as a fully-approved new settlement, “legal” under Israeli law). Since February 2022, Defense Minister Gantz has had the authority to declare the area as “state land” as the first (and most significant) step towards authorizing Evyatar. For reasons that remain unclear, Gantz has not (yet) made a move to do so.

The saga of the Evyatar outpost became a recurring headline news story over the past two years, mostly as a result of the determined effort by Palestinians from the nearby village of Beitar to protest the Evyatar outpost and to resist the Israeli government’s efforts to retroactively legalize it. Palestinians staged regular protests near the site of Evyatar outpost, which was built illegally by settlers 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. No fewer than seven Palestinian protestors died as a result of the harsh and violent attempt by the IDF to quash the protests.

Bonus Reads

1. “Drones terrorized Gaza for years. Now they’ll do the same in the West Bank” (+972 Magazine) → “the army is calling for the use of drones to surveil refugee camps and strike militants, for installing remote-controlled gun turrets to secure high-volume checkpoints, and for employing biometric cameras to track civilians across the West Bank.”
2. “The GOP’s Plan to Build the Third Temple” (Jewish Currents)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 4, 2022

1. Israeli High Court Temporarily Freezes Evictions of Four Sheikh Jarrah Families, Will Revisit Land Ownership Claims
2. Plan to Expand National Park onto Church-Owned Land in Jerusalem Back on Agenda
3. Israel to Advance Plan to Expand Mount Scopus Slopes National Park in Jerusalem
4. High Court Says Settlements are a Significant Part of (and Benefit to) Israel’s “Security Doctrine” & Refuses to Return Land to Palestinians
5. Israel Advances Plan to Build Tourist Promenade Over Muslim Cemetery Along Jerusalem’s Old City Walls
6. New Report on Israel’s Collective Punishment of Beita As Palestinian Protests Against Evyatar Outpost Continue
7. Further Reading

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Israeli High Court Temporarily Freezes Evictions of Four Sheikh Jarrah Families, Will Revisit Land Ownership Claims

On March 1st, a three-judge panel of the Israeli High Court issued an order to temporarily freeze the eviction of four Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. With this new decision, the High Court granted the Al-Qasim, El-Kurd, Iskafi, and Jaouni families the right to appeal decades worth of previous decisions by lower courts that recognized settler ownership of the land on which they live. The High Court ruled that final ownership of the land has not been determined and must be revisited, and that until that determination is made (via the settlement of title and registration processes), the families are permitted to remain in their homes as legally “protected tenants,” paying rent into an escrow account managed by lawyers involved in the case – funds that won’t go to the settlers who claim ownership unless and until the title and registration processes conclude that the land does, in fact, belong to the settlers.

Haaretz reports that the Court’s decision in these four cases has the potential to affect the proceedings of 13 other cases of settler-led expulsion in Sheikh Jarrah, and comes just one week after a decision by a lower Israeli Court to temporarily delay the eviction of the Palestinian Salem family from their Sheikh Jarrah home in favor of settlers, fearing renewed violence. Taken together, the Courts may be attempting to calm tensions in Sheikh Jarrah and across East Jerusalem. — tensions that have been mounting in anticipation of the Salem family eviction, with the deliberate provocation of a Kahanist Member of Knesset who established his “office” in Sheikh Jarrah; and with the upcoming convergence of major religious holidays (Ramadan, Easter, and Passover). As a reminder, the four cases revisited this week provided a significant spark for the Palestinian Unity Intifada that unfolded in 2021 and ultimately led to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

In response to the Court’s decision, a group representing Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah issued the following statement:

“The battle to solidify our rights in our lands and our homes is far from over – rather, it has started anew. The Occupation authorities weaponize ‘land settlement and registration’ as a tool to control land in occupied Jerusalem. We reaffirm: our cause is righteous and we will continue our fight. We know we will not receive justice from Israeli Occupation courts. Rather, we count on the population and global movements that have accomplished the unprecedented feat of forcing the court to cancel the imminent expulsion. Yet, the threat of dispossession is still looming over our community. Through this decision, the Occupation’s Supreme Court imposed on the four families the status of ‘protected tenant,’ a special legal status in which families deposit an annual amount to a trust account held by the lawyers until the ‘title settlement and registration’ procedures are complete. However, such procedures can take anywhere between months to years. Therefore, we must rely on continual and persistent grassroots efforts until this battle is officially over and our families – and all Palestinian families – can live in their homes without fear of exulsion.”

As a reminder: With its annexation of  East Jerusalem following the 1967 war, Israel suspended the process of land registration and settlement of title in East Jerusalem. Israeli lawmakers have pointedly stated over the past two years their intentions to reinitiate these processes, and reports have suggested that Israel has begun to do so – secretively – in Sheikh Jarrah. The launching of an Israel-run process of registering ownership of land in East Jerusalem land will have far-reaching consequences for Palestinians, who have not had a formal, legal avenue for registering land ownership with the Israeli government since East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in 1967 – meaning, for example, that if a property owner has died, his/her heirs have had no legal way to register as the current owners. As a consequence, such a process is liable to be used against Palestinians by settlers.

Plan to Expand National Park onto Church-Owned Land in Jerusalem Back on Agenda

Despite reports last week that Israel has abandoned a highly controversial and sensitive plan to expand the boundaries of the Jerusalem Walls National Park to include privately owned Palestinian land as well as land owned by major Christian churches on which sits prominent holy sites, Israeli planning authorities are (once again) scheduled to take up a discussion of the plan at two meetings scheduled for August 24th and 31st . The discussion of this plan proceeded despite reports last week that consideration of the plan was being tabled following widespread outcry by the heads of major Christian denominations, who linked the plan to ongoing efforts by Israeli settlement organizations to “minimize…any non-Jewish characteristics of the Holy City.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“This plan is part of a process of transforming the symbolic, religious, and political import of the Old City Basin by augmenting the Jewish religious and national significance of this area while eroding the multi-religious and multi-cultural nature of the space and blurring the Palestinian presence in its bounds. This plan is not justified from a planning perspective and is of no value to the protection of historical assets. Its sole purpose (alongside other discriminatory laws and policies) is to serve a religious right-wing agenda for the Old City Basin. It is a cynical misuse of heritage and environment protection discourse as a tool for justifying settlement expansion, restricting Palestinian development, and further entrenching Israeli sovereignty. The current plan should be canceled and in its place the Israeli government should promote a plan to reduce the size of the National Park Surrounding the Old City Walls in a way that does not include Wadi Hilweh and al-Hizbe in the National Park’s boundaries, hereby allowing them to develop into equitable urban neighborhoods. Such development can be done in a way that will not harm the landscape and the visibility of the Old City Walls. This should be done while simultaneously promoting implementable and adequate urban plans for these areas.”

Israel to Advance Plan to Expand Mount Scopus Slopes National Park in Jerusalem

On March 1st the Jerusalem District Planning & Construction Committee met to hear objections to a plan that, if approved, would significantly expand the borders of the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park to include land that is currently open space between the Palestinian neighborhoods of al-Isawiyyah and A-Tur. This move would isolate those neighborhoods and restrict their growth. Notably, the designation of  this land as an  Israeli national park would extend Israeli control  from the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus ever more solidly towards the area designated for the construction of the E-1 settlement.

As a result of the hearing, the Jerusalem District Planning & Construction Committee said it will convene another hearing on the matter, but did not set a date and noted that it will be a closed meeting, not open to the public. This plan is in the final  stages of the approval process

Ir Amim explains the history and significance of this plan:

“The National Park plan was initiated over a decade ago, however, essentially frozen since 2014. From the outset, the plan was intended to block any expansion of the adjacent Palestinian neighborhoods who already suffer from acute housing shortages, overcrowding and an ongoing planning stranglehold. In addition to its severe implications on Palestinian housing and development rights, this National Park would enable Israel to create further territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and the E1/Maaleh Adumim area, while increasing fragmentation of the Palestinian space. Together, these measures further erode conditions for any agreed political resolution in the future. The Mount Scopus Slopes plan must be seen within the context of the INPA’s recent attempts to advance an extension of the National Park around the Old City Walls. While the plans are technically separate, if the dots are connected, it essentially extends the emerging ring of Israeli control around the Old City Basin, marked with a constellation of national parks, settler enclaves, and touristic settlement sites.”

High Court Says Settlements are a Significant Part of (and Benefit to) Israel’s “Security Doctrine” & Refuses to Return Land to Palestinians

In a ruling issued February 28, 2022, the Israeli High Court rejected an appeal filed by the Palestinian Muncipality of Hebron challenging the Israeli military’s 1980 seizure of land for “security purposes.” The land in question previously served as Hebron’s central bus station, and is located in the heart of the Old City of Hebron on Shuhada Street – the main road leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs that in the wake of the 1994 massacre of Palestinians at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque, by an American-Israeli settler, has been completely or mostly off-limits to Palestinians.

In making this ruling, the author of the Court’s opinion, Justice Alex Stein, dismissed legal objections against the questionable process by which Israel made parts of the land – originally seized for “security purposes” – available for settlement construction. In doing so, he overturned High Court precedent (dating back to 1979) to assert that, in the view of the High Court today, building and maintaining civilian settlements in the West Bank is part and parcel of Israel’s security doctrine, saying:

“A Jewish civilian presence constitutes part of the regional security doctrine of the Israel Defense Forces in the area. This is because the presence of citizens of the country who hold the seized property makes a significant contribution to the security situation in that same area, and makes it easier for the army to carry out its mission.”

According to Haaretz, the legal argument that settlements are a valid security mechanism has not been tested in the Courts since it was rejected in the Elon Moreh settlement case. The Haaretz Editorial Board bluntly wrote: 

“Stein is turning back the legal clock and claiming that a settlement is a security asset.”

Background: 

• The land in question is located in the Israeli-controlled H-2 area of Hebron (where approximately 500 Israeli settlers live amongst around 40,000 Palestinians). Israel seized this land in the 1980s, from the Hebron Municipality, for “military purposes.” 
• In 2007, the Civil Administration’s Legal Advisor issued an opinion stating that once Israel is done using the land for military purposes, it must be returned to the Hebron Municipality, which has protected tenancy rights to the land. 
• Nonetheless, in 2015, the Israeli Civil Administration, with the consent of the Minister of Defense, quietly authorized the Housing Ministry to plan the area for Israeli settlement use, paving the way for that same ministry to subsequently present a plan for the 31 settlement units. 
• In October 2018, with legal challenges to Israel’s using the land for settlements still pending, the Israeli Cabinet voted to expedite the planning of the new settlement and allocated approximately $6.1 million (NIS 22 million) for the project, which will require Israel to significantly renovate the bus station/military base in order to build the 31 new settlement housing units, as well as a kindergarten, and “public areas” for the new settler residents. This is a new settler enclave in the city and is, in effect, a new urban settlement, disconnected from already existing settlements in the city. It will be the first new settlement construction approved in downtown Hebron – where Palestinians already live under apartheid conditions – since 2002.
• Notwithstanding the ongoing legal battle over the land, Israel went ahead and began construction on the new settlement at the site back in October 2021.
• The Palestinians’ appeal – rejected on 2/28/22 by the High Court – argued that the State’s actions in recent years prove that the land was not seized for security purposes at all, but rather for the political purpose of expanding settlements in Hebron. The High Court rejected this argument, affirming that this Court – in effect – views the building settlements as, ipso facto, a security purpose for the State of Israel. 

Peace Now explained the significance of the States actions to build a settlement on this land, a move that the Court has now approved: 

“The approval of the building permit in the heart of Hebron is an extraordinary move not only because it is a new settlement in Hebron for the first time since 2001, but because it indicates a significant change in Israeli legal interpretation of what is allowed and forbidden in occupied territory. The area in question was owned by Jews before 1948, and it was leased by the Jordanian government in protected tenancy to the Hebron municipality for the purpose of establishing the central bus station. Since 1967, the Israeli authorities managed the land and continued the lease to the Hebron municipality, until in the 1980s when the area was seized for military purposes, the bus station was closed and a military base was established there. A legal opinion of the Judea and Samaria Attorney General on the issue in 2007 emphatically stated that by law the municipality’s protected lease must not be revoked.”

Israel Advances Plan to Build Tourist Promenade Over Muslim Cemetery Along Jerusalem’s Old City Walls

Haaretz reports that the Jerusalem District and Planning Committee – with the support of the Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) – has rejected appeals by the Muslim Waqf to stop plans to build a new promenade for tourists on land which is owned by the Waqf and that is part of a Muslim cemetery, located just outside the northeast corner of Old City Walls of Jerusalem. In October 2021, human remains were found in this area.

According to Sami Arshid, a lawyer representing the Waqf, the land in question has been leased by the Waqf for more than a century to successive regimes controlling Jerusalem (Turkish, British, Jordanian, Israeli). But in 2018, Arshid reports that Israel stopped paying rent and instead began advancing plans to build on the area. Though the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said in a statement that Israel does not plan to formally expropriate the land (it will merely build upon it without the consent of its owners), the planning committee said that it was important to advance the plan “without reference to those who hold rights within it.” 

Arshid told Haaretz:

“This plan was born in sin. It deprives the owners of the land of their rights and infringes on people’s basic rights as well as harming the delicate balance in the fabric around the Old City. The planned project also harms the Old City walls and the world heritage of the place.”

New Report on Israel’s Collective Punishment of Beita As Palestinian Protests Against Evyatar Outpost Continue

B’Tselem has published a new report documenting the death and violence surrounding the ongoing saga of the Evyatar outpost, which was built illegally by Israeli settlers on land known to Palestinians and Mount Sabih – just south of Nablus. The outpost has sparked sustained protests led by Palestinians demanding the outpost be removed and the land returned, protests which have been violently suppressed by the Israeli military. Seven Palestinians have died and many dozens have been injured as a result.

B’Tselem writes on the other means by which the Israeli military is punishing Palestinian resistance:

“In addition to implementing a lethal open-fire policy, Israeli security forces have arrested dozens of town residents since the protests began. To wear down the protesters, the military closed off the main entrance to the town for a month and a half, and military bulldozers blocked and dug up agricultural roads leading to the demonstration flashpoints, damaging about a kilometer of agricultural terraces and some 2,000 trees about a kilometer away from the outpost. The deputy council head of Beita told B’Tselem that Israel revoked the work permits of about 150 residents. Soldiers also used severe violence against Israeli protesters who came to the demonstrations to show solidarity with the Palestinian protesters, and arrested them on false pretenses. Evyatar was established on Palestinian land – not on the private initiative of several settlers, but as part of Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, with the full cooperation of all the relevant Israeli authorities. However, the state is not content with appropriating the land and building a settlement there. It also insists on forbidding the Palestinian residents from protesting these acts and forcibly prevents any attempt at resistance — including with lethal force. Let us reiterate: the establishment of settlements is illegal under international law, and the International Criminal Court in the Hague is currently investigating Israel’s policy on the matter. Israel’s choice to prevent area residents from protesting the establishment of Evyatar, to implement a lethal open-fire policy in circumstances that do not endanger soldiers’ lives, and to uphold this policy even after its fatal outcomes have become clear – adds insult to injury.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Eight Settlers Arrested for Attacking Soldiers, Palestinians Near Illegal West Bank Outpost” (Haaretz)
2. “Israeli army blocking activists from calling ‘hotlines’ to report settler violence” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Israel Surpasses 1,000 Demolitions in the Occupied West Bank Since Joe Biden Took Office” (The Intercept)

 

Welcome to an abbreviated version of FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, this week providing you a list of resources that cover everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. The Settlement Report will return to its normal format next week.  To subscribe to this report, please click here.

Jerusalem

Reports this week suggest that the Bennett government has (for now) tabled the E-1 settlement plan, due largely to U.S. pressure. At the same time, the Israeli government continued to advance other major new settlement projects across East Jerusalem (most notably Givat HaShaked, and “Silicon Wadi”). And all of this comes, of course, in addition to the looming mass displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, as the result of the joint efforts of Israeli settlers, Israeli courts, and the Israeli government. 

• E-1 tabled (?): “Israel freezes plans to connect Jerusalem to Maale Adumim due to US, Meretz pressure” (Israel Hayom)
• Advancing new settlement of “Givat HaShaked”: “District Planning Committee to Discuss Settlement Plans for ‘Givat HaShaked’ and Pisgat Ze’ev” (Ir Amim)
• Demolition Orders in Wadi Joz to pave way for Silcon Wadi: “Dozens of Palestinian commercial facilities in Jerusalem receive demolition orders from the Israeli municipality” (WAFA). For Background on the “Silicon Wadi” project, see here.
• Looming mass displacement in Sheik Jarrah/Silwan: PODCAST: “Sheikh Jarrah Showdown” (Terrestrial Jerusalem)

The Evyatar Outpost

With the legal backing of the Israeli Attorney General’s office and the reported support of Defense Minister Gantz, the drive to retroactively legalize the Evyatar outpost continues to advance, despite opposition from leaders of the Yesh Atid and Meretz parties. For detailed background on the Evyatar outpost, see here. For further info on recent developments, see:

• “Bennett’s gov’t bent on legalizing Evyatar outpost, Minister says” (Jerusalem Post)
• “Top Israeli Official Explains Why Evyatar Won’t Be Legalized” (Haaretz)
• “Settlers Score Decisive Win Against Israeli Government” (Haaretz)
• “Israeli Attorney General’s ‘Parting Gift’ to Government: A Land Mine” (Haaretz)
• “Opinion | Legalizing the Illegal Pretense of Evyatar” (Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz). 

The Homesh Outpost & Yeshiva

Facing a court-mandated deadline to state its position on the unauthorized Homesh outpost and yeshiva, the Israeli government told the Court last week that it is “working hard to enforce the law” but that Defense Minister Gantz is ultimately responsible for what happens. A few days later, the IDF removed *some* of the illegally built structures that settlers have been using for many years as a yeshiva at the site of the former Homesh settlement (which was dismantled by the Israeli government in 2005, but the land was never returned to its Palestinian owners). However, the main yeshiva building was left intact (the buildings that were removed had been used as dormitories). For background on the Homesh outpost and yeshiva, see here. For further info on recent developments, see:

• “Israeli Government Says Fate of Illegal Outpost of Homesh in Gantz’s Hands” (Haaretz)
• “IDF razes settler buildings at West Bank’s Homesh, yeshiva remains” (Jerusalem Post)
• “Security forces demolish structures at Jewish outposts in West Bank, Negev” (The Times of Israel)
• “Yamina MK Nir Orbach supports repeal of Disengagement Law” (Arutz Sheva)

More on Outposts

Significantly, the Knesset this week rejected a bill that would have connected some 70 West Bank settlement outposts (illegal even under Israeli law) to the Israeli power grid. Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party (which had previously backed the bill when it was in the opposition, back when Netanyahu was still Prime Minister) voted against the bill. For more details, see:

• “Opposition bill on connecting illegal West Bank outposts to power grid shot down” (The Times of Israel)
• “Security forces demolish illegal outpost named for teen killed in police chase” (The Times of Israel)
• “Vehicles Vandalized in Palestinian Village Hours After Israel Evacuates Outpost” (Haaretz)

More Developments – Quick Hits

Khan Al-Ahmar

• “Binyamin Council rejects establishment of Khan al-Amar on its territory” (Arutz Sheva)

Settler Violence

• “Illegal Outpost Resident Arrested After Attack on Left-wing Activists” (Haaretz)
• “Charges Are Pressed Only in 4% of Settler Violence Cases” (Haaretz)
• “Israeli minister keeps up campaign against growing settler violence” (Al-Monitor)

Radar-Worthy

• “Approved Monday, relatively unknown AG will take office amid falling trust” (The Times of Israel)