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

June 3 ,2021

1. Critical Updates from Silwan & Sheikh Jarrah
2. Tender Published for Givat Hamatos Groundwork, Even as Petition is Pending
3. Final Approval Given to Har Homa E Settlement
4. Expansion of the Beit El Settlement Begins
5. High Court Bans Settlers from Farming Palestinian Land…But Continues to Deny Palestinians Access
6. Resources on Israel’s New Prime Minister Naftali Bennet
7. New Report on Settler Violence Against Palestinians in Area B
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Critical Updates from Silwan & Sheikh Jarrah

In the weeks since FMEP’s last Settlement & Annexation Report was published (apologies for the gap) there have been several key developments in the cases of forced displacement of families from their longtime homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, including new scrutiny of the legal basis on which Israeli settlers claim to own the land and the homes from which they wish to expel Palestinians. It must be recalled that the Israeli Court has for the time being decided to postpone these expulsions – a decision clearly influenced by the fact that Palestinians are currently mobilized and the international community is closely engaged.

At this point, the most pressing eviction cases in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah are awaiting the opinion of the Israeli Attorney General. That position is currently held by Avichai Mandelblit (though this might change under the new governing coalition). The Attorney General’s opinion will carry a tremendous amount of weight in deciding not only the fate of the families facing imminent displacement, but scores of other Palestinian families whose homes are being similarly targeted by settlers. Mandelblit, it is worth recalling, has among other things actively worked to craft legal mechanisms to launder illegal settler construction in the West Bank.

For additional background on the historic and legal context of these cases, see the new, excellent and thorough analysis by the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem (PDF available here). To understand why these cases are not a simple real-estate dispute – and why it is improper to call them eviction cases – please see this analysis by Ir Amim’s Amy Cohen and Yudtih Oppenheimer. For updates on settlement-related developments in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, see below.

In Silwan

• On June 1st, the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry issued an order to freeze the construction of a “Yeminite heritage center” in the home of an evicted Palestinian family in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan. 
  • The order was issued in light of a newly launched investigation into the means by which Ateret Cohanim came to manage the “Benvenisti Land Trust,” an historic trust that Ateret Cohanim revived in order to claim ownership of swathes of land in Silwan, and then to initiate eviction proceedings against Palestinians living there. The investigation will have major consequences, not only for the fate of the planned heritage center (to commemorate a small Yemenite Jewish community that lived in the area before 1948), but also for the many eviction cases Ateret Cohanim is pursuing on the basis of its management of the land owned by Benvenisti Trust.
  • Haaretz explains the background on why the investigation is being launched: “…in September 2020, the religious trusts registry began investigating the Benvenisti Trust in response to a petition filed in court by the Ir Amim organization. Ir Amim charged that the trust was a shell organization run by Ateret Cohanim for its own purposes, and that these purposes deviated from the founding goals of the trust, which was established in the late 19th century. Around six months ago, Ir Amim also petitioned the court against the planned heritage center, arguing that it was unreasonable for one government agency to be investigating the trust while another government agency was pouring money into it. Moreover, the organization said, it is improper for the state to finance a heritage center on private property that essentially serves Ateret Cohanim’s needs.”
  • For background on Ateret Cohanim’s plans to build a heritage center, see FMEP’s August 2018 report.
• On May 26th, the Jerusalem District Court delayed the forced displacement of seven Palestinian families from their longtime homes in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan, awaiting a decision by the Israeli Supreme Court on two related cases.
  • All three cases challenge the underlying legal status of the land and the buildings on the land – which the settler organization Ateret Cohanim claims to own via the resuscitation of the Benvenisti land trust.
  • The two related cases are awaiting the submission of an opinion by the Israeli Attorney General, and that opinion will be applied to all three cases (and likely any additional cases brought on the same grounds). The Supreme Court ordered the Israeli Attorney General to submit his opinion on one of the cases – the Duweik family case – by May 31st. On June 1st, the Court granted the Attorney General a 30-day extension of that deadline.
  • The Ateret Cohanim settler organization has led a campaign to forcibly displace some 100 Palestinian families from the Batan al-Hawa area of Silwan, claiming the land is rightfully owned by the Benvenisti Trust, over which Ateret Cohanim members have  controlling power.
  • Solidarity protests in Silwan have been violently suppressed by the Israeli authorities. 
  • Qutaiba Odeh, a resident of Silwan whose house is threatened with a demolition order, told Middle East Eye during a protest: “The Israeli settler groups behind the eviction cases in Sheikh Jarrah are the same ones coming after these houses in Silwan. It’s the same shared struggle, against the same occupation. We said save Sheikh Jarrah yesterday, we say save Silwan today.”

In Sheikh Jarrah

• Families continue to face the threat of displacement, the next court hearing has been delayed until August 2021, as the Court waits for the Attorney General to offer his opinion on the case, separate from the Silwan cases. 
• An investigative report by Uri Blau revealed that a New York-based lawyer, Seymour Braun, is financially connected to settler efforts to displace Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. At the same time, the identities of those behind these eviction proceedings remains largely unknown, as they have been concealed by settlers and their backers.
• The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah remains under Israeli-imposed closure, actively (and violently) enforced by Israeli police. 
  • Ir Amim writes on the closure: “The closure of the neighborhood is seen as an intentional brazen move by the Israeli authorities to suppress Palestinian mobilization and deprive the residents of Sheikh Jarrah of the freedom of expression and the right to protest against their forced displacement. The Palestinian families at risk of eviction are now essentially living inside a cordoned-off, military-like zone. They are subject to ongoing arbitrary harassment and aggressive police measures, marked by forced entry into homes and the use of stun grenades, skunk water, and rubber-tipped bullets against neighborhood residents. With the closure’s intensification, police often force residents to stay in their homes and hostilely remove those sitting outside as is common practice in the neighborhood. Yesterday, a 15-year-old girl was severely wounded inside the confines of her own home when a soldier wantonly fired rubber-tipped bullets into the family’s house.”
  • Journalists are reportedly being barred access to the area. Last week, to Palestinian journalists reporting from Sheikh Jarrah were arrested by Israeli authorities; reportedly after 5 days in jail “ the judge at Jerusalem’s Central Court released them on bail of 4,000 shekels ($1,230) each and ordered them to be under house arrest for a month, forbidding them from communicating with each other for 15 days.”

Tender Published for Givat Hamatos Groundwork, Even as Petition is Pending

 Ir Amim reports that a private company has gone ahead and published a tender for the construction of roads, electrical infrastructure,  and sewage systems at the Givat Hamatos settlement site. The tender is set to close June 6th. 

The Israeli High Court has not yet dealt with a petition filed by Ir Amim alleging that the planned construction of government-subsidized housing at Givat Hamatos has discriminatory eligibility guidelines. A hearing was scheduled on May 27th, but was delayed at the request of the State. The hearing has been rescheduled for October 20th, and Ir Amim secured the Court’s condition that applications for Givat Hamatos housing will not be accepted in the intervening period.

Ir Amim writes:

“Publication of the tender is yet another indication that advancement of this new settlement/neighborhood on Givat Hamatos continues to move forward at a heightened pace. In the coming months, wide-scale road construction and infrastructure works are expected to already begin. It is estimated that the building of housing units could commence within two years, even before completion of the infrastructure works…Although advancement of these plans is continuing at full throttle, it is still possible for the government to suspend construction as a result of concerted pressure and opposition. Legal provisions within the tender as well as within Israeli contract law grant the Israeli government the right to rescind contracts should it be within its interest. There is likewise legal precedent for such measures.”

Final Approval Given to Har Homa E Settlement 

On May 20th, a notice was published announcing the final approval of a plan to build the Har Homa E settlement in East Jerusalem. This comes on the heels of the conditional final approval granted to the project earlier in May (conditioned on a few minor changes that have since been made). Now that the plan has been published, construction on Har Homa E can begin. Ir Amim notes:

“Since the Har Homa E plan is designated for privately owned land, the planning process does not entail a tendering stage and in principle, the landowners can begin to apply for building permits. However, it is worthwhile noting that the District Committee conditioned the procurement of building permits on the start of expansion of the access road to Har Homa E. Since the road’s expansion is a municipal project, the timing of the work’s commencement is unknown. In addition, construction of new sewerage infrastructure to serve the new neighborhood/settlement is necessary since the location does not border an existing built-up area. The timetable for such construction is likewise unknown.”

Reminder: Although the Har Homa E plan is framed as merely an expansion of the Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem, it is more properly understood as a brand new settlement. The plan calls for 540 new settlement units to be built in the area between the Har Homa settlement and the site of the planned Givat Hamatos settlement (tenders for which were issued in January 2021) — an area where the new construction will be non-contiguous with the built-up area of the existing settlement of Har Homa. Meaning that the new construction is a significant step towards completing a ring of Israeli settlements on Jerusalem’s southern edge and towards the encirclement of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa.

Expansion of the Beit El Settlement Begins

On June 1st, the Beit El settlement hosted a ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of 350 new settlement units (housing for approximately 1,750 new settlers, assuming a family size of 5). The ceremony was attended by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Public Security Minister Amir Ohana (Likud), Education Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud), Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud), and Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud), in addition to more members of the Knesset.

These units were granted final approval in October 2020, during the Trump Administration. As a reminder, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has deep ties to the Beit El settlement.

In a 2018 report, B’Tselem assessed the severe impact the Beit El settlement has on the 14,000 Palestinians who live in the nearby Jalazun refugee camp.

High Court Bans Settlers from Farming Palestinian Land…But Continues to Deny Palestinians Access

Following a 13-year legal battle, the Israeli High Court issued an order to evict settlers from 42-acres of land they had been illegally cultivating for in the Shiloh Valley, located in the northern West Bank. Over the course of those 13 years, settlers had established a profitable olive grove and vineyard. With the ruling, the settlers have been ordered to remove all of the olive trees and the vineyard by October 2021.

Yet, despite recognizing the settlers’ actions on the land as illegal, the High Court refused to recognize Palestinians as the rightful owners of the land. Instead, the Court said that it is not in a position to determine ownership because the land was never formally registered. As a reminder, at the start of the occupation Israel closed the land registry in the West Bank to Palestinians. This has meant that Palestinians who were not able to formally register their land before the 1967 War (Jordan was in the process of carrying out such a registration process when the war took place), there is no longer any path to do so. For more, see B’Tselem’s landmark report “Land Grab”, p.52)

Resources on Israel’s New Prime Minister Naftali Bennet

With it now looking all but certain that there will soon be a new Israeli government in place, led by Yamina’s Naftali Bennet, several media outlets have taken a deep dive into Bennet’s past. Longtime Settlement Report readers are likely familiar with Bennet’s intense devotion to annexation and the settlements, but these resources are a well-timed refresher.

• “Quick Facts: Naftali Bennett” (IMEU)
• “Israel’s likely new government, explained” (+972 Magazine)
• “Who is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s potential prime minister?” (Al Jazeera)
• “Who is Naftali Bennett, the man who could be Israel’s next prime minister?” (The Times of Israel)
• “What to know about Naftali Bennett, the Israeli politician who could succeed Benjamin Netanyahu” (Washington Post)

New Report on Settler Violence Against Palestinians in Area B

A new report by Yesh Din documents and analyzes the crimes committed by settlers in Palestinian communities located in Area B, from 2017 to 2020. In so doing, Yesh Din documents the lawlessness of settlers (who feel safe enough to enter built-up Palestinian areas to attack property and people), the cumulative deleterious effect these attacks have on Palestinian rights and wellbeing, and the abject failure of Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians and to hold Israeli settlers accountable to even Isareli for violations of the law (Israeli law).

Yesh Din writes:

“In recent years, violence perpetrated in Palestinian spaces – village streets, schools, public buildings and even homes – has proliferated. Secluded homes and structures, and those located near settlements, unauthorized outposts or access roads, have become standing, preferred, targets…Attacks on Palestinians and their property take a physical, financial, social and psychological toll on Palestinians, especially when they are widespread. Settlers have a clear advantage over the Palestinians: They are citizens of the country that holds the West Bank under military occupation. They have the protection of the Israeli police and military. Palestinians, on the other hand, are abandoned by the law enforcement system that is tasked with keeping them safe and protecting them from harm. This state of affairs, where one national group dominates another and oppresses it by denying rights, practicing legal segregation and employing different legal systems for each group, is part of Israel’s apartheid regime. This regime’s objective is to entrench and cement Israeli colonization of the West Bank.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Questions and Answers: Israel’s De Facto Annexation of Palestinian Territory” (Al-Haq)
2. “An Israeli Winery Guide, With Undertones of Occupation” (Haaretz)
3. “Irish parliament denounces Israeli West Bank policies as ‘de facto annexation’” (The Times of Israel)
4. ”Mapping Israeli occupation” (Al Jazeera)

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

January 22, 2021

1. Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 1: Israel Awards Tender for the Construction of Givat Hamatos
2. Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 2: Israel Issues Tenders for 2,572 Settlement Units
3. Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 3: In Final Hours of Trump Era, Israel Advances Plans for 780 Settlement Units Across the West Bank
4. Netanyahu’s Bid for Mass Legalization of Outposts Fails (For Now)
5. Bonus Material

Comments/Questions – email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

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Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 1: Israel Awards Tender for the Construction of Givat Hamatos

On January 19th, the Israel Land Authority issued the tender for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem (the tender is for a total of 1,257 settlement units). The issuance of the tender came a mere 6 hours before Joe Biden was sworn in as the President of the United States.

Prior to the issuance of the tender, the Jerusalem District Court rescinded its injunction against the tender, which the Court had issued last week in response to a petition filed by Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and the Israeli NGO Ir Amim. That petition – which alleges that the planned construction of government-subsidized housing has discriminatory eligibility guidelines – is still pending, and the Court scheduled a discussion of the petition for May 27th.

According to Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann (of the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem), now that the tender has been issued and awarded, construction of Givat Hamatos is now “virtually inevitable.” Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution, in that it will prevent the division of Jerusalem into an Israeli capitol and a Palestinian capitol (if the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank). Regardless of the implications of Givat Hamatos on a two state solution, the impact of the new settlement on the Beit Safafa neighborhood are nonetheless significant.

Explaining how Netanyahu bears direct responsibility for the highly consequential decision to move ahead with Givat Hamatos, Terrestrial Jerusalem writes:

“Netanyahu could have made this ‘go way’ at ZERO political cost to himself. He could have said truthfully: I tried, but the Court didn’t let me. Instead, he pulled out all plugs and instructed the State Attorney to aggressively pursue the rescission of the injunction. He went out of his way to make this happen. The tender process may now be completed, after which construction is virtually inevitable.This is happening because Netanyahu wants it to happen. This is happening now, because Netanyahu wants it to happen now.”

Ir Amim punctuates its analysis of the move by writing:

“The fact that the ILA hastened to announce the winners of the tender only 6 hours before Joe Biden’s inauguration serves to underline how determined the Israeli government is to create as many facts on the ground as possible before Biden takes office.”

Regarding the prospects of its petition against the Givat Hamatos tender, Ir Amim writes:

“The petition targets the conditions of eligibility for subsidized housing within the tender which discriminate against Palestinians. The petition does not call for cancellation of the tender but it remains to be seen how the petition will be viewed by the court and whether or not this will affect more than the specific discrimination present. One possible result of the petition – although we do not think its likelihood is high – can be that subsidized housing be completely removed from the tender in which case it is very possible that the tender will have to be reissued.”

Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 2: Israel Issues Tenders for 2,572 Settlement Units

On January 20, 2021 – inauguration day in the U.S., the Israeli government issued tenders for the construction of 2,572 units (total) in settlements across the West Bank, as well in East Jerusalem. Now that the tenders are issued, construction companies are invited to bid to win the contract. Peace Now estimates that building is likely to happen within two years from now.

The issuance of these tenders comes in addition to the Givat Hamatos tender (see section above) and the advancement of plans for 780 more settlement units (see section below). 

Commenting on the tenders, Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Our out-of-touch government leadership continues to press on with its mad scramble to promote as much settlement activity as possible until the last minutes before the change of the administration in Washington. By doing so, Netanyahu is signaling to the incoming President that he has no intention of giving the new chapter in US-Israel relations even one day of grace, nor serious thought to how to plausibly resolve our conflict with the Palestinians.”

The 2,572 tenders issued on January 20 provide for:

• 941 units in the Emanuel settlement, 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 – which includes the settlements of Karnei Shomron and Alfei Menashe – with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
• 460 units in the Pisgat Zeev settlement, the largest settlement in East Jerusalem. This involves  the issuance of two tenders, one for 210 units and a second for 250 units. 
• 377 units in the Adam (aka Geva Binyamin) settlement, through the issuance of three tenders, one for 94 units,  a second for 263 units, and a third for 20 units.  The Adam settlement is  located northeast of Jerusalem, just beyond the separation barrier. Israel has for some years been steadily building the Adam settlement in a manner meant to connect the settlement seamlessly with East Jerusalem settlements and infrastructure, erasing the Green Line.
• 359 units in the Beit Aryeh settlement, located northwest of Ramallah, through the issuance of two tenders, one for 159 units and a second for 200 units.
• 220 units in the Maaleh Efraim settlement, located in the northern West Bank in the area between the central ridge and the Jordan Valley, through the issuance of three tenders, one for 24 units, a second for 178 units, and a third for 18. 
• 150 units in the Alfei Menashe settlement, located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding this area – which includes Karnei Shomron and Emmanuel – with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
• 49 units in the Karnei Shomron settlement, through the issuance of two tenders, one for 48 units and a second for 1 unit). Israel also advanced plans for construction of 24 more units in the Karnei Shomron settlement through an earlier stage of the planning process (see the section below). Karnei Shomron is located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
• 16 units in the Beitar Illit settlement. through the issuance of two tenders, one for 14 units and a second for 2 units). Beitar Illit is located west of Bethlehem, near the Green Line.

Cashing In Before Trump Cashes Out, PART 3: In Final Hours of Trump Era, Israel Advances Plans for 780 Settlement Units Across the West Bank

At its final meeting of the Trump era — which took place the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration — Israel’s High Planning Council advanced plans for 780 new settlement units. This includes final approval for plans for a total of 365 units plus the expansion of an industrial zone and approval for deposit for public review (one of last steps before final approval) for a total of 415 units, including retroactive legalization to two illegal outposts.

Commenting on the Council’s actions, Peace Now said in a statement: 

“By promoting hundreds of settlement units, Prime Minister Netanyahu is once again putting his personal political interests over those of the country. Not only will this settlement activity erode the possibility for a conflict-ending resolution with the Palestinians in the long-term, but in the short-term it needlessly sets Israel on a collision course with the incoming Biden administration.”

Specifically, plans granted final approval by the Council include:

• 152 new units in the Shavei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank, northwest of Nablus.
• 123 new units in the Itamar settlement, located southeast of Nablus in a cluster of notoriously violent settlements and outposts.
• 66 new units in the Oranit settlement, located in the northern West Bank, in the “seam zone” between the 1967 Green Line and the Israel separation barrier (a barrier constructed along a route designed to keep as many settlements and as much adjacent land as possible on the Israeli side of the wall/fence).
• 24 new units in the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
• Expansion of the Barkan Settlement Industrial Zone, located in the northern West Bank and a part of a strand of settlements connecting Israel proper and the Ariel settlement. Ariel is located in the very heart of the northern West Bank, reaching literally to the midpoint between the Green Line and the Jordan border. The future of Ariel and the settlements between Ariel and Israel proper have long been one of the greatest challenges to any possible peace agreement, since any plan to connect Ariel to Israel will cut the northern West Bank into pieces. For background on this industrial zone and others, see here.

Plans the Council approved for deposit for public review include:

• The retroactive legalization of 118 existing units in the Nofei Nehemia outpost. If implemented, this plan would have the effect of retroactively legalizing the outpost as a “neighborhood” of the Rehelim settlement, notwithstanding the fact that the Nofei Nehemia outpost is a fair distance from the Rehelim settlement and is not contiguous with the built-up area of Rehelim. In reality, Nofei Nehemia – if authorized – should be understood as a brand new settlement in its own right, rather than an expansion of an existing one (as the Israeli government wants the world to believe). The Nofei Nehemia outpost is located east of the Ariel settlement in the very heart of the northern West Bank. The Nofei Nehemia outpost made news this week with launch of a public bus route through the outpost – an overt act of entrenching and normalizing its presence by Israeli authorities.
• 107 new units in the Tal Menashe settlement, located on the tip of the northern West Bank, inside the “seam zone” between the 1967 Green Line and the Israel separation barrier, which was constructed along a route designed to keep as many settlements and as much adjacent land as possible on the Israeli side of the wall/fence. Tal Menashe is technically a neighborhood of the Hinanit settlement, though the built-up areas do not connect. The plans for 107 units would, if implemented, “dramatically increase” the size of the Tal Menashe settlement, which is the settlement where Esther Horgan – who was murdered by a Palestinian in late December 2020 – lived. Israeli government officials have made it a clear policy to advance settlement construction in response to deadly attacks on settlers by Palestinians, an approach publicly endorsed by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. 
• The retroactive legalization of 96 units in the Havot Yair outpost, with the intention of granting retroactive legalization (under Israeli law) to the entire outpost. The Havat Yair outpost is located near the Karnei Shomron settlement in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron area with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.

Netanyahu’s Bid for Mass Legalization of Outposts Fails (For Now)

Despite an intensive last ditch effort, Netanyahu did not succeed in pushing through a government decision to grant retroactive legalization to dozens of outposts in the waning hours of the Trump era.

According to reports, Netanyahu made a last minute effort to gain Gantz’s support for a more narrow authorization – for 6 outposts instead of the 43 outposts as included in an earlier draft government decision. Gantz reportedly blocked Netanyahu’s proposal from coming up for a vote at the Israeli government cabinet meeting on January 19th, saying that “no diplomatically irresponsible proposal will be raised at such a sensitive time.” Other reports suggest European leaders intervened to make their objections to outpost authorization clear.

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu made several attempts to get the decision passed, including convening a call with Israel’s Attorney General to make progress. During that call Netanyahu complained that “jurists” were getting in his way. Netanyahu then surprised Gantz by adding the outpost issue to the Cabinet’s meeting planned for January 19th (a meeting devoted solely to the COVID-19 crisis).

The 6 outposts Netanyahu’s proposal reportedly listed for legalization are: Tel Zion, Ovnat, Metzoke Deragot, Kedem Arava, Avigail, and Asa’el. For more information on those outposts, see Peace Now’s reporting. Of those outposts, three would have been legalized as neighborhoods of existing settlements (Tel Zion, Ovnat, Metzoke Deragot), and three would have been authorized as full-fledged independent settlements (Kedem Arava, Avigail, Asa’el). Netanuyahu’s new proposal also called for the government to allocate over $6.2 million (NIS 20 million) to hire 13 new staff members at the Civil Administration tasked with continuing outpost legalization legal efforts.

FMEP has traced this saga for weeks – from the time when Likud and Blue & White officials were collaborating to draft such a decision, to last week’s news that Gantz decided to continue blocking the move despite a private meeting with settlers asking him to give his OK. It’s worth reiterating that Gantz has made clear he is not opposed to granting retroactive legalization to outposts, but is opposed to this manner of doing so. Gantz prefers for each outpost to be considered on an individual basis.

Bonus Material

1. “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid” (B’Tselem)
2. “Al-Haq Welcomes B’Tselem’s Recognition of Israeli Apartheid” (Al-Haq)
3. [VIDEO] “Calling the Thing by its Proper Name: “Apartheid” Between the Jordan River & the Mediterranean Sea” (FMEP)
4. “Palestinian factory workers strike in West Bank industrial zone” (Al-Monitor)
5. “West Bank demolitions and displacement | December 2020” (OCHA)

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

January 15, 2021

1. Tender for Givat Hamatos Settlement Construction Delayed
2. Israel Expected to Advance Plans for (At Least) 684 Settlement Units, Grant Retroactive Approval to Outposts
3. Netanyahu Promises to Boost Funds for “Sovereignty Road”
4. Settlers Escalate Campaign for Outposts Legalization
5. Israel Sets Up New Hotline to Assist Settler Surveillance of Palestinian Construction in Area C
6. Key Quotes from U.S. Amb. Friedman on His Way Out the Door
7. Bonus Reads

by Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

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Tender for Givat Hamatos Settlement Construction Delayed

On January 15th, the Jerusalem District Court issued a temporary injunction against the issuance of the tender for construction of 1,257 units in the Givat Hamatos settlement, slated to be built in East Jerusalem. Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution, assuming that Jerusalem will need to be divided and shared. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

The injunction comes in response to an emergency petition submitted on January 14th by 25 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem with the assistance of the Israeli NGO Ir Amim. The petition argues that the conditions of the tender represent “severe housing discrimination” in that non-Isareli citizens are ineligible for the government subsidized housing planned for Givat Hamatos. Rather than seeking to stop the construction of Givat Hamatos, the petition asks the government to correct these discriminatory conditions so that Palestinian residents are also welcome to purchase homes in Givat Hamatos.

The tender was scheduled to be published on January 18th (2 days before the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new U.S. president). The injunction delays that publication and orders the government to respond to Ir Amim’s petition by January 21st. 

Ir Amim explains the petition’s claims in detail:

“40% of the homes [planned for Givat Hamatos] will be allocated to individuals who are eligible for a government subsidized housing scheme. To qualify, individuals must be a non- homeowner and an Israeli citizen, which entirely precludes EJ Palestinians, as the vast majority do not hold citizenship but rather permanent residency. Not only are they excluded from an affordable subsidized housing option, but only 60% of the apartment supply offered to an Israeli citizen is available to a Palestinian resident, which discriminates on two planes.  The petition therefore calls for the following remedies: 

1 – to grant Palestinian residents eligibility to qualify for the subsidized apartments on Givat Hamatos,

2 – Instruct the state to consider equitably allocating a significant number of affordable apartments to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem,

3 – Postpone the apartment marketing process for a period of no less than six months to allow for interested Palestinian Jerusalem residents to apply for eligibility for the subsidized housing scheme, or

4 – To cancel the subsidized housing scheme and rather sell all apartments on the free market, making them accessible to all…

East Jerusalem Palestinians already suffer from acute housing shortages and suppression of residential development stemming from long-standing discriminatory planning and building policies. Since East Jerusalem’s annexation in 1967, not one neighborhood has been built for Palestinians, while only 8.5 % of Jerusalem is zoned for their residential use despite them constituting nearly 40% of the city’s population. 1/3 of the land in East Jerusalem was confiscated to build Israeli neighborhoods/settlements. If and when residential outline plans are approved for existing Palestinian neighborhoods, they only allow for a few hundred housing units versus thousands of housing units in Israeli neighborhoods across the city.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem’s Daniel Seidemann comments:

“This is far from over, and one can never estimate the life expectancy of an injunction like this, but this is very good news. As matters stand the tender process regarding Givart Hamatos will NOT end on January 18, and the bids will not open.”

Israel Expected to Advance Plans for (At Least) 684 Settlement Units, Grant Retroactive Approval to Outposts

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Higher Planning Council (which oversees all construction in the occupied West Bank) is expected to meet on January 17th to advance plans for at least 684 – but potentially 850 or more – settlement units across the West Bank, while also advancing the retroactive legalization of two outposts. These approvals will come only days before the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new President of the United States, a changing of the guards expected to temper U.S. support and approval for settlement construction.

An additional report by Middle East Eye reports that on January 13th the Israeli planning authorities in Jerusalem advanced plans for 400 units in the  Gilo settlement and 130 units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement, both located in East Jerusalem. FMEP will provide more details when those reports are confirmed.

FMEP will confirm the details of the Civil Administration’s High Planning Council meeting in next week’s Settlement Report. Based on what is known today, the settlement units expected to receive final approval include:

• 152 new units in the Shavei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank – northwest of Nablus;
• 123 new units in the Itamar settlement, located southeast of Nablus in a cluster of notoriously violent settlements and outposts;
• 66 new settlements units in the Oranit settlement, located in the northern West Bank, in the “seam zone” between the 1967 Green Line and the Israel separation barrier (constructed along a route designed to keep as many settlements as possible on the Israeli side of the wall/fence);
• 24 new units in the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area surrounding the settlement;
• Expansion of the Barkan Settlement Industrial Zone, located in the northern West Bank and a part of a strand of settlements leading from Israel proper all the way to the Ariel settlement in the very heart of the northern West Bank, reaching literally to the midpoint between the Green Line and the Jordan border. The future of Ariel and the settlements between Ariel and Israel proper have long been one of the greatest challenges to any possible peace agreement, since any plan to connect Ariel to Israel will cut the northern West Bank into pieces. For background on this industrial zone and others, see here. 

The settlement units slated to be advanced to the planning stage of depositing for public review include:

• The retroactive legalization of 212 existing units in the Nofei Nehemia outpost, which if implemented would have the effect of retroactively legalizing the outpost as a neighborhood of the Rehelim settlement. The Nofei Nehemia outpost is a fair distance from the Rehelim settlement and is not contiguous with the built up area of Rehelim, making Nofei Nehemia – if authorized – more properly understood as a brand new settlement rather than an expansion of an existing settlement (as the Israeli government would want one to believe). The Nofei Nehemia outpost is located east of the Ariel settlement in the very heart of the northern West Bank.
• 107 new units in the Tal Menashe settlement, located on the tip of the northern West Bank. Tal Menashe is technically a neighborhood of the Hinanit settlement, though the built up areas do not connect.  Notably, the plans for 107 units would, if implemented, “dramatically increase” the size of the Tal Menashe settlement, which is the settlement where Esther Horgan – who was murdered by a Palestinian in late December 2020 – lived. Israeli government officials have made it a clear policy to advance settlement construction in response to deadly attacks on settlers by Palestinians, an approach publicly endorsed by current U.S. Ambassador David Friedmam. Tal Menashe is situated in the “seam zone” between the 1967 Green Line and the Israel separation barrier, which was constructed along a route designed to keep as many settlements as possible on the Israeli side of the wall/fence.
• An unknown number of units in the Havot Yair outpost with the intention of granting retroactive legalization (under Israeli law) to the entire outpost. The Havat Yair outpost is located near the Karnei Shomron settlement in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization told Reuters:

“[Israel’s advancement of settlement construction] is an attempt to race against time and benefit from the last days of the current U.S. administration.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“By promoting hundreds of settlement units, Prime Minister Netanyahu is once again putting his personal political interests over those of the country. Not only will this settlement activity erode the possibility for a conflict-ending resolution with the Palestinians in the long-term, but in the short-term it needlessly sets Israel on a collision course with the incoming Biden administration. For eight years as vice president, Biden and the rest of the Obama administration gradually became more irritated and willing to spar with Israel over settlements, and for the past four years Biden has watched Netanyahu stroke Trump’s ego to promote policies meant to undermine the very foundations for a two-state solution. Although supporting more settlement activity may be a shrewd way to attract votes over the increasing number of rivals to his right, Netanyahu is gambling with Israel’s all-important relationship with its US ally.”

It’s worth noting that current Israeli Defense Minister (and increasingly disgraced Blue & White party leader) Benny Gantz, following the publication of the High Planning Council’ agenda for settlement construction, announced that his office had taken “preliminary steps” towards the approval of Palestinian construction plans in communities located in Area C of the West Bank (some 60% of the West Bank which Israel exercises unilateral civil and security control over, and which is the focus of the most intense settler campaigns for de jure annexation). The Times of Israel reports that those plans include: the expansion of the Palestinian village of Al-Walaja (located south of Jerusalem and surrounded on three sides by the Israeli separation barrier), the expansion of Hizma (located on the northern border of the Jerusalem municipal boundary), approval of a new hotel in the Bethlehem area (note: Bethlehem itself is not in Area C), a hearing on plans for a hotel in Beit Jala (located on the eastern border of Bethlehem, 75% of land belonging to Beit Jala was designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords), and a hearing on the retroactive legalization of farming buildings in al-Fara (located in the northern West Bank). Commenting on Gantz’s announcement of these Palestinian plans, Bimkom researcher Alon Cohen-Lifshitz told told The Times of Israel:

“This is like mocking the poor. Most of the plans are from 2012. They’re all very small in terms of their land use and do not allow for [further] development.”

Predictably, settlers responded with vitriol to the rumor of plans to regulate (i.e., post-facto legalize) Palestinian construction in Area C. A spokesman for the Young Settlements Forum (“young settlements” is a new euphemism for illegal outposts that has been catching on in Israeli politics) said:

“There is no limit to this cynicism. The defense minister and the prime minister want to legitimize the illegal Palestinian takeover of Area C in violation of political agreements, and remove from the agenda the regulation of Israeli settlements that have been built on state land.”

Netanyahu Promises to Boost Funds for “Sovereignty Road”

According to the Jerusalem Post, Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised to allocate an additional $4 million USD (NIS 14 million) or more to the construction of the so-called “Sovereignty Road.” The road is a key element in Israel’s plan to build the E-1 settlement east of Jerusalem and its larger ambition to annex (de facto or de jure) a huge area of West Bank territory located between Jerusalem and Jericho. 

According to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu met with Benny Kashriel, mayor of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement (located adjacent to the E-1 site), along with Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Finance Minister Israel Katz to discuss the matter this week. During the meeting, Bibi made the verbal commitment to allocating additional funds to see that the road is built.

Peace Now responded to the news:

“Netanyahu’s election campaign is costing Israel a very heavy price. Once again, he is using the election period to try to impress key Likud supporters by promoting a plan that could eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution. The planned road will allow Israel to cut the West Bank in two, build E1 and the separation barrier, and close the door on the possibility of developing a sustainable Palestinian state.”

For decades, construction of the E-1 settlement – which is now actively advancing through the planning process – has been adamantly opposed by the international community. A key criticism of the plan is that it would effectively cut the West Bank in half — thereby preventing any two-state solution. The “Sovereignty Road” has long been Israel’s answer to that criticism, with Israel arguing that it will replace territorial contiguity with limited “transportational continuity” – via a sealed road that is under Israel’s total control (meaning they can cut off passage through it at any time). 

If built, a section of the Palestinian-only road is projected to run under the separation barrier (which is not currently built in this area). The rest of the road will run relatively adjacent to the route of the planned separation barrier, in order – in the words of former Defense Minister Bennet – to prevent Palestinian traffic from coming “near Jewish communities.” This new section of road connects to the infamous “apartheid road” (aka, the Eastern Ring Road) which has a high wall down the middle dividing Israeli and Palestinian traffic, and which was opened for Palestinian traffic in January 2019.

In March 2020, then Defense Minister Naftali Bennet gave final approval for the “Sovereignty Road” plan, at the time giving lip service to the idea that the plan will benefit Palestinians (even as it further cuts them off from Jerusalem, takes more land, and cuts the West Bank in half). At the same time, he made clear his real objective. stating:

“[the road] will improve the quality of life for residents in the area, avoid unnecessary friction [for Israelis] with the Palestinian population and most importantly — allow for continued [settlement] construction. We’re applying sovereignty [to the West Bank] in deeds, not in words.”

Peace Now has previously explained the issue with Israel’s design:

“The new road is intended to allow Palestinians to pass under the route of the separation barrier, and to travel ‘inside’ the Adumim Bloc along a wall without entering the ‘Israeli’ side, as in a kind of tunnel. Once the road is paved, Israel can then claim that construction in E1, and the construction of the barrier around the Adumim bloc does not sever the West Bank because the Palestinians have an alternative transport route. This argument is preposterous. A thin line of road connecting separate territorial sections–transportational contiguity–does not meet the needs for territorial viability for the development and livelihoods of Palestinians in the critical Ramallah-Jerusalem-Bethlehem metropolitan area. Without actual territorial contiguity, an independent Palestinian state cannot be established and prosper, and therefore a two-state solution cannot be reached.”

Settlers Escalate Campaign for Outposts Legalization

Kan radio reported that Defense Minister Benny Gantz told settlers that he remains opposed to issuing retroactive authorization to dozens of outposts in one fell swoop, but will instead prefers that each outpost go through a legal process individually in order to gain legalization.

Settlers have been encamped in front of the Prime Minister’s office for nearly two weeks demanding for the passage of a government decision for large scale retroactive legalization of as many as 70 outposts. That decision has been drafted but has been held up by Defense Minister Gantz; In December 2020, Knesset introduced a bill to circumvent Gantz’s opposition and grant authorization to 65 outposts. 

Some of the protesting settlers began a hunger strike in hopes of escalating their demands for outpost authorization. Numerous politicians and officials have visited the encamped settlers to show solidarity, including aspiring Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the encamped hunger strikers, saying:

“Netanyahu, authorize the young settlements [outposts] now in these coming 10 days. If you don’t do it, when I am the prime minister, I will do it.”

Israel Sets Up New Hotline to Assist Settler Surveillance of Palestinian Construction in Area C

Haaretz reports that in November 2020 the Israeli Civil Administration (the body within the Israeli Defense Ministry tasked with coordinating all civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank) created a new hotline for settlers wishing to report their suspicions of “illegal” Palestinian construction in the West Bank (on the Kochav Ya’akov settlement website,  the new phone service is called a “snitch line”).

Amira Hass reports in Haaretz that the Civil Administration’s announcement of the “snitch line” said:

“Have you seen Palestinian construction work that looks to you to be suspicious and unauthorized? Have you encountered a sanitation hazard created by Palestinians who disdain the law? From now on you have a ‘snitch-line’ of your own. Call at any hour of the day and submit a complaint about it. Every day there will be a summary of the complaints and a display of what was examined and what was confiscated in the event that there was improper conduct. Good luck.”

Testing whether the new hotline was exclusively for Israeli settlers reporting on Palestinians, the Palestinian-led NGO Haqel tried reporting illegal construction by the settlers. In response, the Civil Administration said that the “coordination office representatives sent someone to check what’s going on.”

The new hotline is yet another victory in the campaign by settlers to stop Palestinian construction in Area C, and push Palestinians out altogether. In November 2020, in addition to razing an entire Palestinian community, Khirbet Humsa, and tightening the noose on Khan Al-Ahmar – the Israeli government advanced plans to begin a land registration process in Area C as a means by which the state can declare more West Bank land to be “state land,” a way to retroactively legalize unauthorized settlement construction there (as well as put more land off limits to Palestinain construction and even render some existing Palestinian construction illegal).

Additionally, on September 10th the Israeli government allocated $6 million USD (20 million NIS) for the newly created Settlement Affairs Ministry to survey and map unauthorized (by Israel) Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank, which Israel – egged on by settlers – has been aggressively demolishing in an effort to rid the area of Palestinians. Haaretz reports that this is the first time that the state budget has included funds specifically for a land survey in the West Bank. The state also allocated an additional $2.8 million (9.5 million NIS) to an existing grant program specifically for settlement municipalities to cash in on. As a reminder, virtually all Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank is “unauthorized,” because Israel almost universally refuses to give Palestinians permission to build in Area C even on land that Israel recognizes as owned by Palestinians.

The Settlement Affairs Ministry is a new creation of the current coalition government, and is headed by Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud). The funding for the Settlement Affairs Ministry to conduct a survey of unauthorized Palestinian construction in Area C further empowers a domestic Israeli body to exert extraterritorial sovereignty over Area C – in effect, treating the area as land already de facto annexed by Israel. While technically the occupied territories are administered by the Israeli Civil Administration (a body within the Defense Ministry), Israel has spent decades bringing the administration of the territories (specifically the settlements and Area C) ever more directly under direct Israeli law (de facto annexation). 

The Knesset has also repeatedly hosted forums to discuss “the Palestinian takeover of Area C.” Consistent with this framing (which is predicated on the idea that Area C belongs to Israel), and pushed by outside groups, many members of the Knesset have criticized the Israeli government’s allegedly lackadaisical approach to defending Israel’s rights/ interests in Area C (i.e., preventing “illegal” Palestinian construction, preventing foreign projects that support Palestinians’ presence in the area, clearing out Palestinians, expanding settlements, consolidating state infrastructure). Reportedly, Foreign Affairs Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (Blue & White) sent a letter to the committee in October 2020 specifically addressing the Knesset’s outrage over European humanitarian assistance projects for Palestinians in Area C. In the letter, Ashkenazi not only celebrated the reduction of European projects over the past year, but validated settlers’ insinuations regarding the nefarious nature of European assistance for Palestinians, saying that any European activity in the West Bank lacking Israeli permission is “an attempt to define a border.” 

At one Knesset hearing, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) suggested that a solution could be to empower the settlements with the ability to demolish Palestinian construction they believe to be unauthorized. Smotrich’s partymate Ayelet Shaked (former Justice Minister) suggested that the government should appoint a project manager tasked with preventing a “Palestinian takeover” of Area C.

As noted above, Israel has long denied Palestinians the ability to build in Area C, resulting in many Palestinian structures (including homes, schools, farms, etc) being built without the required Israeli-issued permits. To fully understand what is happening, see B’Tselem’s excellent explainer.

Key Quotes from U.S. Amb. Friedman on His Way Out the Door

Please read the New York Times feature on David Friedman in its entirety, and the two separate threads (one and two) journalist David Halbfinger tweeted with supplemental material from the interview. A few key quotes regarding U.S. settlement and annexation policy over the past four years are copied below.

On internal Israeli annexation negotiations between Netanyahu and his government coalition partners:

“I was invited.”

On the future of Israel’s de jure annexation of West Bank land:  

“They [Israel] can act unilaterally. It’s suboptimal, but at some point, it’s just sort of necessary just to move on.”

On how the U.S. settlement policy over the past four years:

“he agreed with the Israelis that they should build ‘from the inside out’ — to expand settlements ‘with the least amount of damage to the overall footprint. And that’s how they’ve been operating over the last four years’.”

On the opposition to settlement construction by previous U.S. administrations:

“just to kind of virtue-signal that we think the Palestinians should have something more, made no sense to me…[What Israel does inside or outside the settlements is] an internal decision.” And also on the idea of asking for a settlement freeze: “for them [Israel], I think a freeze of construction is the acknowledgment that the land doesn’t belong to them.” 

On criticisms of the Trump Plan map:

“We spent months working on ways to achieve contiguity. You can drive from Hebron to Nablus and never see an Israeli. “I used to take the Midtown Tunnel to work every day. If you tell me that there’s a river, that I go under a river, I don’t know that. I never saw the river once. I drove under that thing for 30 years, never saw a river. So I take it on faith that there’s an East River. I’m just saying that we created enough contiguity so that Palestinians could go throughout the West Bank without ever coming face-to-face with the Israelis.”

On the role Israelis played in creating the Trump Plan and map:

“The editorial control was always ours. This was entirely authored by us and almost entirely conceptualized by us.”

On how to get Israelis to buy into future peace talks:

“Peace talks would only gain traction with the Israeli right, he  ‘without the accusation that somehow it’s a thief and being asked to return things that it stole. Israel will not and should not come to the table on the basis of being an illegal occupier of stolen land’”

On the current status quo (in which Israel occupies the West Bank and blocakes the Gaza Strip):

“the status quo is not unsustainable, but I think the status quo is suboptimal and should be.”

On the dangers posed to Israeli democracy by permanent occupation:

“I don’t think it has anything to do with Israel’s democracy because Israel’s democracy is the function of the citizens, and these are not citizens of Israel.”

Friedman confirmed that the Trump Plan and normalization deals between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain held out the “aspiration” of a massive change to the status quo on the Temple Mount in which non-Muslim prayer would be allowed at all areas except Al Aqsa Mosque. 

Dismissing any remaining doubt that normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries were contingent on Israel’s permanent suspension of annexation:

“I don’t think it would’ve been appropriate for Israel to, especially without the consensus of the Israeli population, to just give up territory permanently for any agreement with another country,”

He blamed the Israeli left for a tense moment in 2010 between then Vice President Biden and the Israeli government, when Biden arrived in Israel on the same day Isreal announced settlement construction plans:

“The reality here is whenever under the last administration somebody of significance came to visit, the Israeli left would immediately publicize whatever they could find in terms of settlement expansion, to create that friction,”

On his future plans:

“I’m going to stay American-only for at least four years. I want to give myself every opportunity to return to government.” And later, “Finally, there’s talk of his forming an Israel-based pro-settlement group. He hinted: ‘I will stay in the space somehow, but I just don’t know how,’ he said. ‘I’ll try to maintain a voice. I mean, it’s a huge drop-off when you no longer have access to the president’.”

Bonus Reads

1. “[Webinar] ‘Raided and Razed’: West Bank Education under Attack” (FMEP & NRC)
2. “‘Does someone have to die for West Bank outposts to be legalized?’” (Jerusalem Post)
3. “Land of wine and honey? Israeli settlers export to UAE, to Palestinian chagrin” (Reuters)

 

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

November 20, 2020

1. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 1: Historic Shifts in US Settlements Policy
2. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 2: Full Steam Ahead on Givat Hamatos Settlement
3. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 3: Israel Expected to Advance Har Homa E Settlement Plan
4. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 4: Israel Set to Start Process of Land Registration in East Jerusalem
5. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 5: Settlers Push to Re-Establish Abandoned Settlements in Northern West Bank
6. Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 6: Bibi Seeks U.S. OK for More Settlement Projects, Settlers Push for Outpost Authorization
7. Israeli Education Minister Celebrates New Settlement Yeshiva
8. IDF Pays for Use of Yeshiva After Settlers Destroy Army Base
9. Impending Sheikh Jarrah Evictions
10. Bonus Reads

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

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Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 1: Historic Shifts in US Settlements Policy 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Israel on November 19th for a two-day visit in which he made history with respect to U.S. support for settlements, delivering a series of extraordinary (though entirely predictable) victories to Israeli settlements and Israel’s Greater Israel pro-annexation movement. 

First, Pompeo became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the Israel-occupied Golan Heights since the Trump Administration recognized Israeli sovereignty there in March 2019, . 

Second, Pompeo became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit a West Bank Israeli settlement, in a visit publicly framed as establishing the legitimacy of settlements. Pompeo’s visit to the Psagot Winery – located near Ramallah – flouted international law and international consensus, which views Israel’s settlement enterprise as illegal [for a deep dive in the history of the Psagot settlement and the significance of Pompeo’s visit – check out this FMEP podcast with Dror Etkes, Fadi Quran, and Lara Friedman]. 

Third, in conjunction with his visit to the Psagot Winery settlement, Pompeo announced new U.S. guidelines that require products made in all areas under Israeli control to be labelled as “Made in Israel” (or iterations thereof) when being exported to the U.S. This is a massive and highly consequential shift in U.S. policy that offers recognition of Israeli sovereignty not only over settlements (as the Trump Administration has previously done) but over all of Area C – some 60% of the West Bank. The announcement was urged on by a group of four Republican Senators ahead of Pompeo’s trip. The policy, which if focused on territory, not people, would require even Palestinian-made goods originating from villages in Area C to be labelled as “Made in Israel”. Roughly 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C, where they are subjected to an escalating Israeli campaign to make life untenable for them via discriminatory planning policies and demolitions. 

Laying out the new policy, the State Department issued a statement saying:

“Today, the Department of State is initiating new guidelines to ensure that country of origin markings for Israeli and Palestinian goods are consistent with our reality-based foreign policy approach.  In accordance with this announcement, all producers within areas where Israel exercises the relevant authorities – most notably Area C under the Oslo Accords - will be required to mark goods as ’Israel’, ’Product of Israel’, or ‘Made in Israel’ when exporting to the United States.  This approach recognizes that Area C producers operate within the economic and administrative framework of Israel and their goods should be treated accordingly.  This update will also eliminate confusion by recognizing that producers in other parts of the West Bank are for all practical purposes administratively separate and that their goods should be marked accordingly.”

Pompeo made this announcement following his visit to the Psagot winery – which not only named a vintage after Pompeo but has also been at the center of Israel’s global effort to push nations to treat Israeli settlements as indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory, with the winery involved in international legal battles over how Israeli businesses located in the settlements are required to label their products. U.S. labelling requirements will now stand at odds with European policy on the matter, which requires differentiation between products made in Israel and products made in settlements. 

As part of the major change in U.S. labelling policy, Pompeo also changed how Palestinian-made products (produced in Areas A & B, and in the Gaza Strip) must be labelled, replacing the “West Bank/Gaza” label with separate “West Bank” and “Gaza” labels – another symbolic move laced with antagonism towards Palestinian rights and national aspirations. The change also contradicts the Oslo Accords, under which the Gaza Strip and West Bank are to be treated as a single territorial entity. The U.S. State Department statement on the labelling policy reads:

“We will no longer accept ’West Bank/Gaza’ or similar markings, in recognition that Gaza and the West Bank are politically and administratively separate and should be treated accordingly.”

Fourth, in a press conference alongside PM Netanyahy, Pompeo announced that the U.S. holds the “global BDS campaign” to be anti-Semitic, and said that the U.S. will “immediately take steps to identify the organizations that engage in hateful BDS conduct and withdraw US government support from such groups.” Pompeo called BDS a “cancer.” This is particularly relevant to settlement and annexation watchers because the new U.S. designation makes no distinction between boycotts aimed at Israel and boycotts limited to Israeli settlements – yet another legal step towards offering official U.S. recognition of Israel’s annexation of the settlements. It had previously been reported that the U.S. State Department were preparing to label Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, and Amnesty International as anti-Semitic organizations, based on the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.

Fifth, under the protection of a large Israeli security escort, Pompeo visited the Elad settler organization’s archeological projects in the City of David, an Israeli national park which was declared on top of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, located right outside of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Under Elad’s direction, and with the support of the Israeli government and the Trump Administration, archeology is being weaponized to erase the historic memory and the modern presence of Palestinians, while emphasizing the Jewish heritage at that site. At the same time, settler organizations including Elad and Ateret Cohanim are battling to implement the mass eviction of Paelstinians from their longtime homes in Silwan.

Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – a group of expert archaeologists – previously explained:

“The use of archaeology by Israel and the settlers as a political tool is a part of a strategy to shape the historic city and unilaterally entrench Israeli sovereignty over ancient Jerusalem. It is a process which is likely to produce devastating results for both Israel and the Palestinians.  It is inexcusable to ignore the Palestinian residents of Silwan, carrying out extensive excavations of an underground city and to use such excavations as part of an effort to tell a historic story that is exclusively Jewish in a 4,000 year-old city with a rich and diverse cultural and religious past.”

And in a piece entitled “Israel Is Using Archeology To Erase Non-Jewish History,” Emek Shaveh further explained:

“The exploitation of archaeology in Jerusalem has been spearheaded by the Elad Foundation, a group of settlers turned archaeology entrepreneurs, who are using ancient sites to take over land and shape the historical narrative. Elad, which emerged 30 years ago with a mission to settle Jews in Palestinian homes in the neighborhood of Silwan, manages the popular archaeological park, the City of David. Visitors to the site are treated to a heavily biblical narrative where discoveries that resonate with the story of King David or the Kingdom of Judea are highlighted. The fact the archaeologists dispute the evidence of a kingdom in the 10th century BCE often goes unmentioned. Furthermore, not many of the half a million people who visit the park annually know about life in the Palestinian neighborhood since Elad arrived on the scene. They will probably never hear about how Elad took over 75 homes in the neighborhood, or closed off virtually the last of the public areas used by the residents and annexed it to the archaeological park. With an annual budget of approximately 100 million shekels, the Elad Foundation now commands several excavation projects in the City of David, including tunnels along an ancient Roman street, which it is marketing as a Second Temple era pilgrims’ route to the Temple. It has recently branched out to establish new projects within the Old City and in other areas throughout the Historic Basin. But Elad couldn’t have done it on their own. If at first they were greeted with mistrust by the authorities in the 1990s, today they have an open door to many government agencies and ministries. From the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is in charge of most of the excavations at the City of David, and the Nature and Parks Authority, which subcontracted Elad to run the site, to the minister of tourism, who is aggressively advancing a cable car to link West Jerusalem to the City of David, to the mayor of Jerusalem, the government and all the relevant agencies are committed to the project of shaping a large tourist zone dedicated to the First and Second Temple periods.”

Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 2: Full Steam Ahead on Givat Hamatos Settlement

On November 15th, the Israel Land Authority published the long-feared/long-awaited (depending who you are) tender for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem. The tenders provide for the construction of 1,257 settlement units, which is about 200 units more than expected. The tender is set to close for bids on January 18, 2021 – exactly two days before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. In a carefully worded statement to the press, Netanyahu acknowledged that the publication of the Givat Hamatos tender had been coordinated with the Trump Administration (but not the Biden transition team).

Terrestrial Jerusalem writes:

“The decision to proceed with the construction of Givat Hamatos is the most defiant and inflammatory settlement move in recent memory, and should be treated as such. The construction of Givat Hamatos will create a buffer, contributing to an effective seal between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In addition, Givat Hamatos will, for the first time, completely surround an East Jerusalem neighborhood, Beit Safafa, with Israel construction, making the implementation of the Clinton parameters in East Jerusalem impossible.  Givat Hamatos will have a devastating impact on the very possibility of a future two-state outcome.”

Ir Amim writes:

“The opening of the tender significantly decreases the potentiality to effectively block Israeli building in the area. Concerted opposition and pressure to freeze the tender is therefore vital in this limited window of time. If carried through, Givat Hamatos would become the first new settlement in East Jerusalem in 20 years. Located in a particularly strategic area, Givat Hamatos (along with Har Homa E and E1) has constituted a longstanding international red line due its impact on the prospects of a viable two-state framework with two capitals in Jerusalem. By creating a contiguous Israeli built-up area between the existing settlements of Gilo and Har Homa, construction in Givat Hamatos will serve to seal off the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem from Bethlehem and the southern part of the West Bank, while isolating the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. The next two months in lead-up to the change in the US Presidential Administration will be a critical period. We believe that Israel will attempt to exploit this time to advance moves that the incoming administration will potentially oppose. It is crucial that the international community remain vigilant.”

Peace Now writes:

“Construction in Givat Hamatos will severely hamper the prospect of a two-state solution because it will ultimately block the possibility of territorial contiguity between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem–the main Palestinian metropolitan area–and will prevent Palestinian Beit Safafa from connecting with a future Palestinian state…The meaning of the publication of the Tender Booklet is that now the tender is open for bids and contractors may submit their proposals to win the right to build the units in Givat Hamatos. The final day for submitting the proposals is January 18th, 2021, three days before the change in the US administration…This is a major blow to the prospects for peace and the possibility of a two-state solution. This Netanyahu-Gantz government was established to fight the coronavirus but instead it is taking advantage of the final weeks of the Trump administration in order to set facts on the ground that will be exceedingly hard to undo in order to achieve peace. This tender can still be stopped. We hope that those in this government who still have some sense of responsibility for our future will do what they can to cancel the tender before bids are submitted.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said: 

“Israel is trying to benefit from the unlimited support of the current U.S. administration, which has provided it with all possible support for the sake of settlement expansion and the takeover of more Palestinian lands.”

PA Prime Minister Muhammed Shtayyeh said in a statement:

“There appears to be an escalating and intensive assault plan for the next 10 weeks in a race against time to create a new fait accompli before Donald Trump leaves the White House on January 21. We look with concern at the frequent reports about new colonial settlement projects in Arab Jerusalem and the West Bank, which aim to encircle and stifle the Palestinian Arab neighborhoods and prevent interaction between them and the rest of the West Bank and to completely isolate the city of Jerusalem.”

International reaction to Israel’s decision to publish the tender for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement — long treated as a red line by the international community — was predictably tempered. Several foreign governments issued statements of “concern,” including Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, the UK, Russia, and Italy, in addition to statements from UN Envoy Nikolay Mladenov and European Union High Commissioner Josep Borrell. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution – by an overwhelming majority — calling on all governments to refrain from treating Israel’s settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem as part of sovereign Israeli territory. B’Tselem Director Hagai El-Ad urged European governments to move from words to action.

Meanwhile, a delegation of European Union representatives received a hostile greeting from right-wing settlement supporters organized by hardline Israeli NGO Im Tirzu when the delegation attempted to visit the site of the future Givat Hamatos settlement on November 16th. The diplomats’ caravan was actually chased off by the right-wing protestors, which included Jerusalem city councilman and settlement empresario Ariyehh King, who shouted “Go home, anti-Semites!” at the visiting EU diplomats.

Though many settlers celebrated the publication of the Givat Hamatos tender, settlers who are currently living in the area of Givat Hamatos remain skeptical that the government will actually follow through. It’s worth noting that the government has provided mobile homes to about 30 families who live in the Givate Hamatos hillside as squatters, having waited 30 years since the Givat Hamatos plan was given final approval for construction to happen. Wall-to-wall international opposition to the settlement plan deterred the Israeli government from publishing them.

MK Miki Zohar (Likud) celebrated the new tender in a tweet saying:

 “Now we can talk about it. Before the last elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised me that he would publicize the building tender in Jerusalem’s Givat Hamatos; this neighborhood is in a strategic location between Beit Safafa and Hebron road. It important to build there in order to maintain a Jewish land continuum … We have a one-time opportunity these days to strengthen our hold in the land of Israel. I am sure that our friend, President [Donald] Trump, and Prime Minister Netanyahu will be wise enough to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 3: Israel Expected to Advance Har Homa E Settlement Plan 

As anticipated in last week’s Settlement Report, the Israeli government has decided to press forward with a highly controversial and consequential plan to expand the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa westward, toward the site of the future Givat Hamatos settlement (discussed above). Ir Amim reports that on November 23rd, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee is scheduled to take up the plan for 570 new units – called Har Homa E – for the second time this year, and is expected to approve the plan for deposit for public review, one of the final steps before implementation.

Ir Amim warns: 

“The rapid advancement of this plan is indicative of the Israeli government’s intent to accelerate as many settlement construction projects as possible in East Jerusalem and its vicinity in the waning days of the Trump administration.”

The construction in Har Homa E will solidify a continuum of Israeli settlement construction within the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem – from Har Homa, to Givat Hamatos, to Gilo – detaching East Jerusalem from Bethlehem and completing the encirclement of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa.

The plan for Har Homa E was last discussed in September 2020, when the District Planning Committee signaled its support for approving the plan for deposit, but requested several amendments prior granting that approval. With the modifications made, the expectation is that the committee will now give its formal approval, setting off a period of 60 days during which the public can submit objections to the plan.

The plan for 570 units currently set for approval represents the first detailed plan under a much larger Master Plan for Har Homa E, which involves a total of 2,200 units. Plans to build the remaining units permitted under the Master Plan are not yet being advanced.

Ir Amim writes:

“Construction in Har Homa E will serve as another step in connecting the existing Gilo and Har Homa neighborhoods/settlements and create a contiguous Israeli built-up area along the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem. This will likewise detach Bethlehem and the southern West Bank from East Jerusalem while isolating the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. In line with the new reality created by the Trump Plan and its unilateral recognition of Israeli sovereignty of East Jerusalem, these developments will constitute a major obstacle towards the future establishment of a Palestinian capital in the city and the prospect of a viable two-state framework.”

Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 4: Israel Set to Start Process of Land Registration in East Jerusalem

In an interview celebrating the publication of a tender for Givat Hamatos settlement project, Jerusalem Affairs & Heritage Minister Rafi Peretz connected the project to a larger Israeli effort to begin registering all East Jerusalem land in Israeli records, an effort which Peretz is spearheading. Al-Monitor reports that, as part of the Givat Hamatos project, the Israeli Finance and Justice Ministry’s acted swiftly to approve a budget, remove legal impediments, and finalize “financial compensation packages with the Palestinian land-owners” so that the land can be properly registered in Israeli government books.

Perez stated:

“The fact that almost all of the land in the eastern part of Jerusalem is not registered properly is something that should have been addressed a long time ago already. The plans that I have developed for registering land plots and properties have now been adopted by the various government ministries concerned, and once they are implemented, they will go a long way to improving the situation for the residents of these areas. A united Jerusalem is not a slogan – it’s a vision, and one that needs to apply to the eastern part of the city just as it applies to the west.”

The 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. Palestinians who wanted/needed to prove their land ownership were forced to rely on the “mukhtar protocol” — a procedure in which Palestinians in East Jerusalemites document/prove ownership by collecting signatures from local Palestinian leaders acknowledging that the land in question does, indeed, belong to them. This policy was developed by the Israeli government as an alternative to the formal land-registration process, which was frozen in East Jerusalem since 1967. 

In 2019, a mini-saga over the “mukhtar protocol” revealed the uphill battle facing Palestinians if formal registration proceeds. In March 2019, the Jerusalem Planning & Building Committee, at the urging of the Regavim settler group (acting with the clear goal of preventing Palestinian development and undermining Palestinian land ownership claims to land in the city), annulled the mukhtar protocol as a legally acceptable basis for establishing land ownership in the eyes of the Israeli government, putting Palestinian land ownership in East Jerusalem in limbo. The result: having no recognized means to prove their land ownership, Palestinians were prevented from building in East Jerusalem. One month later, the Israeli authorities reversed the decision and again recognized the mukhtar protocol, reportedly following appeals to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon by a city council member.

This news about starting the land registration process in East Jerusalem comes only a few weeks after Israel was reported to be advancing plans to begin a process of land registration for Area C of the West Bank — a process that opens another door for Israel to seize more Palestinian land. The registration process in East Jerusalem is expected to have similar results.

Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 5: Settlers Push to Re-Establish Abandoned Settlements in Northern West Bank

A group of 100 settlers, including children, invaded and set up camp at the abandoned site of the Sa-Nur settlement in the northern West Bank in an attempt to pressure the government to allow them to re-establish the settlement, which the state dismantled as part its 2005 disengagement from Gaza. After the Israeli army arrived at the site to evict the trespassers, MK Miki Zohar (Likud) persuaded the settlers to abandon their illegal campsite and leave the area, with the promise of raising the issue of Sa-Nur’s re establishment directly with Netanyahu.

MK Zohar is a staunch supporter of reestablishing Sa-Nur, along with three other settlements in the area that were likewise dismantled by the Israeli government in 2005 (Homesh, Ganim, and Kadim). Zohar has participated in previous visits to the site to support the settlers’ bid, frequently accompanied by his Likud colleagues, including former Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein. In July 2018, the Israeli Cabinet had the opportunity to lend government backing to a bill that would have cancelled the 2005 disengagement and allowed the settlers to rebuild those settlements – but the Cabinet blocked the bill. The settlers and their allies are no doubt raising this issue now, at a time when it seems like the wildest wishes of the settler enterprise are being fulfilled one after another.

As a reminder, even though Israel evacuated the four settlements in the West Bank, the IDF issued military orders barring Palestinians from entering the areas, preventing Palestinians from taking control over the area and building there. At the same time, settlers have regularly entered the areas and even repeatedly built a yeshiva at the Homesh site.  

Final Days of Trump Admin, Part 6: Bibi Seeks U.S. OK for More Settlement Projects, Settlers Push for Outpost Authorization

In addition to the extraordinary settlement plans unleashed over the past two weeks, Israeli media reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu is seeking the blessing of the Trump Administration to push forward additional East Jerusalem settlement projects in the immediate future. Israel’s Kan News Radio reported that Netanyahu planned to raise the settlement projects with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his trip to Israel this week. With developments related to Givat Hamatos and Har Homa E making the news this week, we can speculate that Netanyahu might be asking specifically about the Atarot settlement plan (northern tip of Jerusalem) and/or the E-1 settlement plan (just east of Jerusalem) – as FMEP laid out last week.

Another possibility is, of course, outpost legalizations. Settlers and their allies in the Israeli government are continuing their campaign to pressure Netanyahu to grant retroactive authorization to all of Israel’s outposts and illegal settler construction across the West Bank before Trump leaves office. Since FMEP’s last reporting two weeks ago, the Israel Land Caucus has begun collecting signatures on a petition calling on Netanyahu to act immediately on this matter. According to the Times of Israel the petition states that the Knesset committee, which includes senior members of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, is “united in the position that the regulation of young settlements must be done now…it is not fair, reasonable or responsible to leave the settlements without status and the tens of thousands of their residents deprived of their rights.”

Just this week Defense Ministry legal advisor Moshe Frucht stated that a government declaration authorizing the outposts is required prior to any actions that treat the outposts as legal communities – specifically rebuffing the request by settlers for the Defense Ministry to connect unauthorized outposts to Israeli state utilities. Frucht’s statement, combined with Netanyahu’s lack of action, enraged MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) who sharply scolded Netanyahu’s top settlements advisor in a Knesset hearing this week.

Israeli Education Minister Celebrates New Settlement Yeshiva

Israeli Minister of Education Yoav Galant (Likud) attended the opening of a new religious school (yeshiva) in the Bruchin settlement, located in a finger of continuous settlements that extends from the 1967 Green Line to the Ariel settlement in the very center of the northern West Bank.

Making it clear that opening yeshivas is part of Israel’s entrenchment and expansion of settlements across the West Bank, Galant said at the event:

“I am delighted to be here in order to celebrate the inauguration of this new building for a yeshiva high school in Bruchin, together with my good friend Yossi Dagan, who has done so much to develop Jewish settlement in the Samaria region and specifically to advance the educational network here. This new building will serve all the students of the local communities and neighborhoods that have been established in the area in the last few years. I am deeply committed to promoting Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. As Education Minister, I will continue to do all I can to further settlement here, just as I did when I was Housing & Construction Minister – and, indeed, as I have done throughout my life. It’s time that we settled the entire Land, from the Jordan River to the sea. I hope that the students who come to learn here will be able to commence their studies this winter.”

IDF Pays for Use of Yeshiva After Settlers Destroy Army Base

The Times of Israel reports that Israel has agreed to pay the operators of a violent yeshiva associated with the Yitzhar settlement a sum of $118,750 (400,000 NIS) to cover the cost of the building’s use by security forces over the past six years.

In 2014, a mob of violent settlers stormed an army base near the Yitzhar settlement, leaving several officers wounded and destroying all military equipment at the site. After the attack, the IDF seized the yeshiva to use as a temporary base (since theirs was destroyed). It has continued to use the yeshiva since that time, and will now pay the settlers for the inconvenience.

Impending Sheikh Jarrah Evictions

Earlier this month, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s court notified four Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah that they must vacate their longtime homes by November 24th, or else be forcibly evicted. One of those families is the Sabbagh family, whose legal struggle against Israeli settler groups has previously caught international attention and sparked weekly protests in Sheikh Jarrah to stop their eviction. 

The Sabbagh family has lived in their home for over 64 years, and have been battling the settler organization Nahalat Shimon for their right to remain in their home. Nahalat Shimon was awarded ownership rights of the Sabbagh’s house through the use of the “Legal and Administration Matters Law,” which allows Israeli Jews (but not Palestinians) to reclaim property lost/abandoned during the 1948 war. Nahalat Shimon managed to find the Jewish Israeli family who owned the home prior to the 1948 War and convinced that family to hand over their ownership rights.

Muhammed al-Sabbagh told the Middle East Eye recently:

“I know that the Israeli court will not do justice to me. They will not be on my side against Israeli settlers. But I will fight until the very end to protect my home where I grew up, the only safe haven for me and my family.”

Sami Ershid, the family’s lawyer, told Middle East Eye: 

“For years, these [families] wake up thinking what the court will rule against them. They live a life completely devoid of stability, thinking when they will be forcibly expelled from their homes. The [Israeli] goal is clear: to create a new settler neighbourhood on the rubble of their homes.”

Just Vision – who shared one Sheikh Jarrah family’s story in the docuseries “My Neighborhood,” said in an email drawing attention to these evictions:

“While the cases in Sheikh Jarrah are thinly veiled as a legal matter, the political motivations are clear. This latest round of evictions is part of a broader attempt by the Israeli state to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The process is methodical and impacts thousands of lives on a daily basis. In the past month alone, Israel hid under the US election media frenzy to undertake the largest demolition of Palestinian homes and structures in a decade, and just yesterday, announced a new settlement, Givat Hamatos, that would effectively cut East Jerusalem off from Bethlehem. This all happens under the United States’ watch – subsequent US administrations have done little to hold the Israeli government to account, and the latest administration has given a carte-blanche for unjust activity like this.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Occupied Thoughts: “Pompeo in Psagot” ft. Fadi Quran, Dror Etkes, & Lara Friedman” (FMEP)
2. “Israel Impounds Palestinian’s Cows Grazing on Nature Reserve, Ignores Settlers’ Cows” (Haaretz)
3. “Israeli settlers in the West Bank confront the Biden reality and dig in for a fight” (Washington Post)

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

November 13, 2020

1. Anticipating Biden, Part 1: Givat Hamatos Tender Expected Soon
2. Anticipating Biden, Part 2: Israel Rushes to “Legalize” Illegal Settler Construction
3. Anticipating Biden, Part 3: Israel Issues Permits for 96 Units in Ramat Shlomo Settlement
4. Anticipating Biden, Part 4: What Else Might Be Coming Down the Pike?
5. Pompeo To Visit Settlement, A First for a U.S. Secretary of State
6. Emek Shaveh on Status of Settler-Backed Tourism Projects in East Jerusalem
7. Normalization or Annexation? Settlers Go to UAE to Talk Business
8. Peace Now Reflects on Four Years of Trump
9. Bonus Reads

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

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Anticipating Biden, Part 1: Givat Hamatos Tender Expected Soon

Peace Now reports that Israel is on the precipice of publishing the tender for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem. The publication of the tender for 1,077 units in the approved-but-as-yet-not-started Givat Hamatos settlement has been delayed three times. Government sources have indicated to Peace Now that the tender will be published this week; a government official told Haaretz that the tender will be issued ahead of the swearing in of Joe Biden in January 2021. Upon Peace Now breaking this news, Ir Amim’s researcher Aviv Tatarsky visited the site of the future settlement and noted heavy machinery at work. A person at the site self-identified as a member of the Israel Antiquities Authority and told Tatarsky that the work being done was to check the area for antiquities (if antiquities are present at the site, it will delay/complicate any construction).

Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution, assuming that Jerusalem will need to be divided and shared. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

Terrestrial Jerusalem – in addition to providing a detailed history of the Givat Hamatos settlement plan and a great explanation of the tender process – writes on the timing of this news:

“It is highly unlikely that the timing of this is unrelated to the complex and sensitive situation that exists after the US elections and before the inauguration of President Biden. The Trump administration has not objected to, and at times has been supportive of Israeli settlement expansion. Under the Trump Plan, all of Jerusalem, including Givat Hamatos, are destined to remain under exclusive Israeli sovereignty. The awarding of tenders in the interregnum between the Trump and Biden administrations would not augur an auspicious beginning to Netanyahu’s relation with the Biden administration. Still, Netanyahu seems to assume that what he can do this week (as far as DC is concerned) will be far more costly to him as of January 20. And if he succeeds with Givat Hamatos, the final approval of E-1 is much more likely.”

Ir Amim writes:

“Although there is yet no official announcement on the opening of bidding for the Givat Hamatos tenders, Peace Now’s information must be seriously taken into consideration. After years that Israel has been forced to stay construction on the new settlement of Givat Hamatos, these two months before the turnover of the US Presidential Administration will be a critical period. We believe that Israel will try to make the most of this time to advance motions that it believes that the incoming administration will oppose. Due to the sensitive nature of the site, the opening of the tender for Givat Hamatos is one of the first on the list of settlement construction that Israel is bound to advance.”

Anticipating Biden, Part 2: Israel Rushes to “Legalize” Illegal Settler Construction

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is spearheading an effort to expedite the retroactive legalization of at least 1,700 illegally built structures in settlements across the West Bank, including notoriously radical and violent outposts like Yitzhar. The other settlements and outposts reportedly slated to receive approvals from the Israeli government are Beitar Illit, Modi’in Illit, Maale Adumim, Ariel, Ateret, Halamish, Adora, and Otniel. The process of granting retroactive legalization to illegal construction both in settlements and in illegal outposts has been an ongoing effort from within and outside of the Bibi government for decades, and has adopted a renewed urgency during the Trump-Bibi era – especially now that Trump is poised to exit the White House in January 2021. In fact, Jerusalem Post reports that granting authorization to 70-100 outposts is at the top of the settlers’ lobbying agenda as the Trump days dwindle.

Gantz is reportedly working with his fellow Blue & White party member and Defense Ministry official Michael Biton to secure approvals for these illegal structures using the “market regulation” principle as a legal basis for doing so. As FMEP has documented, the “market regulation” principle (explained in detail here) is the brainchild of Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit, and it stipulates that illegal settler construction that was undertaken in “good faith” (i.e. without any involved parties having knowledge that the land upon which they built without permits was/is Palestinian land) is eligible for legalization. The 1,700 structures that Benny Gantz has reportedly identified as eligible are said to have been built by the settlers with the state’s support on land that was believed at the time to be “state land,” but was later discovered to be either owned by Palestinians or to fall outside the borders of state land declarations. Arutz Sheva suggests that there are no known claims by Palestinians on the land. [Reminder: as the occupying force in the West Bank, Israel has a duty to correctly record and protect land status, its failure to do so is now being used as a basis for which to strip Palestinians of their property rights in favor of the settlers].

While pushing for full authorization to be granted to all outposts and illegal settlement structures, settlers have also prepared additional policy options for Netanyahu should the clock run out on the Trump Administration’s pro-settlement posture (10 weeks and counting). For example, Netanayhu might consider issuing a government decision declaring that all outposts are legal in principle, irrespective of the details of each case, and leaving the means and process of retroactive legalization to be dealt with down the road (with the outcome predetermined). Another option the settlers suggest is to have Netanyahu allow all outposts to be connected to Israeli state utilities.

Anticipating Biden, Part 3: Israel Issues Permits for 96 Units in Ramat Shlomo Settlement

On November 10th, the Jerusalem Municipality issued building permits for the construction of 108 units in East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo settlement. A municipality source told Kan radio that planning authorities are planning even more approvals for Ramat Shlomo ahead of Biden’s swearing in ceremony in January 2021.

Israel’s approval of new units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement carries a special connection to incoming U.S. President Joe Biden. The new building permits are part of a larger plan for 1,500 units in Ramat Shlomo (tenders for almost all of which have now been published that was announced by Israel in 2010, during a visit to Jerusalem by then-Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of that announcement, and the inflammatory nature of settlement approvals in East Jerusalem (which the Obama Administration pressured Israel to halt), sparked outrage and prompted Biden to issue harsh criticism of Israel while on the ground. The incident earned the 2010 Ramat Shlomo plan the nickname the “Biden Plan.”

Peace Now writes:

“A building permit is the last hurdle before construction can begin; after the plan is approved and the tender is completed, the winning contractors prepare detailed program for the construction of the buildings and they have to go through a bureaucratic permit procedure in the Jerusalem municipality. Normally the issuance of a building permit would not have reached the news, but because of the political sensitivity, and the special history of President-elect Biden with Ramat Shlomo, the issue made headlines. It is not impossible that there was someone who hurried to issue the permits right now, but it is possible that this was done in accordance with the normal pace of bureaucratic progress.”

Anticipating Biden, Part 4: What Else Might Be Coming Down the Pike?

Haaretz reports that Israeli authorities in Jerusalem  have been ordered to expedite the planning process for several East Jerusalem settlement projects (in addition to the Givat Hamatos and Ramat Sholomo settlement plans, detailed above). Included in the rush are reportedly orders to move quickly on plans for: 

1. The Atarot settlement. Israel’s plan to build the Atarot settlement in East Jerusalem can be approved for deposit for public review, having been introduced formally by the Israeli government in February 2020. The plan, which has been rumored since 2007, calls for up to 9,000 residential units aimed for ultra-Orthodox Jews (assuming, conservatively, an average family size of 6, this means housing form 54,000 people), as well as synagogues, ritual baths (mikvehs), commercial properties, offices and work spaces, a hotel, and a water reservoir. If built, the Atarot settlement will effectively be a huge Israeli enclave, surrounded by Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods on three sides and Ramallah to its north. The settlement is slated to be built on the site of the now defunct Atarot airport, which is an important commodity and, during pre-Trump negotiations, was promised to the Palestinians for their state’s future international gateway. It is located at the northern tip of East Jerusalem next to the Qalandiya checkpoint – an area that the Trump Plan would be located entirely inside the state of Israel, and therefore subject to the complete control of Israeli authorities (the Trump Plan seems to suggest it would be the site for a Palestinian tourism zone).
2. The Har Homa E settlement. Israel’s plan to expand the Har Homa settlement to the east, via a plan called “Har Homa E” can also be approved for deposit for public review. The construction in Har Homa E would solidify a continuum of Israeli settlement construction along the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem, detaching East Jerusalem from Bethlehem and completing the encirclement of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa.

In addition, settler leaders are calling on Netanyahu to allow the Higher Planning Council – the body within the Israeli Defense Ministry which regulates all construction in the West Bank – to meet one final time in 2020. The High Planning Council could advance plans for thousands of settlement units across the West Bank through various stages. This could include – to the delight of settlers – a greenlight for the construction of the E-1 settlement on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. In March 2020, plans for the construction of the E-1 settlement were deposited for public review, and can now be given final approval by the High Planning Council (assuming that the comment period – normally only 60 days – is closed).

Long called a “doomsday” settlement by supporters of a two-state solution, construction of the E-1 settlement would cut the West Bank effectively in half,  foreclosing the possibility of drawing a border between Israel and Palestine in a manner which preserves territorial contiguity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. It would likewise consolidate the isolation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank. In combination with the recent advancements on Givat Hamatos and new tenders for Har Homa,  Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Greater Jerusalem settlement construction announcements – leading up to the third round of Israeli elections – have crossed red lines (in the eyes of the international community) that Netanyahu didn’t dare cross in the past.

Pompeo To Visit Settlement, A First for a U.S. Secretary of State 

Axios reports that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is planning to visit the Golan Heights and the West Bank settlement of Psagot during his trip to Israel next week, which would make him the first Secretary of State to visit either the Golan Heights or a West Bank settlement. The visit, already being hailed by settler leaders, yet again conveys U.S. support for the legitimacy of Israel’s settlement enterprise, and Israel’s sovereignty over its settlements.

Pompeo is said to be planning a visit to the winery in Psagot which named a wine after him in celebration of the Pompeo Doctrine – the Pompeo announcement that erased decades of U.S. policy opposing settlements. The Psagot settlement also played host to the first time (known to the public) that U.S. Ambassador David Friedman visited a settlement, when he attended a wedding at the very same winery in May 2017. The Psagot Winery has been at the center of a broad global effort to push nations to treat Israeli settlements as indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory, with the winery involved in international legal battles over how Israeli businesses located in the settlements are required to label their products. Psagot Winery insists that it has a right to mark its products as “Made in Israel” (in effect asserting Israeli sovereignty over the settlements); and international actors including the European Court of Justice have ruled that the labels must accurately indicate that such products are made in the West Bank (i.e. outside of Israel’s borders). 

Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh tweeted:

“We deplore US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo’s intent to visit the illegal settlement of Psagot, built on lands belonging to Palestinian owners in Al-Bireh city, during his visit to Israel next week. This dangerous precedent legalizes settlements & a blow to int’l legitimacy/ UN Res’s.”

The Psagot settlement is located just east of Ramallah, and was built with the support of the Israeli government, with the clear goal of restricting the potential growth the nearby Palestinian village of Al-Bireh. Haaretz, relying on the expertise of settlement expert Dror Etkes, explains the history of Psagot:

“Established in 1979 to compensate settlers for the withdrawal from Sinai required of Israel in the peace treaty with Egypt, one of the aims of Psagot was to stifle neighboring El Bireh. In 1967, the latter had a population of 8,000 spread over an area of 12,000 dunams (3,000 acres). Today its population is 82,000 – but its area has shrunk to about 10,500 dunams. At one spot, only 30 meters separate the crowded Palestinian city from the settler homes.  Etkes relates that Psagot was originally situated on a hilltop (psagot means peaks or summits in Hebrew) at a site that Israel had classified as state land. Treish explains that the land was purchased from its owners in 1965 by the city government of East Jerusalem, then under Jordanian control, for the construction of a summer resort for wealthy vacationers from Kuwait. The 1967 war, in which East Jerusalem came under Israeli control, torpedoed that plan, however, and thereafter the land became “the territories of [Jerusalem Mayor] Teddy Kollek,” in Treish’s words – or “state territory,” in Israeli settlement parlance. Over the years, Etkes notes, the original 140 dunams allocated to Psagot expanded to 655 dunams. Etkes has maps on his computer that show the takeover stage by stage – a brief history of dispossession – all of it, of course, under the auspices of the Israeli authorities, along with the addition of mobile homes, security barriers and so on. Land that had been part of the master plan of El Bireh became the Psagot settlement…Etkes tweeted, “The owners of the Psagot winery owe its success to several factors: to the IDF, which built the fence around Psagot; to the Civil Administration, which did not evict them; to the police, who did not place them on trial; to the billionaire Falic brothers [from Miami, Florida] who came in as partners in the winery; and to the Israel Water Authority, which allocated them tens of millions of cubic liters of water for irrigation.””

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Husam Zomlot tweeted in reaction: 

“Unthinkable yet unsurprising. Israeli colonial settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal before and after Pompeo’s visit. All the visit does is make the Trump administration complicit with war crimes.”

Emek Shaveh on Status of Settler-Backed Tourism Projects in East Jerusalem

Emek Shaveh has published a concise update on settler-backed tourism projects that are currently advancing in East Jerusalem. Aside from the cable car project (on which work is beginning, despite a pending court case), most of the projects detailed are not closely followed by the media, have not recently been in the news, or are not widely known about. The report covers progress on:

1. A cafe and cultural center in Abu Tor belonging to the Elad settler organization. The cafe opened in 2019, after Elad evicted a Palestinian family and renovated the space. Named “House in the Valley,” the cafe is uncoincidentally located adjacent to the site of a planned new pedestrian footbridge designed to expand Elad’s tourist infrastructure across the area. Specifically, that footbridge will connect Abu Tor (a mixed but segregated neighborhood) with Elad-run tourist sites and settler homes in the Palestinian Silwan neighborhood, located just outside the Old City’s Dung Gate, in the shadow of the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif. Emek Shaveh reports that an Israeli court rejected a petition against the footbridge earlier this year.
2. New agricultural tourism projects on Palestinian land in the Ben Hinnom Valley.  Emek Shaveh reports that two weeks ago Israeli authorities announced plans to develop agricultural terraces in the area that mimic ancient farming practices (practices that Palestinians use to this day). This work is related to land that Israel had previously seized from Palestinians for “gardening purposes.”
3. Ateret Cohanim’s plan to build a “Yemenite Cultural Center” in Silwan. Emek Shaveh reports that Ateret Cohanim recently brought several organizations interested in competing to become the curator of the settler organization’s “Yemenite Cultural Center” on a tour of the building (i.e., a settler enclave masquerading as a heritage center). Ateret Cohanim is behind a campaign that could evict as many as 700 Palestinians from their homes in Batan al-Hawa, where the Center is located. Like many other properties in Silwan, Ateret Cohanim maneuvered, with the help of the Israeli government, to gain control of the building by reviving an ancient Yemenite land trust that owned the land centuries ago, and has since been pursuing the eviction of Paelstinians who have lived on that land for generations. The Israeli government allocated $1.2 million to the “Yemenite Cultural Center” project, which was launched in August 2018, even as Palestinians continued to challenge the legitimacy of Ateret Cohanim’s claim to the land.
4. Two Elad-Promoted Projects in East Jerusalem’s Peace Forest. Emek Shaveh reports that Elad is in the process of renovating a new tourism center that will serve as the starting point for the zip line project – also promoted by Elad – in the Peace Forest in East Jerusalem. Secondly, the Israeli Finance Ministry has reportedly agreed to finance the development of camping grounds in the Peace Forest. As a reminder, Israel has previously issued demolition orders to Palestinians  building on their own land in the area designated by Israel as the “Peace Forest,” even as it has re-zoned the area to accommodate settler projects.

As FMEP has explained, Elad and Ateret Cohanim – along with the whole of the Israeli government, which enables and promotes their efforts – have undertaken a politically and ideologically-motivated project to hide, marginalize, and erase the presence and history of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population in and around the Old City. They have done so in large part by developing and controlling tourist attractions and infrastructure in the area. Those projects are designed to further entrench settler activities and tourism sites inside Silwan, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. As a spokesman for Elad once proudly declared, “Our aim is Judaize East Jerusalem”),

Normalization or Annexation? Settlers Go to UAE to Talk Business

To the shock and dismay of Palestinians, the UAE played host to a delegation of Israeli settlers for discussions of commercial opportunities between the two parties. In so doing, the UAE has given legitimacy, as an Arab state, to the role that settlement businesses and industrial zones play (and will play) in the economy of the West Bank – something that entrenches the permanency and profitability of Israel’s occupation.

In the wake of the signing of the Abraham Accords, settler businesspeople have returned to proudly hawking their economic peace “coexistence” model, which purports that settlement businesses actually benefit Palestinians because they provide employment opportunities. In fact, settlers who are promoting business cooperation with the Palestinians — and now the Emiratis — are in fact promoting the normalization, entrenchment, and the rewarding of Israeli settlements, while perpetuating Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory and its population (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). 

Peace Now Reflects on Four Years of Trump

In a new report – entitled “Greenlighting De Facto Annexation: A Summary of Trump’s Impact on the Settlements“ – Peace Now takes a look at the totality of Israel’s de facto annexation of West Bank land over the past four years of the Trump Administration. The report’s main findings are:

• The number of plans promoted in the settlements increased 2.5 times compared to the previous four years – 26,331 housing units were promoted in the settlements in the years 2017-2020, compared to 10,331 housing units in the years 2013-2016.
• The number of tenders in the settlements doubled – tenders were published for 2,425 housing units in the settlements, compared with 1,164 housing units in the previous four years.
• Infrastructure and road projects were designed to add another million settlers – In recent years, the Israeli government has begun infrastructure and road projects designed to form the development axis for settlements with an investment of billions of shekels. These include: doubling the “Tunnels Road” (bypassing Bethlehem), Al-Arroub bypass (completing a four-lane road from Jerusalem to Hebron), the Eastern Ring Road from A-Za’ayyim and Anata (AKA “the Apartheid Road), Hawara bypass (south of Nablus), the Qalandiya underpass, Nabi Eliyas bypass and other roads.
• Construction was promoted in places particularly destructive for the prospects of peace, and where Israel did not dare build in the past (due to international opposition). 
• Promoted plans will add 100,000 settlers in settlements that Israel will have to evacuate under any realistic 2-state scenario – 78% of the promoted plans (20,629 housing units) are in settlements that Israel will have to evacuate under a two-state agreement (according to the Geneva Initiative model). Major developments include:
  • E1 – Plans were deposited for 3,401 housing units.
  • Givat Hamatos – A tender was published for 1,077 housing units.
  • Hebron – The government has approved the construction of about 100 housing units that will double the number of settlers in the Palestinian city.
  • Large expansions in the heart of the West Bank: 1,103 units for settlements surrounding Nablus (Bracha, Elon Moreh, Itamar, Yizhar, Shavei Shomron); 2,687 units in settlements surrounding Ramallah (Beit El, Ofra, Psagot, Kochav Yaacov, Dolev, Talmon and its outposts); 2,279 units in settlements between Ramallah and Nablus (Eli, Shilo, Shvut Rachel and the new settlement of Amihai).
• An explosion of new outposts.  – At least 31 new outposts were established during the Trump administration (compared to 9 in the previous four years). In addition, 10 outposts were retroactively legalized (their “regularization” plan took effect), compared to 7 outposts in the previous four years.
• Undermining the Israeli, Palestinian, and international consensus on the parameters for solving the conflict’s core issues and presenting a plan for annexation  – The Trump Administration undermined the parameters for resolving the conflict by moving the embassy to Jerusalem while taking the issue “off the table,” canceling UNRWA support and implying that the Palestinian refugees are no longer an issue,  and legitimizing settlements. The Trump Plan, published in January 2020, presents a model for Israeli annexation without even minimal Palestinian independence.
• Evacuation of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem in favor of settlers – In the four years of the Trump administration, around 6 Palestinian families in the Muslim Quarter and Sheikh Jarrah were evicted (based on restitution of Jewish property before 1948, while such laws are not afforded to Palestinians), compared to only one family in Silwan in the previous four years. (Removal of Palestinian families, based on settler claims to have acquired their property, continued both in previous years and under the Trump administration).
• Changing the rules of the game to de facto annexation  –  Under Trump, the Israeli government produced a series of legal opinions approving the expropriation of Palestinian land, contrary to previous rulings (and of course contrary to international law, according to which expropriation of occupied land to serve the interests of the occupier’s population is prohibited), and applying  apply administrative laws and procedures over the Green Line in the West Bank, despite it not being officially part of Israel (“from occupation to apartheid”). 

Peace Now writes:

“The de facto annexation has manifested itself in high levels of settlement unit approvals, transgressions of informal international red lines in highly sensitive areas like the Jerusalem environs and Hebron, and the building of over 30 new outposts. Consequently, de jure annexation became a legitimate topic in the Israeli and American governments, while Israel has created for itself and the Palestinians a near permanent, undemocratic one-state reality.”

Bonus Reads

1. “As Town Near Jerusalem Expands, This Palestinian Village Could Lose Its Spring” (Haaretz)
2. “Court rejects Netanyahu bid to delay Khan al-Ahmar response” (Jerusalem Post)
3. “What Trump has in store for Israel, Middle East during final 70 days in office” (The Times of Israel)
4. “Should Israel’s Settlers Fear Joe Biden?” (Haaretz)
5. “Israel’s settlements could test ties with Biden” (AP)
6. “Israeli settlers disappointed over Trump’s defeat, worry over Biden” (Al-Monitor)

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

November 6, 2020

1. Israel Moves Towards Destruction of 200+ Palestinian East Jerusalem Business to Make Way for “Silicon Wadi” Industrial Zone
2. Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 1: Israel Razes Entire Palestinian Community (a War Crime) on Eve of U.S. Election Drama
3. Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 2: Attorney General Approves Land Registration Process that Opens Another Door for Israel to Seize More Palestinian Land
4. Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 3: Tightening the Noose Around Khan Al-Ahmar
5. Delayed for a Third Time, Israeli Government Silent on Givat Hamatos Tender
6. Settler Campaign to Take Over West Bank Antiquity Sites/Objects Proceeds: Israel Fences Off More Land Near Herodium, Invades Sebastia Site
7. Israel Begins Preparations for Construction of Settler-Backed Cable Car Line in Jerusalem, Despite Ongoing Court Case
8. Knesset Land Caucus Plots Way Forward on Outpost Legalization
9. Bonus Reads

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

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Israel Moves Towards Destruction of 200+ Palestinian East Jerusalem Business to Make Way for “Silicon Wadi” Industrial Zone

Palestinian media reports that Israeli authorities have formally issued eviction notices to dozens of Palestinian business owners in the Wadi al-Joz district of East Jerusalem, as plans advance to level the entire area and replace it with a massive new business district, dubbed “Silicon Wadi.” The eviction notices instruct tenants to vacate by December 30th, after which time Israel will proceed with demolitions. The Jerusalem Post confirms that as part of the plan, “about 200 Palestinian-owned industrial buildings will have their tenants evicted and be demolished.” The Silicon Wadi project is projected to cost $600 million for construction covering 350,000 square meters to house high-tech companies, real estate, shopping centers, and hotels. 

A PLO Spokeswoman said:

“Israel‘s focused and systematic plunder of occupied Jerusalem persists unabated, in violation of international law and proclaimed positions of states worldwide. In addition to a sharp increase in home demolitions and the displacement of many families in Jerusalem during the COVID-19 pandemic, the illegal Israeli ‘municipality’ has unveiled its plans to demolish decades-old Palestinian industrial area in the Wad al-Joz neighborhood and replace it with a gentrified settler neighborhood with the flashy name of ‘Silicon Wadi,’ This is an outrageous and criminal plan that will devastate 200 Palestinian businesses in the area and deprive hundreds of Palestinians of their sources of livelihood. It is a massive scheme that brings Israel’s displacement and replacement policy against the Palestinian people into sharp focus, especially in Jerusalem.”

In June 2020, when plans of the demolitions were revealed to the press, the chairman of East Jerusalem’s Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Obeidat, called the planned demolitions a “racist order” to to change the character of the Palestinian city and use the land to build Israeli structures.

Grassroots Jerusalem explains the history and current reality facing the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood:

“Overlooking the Mount of Olives and the Kidron Valley, Wadi al-Joz was once the city’s industrial zone until the First and then the Second Intifada. The area is under the jurisdiction of Israeli civil law under the Jerusalem Municipality. As with many neighbourhoods in the area surrounding the Old City, Wadi al-Joz is experiencing severe challenges with the 2009 approved ‘Master Zone Plan’ and the subsequent aggressive expansion of Jewish presence in the area.”

Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 1: Israel Razes Entire Palestinian Community (a War Crime) on Eve of U.S. Election Drama 

Late in the evening of November 3rd, Israeli forces arrived at and proceeded to demolish the Palestinian community of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley, rendering 74 Palestinians homeless (of which 41 are minors). Palestinians report that they were given 10 minutes to vacate their tents before the bulldozers razed the herding community, in its entirety, to the ground. Levelling 76 structures in total, this was the largest single demolition by Israel in the past decade. Even prior to this massive demolition, Israel had already broken its own record for the most demolitions of Palestinian structures in a single year, the total now stands at 869 demolished Palestinian structures.

Yasser Abu al-Kbash, a resident of Khirbet Humsah, told NPR:

“I am 99% certain this was taking advantage of the U.S. elections. … There were no journalists around…Our bed is the ground. Our roof is the sky. We hope people will come and see our situation. They will see that Israel, which pretends to be a compassionate country, is chasing us.”

B’Tselem said in a statement:

“While the world deals with the coronavirus crisis, Israel has devoted time and effort to harassing Palestinians instead of helping protected residents living under its control. Israel tries to justify the demolitions with feeble excuses such as “law enforcement” or “building and planning considerations”, while deliberately creating a Kafkaesque reality that leaves Palestinians almost no way to build legally. While Israel has formally given up on annexing the West Bank, the demolition figures indicate that on the ground, reality remains unchanged and the de-facto annexation continues. Israel continues to treat the West Bank as its own – which includes preventing Palestinian development throughout the area (including East Jerusalem) so it can take over more and more land.”

Detailing Israel’s ongoing campaign against Palestinian life in Area C, B’Tselem writes:

“In the midst of an unprecedented health and economic crisis, more Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) lost their homes in the first 10 months of 2020 alone than in any full year since 2016 – the highest year on record since B’Tselem started collecting this data. As a result of Israel’s policy, 798 Palestinians have already lost their homes in 2020, including 404 minors who lived in 218 homes – compared to 677 Palestinians in all of 2019, 397 in 2018 and 521 in 2017….According to Civil Administration (CA) data, in the first 10 months of 2020 alone, the CA confiscated 242 prefabs from Palestinians, as opposed to six in all of 2015. In 2019, some 700 tractors and diggers were confiscated and about 7,500 trees uprooted in Area C. The CA even boasts that its figures show a decrease in international aid projects for Palestinians in Area C, such as setting up prefabs and laying infrastructure, to a mere 12 in 2019 compared to 75 in 2015.”

Yvonne Helle, a senior UN Development Programme official in the Palestinian territories, said about the demolition:

“So far in 2020, 689 structures have been demolished across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, more than in any full year since 2016; rendering 869 Palestinians homeless. The lack of Israeli-issued building permits is typically cited as a reason, even though, due to the restrictive and discriminatory planning regime, Palestinians can almost never obtain such permits. Demolitions are a key means of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their homes. Located in the Jordan Valley, Humsa Al Bqai’a is one of 38 Bedouin and herding communities partially or fully located within Israeli-declared ‘firing zones.’ These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank, with limited access to education and health services, and to water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure. I remind all parties that the extensive destruction of property and the forcible transfer of protected people in an occupied territory are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. While assuring that the humanitarian community stands ready to support all those who have been displaced or otherwise affected, I strongly reiterate our call to Israel to immediately halt unlawful demolitions.

The European Union said in a statement:

“Such developments constitute an impediment towards the two-state solution. The EU reiterates its call on Israel to halt all such demolitions, including of EU-funded structures, in particular in light of the humanitarian impact of the current coronavirus pandemic.”

Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 2: Attorney General Approves Land Registration Process that Opens Another Door for Israel to Seize More Palestinian Land

Israeli news outlets report that the Israeli Attorney General supports a recent recommendation by COGAT – the Israeli authority responsible for coordinating civilian affairs in the West Bank – to resume the process of registering land in the West Bank. That recommendation came in response to an effort by MK Uzi Dayan (Likud), who contacted COGAT to push for the government to declare more of the West Bank as “state land.” In response, COGAT recommended the land registration process is a better option for taking control of more land, arguing that this would be faster, less expensive, and more final than having the state declare land in the West Bank to be “state land.” This is because declaration of state land can face legal challenges by Palestinians that may take years to resolve, whereas the land registration process affords Palestinians no such ability to challenge Israel’s decisions once they are made.

According to Israel Hayom, the Israeli land registration process would first require a survey of the land, after which time anyone claiming ownership could present documents to the Israeli government seeking to prove their ownership. In the case of land where Israel recognizes no valid ownership claims – including cases where Palestinians do not have documentation that Israel will accept – Haaretz reports that the process gives heavy weight to whomever currently controls the land (e.g., if a settler has built illegally on Palestinian land and lived there, under the protection of the IDF, the process will give weight to their claim absent overwhelming documentation, accepted by Israel, from the Palestinina owner). The registration decisions can be appealed, but once the claims are resolved by an Israeli official appointed to oversee the process, no further appeal is possible. Moreover, all “unclaimed” land – that is, land over which Israel does not recognize any legal ownership, will automatically become “state land.”

Shlomo Zacharia, a land lawyer working with Yesh Din, further explains how the process of Israeli-controlled land registration will dispossess Palestinians, saying:

“If a village has 30 plots, with [specific, documented] ownership claims on only 20 of those, the other ten automatically transfer to the state. If you haven’t filed a claim of ownership, it goes to the state. Period. The arrangement will primarily benefit the Civil Administration and the settlers, since most of the land allocated by the state goes to settlers, and because the arrangement process (in Israel and the West Bank) favors the person holding the land in practice.”

As a reminder, a 2018 report by Peace Now found that Israel almost exclusively allocates state land in the West Bank to Jewish Israeli settlers (99.76% of allocated state  land) – meaning that Dayan’s push for state land declarations serves to benefit the expansion of settlement and settler infrastructure. At the time of is 2018 blockbuster report on Israel’s discriminatory land allocation, Peace Now said:

“The significance of the data is that the State of Israel, which has been in control of the West Bank for more than 50 years, allocates the land exclusively to Israelis, while allocating virtually no land for the unqualified benefit of the Palestinian population. Land is one of the most important public resources. Allocation of land for the use of only one population at the expense of another is one of the defining characteristics of apartheid. This is further proof that Israel’s continued control of the occupied territories over millions of Palestinian residents without rights and the establishment of hundreds of settlements on hundreds of thousands of dunams has no moral basis.”

Israel Accelerates De Facto Annexation in Area C, Part 3: Tightening the Noose Around Khan Al-Ahmar

On November 2nd, the Israeli state informed the High Court of Justice that it plans to delay carrying out the court-approved forcible transfer and demolition of Khan al-Ahmar (a war crime) for the coming months, asking the Court for more time to plan how the demolition will be implemented. The State was forced to file the affidavit in light of a petition by the Regavim settler group, which challenged the State’s delay in carrying out the demolition order, which was first issued ten years ago and then given the official greenlight by the Supreme Court in September 2018.

Notwithstanding the continued delay, the Israeli government said that it still “insists on the need to implement the demolition orders in the compound, and in this matter, there is no change in its position.”

Adv. Tawfiq Jabareen, the lawyer lawyer representing Khan al-Ahmar explained:

“The PM said they will try to negotiate with the village in order to evacuate them but if they have not reached an agreement within 4 months then they will begin thinking of evacuating them by force.”

Regarding the recent filing, the Globes news outlet reports (in Hebrew) that even though the filing was submitted jointly by the Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister’s office (signed by the Defense Ministry settler advisor Avi Roeh, who was previously found to have been funnelling government money to Regavim), there is a major disagreement between Gantz and Netanyahu on the matter. Perhaps surprising to those who expected Benny Gantz to moderate Netanyahu’s more extreme impulses, Gantz is reportedly pushing for the immediate demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, while Netanyahu prefers to delay. 

B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli tweeted:

“the international community is serious about defending the vestiges of its beloved 2 state solution, it must internalize that MoD Benny Gantz will not act of his own volition to prevent the war crime of demolishing Khan al-Ahmar. Only the prospect of real consequences will do.”

In response to the delay, the Director of Regavim slammed the government saying in a statement:

“The alleged commitment on the part of the state to enforce the law and to hold talks with the residents is no different from the previous times in which the state declared the exact same things to the High Court. Each time, another card is drawn from the pile of excuses that prevents the implementation of the state’s declarations. We wonder if Netanyahu has confused ‘cannot’ and ‘don’t want to.’”

Delayed for a Third Time, Israeli Government Silent on Givat Hamatos Tender

Ir Amim reports that, for the third time this year, the Israeli government refrained from opening bidding on the tender for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement, which had been scheduled for November 2nd. The tender was published in February 2020, but has yet to be made available online for bidding. Israeli authorities have not explained the delay or provided a new date for the tender to be opened.

In August, at the time of the second postponement, Ir Amim noted:

“Such recurring postponement of a tender is unprecedented. On the one hand, the delays are a sign that Israel is under strong  pressure not to open the tender –  which is seen as a red line by the international community; it may be that negotiations currently underway with Arab states under the auspices of the Trump administration are also a cause for the delay. On the other hand, the fact that Israel refuses to withdraw the tender and has repeatedly set new dates for its opening shows how determined the government is to begin construction in Givat Hamatos and therefore it is leaving the door open so that it can seize an opportunity once it feels able to do so.”

Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

Settler Campaign to Take Over West Bank Antiquity Sites/Objects Proceeds: Israel Fences Off More Land Near Herodium, Invades Sebastia Site

Emek Shaveh reports that the Israeli Civil Administration is building a new fence around a section of the ancient site of Herodium, closing off the only available path by which Palestinians can freely access the site, located southeast of Bethlehem. Emek Shaveh has sent a letter to the Civil Administration requesting that the construction be stopped and that the new fence section be dismantled. 

Emek Shaveh writes:

“The site is part of the fabric of their local heritage and residents of the villages used to tour the site freely and hold private and public events around the ruins. The fencing of lower Herodium follows closely after the expropriation of land at the sites of Deir Sam’an and Deir Kala’ northwest of Ramallah in September. These were the first expropriation orders for antiquity sites in the West Bank in 35 years. All of these developments attest to the increasing pressure by the settlers to clear Palestinians from antiquity sites in Area C of the West Bank.”

On November 5th, Palestinian media reported that Israeli soldiers accompanied by members of the IDF’s Corps of Engineers invaded the northern West Bank city of Sebastia, proceededing to close off the Sebastia archeological site. Shortly after, Israeli settlers visited the site.  Sebastia is located in Area B of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has a civilian authority, but Israel retains security control. 

FMEP has covered the recent surge of settler pressure on the government to take control of archeological sites which are owned and/or controlled by Palestinians. Already racking up major victories, the Israeli Civil Administration issued expropriation orders for two archaeological sites in the West Bank located on privately owned Palestinian property northwest of Ramallah. The expropriations – the first of their kind in 35 years – come amidst a new campaign by settlers lobbying the government to take control of such sites, based on the settlers’ claims that antiquities are being stolen and the sites are being mis-managed by Palestinians. The settlers’ pressure is also credited as the impetus behind the government’s clandestine raid of a Palestinian village in July 2020 to seize an ancient font.The Palestinian envoy to UNESCO, Mounir Anastas, recently called on the United Nations to pressure Israel into returning the font to the Palestinian authorities.

A new settler group calling itself “Shomrim Al Hanetzach” (“Guardians of Eternity”) recently began surveying areas in the West Bank that Israel has designated as archeaological sites in order to call in Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction in these areas. The group communicates its findings to the Archaeology Unit in the Israeli Civil Administration (reminder: the Civil Administration is the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry which since 1967 has functioned as the de facto sovereign over the West Bank). The Archaeology Unit, playing its part, then delivers eviction and demolition orders against Palestinians, claiming that the structures damage antiquities in the area. As a reminder, in 2017, Israel declared 1,000 new archaeological sites in Area C of the West Bank. The new group is, not coincidentally, an offshoot of the radical Regavim organization, which among other things works to push Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction that lacks Israeli permits (permits that Israel virtually never grants). 

The new group has also raised public alarm about the Trump Plan, alleging that hundreds of biblical sites in the West Bank are slated to become Palestinian territory. The group’s leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of mismanaging the sites and they accuse Palestinians of looting them. The group is demanding that Israel annex all the sites.

Israel Begins Preparations for Construction of Settler-Backed Cable Car Line in Jerusalem, Despite Ongoing Court Case

The Times of Israel reports that the Israeli government has approved the imminent implementation of two projects in preparation for the construction of a settler-backed cable car line slated to terminate in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem — despite the fact that an Israeli court has yet to make a final ruling on the fate of the cable car plan itself. 

First, the Jerusalem Development Authority received permission from the Agriculture Ministry’s Forest Commissioner’s Unit to cut down trees along the future route of the cable car route. The approval was quickly appealed by Emek Shaveh, which requested that the tree removal be delayed until the High Court rules on the legitimacy of the plan.

Then, on November 4th the director of the cable car project, Shmulik Tzabari, told a meeting of stakeholders that the excavation work would “soon commence,” including the relocation of underground infrastructure (water, sewage, phone/internet lines).

The cable car plan, touted by the radical Elad settler organizations as a tourist and  project, is in reality intended to further entrench settler control in Silwan, via archeology and tourism sites, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. Emek Shaveh and other non-governmental organizations, including  Who Profits and Terrestrial Jerusalem, have repeatedly challenged (and provided evidence to discredit) the government’s contention that the cable car will serve as a legitimate tourist attraction and/or address a transportation need in Jerusalem, and have clearly enumerated the obvious political drivers behind the plan, the archeological heresies it validates, and the severe negative impacts the cable car project will have on Palestinian residents of Silwan.

Knesset Land Caucus Plots Way Forward on Outpost Legalization

The Land Caucus – a committee within the israeli Knesset – met on November 2nd to strategize how to push forward the retroactive legalization of unauthorized outposts in the coming months, worrying particularly about how the result of the U.S. election might derail future annexation plans. 

The result of the meeting was a declaration calling on Netanyahu to grant authorization to all the outposts, but the caucus did not decide on whether it should spend its energy on advancing legislation to that end (the position of Ayelet Shaked), or should push for Netanyahu to issue a declaration (the position of Bezalel Smotrich).

Speaker of the Knesset Yariv Levin (Likud) urged the lawmakers to focus their efforts for the rest of the year on the 15 outposts located outside of the boundaries of Israeli annexation according to the Trump Plan.

Bonus Reads

1. “Settlers Pray for Trump in Hebron” (The Times of Israel)
2. “The Israeli Occupation Is Making the Most of One More Day of Trump” (Haaretz)
3. “At the Foothills of an Israeli Settlement, Palestinians Are Used to Weekends of Terror” (Haaretz)
4. “’I cry for my trees’: Israeli settler attacks wreck Palestinian olive harvest” (Haaretz)
5. “A Small Palestinian Business Is Burglarized Over and Over, and Israeli Police Stand By” (Haaretz)
6. “UN agencies and international NGOs call for the protection of Palestinian olive harvesters” (OCHA, OHCHR, AIDA)
7. “Yossi Dagan: Sovereignty isn’t up to Washington – it’s up to us” (Arutz Sheva)
8. “New chairman of Settlement Division prays at Temple Mount” (Jerusalem Post)

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

September 11, 2020

1. Gantz Pushes for Quick Approval of 5,000 New Settlement Units
2. Givat Hamatos Tender Postponed (Again), But Government Says Construction is Imminent
3. One More Step Towards Mass Eviction, Jerusalem Court Orders Eviction of Additional Four Families in Silwan in Favor of Radical Settler Group
4. Jerusalem Committee Delays Decision on the Cable Car Project, & Defers Decision on Silwan Land Expropriation to the High Court
5. Handing Another Victory to New Settler Strategy, Civil Admin Issues Expropriation Orders for West Bank Antiquities Sites
6. State Attempting to Circumvent High Court Order Against Mitzpe Kramim Outpost
7. Israeli Using Normalization as a “Cover” to Change Status Quo on Temple Mount
8. BonusReads

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

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Gantz Pushes for Quick Approval of 5,000 New Settlement Units

On September 7th, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Defense Minister Benny Gantz is seeking approval from Prime Minister Netanyahu to advance 5,000 new settlement units, to be located in settlements across the West Bank. Gantz is said to have sent a letter to Netanyahu calling on him to end what Gantz called a “de facto freeze” on settlement construction by granting permission to immediately convene the High Planning Council in order to grant approval for the settlement plans. The High Planning Council – the body within the Israeli Civil Administration (which itself is a body within the Defense Ministry) responsible for regulating all planning and construction in the West Bank – has advanced plans for a total of 4,385 settler units so far this year in two meetings, but has not been convened since late February 2020.

Channel 12 and the Jerusalem Post report that of the 5,000 units under discussion, 2,000 are ready for final approval and 3,000 are ready to be deposited for public review (a late stage in the planning process). The units are slated to be built in settlements including Beit El, Shiloh, Nokdim, Har Bracha and even some far flung settlements located in the south Hebron hills.

Gantz’s maneuver has served to intensify the discontent and impatience with Netanyahu amongst the settler leadership, which has criticized Netanyahu both for suspending annexation plans and for freezing settlement construction projects.

A Knesset grouping called the “Israel Land Caucus” — which reportedly intends to file a bill in the Knesset mandating a regular schedule of High Planning Council meetings — convened an emergency meeting following the reports of Gantz’s letter. At the meeting, the co-chair of the caucus, Bezalel Smotrich, said:

“I congratulate the Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister for approving all the plans and calling on the Prime Minister to convene the planning council. Hopefully the Prime Minister will not leave Gantz to the Right of him”

Smotrich’s co-chair, Likud MK Haim Katz, attempted to defend Netanyahu but also urged immediate action, saying:

“I believe the Prime Minister wants the development of settlement and therefore the Supreme Planning Council must be convened. It’s inconceivable that they don’t convene the planning council. We issued a letter to the Prime Minister, we must try and influence through convening the Lobby. I strongly believe the Prime Minister wants development of settlement and through the Lobby the tools need to be examined to prove to Netanyahu that the Council must convene. Localities are growing and there are basic needs that must be promoted.”

The head of the settler Yesha Council, David Elhayani, was less generous in his assessment of Netanyahu’s motivations, saying:

“I’m unwilling to accept an equation where we’re going to be held hostage by this or that situation. We didn’t come as thieves in the night. The Israeli governments sent us to settle the area. I can’t see how a Rightist prime minister can’t justify why the committee doesn’t convene. It’s not just residential construction, it’s also freezing a day center for people with special needs. The freeze today is not like the freeze in the days of Obama. No matter what the political reasons – the Prime Minister must be real and determined. There’s no reason for us to become 7th-class citizens. There is no difference between a resident of Karnei Shomron, Har Bracha, Eli, or Beit She’an, Beit Shemesh or somewhere else. I expect the Prime Minister to conduct himself in Hebrew and not in English.”

Givat Hamatos Tender Postponed (Again), But Government Says Construction is Imminent

Ir Amim reports that the publication of the tender for construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem  – which has been fully approved since 2014 – has been delayed once again, marking the third time the government has delayed the opening of the tender. According to an announcement by the Israel Lands Authority, the tender is now scheduled to be opened for bidding on November 2nd. 

Following the announcement of delay, Israel’s Housing Ministry issued a statement defending Prime Minister Netanyahu from accusations by settlers and their allies that he has bowed to international pressure to abandon the Givat Hamatos settlement plan. The Ministry released a statement saying that the delays are due to technical issues, not political ones, and that the Ministry is currently discussing routine budgetary and development considerations with the Jerusalem Municipality in preparation for the eventual construction of the settlement. 

Ir Amim notes:

“Such recurring postponement of a tender is unprecedented. On the one hand, the delays are a sign that Israel is under strong  pressure not to open the tender –  which is seen as a red line by the international community; it may be that negotiations currently underway with Arab states under the auspices of the Trump administration are also a cause for the delay. On the other hand, the fact that Israel refuses to withdraw the tender and has repeatedly set new dates for its opening shows how determined the government is to begin construction in Givat Hamatos and therefore it is leaving the door open so that it can seize an opportunity once it feels able to do so.”

Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

One More Step Towards Mass Eviction, Jerusalem Court Orders Eviction of Additional Four Families in Silwan in Favor of Radical Settler Group

Peace Now reports that in the case of a longstanding property dispute in Silwan, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled in favor of the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim, ordering the eviction of the Rajabi family, consisting of 26 individuals, from their longtime homes in Silwan. The court ordered the family to vacate the three properties by April 2021.

This case is one of nearly a dozen lawsuits brought by Ateret Cohanim seeking the eviction of approximately 700 Palestinians from the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan. Ateret Cohanim has maneuvered to have the Court order these evictions by gaining control of an pre-1948 land trust – called the Benvenisti Trust – and then asserting their ownership of land in Silwan where Palestinians have lived for generations. This is now the fourth instance in which the Court has ruled in Ateret Cohanim’s favor, strongly suggesting that the dozens of pending cases will also be decided in the settlers favor.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“This is an attempt to displace a Palestinian community and to replace it with an Israeli one, in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The settlers could not have succeeded without the Israeli authorities’ close support and assistance. In addition to the hard blow to the prospects for a two-state solution by preventing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, this is an injustice and an act of cruelty to throw out families who have lived lawfully in their homes for decades. For every dunam in East Jerusalem that was owned by Jews and had been lost in the 1948 war, there are tens of thousands of dunams in Israel that were owned by Palestinians who lost them in the 1948 war. The settlers’ demand to disposes the Palestinians based on pre-1948 ownership is a strategic threat on the moral justification of hundreds of thousands of Israelis living on lands that were owned by Palestinians.”

As FMEP has detailed, Ateret Cohanim is a settler organization which works to establish Jewish enclaves inside densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, for the explicit purpose of “reclaiming” Palestinian parts of Jerusalem for Jews. In Silwan, its tactics depend largely on identifying land that belonged to Jews before 1948 and, with the support of Israeli laws and courts, acting to “reclaim” it. Notably, under Israeli law, Palestinians enjoy no similar right to reclaim land that belonged to them before 1948 (to the contrary – Israeli law is engineered to erase Palestinian properties rights based, largely based on the absentee property law). The current and pending evictions are based on the fact that in 2001, Ateret Cohanim gained control of the Benvenisti Trust, which owned land in Silwan in the 19th century. In 2002, the Israeli Custodian General agreed to transfer land in Batan al-Hawa to the Trust/Ateret Cohanim. Since then, Ateret Cohanim has accelerated its multifaceted campaign to remove Palestinians from their homes, claiming that the Palestinians are illegally squatting on sacred land owned by the Trust. 

Haaretz columnist Nir Hasson tells the story:

“The neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa is an extreme example stressing the difference between how Arab property was dealt with as opposed to Jewish property. A Jewish neighborhood that had been built for immigrants from Yemen with funds raised by the philanthropic organization Ezrat Nidahim lay in the Batan al-Hawa area until 1938. The homes in the neighborhood were owned by an Ottoman-era land trust that was registered in the name of Rabbi Moshe Benvenisti. In 2001, more than a century after the land trust had been established, the Jerusalem District Court approved the request by three members of Ateret Cohanim to become trustees of the land. With this brief decision that takes up half a page, and a subsequent decision by the Custodian General, the state placed 700 Palestinians, along with their property, under the control of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s Old City.”

Jerusalem Committee Delays Decision on the Cable Car Project, & Defers Decision on Silwan Land Expropriation to the High Court

At a meeting on September 9th, the Jerusalem Municipality’s Planning & Building Committee decided to delay its final approval of plans to build a cable car line in East Jerusalem until the High Court of Justice issues a ruling on whether or not the state is permitted to expropriate the privately owned Palestinian land that is needed to carry out its construction. The High Court is actively considering the cable car case, recently ordering the state to offer a factual explanation for how the cable car line will boost tourism in the city – an explanation that the state has struggled to articulate convincingly. The state was ordered to submit that explanation on September 7th, but requested and received an extension of that deadline to October 1st.

Despite the ongoing court case, the Times of Israel reports that the Jerusalem Development Authority is actively planning for implementation of the project, even issuing public notices in newspapers over the past few weeks in preparation for accepting bids for the construction of the project. The notices announced two conferences slated to be held in October for interested bidders to learn more about the plans.

Some of the land slated for expropriation in connection with the cable car plan is located in Silwan, a densely populated Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem that is the focus of intense settler activity.  Ir Amim reports on the details of the expropriation the plan requires:

“The expropriation is intended for the construction of infrastructure poles and stations for the cable car. Some of the expropriation is permanent and some is for an eight-year period. The land targeted for expropriation lies on both sides of the Green Line. On the East of the Green Line, eight parcels of land in Silwan with a total area of 1,357 square meters are targeted for expropriation. The significance of the expropriation is much more than its size may suggest. The lands marked for expropriation are located in the densely built up area of Wadi Hilwe, Silwan. At worst they can lead to the demolition of nearby homes if they were built without a permit. Even if homes are not demolished, the construction of the cable car infrastructure and the subsequent operation of the cable car above their rooftops will greatly harm the community of Wadi Hilwe.

Most significant is the purpose and the impact that the operation of the Cable Car will have on Wadi Hilwe and the whole of Silwan. This huge transportation project is funded by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism at a budget of hundreds of millions of shekels. It will connect between West Jerusalem (“The First Station” complex) and the Kedem Compound in Wadi Hilwe, Silwan. The Kedem Compound is a planned visitor center that the settler organization ELAD is planning to construct on the main road of Silwan across from the City of David National Park which it operates.  Although the Cable Car is presented as a means of public transportation for those wishing to visit the Old City, its station is planned to be constructed on the roof of the ELAD controlled Kedem Compound whereby it will lead all those who use it to ELAD’s Activity Center.”

In response to the Committee’s decision this week to delay approval of the plan, Emek Shaveh said:

“We are pleased that the municipality and members of the committee have shown responsibility and stopped the deplorable attempt by the promoters of the cable car to advance the expropriation of private property before the High Court even rules on the matter. We thank the promoters for disclosing how the cable car will look and who will pay the price for its construction: the cable car pillars will be constructed inside the yards of the residents of Silwan and the cars will sail directly over their heads.”

Handing Another Victory to New Settler Strategy, Civil Admin Issues Expropriation Orders for West Bank Antiquities Sites

On August 31st, the Israeli Civil Administration issued expropriation orders for two archaeological sites in the West Bank located on privately owned Palestinian property northwest of Ramallah. The expropriations – the first of their kind in 35 years – come amidst a new campaign by settlers lobbying the government to take control of such sites, based on the settlers’ claims that antiquities are being stolen and the sites are being mis-managed by Palestinians. The settlers’ pressure is also credited as the impetus behind the government’s clandestine raid of a Palestinian village in July 2020 to seize an ancient font.

The two antiquity sites expropriated on August 21st are both located next to settlements. The site of Deir Sam’an is owned by Palestinians from the village of a-Dik, which is adjacent to the settlement of Leshem. The Deir Kala’ archeological site is owned by residents of Deir Balut, and is adjacent to the Peduel settlement. For a background on both of these antiquity sites – see Emek Shaveh’s analysis.

Emek Shaveh said in a statement:

“In the past two years we have witnessed increasing pressure by settler organizations on the Civil Administration and the Staff Officer for Archaeology to increase the use of archaeological sites to remove Palestinians from Area C.  While in Susya, the pretext for the expropriation was the existence of an ancient synagogue and therefore logical from the point of view of the authorities, the decision to expropriate two Byzantine era sites is unusual and attests to the growing trend of using archaeological sites as a pretext for barring Palestinians from sites in Area C.”

FMEP has covered the recent surge of settler pressure on the government to take control of archeological sites which are owned and/or controlled by Palestinians. A new settler group calling itself “Shomrim Al Hanetzach” (“Guardians of Eternity”) recently began surveying areas in the West Bank that Israel has designated as archeaological sites in order to call in Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction in these areas. The group communicates its findings to the Archaeology Unit in the Israeli Civil Administration (reminder: the Civil Administration is the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry which since 1967 has functioned as the de facto sovereign over the West Bank). The Archaeology Unit, playing its part, then delivers eviction and demolition orders against Palestinians, claiming that the structures damage antiquities in the area. As a reminder, in 2017, Israel declared 1,000 new archaeological sites in Area C of the West Bank. The new group is, not coincidentally, an offshoot of the radical Regavim organization, which among other things works to push Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction that lacks Israeli permits (permits that Israel virtually never grants). 

The new group has also raised public alarm about the Trump Plan, alleging that hundreds of biblical sites in the West Bank are slated to become Palestinian territory. The group’s leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of mismanaging the sites and they accuse Palestinians of looting them. The group is demanding that Israel annex all the sites.

State Attempting to Circumvent High Court Order Against Mitzpe Kramim Outpost

The Israeli government is reportedly working to find a way to circumvent the recent High Court order requiring the evacuation of 12 structures built on privately owned Palestinian land in the Mitzpe Kramim outpost from evacuation. Of the 16 structures in the Mitzpe Kramim outpost, 12 were built on land that Israel has (very reluctantly) acknowledged to be owned by Palestinians. Settlers say that evacuation of the 12 homes will spell the end for the entire outpost community.

Israel’s Reshet Bet radio reported that Israeli Settlement Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Binyamin Regional Council mayor Yisrael Gantz, and senior Netanyahu aid Ronen Peretz are working together on a plan to get around the Court ruling. There is reportedly a sense of optimism that the team will succeed because the Israeli Attorney General supports the settlers’ claim to stay in their homes, and because Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn criticized the ruling, which was issued on August 27th.

In its ruling, the High Court held that construction of the Mitzpe Kramim outpost was not undertaken in “good faith” because there were “multiple warning signs” that the land was privately owned. 

The “good faith” condition for retroactive legalization of illegal settler construction on privately-owned Palestinian land is a central element of the “market regulation” legal principle which was issued by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in December 2018 as an alternative to the (now overturned) Settlement Regulation Law. The principle offers a path to grant retroactive legalization to the settlers for what this principle treats as “unintentional” land theft – throwing the principles of both rule of law and the private property rights out the window. Peace Now has a comprehensive breakdown of the legal opinion, including the specific criteria outlining which outposts can qualify under the new scheme. Attorney General Mandelblit estimated that 2,000 illegal settlement structures qualify for retroactive legalization using this principle.

Israeli Using Normalization as a “Cover” to Change Status Quo on Temple Mount

In a special report, Terrestrial Jerusalem, the Israeli NGO led by Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann, warns that the new UAE-Israel normalization deal echoes a controversial provision in the Trump Plan which significantly erodes the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. 

Under the current understanding – most recently agreed to by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah in 2015 – members of all religions are allowed to visit the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, but only Muslims are allowed to pray there. This policy is consistent with the status quo that has reigned on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif dating back to before 1967, and that has been upheld by every Israeli government since it took control of the area in the 1967 War.

In a little-noted but highly consequential shift in approach, the Trump Plan specifically called for people of all faiths to be allowed to pray at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. The inclusion of this language in the Trump Plan suggested that the current U.S. administration has embraced and is now formally promoting the agenda of Israel’s “Temple Mount-ers” – hardline religious nationalists who seek to expand Israeli/Jewish control of the site and open it to Jewish prayer.

Subsequently, this shift to embracing a change in the Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount status quo showed up again in the Joint Statement released by Israel, the UAE, and the United States, albeit in language that is somewhere more artful. The statement specifies that only Muslims may pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque, while all faiths are allowed to pray at “other holy sites” in Jerusalem. This formula – which is brand new – clearly suggests that Jewish prayer is to be allowed on the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif, just not in the Aqsa Mosque (meaning, for example, that if Jews want to enter the Dome of the Rock and pray there, they would be permitted to do so).

Terrestrial Jerusalem writes: 

“The cumulative message of the new policies and recent events is clear: if, in the past, the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif was a Muslim place of worship open to the visits of non-Muslim guests, it is rapidly becoming a shared Muslim-Jewish site, like the Ibrahamiya Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. This is the declared goal of the Temple Mount Movement and the deepest fears of the Muslim worshipers. And it’s already happening. For centuries, a spark on the Mount has been the likeliest cause of an eruption of violence in the Holy Land, and the current trends on the Mount are making just such an event more likely. Events at Al Aqsa invariably send shock waves throughout the region. Should an incendiary incident on Haram al Sharif/the Temple Mount indeed take place and intersect with the sense that Palestinian/Arab/Muslim interests and equities on the Mount are being bartered away, the results might be dire indeed. And now, what is happening on the ground has been enshrined in the founding statement upon which Israel-Emirati agreement is based.”

The report ends with a warning:

“Jerusalem is a very wise and kind city to those treating her complexities with the reverence they deserve. It is a cruel and vindictive town to those who treat those complexities cavalierly, or ignore them. Jerusalem’s millennia old history is littered with the bodies, literal and figurative, of conquerors, prophets and emperors who acting as though Jerusalem a is a private or collective asset to be exploited at whim, or a commodity which can be bartered. One tinkers with Jerusalem at grave peril to all involved, and the provisions of the Joint Statement recklessly tinker with the status quo. As currently crafted, normalization is being used as a cover to allow one of its stakeholders to remold the most sensitive place in Jerusalem in its own ideological image. One need only recall the aftermath of the opening of the Western Wall Tunnel in 1996 (by the very same Netanyahu) and the Sharon visit to Haram al Sharif/the Temple Mount in 2000 in order to realize just how irresponsible and dangerous this can be.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Stop or suspend West Bank annexation? Devil in the detail for Israel-UAE Deal” (Reuters)
2. “Israel’s Message to Troops Placing Explosives at Village: Don’t Worry, It’s Combat” (Haaretz) 
3. “Tourist Attractions in ‘Yesha-stan’: A Display of Israel’s Apartheid Mindset” (Haaretz)
4. “Despite COVID-19 Travel Ban, Israel Lets in 70 Evangelicals to Volunteer in Settlements” (Haaretz)
5. “Palestinian leaders: Disabled access to Tomb of Patriarchs is ‘war crime’” (Jerusalem Post) 
6. “Researchers: Israel is going ahead with annexation” (MEMO)

 

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

August 7, 2020

1. U.S. “Source”: Annexation is Still on the Table
2. Givat Hamatos Settlement Tender Delayed (Again)
3. Emek Shaveh: Civil Administration Hearing on Hebron Settlement Project is a “Farce”
4. Minister Presides Over Celebration of Completion of New Migron settlement
5. On 15-Year Anniversary of Disengagement, Israeli MKs Vow No More Settlement Evacuations
6. Settlers Say Israel’s Mismanagement of West Bank Land Registry Has Enabled Palestinian Theft of Land in Area C
7. State Comptroller Report Re-Centers Long Standing Settler Safety Complaints As Grounds for More De Facto Annexation
8. Near Nablus, Palestinians Take on IDF & Settlers to Stop Land Theft
9. Israel’s Short-Lived Settlement Affairs Ministry Shipped to London
10. West Bank Realities No Longer Hidden by U.S. Satellite Imagery Prohibition
11. Bonus Reads

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

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U.S. “Source”: Annexation is Still on the Table

Annexation rumors were kept alive this week with an August 3rd report that a “well placed source” told The Times of Israel that Avi Berkowitz (an assistant to President Trump and Special Representative for International Negotiations) continues his work to get Trump’s sign-off on Israel’s plan to annex of a massive portion of the West Bank. The source said that more negotiations between the U.S. and Israel are needed, and that the U.S. is demanding that Israel make some kind of gesture to the Palestinians. In weeks past, it has been suggested that this “gesture” could be Israel giving Palestinians some degree of control over a small part of Area C.

Also on August 3rd, Prime Minister Netanyahu commented to his fellow Likud Party members that the Trump Plan was not off the table, but that the decision and movement around the plan was in the U.S. arena.

Speaking on August 5th, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (a key leader of the Blue & White Party) appeared to contradict Netanyahu, saying: 

“Right now [annexation is] not on the agenda, because everyone is busy” [but also making clear his support for the Trump Plan and annexation, noting “as we stated, it’s a framework to solve the conflict. We prefer to do to in dialogue with our neighbors, we prefer to do to it without interfering with the existing past peace agreements [with Egypt and Jordan], and future ones. We are fully aware of the consequences of this vision and we would like to do it in a responsible way.”

Givat Hamatos Settlement Tender Delayed (Again) 

Scheduled to be open for bidding on August 2nd, Ir Amim reported on August 3rd that (as of that date) the tender for the construction of the Givat HaMatos settlement in East Jerusalem (1,077 units) had not yet been opened online. The Israeli government has not offered an explanation for the delay (the second delay in this opening for bids) or timetable for when the bidding will be opened. 

Though the plan for Givat Hamatos has been fully approved, construction of the settlement has yet to start. Givat Hamatos has long been regarded as a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

In anticipation of the bidding window opening, 15 European Union members issued a rebuke of the plan during a video conference, with the French Embassy in Israel later tweeting its disapproval of Israel’s advancement of both the E1 and Givat Hamatos settlements. Peace Now also delivered a letter to Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi beseeching them to stop those two settlement plans from moving forward.

Hanan Ashraw sharply responded to the outcry against E-1 and Givat Hamatos from the EU countries, saying:

“Rhetorical opposition has not deterred Israel. In fact, Israel is emboldened to escalate its criminal actions precisely because it is confident that opposition will not move from the verbal to the practical. If implemented, these Israeli plans would completely sever occupied Jerusalem from its natural Palestinian surrounding and cut the occupied West Bank in half. While the international community is concerned with the “possibility” of annexation, Israel is implementing its annexation scheme on the ground without any deterrence.”

Emek Shaveh: Civil Administration Hearing on Hebron Settlement Project is a “Farce”

On August 4th, the Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee held a public hearing to discuss objections submitted against its plan to build accessible infrastructure, including an elevator, at the al-Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarch in Hebron — a plan which requires Israel to seize from the Islamic Waqf. 

Described as “unprofessional” and “a farce” by Emek Shaveh (an Israeli NGO with deep expertise in archaeology and the preservation of historic sites), the hearing began with the Council chairman stating that the government had already determined that it will build the elevator regardless of any objections to the plan. The Chairperson said:

′′We [the members of the planning committee] all decided, it is an important program that must be promoted…What is this attitude, you came to resist. Why resist?””

Emek Shaveh raised several objections to the plan’s archeological and planning deficits, and the Palestinian Municipality of Hebron submitted objections to Israel’s violation of agreements, signed by Israel, relating to governance and planning in Hebron. 

Emek Shaveh said in its statement:

“The most important historical, archaeological and holy site in the West Bank has been subject to reckless and amatuer planning and is the victim of politically motivated, unprofessional decision making.”

Minister Presides Over Celebration of Completion of New Migron settlement

On July 27th, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein spoke at an event to celebrate the end of construction on the new Migron settlement, which will house 50 settler families. 

The new Migron site is located a little over one mile away from the original site of the outpost bearing the same name – which settlers were forced by Israel to evacuate. The new site is on a hilltop that is technically within the jurisdiction of the Kochav Ya’acov settlement, but is not contiguous with its built up area. As such, it is properly understood as a new settlement. The fact that the site is within the territory allocated to Kochav Ya’acov allowed Israel to approval of New Migron as if it were merely a neighborhood of an existing settlement rather than a new settlement.

In 2011, the Israeli High Court ruled that (old) Migron – an illegal outpost – must be evacuated because it was built on privately owned Palestinian land. Most of the illegal outpost’s residents were evacuated and most of the outpost’s buildings were demolished in 2012.  Determined to demonstrate its support for settlers in the face of this court-compelled evacuation, the government promised to establish two new settlements: “New Migron” (the settlement officially inaugurated this week), as well as 184 housing units to be built east of the settlement of Adam (aka, Geva Binyamin). All said, the two new settlements and temporary housing for the evicted settlers cost Israeli taxpayers millions of dollars – sending a clear message that settler law-breaking pays off.

At last week’s ceremony, which was also attended by Ronen Peretz, a senior aid to Netanyahu, Minister Edelstein said:

“This is an important national moment…this is the response [to Disengagement]. This is what provides hope…With God’s help, the application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria will give an even more determinative response.”

Edelstein’s reference to the “Disengagement” refers to Israel’s unilateral move in 2005 to evacuate its settlements in the Gaza strip and a small number of settlements in the northern West Bank (which took place almost 15 years ago to the date the celebration of New Migron). 

On 15-Year Anniversary of Disengagement, Israeli MKs Vow No More Settlement Evacuations

On August 4th, a coalition of Knesset Members led by Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) and Miki Zohar (Likud) introduced a bill meant to prevent the government from evacuating settlements under any circumstances. The bill was introduced on the anniversary of Israel’s 2005 unilateral move to evacuate 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevich (Blue & White) also took the opportunity to state her opposition to settlement evacuation, making the following remark during a tour of settlements in the northern West Bank:

“Settlement evacuation brings terror, not peace…Judea and Samaria are an inheritance from our forefathers. There are those who speak of these areas in terms of cost versus benefit but we need to remind them that we are talking about our land and not to be ashamed of this fact. Extension of sovereignty over these areas is our desire at the end of the day, under the right conditions,”

In addition, Gilad Sharon (son of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who devised and implemented the 2005 disengagement) added his voice to the anti-evacuation chorus. While defending his father’s actions and bashing the Palestinians, Sharon said:

“What we could afford in the Gaza Strip, in an isolated area squeezed between the desert and the sea, we cannot do in Judea and Samaria. This is the heart of the land, Judea and Samaria. When the world sees what happened in Gaza, because they got billions of dollars. What did they do with the money? [Did they build] any housing, factories, something? Only rockets and terror tunnels. That’s what they did, so everyone understands that that’s how they behave when they are left alone. What you can afford for yourself in an isolated corner, you cannot do in the heart of Tel Aviv, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, in the heart of the country. I don’t think we should evacuate anything. Gaza was a very unique case, nothing to do with Judea and Samaria, which we have to hold forever.”

Settlers Say Israel’s Mismanagement of West Bank Land Registry Has Enabled Palestinian Theft of Land in Area C

A new report published by the Israeli State Comptroller chided the Israeli Defense Ministry for its incomplete land registry documenting land ownership (Palestinian and Israeli) in Area C of the West Bank. The radical settler group Regavim used the report as yet another opportunity to perpetuate the myth that the Palestinian Authority is orchestrating a campaign to steal Area C land from Israel. As a reminder, Area C land is not Israeli land; it is land occupied by Israel that, under the Oslo Accords, came under temporary Israel civilian and security control under arrangements that were supposed to last only a short period of time before a permanent status agreement was reached between the parties – an agreement that was supposed to be reached within 5 years.

Regavim Director-General Meir Deutsch said:

“The painstaking, glacial pace of handwritten record keeping is fertile ground for forgery, and leads to further violation of property rights, making it nearly impossible to conduct property transactions in a normal fashion. The failure to carry out the necessary registration and regulation of land in these areas has enabled the Palestinian Authority to carry out a well-planned, carefully-timed and well-funded land-seizure program.”

State Comptroller Report Re-Centers Long Standing Settler Safety Complaints As Grounds for More De Facto Annexation

A new report published by the Israeli State Comptroller blamed the Israeli Defense Forces for putting settlers in danger by failing to secure roads in Area C for the settlers. The report explained that part of the IDF’s failure was due to bad communication and conflict over which Israeli ministry – Defense or Transportation – was actually in charge. This framing is significant given that the Israeli Civil Administration –  the body which effectively is the occupying government of the West Bank – is part of the Defense Ministry, while the Transportation Ministry does not have legal planning authority in the West Bank (it is a part of Israel’s own government, meaning that giving it authority in the West Bank amounts to de facto annexation). The report also called out the Defense Ministry for the poor quality and incompleteness of the West Bank land registry (as discussed above).

Efrat Council Chairman Oded Revivi said that the report demonstrates why Israel needs to annex the settlements.

As a reminder: settlers are Israeli civilians who have chosen, for a variety of reasons, to live in an area under military occupation where their “safety” must be actively attended to by the Israeli army. The issue of security for settlers and settlement infrastructure has in the past translated to massive investments of government resources into projects that entrench and expand Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank. For example, following months of intense pressure from settlers, in October 2017, then-Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman promised to allocate $939 million for projects for settlers and settlements across the West Bank. According to the Times of Israel, the  $939 million package was dedicated to funding:

“the installation of security cameras along roads throughout the West Bank; the installation of cell phone towers to improve reception for settlers who may need to call for help; the paving of bypass roads around Palestinian towns and settlements to allow the populations to avoid each other; the bolstering of armored buses that travel through the West Bank; and broad security improvements for each settlement that will include security cameras, “smart fences” and sensors to warn of attempts to sneak into settlements.”

The following year (2018), Israel inaugurated several new bypass roads In partial fulfillment of the 2017 funding commitment to a settler security package.  In 2019, Israel issued permits for the construction of an additional two bypass roads.

Near Nablus, Palestinians Take on IDF & Settlers to Stop Land Theft

On August 6th, Wafa reports that Palestinians clashed with IDF just west of Nablus, at the site of a new outpost that settlers were attempting to establish near a well on privately-owned Palestinian land. The report says Palestinians were attacked by the IDF when they attempted to reach the area where settlers had set up a tent and a caravan. 

Palestinians reportedly planned to continue their struggle to challenge the settlers’ effort to take over the site by staging Friday prayers there.

Israel’s Short-Lived Settlement Affairs Ministry Shipped to London

After serving for around four months as Israel’s first Settlement Affairs Minister, Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) has now moved on to be Israel’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. There is no word on her replacement.

Hotovely is regarded as a rising star in the Likud Party (which some suggest is why she is being sent abroad, noting that Netayahu has a pattern of using ambassadorship to put some distance between himself and those he sees as posing the greatest challenge to him politically). Hotovely is well known for her radical views — racist, homophobic, and pro-annexation — as well as her denial of the existence of the Palestinian people.

West Bank Realities No Longer Hidden by U.S. Satellite Imagery Prohibition

Al-Shabaka policy fellow Zena Agha writes in Foreign Policy about the repercussions and importance of a recent change in U.S. policy regarding satellite imagery. This change eliminates the longstanding prohibition on American satellite imagery companies producing high-resolution photos of the West Bank. Agha writes:

“Significantly, the reversal empowers humanitarian groups working to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law, including unlawful killings and settlement construction (which, under the fourth Geneva Convention, constitutes a war crime). It is perhaps for this reason that the KBA’s reversal has already caused some disquiet in Israeli military quarters. The reversal also has geopolitical implications. Satellite images of the border areas of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt have thus far been both downsampled and poorly covered (with many operators wary of capturing any Israeli territory). The change in legislation will provide uncensored images of these areas and allow for their monitoring and investigation, particularly around environmental issues such as water extraction. Finally, from the perspective of historical justice and accountability, uncensored, high-resolution images enable Palestinians to accurately catalog the remnants of villages and towns destroyed during the events of 1948 and beyond. The democratizing power of the reform will allow Palestinians to use technology to rediscover an erased past and to imagine an alternative future.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Court override bill dead in the water as Haredim, Liberman rule out support
2. “ (The Times of Israel)
3. “Peace Now asks Gantz, Ashkenazi to halt east Jerusalem Givat Hamatos homes” (Jerusalem Post)
4. “What Comes First, an Israeli Army Firing Zone or Palestinian Villages?” (Haaretz)
5. “Netanyahu’s decline benefits pro-settler Bennett” (Al-Monitor)
6. “Israel Offers Money to Palestinian family for Killing by Settler” (Ynet)

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 19, 2020

1. High Court Overturns Settlement Regulation Law
   
   • Does It Matter?
2. Israel Starts Construction on Major New Settler Bypass Road  in East Jerusalem
3. Israel Announces New Opening Date for Givat Hamatos Settlement Tender
4. Top Court Orders Israel to Explain Failure to Enforce Building Laws in West Bank
5. Israel Government Pauses Settler-Backed Excavation in Silwan, Tacitly Acknowledging Impacts on Palestinian Residents
6. Israel Demolishes Structures in Two Outposts, Arrests 13 Settlers
7. Israel Continues Prepping for Annexation
8. With New Phased Plan, Netanyahu Said to Be Ready to Implement Annexation With or Without Gantz’s Support
9. Gantz Suggests Annexing Two Large “Consensus” Settlement Areas First
10. Amb. David Friedman Tries, Fails to Broker Annexation Agreement Between Israeli Leaders
11. Settlers Continue Opposing Key Parts of Trump Plan, But Offer Support for Phased Approach
12. “Hilltop Youth” Launch Campaign to Stop Trump Plan, Claim Land in Area A of West Bank
13. Settler Group Raises Concern for the Fate of  West Bank Religious Sites Under the Trump Plan
14. Bonus Reads

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

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High Court Overturns Settlement Regulation Law

In a ruling issued on June 9th, the Israeli High Court of Justice overturned the Regulation Law, which was passed by the Israeli Knesset in February 2017 in order to create a legal basis to allow Israel to retroactively legalize outposts and settlement structures which had been built on land that Israel acknowledges is privately owned by Palestinians. In overturning the law, the Court found:

1. The Knesset cannot legislate directly over the West Bank. The Court’s ruling acknowledged that the West Bank is a region under “belligerent occupation,” where the norm for 53 years has been that the Israeli military commander is the temporary, de facto sovereign authority, not the Knesset. The Regulation Law violates this norm.
2. Palestinians living in the West Bank have the special status as “protected persons” living under “belligerent occupation,” and Israeli settlers do not enjoy the same status (i.e., settlers are not part of the “local population” of the West Bank). This particular statement overturns a previous opinion issued by former High Court judge Salim Joubran in 2017, which said settlers can be considered part of the local population — an opinion which had far-reaching implications for Israel’s rule over the West Bank.
3. The law violates the right to property and the right to equality, because it only provided a basis for the confiscation of Palestinian land for Israeli use, but not vice versa.
4. The law does not serve a legitimate purpose. On this point, Peace Now writes: “Most purposes presented by the state for why expropriating Palestinian private land was allowed were deemed illegitimate [by the Court]. Only one was not categorically rejected: preventing harm to the settlers, who would have to leave their houses. In this case, the Court pointed out that there are other ways to mitigate this unfairness (compensation with money and housing), and that it is not proportional to just continue using someone else’s land. “

In a joint statement following the ruling, Peace Now, Yesh Din and ACRI say:

“The Regulation Law was a black mark on the Israeli Knesset and on Israeli democracy, and the High Court of Justice has ruled the obvious: thou shalt not steal. We are proud that we served as the responsible adult that fought tirelessly to stop it. It was our duty to prevent the harm it threatened to Palestinians living under occupation, as well as to the prospects of peace. The law was of a criminal nature, designed to retroactively legalize thievery and allow systematic plundering of land. We have curbed this unsuccessful attempt to expropriate private land of a people, living under occupation by a government they did not choose, for the benefit of new settlements aimed at fragmenting the West Bank. Although the Court avoided ruling on whether the Knesset has jurisdiction to legislate over the Occupied Territories, it deemed that such legislation is problematic (to say the least). This raises a red flag to the peddlers of annexation. Let it be clear: If the Government of Israel goes ahead with its plan to annex, it will authorize the harsh damages the High Court sought to prevent by revoking this law.”

B’Tselem said:

“All lands in the West Bank are Palestinian, and even after today’s HCJ (High Court of Justice) ruling Israel will continue to take over more and more Palestinian land. This reality of ongoing land theft by the State of Israel does not fundamentally change today, nor does it diminish the Israeli HCJ’s role in legitimizing it over the years.”

Does It Matter?

Though the High Court’s ruling this week is a positive development, the state’s need for the Regulation Law has entirely been overtaken by events – possible annexation being one, and the “market regulation” principle being another. 

Annexation (i.e., under Israeli law, transforming land held under “belligerent occupation” into part of the sovereign state of Israel) would likely render moot two of the key arguments cited by the Court in overturning the Regulation Law. Specifically, after annexation, the Court would likely accede both to the Knesset’s right to legislate directly over West Bank land that is annexed, and to the argument that Palestinians living in these areas enjoy no special protected status. Israel would still need to find or create a legal basis to justify confiscating privately owned Palestinian land annexed by Israel (whether to legalize Israeli construction or to justify taking land from Palestinian landowers who reside beyond the line of annexation). 

Whether or not annexation proceeds, Israel has already found and begun implementing an alternative legal tactic to grant retroactively legalization to outposts and settlement structures bult on privately owned Palestinian land. Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit – who opposed the Regulation Law’s legal reasoning, but not its objective – has succeeded in charting out that alternative course via what has been called the “Market Regulation principle.” Mandleblit argues that this principle is “a more proportionate and balanced measure than the arrangement prescribed in the Regulation Law,” providing a narrower legal basis by which Israel can strip Palestinian landowners of their rights (Peace Now estimates that 2,000 structures can be legalized under the “market regulation principle,” compared to 4,000 under the Regulation Law). Of course, this argument overlooks the severe violation of Palestinian rights, the rule of law, and international law inherent in Israel’s decision to in effect erase Palestinian private property rights in the occupied territory to benefit the settlers. 

Lastly, it is important to remember that there is a concerted effort being waged against the High Court by Netanyahu and a constellation of his friends and enemies on the political right. For years, right-wing lawmakers have accused the Court of being a leftist bastion, and those lawmakers have been pushing legislation that would allow the Knesset to overrule the High Court of Justice, specifically connecting that campaign to the fate of the Regulation Law. 

Following the pattern, after the Court’s ruling against the Regulation Law, the Likud Party called the Court’s decision “unfortunate,” saying that the law was “important to the settlement enterprise and its future” and vowing to immediately act to advance a new law with the same goal. Speaker of the Knesset Yariv Levin (Likud) said:

“the Knesset will no longer be silent in light of the ongoing violation of its powers and status. Today, the High Court once again trampled on Israeli democracy and the basic human rights of many of Israel’s citizens, as has become its wrongful practice. The ruling given seemingly without authority is making another rip in Israeli society and will further damage public confidence in the Supreme Court and its judges.”

The Yamina Party also announced that it would once again be advancing legislation to allow the Knesset to override High Court decisions, saying that anyone who opposes the bill “is a leftist.”

Israel Starts Construction on Major New Settler Bypass Road  in East Jerusalem

Israel has started construction on a major new bypass road for settlers – dubbed the “American road” – meant to seamlessly connect settlements located in the north and south of Jerusalem to one another. The road will be accessible to Palestinians, a fact touted as proof of Israeli benevolence, but its clear primary purpose is to entrench Israel settlements, expand Israeli control over all of East Jerusalem, and close off Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods from the rest of the West Bank, thereby (further) torpedoing Palestinian hopes of one day establishing a capital in East Jerusalem.

The new road will be five miles long, stretching from the Har Homa settlement in the southern part of East Jerusalem towards the site of the E-1 settlement site located in the West Bank, on Jerusalem’s eastern periphery near the Maale Adumim settlement. It is being built in three sections. The two southern sections are currently under construction, including a towering bridge over Palestinian neighborhoods. Construction tenders for the northern section of the highway, which will include a 1-mile long tunnel just east of the Mount of Olives, are expected to be issued by the end of the year according to an official at the Jerusalem Municipality. It is forecast to cost approximately $250 million USD.

Fadi Al-Hidmi, the Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, told Reuters:

“This project cuts off Palestinian neighborhoods within the city from one another…[it] surrounds occupied East Jerusalem to further connect Israeli settlements and sever the occupied Palestinian capital from the rest of the West Bank.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem founder Daniel Seidemann explains:

“What we are seeing here is, again, the seamless integration of the northern West Bank, East Jerusalem under sole Israeli control, and the southern West Bank for the purposes of the settlers. That is the motivation”

Israel Announces New Opening Date for Givat Hamatos Settlement Tender

On June 15th, the Israel Land Authority announced that the tender for construction of 1,077 units in the Givat Hamatos settlement is set to open for bids on August 2nd. The opening of the bidding period was originally set for May 3rd, but was delayed without explanation. If the new date sticks, the bidding period will be open until September 7th.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“Promoting construction in Givat HaMatos is a dangerous step that could ultimately cripple the prospect of peace and a two-state solution. Netanyahu published the tender while in a probational government, without a mandate. The new government must abolish this disaster and stop the tender. It is sad to see that parties in the government which received the votes of the peace camp are giving a hand to move this plan along instead of annulling it for the sake of Israel’s future.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem speculates as to why, after deferring the opening of the tender, Netanyahu might be moving forward now, saying:

“…Givat Hamatos could well become a compensation to the settlers should the government refrain from pursuing annexation or should it decide to limit the scope of annexation. It is difficult to predict how this will play in the government’s calculus but it is difficult to separate the two issues. The possibly looming annexation, the publication of Givat Hamatos tenders and the hearings slated for July for the final approval of E1 are intimately related to the fact that Netanyahu has chosen this timing to move on plans which he had frozen for decades is an indication that these actions may be viewed as anticipatory annexation.”

As a reminder, the Givat Hamatos settlement has been fully approved but not constructed. Located in the southern part of East Jerusalem, Givat Hamatos settlement has long been called a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

Top Court Orders Israel to Explain Failure to Enforce Building Laws in West Bank

On June 15th, the Israeli High Court of Justice gave the Israeli government two months to offer an explanation for why it has not opened a criminal investigation into unauthorized construction in the Hayovel outpost, located in the central West Bank.

The Court’s order comes in response to a petition filed by Peace Now in January 2019 asking the Court to stop the illegal construction at the Hayovel site and investigate the criminal involvement of the Binyamin Regional Council in promoting illegal construction. At that time (18 long months ago), the State announced that the police anti-fraud unit and the State Prosecutor’s Office would “examine” the case. The state has failed to launch that “examination,” and is now being ordered to explain why.

Israel Government Pauses Settler-Backed Excavation in Silwan, Tacitly Acknowledging Impacts on Palestinian Residents

In a report released last month, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said that several months ago it had briefly halted digging on the excavation of the “Pilgrim’s Road” – an excavation backed by the radical Elad settler group and promoted by U.S. Ambassador David Friedman underneath the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem – because the ground around the site began to sink. In order to shore up the collapsing area, the IAA had to build huge underground steel framed structure to hold up the street and buildings above.

Despite years of Palestinians reporting that settler digging was literally undermining and causing damage to their homes and property in Silwan, Elad and the IAA have always denied any connection between the damage and their archeological projects. In a recent report, the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – which has routinely reported on the problematic excavation practices utilized in Silwan and their impacts on Palestinians homeowners and residents – found cracks in 38 houses (home to 200 residents) near the dig site.

The IAA attempted to downplay the pause in excavations, telling Haaretz:

“The excavation is being conducted with ongoing engineering oversight combined with technology that continuously monitors the ground. As part of this monitoring, a few months ago a minor shift was detected on the level of the ancient Herodian street (and not on the modern street, which is eight meters above). An examination found that the area does not run under residential homes or structures. As a result of the monitoring, a new engineering solution was immediately applied and has proven effective.”

Israel Demolishes Structures in Two Outposts, Arrests 13 Settlers

On June 15th the Israeli Civil Administration forcibly evacuated and demolished buildings in two unauthorized outposts – Baladim and Maoz Esther – located in the northern West Bank. Haaretz reports that settlers rioted and threw rocks as the Israeli Border Police carried out the demolition orders, leading to the arrest of 13 settlers.

The unauthorized outpost of Moaz Esther has been repeatedly demolished by the Civil Administration, and settlers have repeatedly re-established the outpost without authorization to do so. This cat-and-mouse game was once dubbed “the never-ending evacuation.”

The Baladim outpost – an outpost associated with the radical, violent “Hilltop Youth” – is located on a hilltop in the northern Jordan Valley and has likewise been evacuated by the IDF and re-occupied by the youth numerous times. It is alleged that settlers from Baladim may have been responsible for the horrific arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma which killed an infant and both of his parents, and critically wounded his 4-year old brother in July 2015. Background on Jordan Valley settlements and outposts is here.

Israel Continues Prepping for Annexation

While Israeli leaders debate and negotiate what will/won’t happen come July 1st with respect to annexation, the government continues to take preparatory steps suggesting that it intends to implement some degree of annexation on that date.

This week, Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz attempted to form a committee to oversee and coordinate annexation across the government. Israel’s Channel 12 news reports that three former senior IDF officials rejected Gantz’s offer to head that committee, and that Gantz has not been able to stand up such a committee as of yet.

In the Jordan Valley, Palestinians continue reporting new indications that Israel is already implementing annexation. This week Palestinians report a sharp increase in home demolitions, police raids in Palestinian villages, and confiscations. Palestinians also say that Israeli police have hand delivered notices informing them that they will soon be brought under Israeli domestic law. On June 2nd, Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh also noted that for the first time ever, the Isreali Civil Administration directly delivered electricity bills to Palesitnian villages in the Jordan Valley, a move which brings Palestinians more directly under Israeli municipal governance and control.

With New Phased Plan, Netanyahu Said to Be Ready to Implement Annexation With or Without Gantz’s Support 

Israel Hayom reports that Netanyahu intends to enact annexation on July 1st with or without support from Alternative Prime Minister Benny Gantz and (what is left of) his Blue & White party. The newspaper – which is owned by Netanyahu (and Trump) backer Sheldon Adelson and is so closely aligned with Netanyahu that it has long been nicknamed “Bibiton” – reports that Netanyahu will do so via government approval, bypassing entirely a vote in the Knesset. This comes after the announcement by Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (of Derekh Eretz, a party in the Blue & White bloc) that he would vote in favor of annexation if presented by Netanyahu, giving Netanyahu a majority in the cabinet. The Israel Hayom report further suggests that in the event that Gantz somehow succeeds in stymying the passage of his annexation plan by the Cabinet, Netanyahu will call for new elections. This follows the results of a recent poll showing that Netanyahu’s Likud Party would win a new election by a landslide.

During negotiations this week Netanyahu also reportedly presented Gantz and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman with maps of four alternate options for annexation. According to an Israeli official briefed on the meeting, Netanyahu’s proposed scenarios range from annexing 30% of the West Bank (as provided for under the Trump Plan), to annexing a “symbolic” amount of land (reminder: any annexation, no matter how “small” or “symbolic” is a flagrant violation of international law and can only be considered land theft), to options somewhere in between the two. Israel Hayom reports that none of Netanyahu’s four scenarios completely align with the Trump Plan, suggesting perhaps that Netanyahu has adopted some of the demands made by settlers (e.g., no settlement enclaves, no Palestinian state, no construction freeze).

A June 17th report by Israel Hayom offers a theory that Netanyahu is hopeful that the U.S. will support a phased annexation plan. According to this theory, Netanyahu plans for the first phase – to start on July 1st –  to involve annexing far-flung settlements located deep inside the West Bank. After that, Bibi will reach out to the Palestinian Authority for talks. If the PA refuses to negotiate, he will proceed with the second phase of annexing all remaining settlements and more land across the entire West Bank. Explaining Netanyahu’s rationale behind this plan, Israel Hayom writes:

“There were reportedly several considerations that prompted the prime minister to consider a two-stage plan to implement sovereignty. First, he expects that the revised plan will send a signal to the international community and the region that Israel listens to their criticism and acts cautiously. Second, a two-stage implementation is also expected to suit the White House, which sees the Trump plan as a peace plan rather than a plan for annexation. The Trump administration wants the Palestinians to realize that time is not on their side, so calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come to the table between the first and second stages of the plan’s implementation serves that purpose…There are other reasons why Netanyahu wants to begin the application of sovereignty ‘deep’ inside Judea and Samaria: refraining from applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley in the first stage could blunt Jordan’s response, which is a concern. Moreover, a broad agreement that the Jordan Valley will remain in Israel hands under any future peace deal already exists, making the valley less urgent than the Judea and Samaria settlements. The same reasoning applies to the large settlement blocs in areas such as Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, and Gush Etzion. All previous peace plans have stated that these blocs would remain part of Israel, whereas the application of Israeli sovereignty to the far-flung settlements would be a weighty diplomatic statement and eradicate the possibility of them being uprooted and evacuated in the future.”

An anonymous cabinet minister made yet another argument in favor of a more aggressive first phase of annexation, telling Army Radio:

“the diplomatic price Israel will pay if it goes to partial annexation is the same as full annexation, so it is not clear what the thinking is behind a partial move.”

Gantz Suggests Annexing Two Large “Consensus” Settlement Areas First

In a separate report by Kan Radio on June 17th suggests Gantz and his Blue & White Party have their own plan which would have Israel annex the Etzion and Ma’aleh Adumim settlement “blocs” on July 1st, in a direct contradiction to the logic underpinning Netanyahu’s plan to annex the more controversial settlements in the first phase of the plan, as described above. Though the report mentions that Gantz’s plan also involves phases, no further details were revealed.  

Earlier in the week, during the three-way negotiations with Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, Gantz reportedly staked out four key positions for any annexation plan:

• He is opposed to annexing areas that have a large number of Palestinian residents “in order to prevent friction”;
• He insists that all Palestinians living in annexed land must be granted citizenship;
• He wants regional cooperation on annexation (i.e., he wants a plan that would not harm relations with Jordan and that is palatable to the rest of the Arab world, with which Israel has worked for years to court better economic/diplomatic relationships);
• He wants to be able to say Palestinians get some benefits in return for annexation.

In a surprising announcement, Meretz MK Yair Golan came out in support of the Blue & White plan to annex the Maale Adumim and Etzion settlement blocs, stating:

“If the Israeli government says its supreme goal is to separate from the Palestinians and reach a solution where the Palestinians no longer live under our control, then I will support it.”

Amb. David Friedman Tries, Fails to Broker Annexation Agreement Between Israeli Leaders

The new phased approaches to annexation offered by Netanyahu and Gantz come on the heels of a week of negotiations between the two Israeli leaders, kicked off on June 15th at an unprecedented summit convened by U.S. Ambassador David Friedman. Friedman was apparently unsuccessful in brokering an agreement, and at the end of the week reportedly walked away from the negotiations, telling Gantz and Netanyahu something along the lines of, “This is my number, call me if you manage to agree.” It is unclear what role Jared Kushner, the ostensible leader of the U.S. team, might have played in this week’s events; Kushner is reportedly in favor of delaying annexation, while Friedman is pushing for annexation to move ahead as soon as possible. Discussions between Netanyahu and Gantz are scheduled to resume next week.

Netanyahu’s threat (discussed above) to go ahead with annexation without the support of Gantz contravenes the U.S. call for Israeli unity behind any annexation. It was only one week ago that a senior U.S. official said that it is “highly unlikely” that the U.S. will give a greenlight to annexation that is not supported by Gantz. The Israel Hayom report suggests that Netanyahu hopes the U.S. can get behind one of his proposals, allowing him to proceed with or without Gantz.

Settlers Continue Opposing Key Parts of Trump Plan, But Offer Support for Phased Approach

A recent poll found that 56% of settlers support the Trump Plan, as the settler leadership continues lobbying for more land as negotiations over the annexation map continue. The poll found the 28% of settlers believe the plan is “terrible and must be opposed.”

On June 7th  Netanayahu, Settlements Minister Tzipi Hotovely, and Speaker of the Knesset Yariv Levin met with a group of eleven settler leaders who support the Trump Plan. Participants in the meeting said that Netanyahu promised that he would not agree to the future establishment of Palestinian state, and that he would not agree to any construction freeze for any settlements – addressing two of the three main demands from settlers, even settlers who support the Trump Plan. 

The third key concern/demand from settlers is that the map does not leave Israeli settlements in enclaves surrounded by Palestinian-controlled territory. To that end, settlers from the Yesha Council – which has mostly opposed the Trump Plan – have drawn up their own map, reportedly showing how the construction of a new road system can eliminate the concern about settlement enclaves. 

Notably, settlers who participated in the June 7th meeting confirmed early reports about Netanyahu’s design for a phased annexation plan (different from the phased plan reported by Israel Hayom). According to these reports, Phase 1 will start on July 1st with annexing all the settlements, but leaving the rest of the land allocated to Israel under the Trump Plan, including the Jordan Valley, to be annexed later.

Notably, the CEO of the settler Yesha Council, Yigal Dilmoni, came out in support of a phased annexation plan, while doubling down on the settlers’ conditions for accepting such a plan, saying:

“There must be sovereignty, even if it is in stages, but in no way can there be a Palestinian state, nor a [settlement building] freeze, and no enclave settlements.”

Meanwhile, Yesha Council Chairman David Elhayani continues his no-holds-barred attack on the Trump Plan and its architects, telling Haaretz that he prefers the status quo in the West Bank, and going on to say:

“From the beginning, I marked the Americans as a target. I said that [Trump’s special adviser and son-in-law Jared] Kushner had stabbed Netanyahu in the back after the event in Washington, and I later said that Friedman was being deceptive in selling only the sovereignty part without revealing to Israelis that ultimately there’s also a Palestinian state. This was a scam, and it was time to go to Trump – who isn’t familiar with the plan – and tell him: ‘Sir, you’re endangering the security of the State of Israel.’ The Palestinian public is of no interest to them. I’ll tell you what interests them: they want to chalk up some achievement. Kushner wants to bring his father-in-law Trump the achievement of being the greatest leader in the world. No leader since 1948 has managed to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and here, the great Trump arrived and did it! He’ll say, ‘I told you. I’m a businessman and I know how to close deals. This is the deal I closed: Have sovereignty and give a Palestinian state.’ If you met President Trump tomorrow morning and asked him about the details of this plan, do you think he’d know?”

“Hilltop Youth” Launch Campaign to Stop Trump Plan, Claim Land in Area A of West Bank

The Times of Israel reports that dozens of settlers associated with the radical and violent “Hilltop Youth” movement have launched a campaign called “It’s All Ours” that aims to undermine the Trump Plan by staking a claim to areas which the Trump Plan does not give Israel an explicit green light to annex (at least not yet).  This means they are targeting areas where there is a large Palestinian population, mainly areas desingated as “Area A” under the Oslo Accords.

Organizers of the campaign said there will be three phases leading up to July 1st (the first day that the Israeli government can enact annexation, as agreed to in the unity government deal). Phase one saw over 100 settlers posted 5,500 fliers along West Bank road. The flyers warned against “the danger of the division of the land that is on the horizon.” Phase two will launch rallies and marches in the West Bank. For phase three, the settlers plan to establish new outposts in “strategic areas.” 

Settler Group Raises Concern for the Fate of  West Bank Religious Sites Under the Trump Plan

A settler group calling itself “Preserving the Eternal” – which describes itself as a network of entities working to “protect antiquities in Israel and Judea and Samaria,” –  has begun raising alarm, alleging that hundreds of biblical sites in the West Bank are slated to remain in Palestinian territory under the Trump Plan. The group’s leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of mismanaging the sites and they accuse Palestinians of looting them. The group is in favor of Israel annexing all the sites.

Bonus Reads

1. “As mammoth high-tech hub is eyed for East Jerusalem, will it benefit locals?” (The Times of Israel) 
2. “As East Jerusalem Suffers Powers Cuts, Settlers Were Put on Israeli Grid – but Palestinians Not” (Haaretz)
3. “‘We’re Totally in the Dark’: Palestinians in Jordan Valley Feel Nobody Wants Them, Just Their Land” (Haaretz) 
4. “Trump’s “Deal” for Palestinians: Repercussions and Responses”” (Al-Shabaka)
5. “Diplomatic Pressure Mounts on Israel to Delay Annexation as Long as Possible” (Haaretz)
6.  “Mapping West Bank Annexation: Territorial and Political Uncertainties” (WINEP) 
7. “More Israelis oppose West Bank annexation than support it — survey” (The Times of Israel) 
8. “Mapping Netanyahu’s annexation plan: Experts explain a charged, complex process” (The Times of Israel) 
9. “The Annexation’s Ambassador to Israel” (Haaretz)
10. “Settler Leader: Trump’s Plan Is a Scam, Netanyahu Will Establish a Palestinian State” (Haaretz)
11. “A radical settler wages war against annexation — but he is far from alone” (The Times of Israel)
12. “’Annexation could cost Israel NIS 67 billion per year’“ (Jerusalem Post)

 

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.

May 8, 2020

1. Israel Green Lights Givat Eitam/E-2 Settlement
2. Givat Hamatos Tender is Delayed, as Settlers Agitate for Action
3. Israel Exploits “Humanitarian” Access Issue to Flex its Muscles at Key Hebron Site
4. HaMoked Continues Battle on Behalf of Palestinians Landowners Who Cannot Reach Their Land
5. Amb. Friedman Gives Two Interviews Clarifying (Once Again) Total Support for Annexation; Pompeo To Visit Israel Soon
6. Yesha Settlement Council Head Pushes For Annexation Vote Immediately, As Settlers Continue to Be Wary of Bibi’s Plans & Critical of the Trump Plan
7. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Israel Green Lights Givat Eitam/E-2 Settlement

On May 6th, Israel’s outgoing Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced the approval of plans for the  construction of 7,000 new units in the Efrat settlement, in what is, in effect, approval of a brand-new settlement adjacent to Efrat (both Efrat and the planned new settlement are located east of Israel’s separation barrier). 

The Givat Eitam settlement site  – known to Palestinians as A-Nahle – is located on a strategic hilltop south of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. The construction of Givat Eitam would significantly expand Efrat in the direction of Bethlehem, effectively cutting off Bethlehem off from the southern West Bank, completing the city’s encirclement by Israeli settlement construction. The Givat Eitam settlement plan has long been nicknamed “E-2” by settlement watchdogs, for its dire geopolitical implications for any future Palestinian state (similar to those of the E-1 settlement on Jerusalem’s eastern flank). 

Earlier, on May 3rd, the Israeli Civil Administration dismissed Palestinian petitions challenging the allocation of an additional 1,100 dunams (225 acres) of land to the Efrat settlement – a decision that paved the way for Bennett’s announcement. That land allocation doubles the size of the Efrat settlement, and, more significantly, it allows for the construction of what will effectively be a new settlement to be called “Givat Eitam” — to be built within Efrat’s (expanded) borders but at a site that is not contiguous with the built-up area of Efrat. In its May 3rd ruling, the Civil Administration ruled that additional land was necessary for Efrat’s growth and development, and that the Givat Eitam site is the only land available (disregarding Palestinian needs for land for Bethlehem’s growth and development). 

In 2004, the Israeli government designated the land to be used to build Givat Eitam as “state land,” despite the fact that Palestinians claim to have been actively cultivating the land for generations. Palestinians land owners assisted by the Israeli NGO Peace Now waged a 16-year legal battle to challenge the declaration of state land (which they lost), followed by a legal battle challenging the decision to allocate this “state land” for settlement purposes (which culminated with the May 3rd ruling).

Peace Now has declared its intention to escalate its petition against the land allocation to the High Court of Justice, and laid out its three-part legal argument:

1. Allocating “state land” to build a settlement contravenes Israel’s duty to protect the land for the local Palestinian population according to international law; 
2. Allocating “state land” for the needs of Israelis (over those of Palestinians) is tainted by discrimination, as is clear from the fact that since 1967, Israel has allocated 99.8% of “state land” in the West Bank land primarily for the benefit of Israel/Israelis; and 
3. The Palestinian need for the land in question is far greater than that of the Efrat settlement, as a Peace Now spatial planning analysis confirms. 

Addressing Bennett’s announcement of approval of the Givat Eitam plan, Peace Now said in a statement:

“This is a cynical move by a caretaker defense minister at the end of his mandate while the nation is still reeling from the corona crisis to advance a dangerous plan aimed at entrenching permanent Israeli domination in the southern West Bank and harming the prospect of a two-state solution. The right thing to do is to allocate the land for Palestinian construction, but the Ministry of Defense is currently run by an irresponsible politician willing to cross any red line in the name of his anti-democratic ideology.”

Following his announcement, Defense Minister Bennett tweeted:

“The building momentum in the country must not be stopped, even for a second.”

In September 2018, FMEP reported that the local council of the Efrat settlement, in response to a Palestinian terror attack,  encouraged the start of (unauthorized) construction of an outpost at the Givat Eitam/E-2 site (presuming that any such illegal construction would be retroactively legalized by the government). Since then, the Civil Administration has allowed the settlers to build and maintain an agricultural farm there.

Givat Hamatos Tender is Delayed, as Settlers Agitate for Action

Ir Amim reports that the Israeli Land Authority did not open bidding on a tender for the construction of 1,077 units in the Givat Hamatos settlement, as it was scheduled to do on May 3rd. The ILA has proactively announced the postponement of several tenders that were scheduled for publication and/opening, but made no such announcement with regards to the highly sensitive and controversial Givat Hamatos tender. The delay has not pleased East Jerusalem settlement empresario Aryeh King (who is poised to become the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem), who posted a message on Facebook pressing for action.

Ir Amim speculates that the Israeli government may be exercising caution on sensitive East Jerusalem plans like Givat Hamatos and Har Homa (plans for which were taken off of the agenda of the Jerusalem District Committee’s April 27th meeting), in light of international criticism of those plans specifically.

Ir Amim writes:

“Israeli right-wing groups are likely to demand that the tender must not be postponed regardless of any economic considerations. For example, Jerusalem right-wing council member Arye King who works to promote settlements in East Jerusalem has already posted on Facebook a reminder that the tender is due to open today.”

As a reminder, the Givat Hamatos settlement has been fully approved but not constructed. Located in the southern part of East Jerusalem, plans for the Givat Hamatos settlement have long been called a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If the Givat Hamatos settlement is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank. 

Over the past year of seemingly endless campaigning, Netanyahu faced intense and prolonged pressure from settler leaders and his political rivals to move ahead with plans for Givat Hamatos, a pressure point he alleviated in February 2020 when he announced that he had lifted the freeze on those plans. 

Israel Exploits “Humanitarian” Access Issue to Flex its Muscles at Key Hebron Site

Outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has granted approval for a plan to expropriate land from the Islamic Waqf, ostensibly in order to make the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque wheelchair accessible. The decision sparked anger and controversy — it was slammed by the Palestinian Authority — both because it involves the expropriation of Waqf-held land, and because it directly violates arrangements Israel agreed to in the Oslo Accords, which give the Palestinian-run Municipality of Hebron planning authority over the site. The plan still needs to receive final approval from the Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Council, but it already enjoys the support of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Justice Ministry. In addition, the Israeli Attorney General issued an opinion holding that Israel is legally permitted to expropriate the land for this humanitarian cause.

Providing critical context for why this plan is not really, or not fully, being advanced out of humanitarian concerns, the Israeli nonprofit Emek Shaveh – which is composed of archeological professionals – explains:

“Israel’s decision to seize responsibility for the site from the Hebron municipality and the Palestinians sends a clear political message that Israel is reneging on agreements that were signed with the Palestinians in Hebron.  Beyond the precedent that will enable the settlers in the future to demand additional changes at the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque, this is also a precedent that could play out at other sites under the responsibility of the Islamic Waqf. Experience has shown us that what begins in Hebron percolates into other places including Jerusalem.  It begins with a seemingly rational demand to benefit the disabled or the general public and evolves into a new status quo.  The expected change in Hebron has not escaped the attention of members of the Temple movement and they will know how to present their demands to the government.  If Israel can repudiate agreements with the Palestinians in Hebron and expropriate land from the Waqf, it would seem that accepting what appears to be the far more modest demands by the Temple movement to pray or to walk about the Temple Mount complex freely is not so far-fetched. In the reality of Hebron and East Jerusalem, a change involving only several meters at a historic or holy place is not free of political considerations and often it is part of long-term strategy.  While it is necessary to tend to the needs and interests of persons with disabilities, the extremists who presume to speak on their behalf must be prevented from forging Israeli policy, even if it is only a matter of a lift and an access path.”

Read Emek Shaveh’s full analysis here: “Humanitarianism Hebron Style.”

HaMoked Continues Battle on Behalf of Palestinians Landowners Who Cannot Reach Their Land

Since March 2020, HaMoked has been fighting for the rights of Palestinian landowners to access their land located in the “seam zone” (i.e., in the West Bank but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier). Israel requires these landowners to coordinate with the Israeli military in order to obtain permits to go beyond the barrier. With the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, the IDF began severely limiting the issuance of permits, and has now reportedly suspended all entry permits indefinitely. The IDF claims that the restrictions are meant to stop the spread of the virus.

These restrictions have severe implications for Palestinians, in addition to violating their property rights. For instance, HaMoked reports that the closure affects commercial activity and has shuttered businesses for several weeks. There are also about 100 Palestinians in the northern West Bank who are literally trapped, since their homes are located within the seam zone (in a section of the village of Nazlat ‘Isa, in the Tulkarm District, that lies beyond the separation barrier).

On May 4th HaMoked sent a new letter to the military demanding that access be reinstated in accordance with existing regulations.

Amb. Friedman Gives Two Interviews Clarifying (Once Against) Total Support for Annexation; Pompeo To Visit Israel Soon

In two separate interviews with Israeli outlets this week in commemoration of the two year anniversary of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman again clarified that the Trump Administration is prepared to recognize annexation as soon as Israel moves forward, which Friedman says can happen in the coming weeks.

In a May 6th interview with Israel Hayom – the free, right-wing Israeli daily newspaper financed by Sheldon Adelson – Friedman stressed that the U.S. has not conditioned its support for Israeli annexation. The only “requirement” – which cannot be fairly described as such – of the Israeli government is that Netanyahu commits to the principle of negotiating with the Palestinians “in good faith” on the basis of the Trump Plan, if the Palestinian leadership first accepts that and decides to come to the table within the next four years. Friedman told Israel Hayom that Netanyahu has already met this “requirement.”  Setting aside the fact that no Palestinian leader will agree to negotiate with Israel on the basis of a plan that, in advance, gives Israel almost everything that was supposed to be on the table in negotiations, the “requirement” is still entirely hollow. Even if Netanyahu were to commit to negotiate with the Palestinians on this basis, there is no way to compel a future Israeli leader to honor that commitment. 

Friedman made this even clearer in a second interview with the Jerusalem Post:

“The expectation is that the prime minister will agree to negotiate — and if the Palestinians show up, he will negotiate in good faith based on this plan…I don’t see this as anything more than a commitment by the prime minister…[and] I’m not going to prejudge what good faith means.”

Friedman also sought to clarify that any notion that the Trump Plan calls for a “construction freeze” outside annexed areas is incorrect. Rather, all Israeli settlements and outposts outside the annexed areas will become part of enclaves – connected to Israel by access roads. Construction in these areas can continue but but should not expand beyond a given enclave’s “territorial footprint.” That condition will apply only to 10,000-15,000 settlers, according to Friedman, living in the enclaves.

Friedman repeatedly stressed that the U.S. is a passive actor when it comes to annexation: i.e., that annexation is Israel’s move to make, and the U.S. stands ready to recognize Israel’s decision. In his interview with the Jerusalem Post, he again used the phrase “Israel’s decision” and made a point of giving credit to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with that turn of phrase. Pompeo is reportedly due to travel to Israel in the coming week.

Yesha Settlement Council Head Pushes For Annexation Vote Immediately, As Settlers Continue to Be Wary of Bibi’s Plans & Critical of the Trump Plan

On May 3rd, David Elhayani, chairman of the settler Yesha Council (an umbrella group representing all Israeli settlements), demanded that the Knesset take its first vote on annexation immediately. Elhayani threw his support behind a bill that will extend Israeli sovereignty (an act of de facto annexation) over the entire Jordan Valley and all settlements and outposts. The bill was introduced in March 2020 by Likud Knesset Member May Golan, with backing from the senior figures in the Likud Party. 

Elhayani explains his support for the bill, which he believes would enjoy broad backing:  

“The bill will apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley without recognition of a Palestinian state that would endanger the future of the state of Israel.”

Elhayani remark is an implicit attack on the Trump Plan (and the new unity government which appears set to implement that plan as soon as July 1st), as well as a challenge to Netanyahu’s public commitment to enacting annexation – a commitment about which settlers continue to be skeptical. As Elhayani sees it, Netanyahu’s approach hold out the possibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he thinks is an existential threat to the security of the Israeli state. Elhayani has also publicly (and repeatedly) criticized the Trump Plan, saying just this week that the plan is a “scam.” Elhayani said: 

“Representatives of the US government are [trying to] sell Plan A under the guise of Plan B. There is no greater scam than this…While the county is preoccupied with the coronavirus, the U.S. government is preparing the ground for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state and the well-oiled American public information machine will not stop for a moment as it tries to advance Trump’s peace plan in any way possible. There is a lot of text in the plan meant to confuse the public.”

Yossi Dagan – the head of the settlement Samaria Regional Council – joined Elhayani in his public opposition to the Trump Plan, saying:

“We will not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of the process of [enacting Israeli] sovereignty [in the West Bank]. Sovereignty is important to Israel’s security, but it is not worth damaging even a centimeter of the State of Israel and establishing a terror state in the heartland of the country. David Friedman [the United States Ambassador to Israel] is a warm and loving Jew. I know him, and I understand that he is doing everything possible to safeguard Israel’s interests. But with all the appreciation I have for Friedman, no American ambassador should worry about us. We chose Netanyahu, not the Americans.”

In response to remarks made by Amb. David Friedman this week (detailed above), the head of the Mount Hevron Regional Council, Yochai Damari, voiced support for the Plan, as well as his concern:

“Under Ambassador Friedman’s leadership, the sovereignty plan is progressing and we welcome it. We support the ambassador who, together with the prime minister and President Trump, are pushing for sovereignty and recognition of settlements as part of the State of Israel, thus bringing forth historical justice. The plan does, however, have red lines. We are concerned about the enclave provisions and unfortunately, we have not received clarifications about it. We will not allow thousands of families to be abandoned to the mercy of the terrorists.”

The mayor of the Efrat settlement, Oded Ravivi, urged the new unity government to act quickly on annexation, saying:

“this is a test not only for the new government, which is supposed to include applying sovereignty [to the area] by July, but also a test for the Israeli Right and the settlers’ leadership. Do they prefer having one bird in their hand or two in a tree? I believe we are facing a formative period and if we miss [this chance] we may lose the opportunity to change the future of a generation. I say yes to the plan!”

The mayor of the Beit El settlement, Shai Alon, said:

 

“Washington already understands the historical significance of Beit El and Judea and Samaria have for the people of Israel. It’s unthinkable that Jerusalem not do the same. It’s time to apply sovereignty. It’s time to leave this debate behind us and make Israel control over Judea and Samaria a fact.”

Bonus Reads

1. “The day after annexation: Israel, Palestine and the one-state reality” (The New Arab)
2. “The Dark Side of Annexing the Jordan Valley (Haaretz)
3. “Palestinian Stiffen Battle Against Annexation at UN Security Council” (Jerusalem Post)
4. “UK lawmakers urge Johnson to sanction Israel if West Bank annexation goes ahead“ (The Times for Israel)
5. “Palestinians in Israeli-controlled West Bank Fall Through Cracks of Coronavirus Response” (Haaretz)
6. “Israeli annexation plans would lead to ‘cascade of bad human rights consequences’, says UN expert” (OHCHR)
7. “Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians increase under coronavirus lockdown” (Middle East Eye)