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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 20, 2024

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

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

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

Peace Now explains: 

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

High Court Orders Illegal Settler Construction Dismantled

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

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

Yesh Din posted on X:

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

Emek Shaveh said in a statement: 

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

Knesset Caucus to Push Bill Preventing West Bank Exit

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

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

Israeli Demolitions Continue Alarming Spike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus 

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

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 17, 2021

1. In Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian Family Faces Immediate Displacement, While Israel Begins Work on New Settler Garden at Entrance to the Neighborhood
2. Israeli Custodian General is Behind Six New Settlement Plans Across East Jerusalem
3. Israel Custodian General Reveals New Details on Regulations Governing its Management of East Jerusalem Properties, Leaving More Questions
4. Israel Forges Ahead with New Settlements on the Golan Heights
5. Following Murder of Israeli Settler, Settlers Launch Attacks of their Own & Attempt to Establish New Outpost
6. Gantz Moves to Send More Police to West Bank to Monitor Settler Violence
7. Meanwhile in Israel…Political Storm Ensues Over Whether Settler Terrorism Is a Problem or Not
8. Bonus Reads

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In Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian Family Faces Immediate Displacement, While Israel Begins Work on New Settler Garden at Entrance to the Neighborhood

Courtesy of an eviction order hand-delivered by settler impresario and Jerusalem city councilman Aryeh King, and his colleague Jonathan Yosef, the Palestinian Salaam family has been ordered to vacate their Sheikh Jarrah home of 70 years by December 29, 2021. King and Yosef assert they are the legal owners of the home, which is located in the Umm Haroun section of Sheikh Jarrah, having bought it from the heirs of the Jewish family that owned the property prior to 1948.  Peace Now has produced a helpful timeline of the full history of the Salaam’s home.

This purchase took place, without a doubt, thanks to the help of the Israeli Custodian General – the body that manages property abandoned by Jews in 1948 when their heirs are unknown – which almost certainly helped King and Yosef in identifying the property, locating the heirs and securing its sale (see Peace Now’s excellent report on the Absentee Property Law for more legal background on how this happens).

On December 15th, Ir Amim documented the scene as settlers, under the protection of Israeli police, fenced off the Salaam family’s land (where they are supposedly permitted to live until the 29th) in an attempt to prevent Palestinians, including the Salaam family, from accessing the area.

Peace Now said in response:

“This is a terrible injustice based on the cynical exploitation of a discriminatory law that allows Jews to exercise the ‘right of return; to property lost to them in 1948, at the expense of Palestinian families legally living in the property, while another Israeli law denies the same right to Palestinians. This is exactly what the Mishnah says: ‘He who says: mine is mine and yours is mine, is called evil’. The State of Israel, which took the Palestinian refugees’ properties lost to them in 1948, cannot today allow settlers to take from Palestinians Jewish properties lost in 1948 and on which they are have already received compensation. The government can stop this evacuation, and it must do so.”

The eviction of the Salaam family comes as the government of Israel is pursuing the displacement of as many as 70 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah. 

In parallel,  the Israeli government has begun construction on a settlement installation (including a “public garden” as well as a driveway that will service an as-of-yet-unbuilt Israeli hotel in the neighborhood) at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah, including the demolition of several Palestinian businesses. Notably, the site of this project is very close to the tomb of Shimon the Righteous, which is a religious site closely associated with the settler enclave in Sheikh Jarrah. The Jerusalem Municipality previously expropriated the land, which was privately owned by Palestinians, “for public use” — an Israeli legal tactic that permits the State to confiscate even privately owned land ostensibly to benefit the “public” (a “public” that it seems never includes Palestinians in East Jerusalem).

 In October 2021, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the appeals by the business owners to stop the demolition. This week, bulldozers leveled a plot of land owned by four Palestinian families and that was the location of two Palestinian businesses, a car wash and a parking lot. The business owners were handed an immediate eviction notice on December 14th, just one day before the bulldozers began work. 

Israeli Custodian General is Behind Six New Settlement Plans Across East Jerusalem

Haaretz reports that the Israeli Custodian General is planning six new settlement enclaves, to be located in some of the most sensitive areas of East Jerusalem. The news comes one week after the public learned of one of these plans, Givat HaShaked (see FMEP’s reporting last week), which is now understood to be part of a larger Israeli government plan to advance a slate of new settlement enclaves across East Jerusalem. As a reminder, the Israeli Custodian General is empowered by the State to  act as caretaker of land that has unknown ownership. 

While details on the plans are scant for the time being, Haaretz reports that the Israeli Custodian General is planning new settlements buildings that include:

1 – A new settler enclave in Sheikh Jarrah, in an area known as Um Haroun. As has been well documented, Palestinians are in a battle to stay in their longtime homes in Sheikh Jarrah while the Israeli Custodian General and Israeli settlers work hand-in-hand to displace them. Thirteen Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah (whose legal battle will impact dozens more) are still awaiting a Court ruling on their displacement at the hands of settlers. Haaretz reports:

“According to a custodian document, it administers 33 plots out of a total of 58 in the neighborhood. Five more plots have been expropriated by the Israel Land Authority. The city zoning plan allows for the demolition of the old structures and construction of buildings up to four-stories in their stead, or expanding them to that height. This could mean the construction of a neighborhood containing hundreds of housing units in the heart of Sheikh Jarrah. The Justice Ministry’s Land Registrar recently completed the registration of the neighborhood to its Jewish owners, so it is likely that any neighborhood built there will be for the Jewish population.”

2 – A new settler enclave near the Damascus Gate, near the Old City of Jerusalem, where approximately 10 Jewish Israeli families have already established a settlement enclave.

3 – Two new settler enclaves near Beit Safafa, one being the Givat HaShaked settlement plan which FMEP covered in greater detail last week. The second plan is not far from where the Givat HaShaked settlement would be built, and reportedly would involve a large settler compound with dozens more settlement units to be built in the sliver of land between Beit Safafa and the Talpiot Industrial Zone. 

4 – A new settler enclave in Sur Baher. Reportedly, the Custodian is hoping to add more land to its holdings in Sur Baher (it currently holds 3.3 dunams and is attempting to gain 2 more dunams), meaning this plan could expand. 

5 – A large new settler enclave in Beit Hanina. The Custodian is reportedly looking to build dozens of new settler units on six dunams of land (1.5 acres), to be located on a plot adjacent to the IDF Central Command base. The Custodian has also sought the cooperation of the Defense Ministry in promoting this plan.

The Justice Ministry, which houses the Custodian General, attempted to dodge these reports, telling Haaretz that it is not “advancing” any of these plans other than the one in Sheikh Jarrah, where it says it is “examining a construction project.” 

Israel Custodian General Reveals New Details on Regulations Governing its Management of East Jerusalem Properties, Leaving More Questions

Under pressure from an impending court hearing, on December 11th the Israeli Custodian General submitted a document to the Court purporting to enumerate the regulations governing its management of properties in East Jerusalem. The Custodian General was facing a December 14th Court hearing on a petition filed by the Israeli NGO Ir Amim along with Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah, that asserted no such regulations existed, enabling “severe misconduct and collaboration with settler groups to initiate evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, which severely infringes on the rights of Palestinians in the city.” Some 70 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood are facing homelessness because of the Custodian General’s collusion with settlers seeking their displacement from properties in which they have lived, legally, for decades.

In light of the Custodian General’s new publication (which the court viewed as resolving the complaint against the State), the Court dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning the petitioners are permitted to file a new case on the same matter in the future.

Ir Amim filed the petition following news that the Custodian General has advanced a plan to build a new settlement – Givat HaShaked – on property it manages. As reported last week, this is an unprecedented move by the Custodian General, raising questions about whether the Custodian General is permitted to allow properties under its management to be developed. The document submitted to the Court this week by the Custodian General only raises more unanswered questions about the parameters governing the Custodian General’s ability to act as a property developer for properties that it does not own (only manages while awaiting the locating of the legal owners/heirs). Ir Amim further explains:

“The procedure includes dozens of clauses, none of which reference the possibility that the custodian may itself file plans and build residential complexes on a lot it owns. One clause refers to this indirectly, stating, ‘When initiated, or if contacted regarding urban renewal or planned improvements, the Custodian General shall examine the essence of the request and its impact on the administered property.’ ​​Indeed, planning sources are unfamiliar with any case in which the custodian acted as a realty entrepreneur by improving the properties it holds. The subject raises another issue: the custodian is technically forbidden to sell property. Therefore, it remains unclear whether the apartments built in these various compounds will be sold on the open market, or whether they will remain the property of the custodian, who will rent them out. The Justice Ministry has not responded to clarify the matter.”

Israel Forges Ahead with New Settlements on the Golan Heights

At the recommendation and with the approval of Prime Minister Bennett, on October 14th Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked signed off on two orders establishing a settlement municipal authority in the occupied Golan Heights, a move that opens the door for an expedited planning process for existing and new settlements in the area. This includes the construction of the infamous “Trump Heights” settlement in addition to planned settlements called Givot Eden, Asif, and Matar. Last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Israel’s plan is to double the settler population in the Golan Heights by 2030.

The special committee, which will act as a zoning board with broad planning authority, will have the combined powers of local and district planning and building committees, but will not include members who represent the public – an anomaly in the Israeli planning system.

The committee has already completed initial work by laying out the territorial borders of the “Trump Heights” settlement, which will cover 276 dunamns (about 70 acres). With its borders decided, the committee will move to expedite construction plans for residential housing, public buildings, industrial areas, roads and more. 

On this massive settlement effort, the Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“Occupied territories are occupied territories and annexation is annexation, even when it’s the Golan Heights and even when the annexation plan is called “a plan for encouraging sustainable demographic growth.”…We must tell it like it is. This is an artificial population expansion project, meant to strengthen Israel’s grip on the Golan Heights and create facts on the ground that will make it difficult for future leaders who might consider holding negotiations on the territory. To expedite matters, the Prime Minister’s Office seeks to create a “special committee” with the powers of the local and regional planning and building committees, but without the customary inclusion of public representatives. This is a national project. Like the so-called Judaization of the Galilee. Like the settlement enterprise.”

Al-Monitor provides a helpful background on the occupied Golan Heights and the creation of “Trump Heights”:

“Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1981, Menachem Begin’s government formally annexed the territory. This unilateral move was not recognized by any country until Trump came along. In March 2019, his administration changed long-standing American policy by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the region. A proclamation signed by Trump declared, ‘The State of Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 to safeguard its security from external threats. Today, aggressive acts by Iran and terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, in southern Syria, continue to make the Golan Heights a potential launching ground for attacks on Israel. Any possible future peace agreement in the region must account for Israel’s need to protect itself from Syria and other regional threats. Based on these unique circumstances, it is therefore appropriate to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.’ Three months later, the [Israeli] Cabinet convened for a special session in the Golan Heights and approved the establishment of a new settlement named for the US president. At that meeting, a huge sign decorated with Israeli and American flags was unveiled at the entrance to the new settlement. Written on it in gold letters was the name Ramat Trump.”

Following Murder of Israeli Settler,Settler Launch Attacks of their Own & Attempt to Establish New Outpost

On December 17th, a Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a settler vehicle near the dismantled settlement of Homesh, in the northern West Bank, killing one man – Yehuda Dimentman – and injuring two others. The IDF has apprehended several suspects already.

Though the Homesh settlement was evacuated by the Israeli government in 2005 – and military orders have barred Palestinians from entering the area – settlers have been allowed to establish an unauthorized outpost at the site, where the settlers also operate a yeshiva. Settlers have been openly obsessed with the desire to re-establish Homesh, hosting religious events and protests at the site, some of which have been attended by Israeli MKs and politicians. At the funeral for Dimentman, which several Israeli politicians attended, already begun calling for the government to formally reestablish the Homesh settlement. 

In the hours following news of Dimentan’s death, settlers have already begun exacting revenge – with little to no interference from the IDF, though the outpouring of violence is an entirely predictable established pattern in the wake of Palestinians attacks. In the Palestinian village of Qayrut, a group of at least 15 settlers launched and especially violent attack on a Palestinian home, knocking on the door pretending to be Israeli soldiers at 4am, then proceeding to ransack the house and severely beat Mohammed Makbal – sending him to the hospital. No suspects have been apprehended, though several were caught on camera.

Within 24 hours of the attack, settlers from the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron moved to establish a new outpost in honor of Dimentan, called Nofei Yehuda. In this case, the IDF moved in swiftly to remove the settlers from the area. The outpost was established by members of the Nahala settler movement, of which Dimentan was a part. Nahala is behind a lot of unauthorized construction in the West Bank, and is a leading force in the battle over the Evyatar outpost.

Peace Now has written about the Nahala Movement, saying:

“The Nahala organization and the main activists of the new outposts are not the mainstream old-guard settlers (like the Amanah organization who is behind many other settlements and outposts and gets much more support from the authorities), however they are not a small fringe. This outpost is an example of a rift that is being created within the Israeli right wing. The more extreme right, which is willing to challenge the system more strongly, and the old-guard settlers who continue the mentality of working ‘with’ the government as much as possible. On the partisan level we see this rift in the creation of two different parties: Yamina, headed by Naftali Bennet, and the Jewish Zionism, headed by Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. The challenge of the new outpost puts the new shaky government, which is a coalition of parties which don’t agree about many things, to face its first big political test. The extreme right is signaling that it is planning to continue to challenge the new government, like it had done in the flags march in East Jerusalem, and in yesterday’s settlers’ marches throughout the West Bank.”

Gantz Moves to Send More Police to West Bank to Monitor Settler Violence

Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Leg have agreed to draft hundreds of Israeli soldiers into the (domestic) police force, so that Israeli police can then be reassigned to the West Bank partly to fill posts dedicated to policing settler violence. 

Settlers, of course, are not thrilled about the new attention being paid to settler terrorism experienced by Palestinian communities across the West Bank, and which has increased over the past year. According to Israeli government data (which does not systematically track settler violence against Palestinians) the Shin Bet logged 272 “violent incidents” in the West Bank in 2020; so far in 2021, there have been 397 “violent incidents” recorded by the Shin Bet. The UN recorded even more attacks this year – 450 as of December 6 – compared to 358 in all of 2020 and 335 in 2019.​​B’Tselem, which recently released an excellent report on settler terrorism, documents a 28.6% increase in settler violence in 2021 over 2020. Yesh Din, which also documents settler violence while seeking justice and accountability, notes that only 5% of cases it filed from 2018-2021 (238 total cases filed, while it documented 540 total cases) have resulted in indictments. Palestinians have increasingly declined to file police reports regarding settler crimes, with so few cases actually resulting in any tangible good for the victim.

For a SMALL sample of the terrorism inflicted by settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank on a daily basis, see the following reports from the past week by WAFA news:

• “Settlers, backed by Israeli army, intensify attacks against Palestinians in Nablus area”
• “Israeli forces attack Palestinian farmers, seize tractor in Masafer Yatta area”
• “Israeli settlers leave several villagers wounded, fractured south of Nablus”
• “Settlers attack Palestinian vehicles south of Jenin”
• “Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles, bloc traffic artery east of Hebron”
• “Israeli settlers rampage through Nablus-district town”
• “Israeli settlers take over water spring in northern Jordan Valley”

Meanwhile in Israel…Political Storm Ensues Over Whether Settler Terrorism Is a Problem or Not

Following months (which followed years, which followed decades) of settler terrorism against Palestinians, this week Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) set off a political clash within Israel over the issue. In comments made alongside U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — and after Israeli diplomats have allegedly come to believe that the Biden Administration is “obsessed” with “settler violence” (though other reporting contradicts that claim) – Bar-Lev called settler terrorism “severe” and said that Israel is taking steps to address it.

Those comments were seen as a betrayal by many of Bar-Lev’s pro-settler coalition partners, and elicited  some strong condemnations. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) said Bar-Lev is “confused.” MK Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) called Bar-Lev a “bastard” and tweeted “shame on you, little man.” 

The drama also drew comment from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet who, it should be recalled, relies heavily on the settler constituency and is also ideologically closely aligned with the settlers, having once served as the head of the top settler body called the Yesha Council. Bennett appeared to dismiss Bar-Lev’s comments, in effect giving official cover for an a green-light to continued and unaccountable settler terrorism, tweeting:

“The settlers in Judea and Samaria have been suffering from violence and terrorism, every day, for decades. They are the defensive wall of us all and we must strengthen them and support them, in words and deeds…There are marginal phenomena in every public, they should be dealt with by all means, but we must not generalize an entire public.”

 B’Tselem’s Executive Director, Hagai El-Ad, responded to Bennett’s claim, telling Haaretz:

“There’s a propagandistic façade here that’s convenient for Israel…There’s a few bad settlers, or more, on one side, and on the other is the good state of Israel, which seeks to enforce the law. But that isn’t the truth. Both the state and the settlers want the same thing – to dispossess Palestinians of their land.”

This relationship – between the settlers and the State when it comes to dispossessing Palestinians – was spelled out in a recent B’Tselem report, “State Business: Israel’s misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Mining Gold From East Jerusalem’s Streets” (Amira Hass for Haaretz)
2. “This was the deadliest year for Palestinian children since 2014” (Khaled Quzmar for +972 Magazine)
3. “Unearthing the Palestinian Neighborhood Buried Beneath a Tel Aviv Park” (Haaretz)
4. “Fact Sheet: Israel’s E1 Settlement” (IMEU)
5. “Opinion: Israel just showed its strategy on settlement boycotts: Gaslighting” (Gershom Gorenberg in the Washington Post)

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 Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 28, 2019

1. Radical Settler Group Deepens Control Over East Jerusalem Neighborhood & Tourism Network
2. Israel Advances Plan for Settlement Enclave in Beit Hanina Neighborhood of East Jerusalem
3. Former Mayor of Jerusalem Proposes Plan to Build 12 New Settlement Industrial Zones in Area C
4. McDonald’s Wins Bid to Operate in Ben Gurion, Despite Settler Campaign
5. Settlers Continue Price Tag Attacks on Palestinian Villages, Still No Arrests
6. The Bahrain Workshop [Shhh… Don’t mention Settlements!]
7. Bolton Tours Jordan Valley & Hints at U.S. Support for Permanent Israeli Control
8. Bonus Reads

Questions or comments? Contact Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Radical Settler Group Deepens Control Over East Jerusalem Neighborhood & Tourism Network

Approximately two months ago, the radical settler organization Elad opened a new cultural center and cafe in the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Tor (Abu Tor is a mixed but segregated neighborhood). Named “House in the Valley,” Elad’s new 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 new footbridge will connect Abu Tor 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.

A week after Elad’s new cultural center was opened in April 2019, the Jerusalem Municipality issued “gardening orders” to take control, for a period lasting 5 years (with the likelihood of extensions after that), of 12 nearby plots of privately owned Palestinian land. “Gardening orders” allow Israel to “temporarily” take over privately owned land for what are public purposes (like establishing a parking lot or public garden), based on the argument that the owners are not presently using the land.The government notices posted on the land, say that the Jerusalem Municipality intends to transform the plots with new landscaping, adding new terraces, and a new walking path. Importantly, as Emek Shaveh notes, the 12 plots in question are located in an area declared by Israel to be a national park, meaning that private landowners are legally barred from using their own land. 

In short, this is an Orwellian situation wherein Israel has actively blocked Palestinains from using their own land, and is now using the fact that the Palestinians aren’t using their land as a pretext for seizing it. Adding insult to injury, the land is being taken ostensibly for public purposes – but the public the seizures are designed is Elad and its supporters, not the Palestinian residents of the area.

Ir Amim explains key context:

“Portrayed as a seemingly innocuous new establishment for arts and culture designed to serve the Israeli public, Elad’s ‘House in the Valley’ serves as an entry point into the settlement ring around the Old City. The new promenade, constructed by the municipality to aid and abet Elad’s efforts by connecting its center with the Jerusalem Cinemateque, not only enables access from West Jerusalem to an Elad-managed site beyond the Green Line, but it propagates the idea of a contiguous Israeli space, while blurring its Palestinian surroundings and diffusing the political agenda behind these efforts. Moreover, the confiscation of privately-owned Palestinian land for purported purposes of beautification is intended to serve the Israeli public projected to visit Elad’s new complex and likely lead to additional settler activities in the area.”

Emek Shaveh says:

“In effect, the gardening orders and the tourism development of the area are part of an attempt by the Elad Foundation, with the assistance of the Jerusalem Municipality, to gain a foothold in Abu Tor as well and to increase the Israeli presence in the Palestinian part of the neighborhood.  A pedestrian bridge that will lead to the café from Mount Zion (see map) is also part of this effort. A budget of 1.8 million shekels for the construction of this bridge was approved two months ago by the Jerusalem Municipality.”

As a reminder, Elad – along with its fellow travelers at Ateret Cohanim – has undertaken a politically- and ideologically-motivated project to hide, marginalize, and erase the presence and history of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population. It has done so in large part by developing and controlling tourist attractions and infrastructure in the area. Elad’s activities in this regard have been funded, politically and bureaucratically enabled, and encouraged by successive Israeli governments. One of Elad’s most spectacular projects is the planned Jerusalem cable car line – which, despite objections from transportation and planning professionals, was recently advanced through another phase of the planning process. That project, like Elad’s other tourism schemes, is 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”).

Israel Advances Plan for Settlement Enclave in Beit Hanina Neighborhood of East Jerusalem

On June 27th, a plan for 150 new settlement units in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem was deposited for public review, a move which sets off a 60-day period for the public to submit objections to the plan. The Beit Hanina settlement plan – as FMEP has previously reported – is backed and promoted by settlement impresario Aryeh King, and it provides for the construction of 150 new units in the southern end of the Beit Hanina neighborhood. If built, it will be the first-ever authorized settlement project in Beit Hanina, located north of the Old City.

Ir Amim explains essential context:

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

According to the plan, 75 units units would theoretically be earmarked for Palestinians – a point used by the plan’s supporters to suggest that it is actually benevolent. The key word here, however, is: theoretically. As noted by Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann in another context:

“Since 1967, the Government of Israel has directly engaged in the construction of 55,000 units for Israelis in East Jerusalem; in contrast, fewer than 600 units have been built for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the last of which were built 40 years ago.”

Former Mayor of Jerusalem Proposes Plan to Build 12 New Settlement Industrial Zones in Area C

Former Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat joined Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University to write what a proposal calling for the establishment of 12 new settlement industrial zones in the West Bank, which Barkat argues will complement the recently unveiled U.S. economic “plan” in jump-starting the Palestinian economy. Like the U.S. plan, Barkat and Porter’s scheme seeks to entrench permanent Israel control and annexation of the land, people, resources, and economy of the West Bank. Barkat made as much clear in an interview with Israel Hayom when he said:

“The plan’s working assumption is avoiding the eviction of Jewish or Arab residents from their homes. Our goal is to take advantage of the relative advantage every society has. The Israeli side can bring the innovation, the capital and managerial knowledge for the benefit of the Palestinian side, which through working in these industrial areas could significantly increase its income. This is a plan that is also good for the settlements, and all the settlement heads have welcomed it.”

Barkat and Porter’s plan – which they say can employ over 200,000 Palestinians and double their average salary – is based on the demonstrably false notion that industrial zones benefit the Palestinian work force and economy. In fact, as Who Profits recently explained:

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

The report on Barkat and Porter’s plan does not include many specific details as to the locations of the 12 proposed industrial zones, but it hints at several projects that are already known to the public, like the “super settlement” and industrial zone planned to unite four settlements in the northern West Bank, and the industrial zone in the South Hebron Hills near the Tene-Omarin settlement – the latter of which was briefed to the U.S. administration by the Israeli government in September 2018. It is also worth recalling that in January 2019, the Israel government advanced plans for two new industrial zones, one near the Beitar Illit settlement and another near the Avnei Hafez settlement.

Barkat and Porter also call for investments in the West Bank tourism industry, specifically Biblical sites like the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs (in Hebron) and Solomon’s Pools (located just south of Bethlehem).

According to the report, Barkat and Porter presented this plan to Israeli Prime Minister Netanayhu and U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, all of whom – according to Barkat – welcomed it. Barkat believes his plan enhances the U.S. menu of investments and proposals outlined in Kushner’s “Peace to Prosperity” presentation. Further, Barkat argues that his plan is more feasible than the U.S. program because it only envisions projects in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank over which Israel maintains full control, while (he argued) the U.S. plans focus on Areas A & B. In fact, nothing in the text of the Kushner plan specifies any territorial locations, boundaries, or divisions for the proposed projects.

McDonald’s Wins Bid to Operate in Ben Gurion, Despite Settler Campaign

On June 23rd, the McDonald’s franchise owner in Israel was awarded a government contract to operate one of the few food stands at Ben Gurion International Airport. His bid of 17 million shekels ($4.7 million) was vastly higher than other competing bids, winning him the right to operate a McDonald’s branch in the airport for seven years, with an optional 2-year extension.

Ahead of the government’s decision, settlers led a campaign to disqualify Omri Padan – the Israeli man who holds the only McDonald’d Israel franchise license – from bidding on the contract, based on Padan’s failure to open any McDonald’s branch in an Israeli settlement. The settlers claimed that Padan’s failure to do so violates Israel’s Anti-Boycott Law and therefore disqualifies him from receiving public contracts.

Settlers Continue Price Tag Attacks on Palestinian Villages, Still No Arrests

Settlers are believed to be behind three separate attacks on Palestinian property this week, including a rash of hate crimes that damaged Palestinian cars, homes, and religious buildings, and served to intimidate Palestinians living near Israeli settlements.

On June 24th, Palestinians in the village of Sinjil woke up to discover 12 cars with tires slashed and hate messages sprayed painted in Hebrew on several buildings. This is the fifth hate crime connected to settlers in the month of June. Some of the graffiti read “a village of terrorists” and “We give them jobs and they rape.” The latter is a reference to the horrific alleged rape of a 7-year old girl in a settlement; a Palestinian man was immediately charged with the crime and subjected to the equivalent of a national political and media lynching; this week, after 55-days of imprisonment, he was released due to lack of evidence.

On June 26th, vehicles were vandalized and hate messages were spray painted on walls in the Palestinian town of Sarta, which is located west of the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Some of the graffiti read, “non-Jews = enemies,” and the Star of David appeared many times. This is the first time that Sarta has been targeted in a price tag attack.

Yesh Din – an Israeli NGO that tracks and demands justice for settler violence –  said in a Facebook post:

“The violent action tonight joins a series of riots that we document in the West Bank against Palestinians and their property. A reality in which families wake up for a day’s work and are forced to discover that while they are sleeping, unknown gentlemen in an area where their children play with the neighbors’ children has become routine. Over the past month we have reported such riots in various areas of the West Bank: Sinjil, Kafr Malik, Einabus, Asira al Qibliya, Burin from Madame, and more. The one who is supposed to prevent the disturbance, and to stop the unknown people who terrorize the Palestinian villages are the policemen of the SJ District, who only this week presented their amateurish work at best, and failed in their worst case. These interrogators and police officers have a responsibility for the personal security of the Palestinians and they do not fulfill their duties. Thus, they create a reality of terror in which there is no safe place for the Palestinian population, and a sense of security does not exist even in the most private space.”

The Bahrain Workshop [Shhh… Don’t mention Settlements!]

The U.S.-hosted “Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop took place in Manama, Bahrain from June 25-26. The widely-ridiculed event focused on a 95-page project prospectus published by the White House in the two days ahead of the workshop. Without giving any real details, the plan talked about enhancing Palestinian property rights — a notion that begs a myriad of questions given that Palestinain private property rights today are undermined first and foremost by Israel, which in 1967 closed the land registry, and which since 1967 has exploited every available mechanism to seize Palestinian private land, and where such mechanisms could not be found, it created them (like the Regulation Law). Notably, the Trump Administration plan treats Palestinian land registration strictly as a means to foster a better investment climate in the West Bank and Gaza (as opposed to a pillar of rule of law that upholds fundamental rights of individuals).

In this regard, the Director of Human Rights Watch Israel, wrote:

“The plan speaks of the importance of private property rights without mentioning the Israeli authorities’ methodical theft of thousands of hectares of privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank to build settlements, which are illegal under international humanitarian law, or their illegal.”

Mocking the workshop’s very strange approach to Palestinian property rights, The Economist journalist Gregg Carlstrom – who live-tweeted his disbelief of the entire conference – noted sarcastically on June 26th: 

“We kickoff the afternoon’s fun with Kevin Hassett, the ‘Dow 36,000’ guy, talking about property rights. In Palestine, ‘You can radically transform economies when you improve their ability to document property rights!’”

Another notable storyline from Manama: Palestinian businessman Ashraf Jabari was the only Palestinian to be on-stage at the event. As FMEP has previously covered, Jabari has been slammed as a traitor by the Palestinian Authority, shunned and dismissed by his fellow Palestinian business people, and disowned by his family in light of his ongoing role with the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce, an initiative Jabari runs alongside Israeli settlers.

In Manama, Jabari spoke about developing thriving businesses in the West Bank. The Washington Post notes that Jabari was the only speaker to discuss political matters on the stage. The Post writes: 

“When asked by British broadcast journalist Nik Gowing…whether the plan could benefit him, Jabari replied that it could — if Palestinians had a state.”

Jabari might have been telling the truth, but he apparently failed to mention the fact that he, alongside Israeli settler Avi Zimmerman, have proposed the launch of a “bond bank” to become the financing vehicle for the Trump Administration’s plan. The bond bank would aggregate projects and issue debt to fund them, allowing for lower borrowing costs. According to the White House presentation, the U.S. envisions a funding mechanism it calls, “The Peace to Prosperity Master Fund” which will manage the money and projects.

Bolton Tours Jordan Valley & Hints at U.S. Support for Permanent Israeli Control

On June 24th, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton toured the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, and the separation barrier, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer. At a stop overlooking the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu explained to Bolton:

“For those who say that for peace to be established Israel has to leave the Jordan Valley, I’ll say that’s not going to bring peace, that’s going to bring war and terror. We’ve been there and we don’t want to be there again. Under any peace agreement, our position will be that Israel’s presence should continue here for Israel’s security and for the security of all.”

Following the tour, Bolton did not disappoint Netanyahu, tweeting:

“Today I visited the Jordan Valley and Jordan River with PM @netanyahu, Israeli NSA Meir Ben-Shabbat, @USAmbIsrael, & @AmbDermer. I saw firsthand the strategic importance that these locations have on Israel’s national security. In similar acknowledgement of the simple but profound reality that for Israel to defend itself, it cannot relinquish strategic ground along its border, the President in March, signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.America welcomes the opportunity to strengthen the already deep cooperation between the U.S. and Israel and build on our lasting partnership, demonstrated repeatedly when courage and persistence are required.”

Some 11,000 settlers and 65,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley – the latter facing severe restrictions on land use and freedom of movement, and lack of access to municipal services like water and electricity. Israeli government officials have publicly and repeatedly demanded complete Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley – which makes up 30% of the West Bank – in the context of any peace agreement, meaning that any future Palestinian state would be entirely encircled by Israel, having no international border with any other nation. Likud MK Sharren Haskel has led several Knesset efforts to formally annex the entire Jordan Valley, and recently re-submitted a bill to that affect in May 2019. 

Bonus Reads

1. “The Day After: What Happens If Israel Annexes the West Bank?” (Mint Press News)

Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and called a tenuous halt to the most bloody struggle since Israel’s military re occupation of the entire West Bank in 2002. The main focus of destruction is the Gaza Strip, where the promise of Israel’s evacuation of settlements in 2005 degenerated into the latest round of warfare.

The on again-off again nature of formal talks between Israel and Syria raises legitimate questions about the successful outcome of efforts to arrange a peace between the long bitter enemies. What is not in dispute, however, is the degree to which Israel has reassessed long-held views of its territorial and settlement requirements on the Golan Heights–a transformation in elite military and strategic concepts, if not in public attitudes. Such views have enabled Israeli prime ministers since Yitzhak Rabin to conclude that Israel’s strategic interests in the twenty-first century will be better served by a contractual peace with Syria and without Golan settlements.

The election of Ehud Barak as prime minister has focused renewed attention on the question of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights as part of a peace agreement with Syria.

Further details of the large-scale expansion of settlements in the West Bank, beginning in the last half of 1997, illuminate the Netanyahu government’s growing appreciation of the advantages of building “quietly.”

The settlement policies of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu remain a work in progress, three months after the defeat of the Labor government led by Shimon Peres. While initial government intentions for settlement expansion during the coming four years do not exceed Labor’s settlement program, the idea of settlement is enjoying a renaissance and the settlers themselves are being welcomed once again into the Israeli political mainstream.