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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

September 13, 2017

1. Don’t be Hoodwinked by Misleading Settlement Numbers
2. Israel Government Sides with Illegal Outpost in Fight Against Demolition
3. Netanyahu’s Promise to Build 300 New Units in Beit El Moves Forward (With Trickery)
4. Updates: Clashes Ensue in Sheikh Jarrah Following Eviction; Amona Site is Now a “Closed Military Zone”; More Demolitions in Silwan
5. Bonus Reads

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

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Don’t be Hoodwinked by Misleading Settlement Numbers

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics published data this week on new settlement starts in the second quarter of 2017 (April-June). The data, purportedly showing a dramatic decline (75%) in construction, compared to the same period in 2016.

Hagit Ofran, the Director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch, set the record straight – noting that starts in any given period reflect planning that took place months and years before. Construction happening today, for example, reflects approvals and tenders from two to three years ago. In light of this reality, the relatively low number of starts in the second quarter of 2017 has nothing to do with overall settlement trends, or with current settlement policies. These current settlement policies, reflected in a huge massive wave of settlement approvals seen (so far) in 2017 – a wave the indicates the settlement floodgates have opened – will result in a corresponding spike in settlement starts down the line (at which point the Israeli government will claim “it’s not our fault, this was all approved long ago!”).

Israel Government Sides with Illegal Outpost in Fight Against Demolition

The High Court of Justice has ordered the demolition of 15 structures located in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost, built on land recognized by Israel as privately owned by Palestinians. In response to a last minute petition the outpost’s leaders filed with the High Court of Justice, the Israeli government expressed its support for their proposal to save 6 of the buildings from complete demolition; instead, the proposal offers to demolish only the “problematic parts” of the structures – i.e., where they cross into the pockets of privately-owned Palestinian land that run through the middle of the outpost. The High Court is set to make a final ruling on the petition on September 13th.

It is worth pointing out that every structure in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost was built in violation of Israeli planning laws. The outpost is an unauthorized expansion of the Elazar settlement, located southwest of Bethlehem. Only the 15 buildings that were built on private Palestinian land face demolition; if Israel enforced its own planning laws, the entire outpost would be razed. Last month, the Attorney General ordered the Defense Ministry to create a special unit to enforce Israeli planning laws specifically in settlements and outposts (in conjunction with the passage of the Regulation law permitting legalization of most illegal settlement construction and land seizures).

Netanyahu’s Promise to Build 300 New Units in Beit El Moves Forward (With Trickery)

Kerem Navot (aka, Naboth’s Vineyard – the organization founded by anti-settlement legend Dror Etkes) has a cheeky look at how Netanyahu’s promise to build new homes in the Beit El settlement by the end of this month is coming to fruition. According to the report, the settlement has conspired with the government to build a new Border Police base south of the settlement 0- based on alleged security needs of the settlers. And what about the existing Border Police station for the settlement? That’s where the new units will be built. Two birds with one stone: more settlement units for Beit El, plus more land taken for settlements, to accommodate the entirely unnecessary new police station. 

The Beit El settlement was established in 1977, on land previously seized by Israel for military purposes. A second military seizure in 1979 enabled Beit El to expand. This method of establishing and expanding settlements has been repeatedly challenged in Israeli courts. The Israeli group Yesh Din led one such petition against Beit El, seeking to have the second seizure annulled; that petition was dismissed earlier this year. Yesh Din writes,

The State understood that it was impossible to legally defend the land theft that has been ongoing in Beit El for 40 years on land that was seized for arbitrary reasons, but it refrained, once again, from defending the rights of the weakest population, simply because they are Palestinians. Despite this, we at Yesh Din will continue to fight against the dispossession of Palestinians and the infringement of their rights.

As a reminder, Beit El is the settlement that current U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman personally donated to and fundraised for in his capacity as President of the American Friends of Beit El charity from 2011 until his appointment (he dedicated at least one building in the settlement which bears his name).

Beit El is also slated to have a security wall built between one side of the settlement and the al-Jalazoun Palestinian refugee camp.

Updates: Clashes Ensue in Sheikh Jarrah Following Eviction; Amona Site is Now a “Closed Military Zone”; More Demolitions in Silwan

• Last week, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinians participated in Friday prayers in front of the former home of the Shamasneh family, which was evicted last week by settlers. On the same day, 200 Israelis – including MK Ayman Odeh (Joint List) – marched from central Jerusalem to join the demonstration. Clashes broke out between settlers and the demonstrators, resulting in injury to 14 protestors.
• The illegal outpost of Amona was dismantled earlier this year, but the Kerem Navot organization has revealed that instead of being returned to the Palestinians who the court ruled were the rightful owners, the Israeli army has declared the area a “closed military zone” — keeping Palestinians off the land but permitting residents of the neighboring Ofra settlement to enter the area at will.  
• Ma’an News has video of a home demolition in the Ras al-Amud, a Palestinian neighborhood just south of the Old City in Jerusalem. Ma’an also reports that Israel delivered several demolition orders to Palestinians in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem earlier this week.

Bonus Reads

• “Red Cross Chief Blasts Settlements as ‘Key Humanitarian Challenge’” (Times of Israel)
  • “We witness it daily in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem: [Israeli settlement] has enormous impact on people, on their freedom of movement, the social and economic fabric in the territories. It offers limited access to agricultural and other productive lands, has curtailed educational and employment opportunity; it makes water resource and water supply systems difficult for Palestinian communities. And the list could go on and on,” he [Red Cross Chief Peter Maurer] said.
• “Shin Bet Bypasses Court Again and Stiffens Release Terms of Teen Settler Activist” (Haaretz+)
  • “Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court initially ordered him [a teen who is part of the extremist West Bank movement known as Hilltop Youth, had been detained without trial after violating a administrative order] released on the condition that he remain at home at night. But the Israel Defense Forces order requires him to be under house arrest 24 hours a day.”

• “In a First, Israel Will Penalize Amnesty International for Anti-Settlements Campaign.” (Haartez+)
  • “Israel plans to punish Amnesty International for its recent campaign, which encourages people to lobby companies and governments to boycott settlement products, by denying tax benefits to Israelis who donate to the human rights organization. It is the first time the government will apply the so-called anti-boycott law, which penalizes organizations and individuals calling for a boycott of Israel or the settlements. The controversial law was passed in 2011.”
• “Reports Israeli government plans to retaliate against Amnesty International over settlements campaign” (Amnesty International)
  • “Amnesty International has repeatedly emphasized that the very existence of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories violates international law, a matter on which there is international consensus and is reflected in UN Security Council resolutions. Settlements have contributed to decades of mass suffering and violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

August 16, 2017

1. Israel Demolishes Buildings in Key East Jerusalem Areas
2. Bedouin are Powerless in E-1 Area as Settlement Plans Loom
3. Jewish National Fund Resumes Targeting Land in the Occupied West Bank
4. Settlers in Israeli Government Turn Blind Eye to Settlers Breaking Israeli Law
5. Former Israeli AG Says Sheikh Jarrah Property Should be Given to Palestinians
6. Three New Outposts Near Nablus
7. Updates: Al-Walajah, Sheikh Jarrah, Amichai Settlement
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Israel Demolishes Buildings in Key East Jerusalem Areas

The Israeli government demolished eight Palestinian structures in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan, Beit Hanina, Jabal Mukaber, and Isawiyyah. According to Ir Amim, the two apartments demolished in the al-Bustan area of Silwan are the first demolitions to be carried out there since 2008. Looking at East Jerusalem as a whole, Ir Amim writes, “[these] demolitions bring the 2017 total to 128, including 84 residential units and 44 non-residential units. These numbers are on well on target to meet or surpass the total number of 203 demolitions executed in East Jerusalem last year.”

Bedouin are Powerless in E-1 Area as Settlement Plans Loom

According to B’Tselem, last week Israeli officials confiscated solar panels that were providing electricity to a Bedouin community’s school in the controversial area adjacent to Jerusalem known as “E-1.” The confiscation happened despite a temporary court-ordered injunction against it. The Israeli government has long refused to connect the Bedouin to a power grid; the solar panels confiscated this week were donated only a month ago by a humanitarian organization.

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

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

The Bedouin community living in the E-1 area has long been threatened with forcible relocation (which would amount to population transfer). The 18 Bedouin tribes that live in the vicinity of Maale Adumim and E-1, totaling approximately 3,000 people, have already endured numerous emolitions this year alone.

Jewish National Fund Resumes Targeting Land in the Occupied West Bank

According to Peace Now, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is set to resume its practice of purchasing land in the West Bank for use by Israeli settlers, after abandoning the effort many years ago. In the past, many of the JNF’s land purchases reportedly involved fraud, extortion, and/or forgery on the part of middlemen.

Peace Now writes, “Through purchasing lands in the occupied territories, JNF serves the settlers, hurts the possibility to arrive at a two state solution, and jeopardizes the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The JNF – which collects donations internationally, including in the United States – currently owns land (through its Israeli subsidiary) in numerous settlements, including Itamar, Alfei Menashe, Enav, Kedumim, Givat Ze’ev, Metzadot Yehuda, and Otniel. 

Settlers in Israeli Government Turn Blind Eye to Settlers Breaking Israeli Law

There have been several recent reports about structures inside of settlements that were built (or are being built) without the legally-necessary permissions, as Israeli officials turn a blind eye.

Notably, one report identifies dozens of unauthorized homes being built in the outpost of Hayovel (which is effectively an extension of the settlement of Eli), despite a stop-work order issued by Civil Administration (the arm of the Ministry of Defense that is sovereign in the West Bank). The construction is taking place virtually across the street from the home of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s own adviser on settlement affairs, who is himself a resident of the illegal outpost (Liberman is also a settler, residing in the settlement of Nokdim). The illegal construction will double the size of the outpost.

Another report reveals that Shlomo Ne’eman, the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council – which promotes the expansion of settlements in the Etzion bloc – lives in an illegal outpost. The Regional Council insists that the outpost is a “neighborhood” of the Karmei Tzur settlement, but aerial images show it is outside of the settlement’s municipal border. The Israeli Civil Administration has ordered the structures there to be demolished but has not carried out those orders. Settlement watchdog Kerem Naboth says, “Ne’eman has joined the list of elected officials and politicos among the settlers who are not only assisting others in stealing land, but are also doing it themselves.”

Haaretz notes that these two are part of a longer list of elected officials and senior civil servants living in illegal outposts, Also on that list far right-wing Knesset Member Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi), who lives in an illegally-built home in Kedumim (not coincidentally, Smotrich was one of the key backers of a law passed earlier this year to “legalize” such settlement illegalities). Likewise, a January report revealed that the head of the Finance Ministry’s department of building regulations enforcement, Avi Cohen, lives in an illegal outpost of the Eli settlement. At the time of the report in January, Rabbis for Human Rights said, “A situation in which the system responsible for enforcing building laws is headed by someone living in an outpost demonstrates contempt for the system and Israel’s values.”

Another report documents how in the Efrat settlement (in the Etzion settlement bloc) a school was recently expanded, illegally, on private Palestinian land located land outside of the settlement’s border. Funding for the project was raised by an organization, called the Ohr Torah Stone, which operates a branch in the United States and is eligible to receive tax-deductible donations from U.S. donors. According to settlement watchdog Kerem Naboth, the Efrat settlement itself was built on land that the Palestinian village of al-Khadr had long cultivated. Kerem Naboth reports, “aerial photographs from the 1980s indicate that in the past there was a vineyard on site.”

Former Israeli AG Says Sheikh Jarrah Property Should be Given to Palestinians

Speaking in Sheikh Jarrah, former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair called on the Israeli government to intervene to stop the eviction of the Shamasneh family from their longtime family home. Ben- Yair served as the AG from 1993-1997, under prime ministers Rabin and Netanyahu.

Ben-Yair, whose family lived in Sheikh Jarrah until 1948, suggested he would be ready to reclaim his family’s property and then transfer it to the Palestinians currently living there – and called on the government to adopt a policy to do exactly that, across the board. He said, ”If the Israeli government would have acted decently toward all its residents, including you [the Arab residents], it would have appropriated the properties in the neighborhood [from their Jewish owners who lived there before the War of Independence] and given these properties to the Palestinians who live there today.”

The former AG also noted that Jews who lost property in the 1948 war were already compensated – at the expense of Palestinians. Ben-Yair said, “My family and the family of my cousin who were forced to leave the neighborhood in January 1948 got properties of Palestinians refugees on Jaffa Road and in the Katamon neighborhood in west Jerusalem. They were worth much more than the properties that we left in Sheikh Jarrah.

Since we covered the Shamasneh family’s story last week, a temporary injunction against the eviction expired on Sunday, August 13th. The family’s lawyer requested a second injunction, but the petition is still pending. As of this writing the family is still living in the home.

Three New Outposts Near Nablus

The Palestinian Authority is reporting that settlers from the radical Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus, have moved 11 mobile homes to an area outside of the settlement, a move which would expand the settlement’s footprint. In addition, nine mobile homes were reportedly placed near the Palestinian village of Qusin, which is a few miles east of Nablus, and another nine were placed near the border of the Einav settlement, a few miles east of Qusin.

Updates: Al-Walajah, Sheikh Jarrah, Amichai Settlement

Updates from last week’s Settlement Report:

• Residents of the village of Al-Walajah were able to stop the demolition of one home last week by forming a human barrier around it, blocking a bulldozer from tearing it down. Approximately one third of the village is inside of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary. In this area specifically, Ir Amim estimates that 50% of the homes are under threat of demolition. Al-Walajah residents say the Israeli government has recently increased the rate of home demolitions significantly and has also resumed construction of the separation barrier around the village.
• UNRWA has weighed in on the pending eviction of the Shamasneh family from their home in Sheikh Jarrah. UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness states, “The members of the Shamasneh family are long-standing Palestine refugee residents in East Jerusalem, which is occupied territory and affected by continued settlement expansion contrary to international law. It is a matter of deep concern that Palestine refugees who have already endured multiple displacements should be subject to the humiliation of the kind inflicted by forced evictions.” The statement calls on the Israeli government to reconsider the eviction ruling.
• Construction on the first new settlement in 25 years, Amichai, remains stalled due to lack of government funding. After nearly three weeks of inactivity on the construction site, the families who the settlement is being built for are preparing to move to the area with semi-permanent structures and take up residence. On plans to move to the site while construction is stalled, one settler told Ynet News, “It is clear that when we do go there [to the site of Amichai], thousands of youths will join us. When we do, it will be to stay for good.”

Bonus Reads

• “Adalah opposes mandate of Israeli Interior Ministry borders cmte. weighing annexation of West Bank land to settlements” (August 13, 2017)

 

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