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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

April 3, 2020

1. Debate about Annexation at Center of Negotiations for the Next Israeli Government
2. Israel’s Response to Coronavirus Looks A Lot like the Implementation of the Trump Plan, Especially in East Jerusalem
3. Settlers Advance Annexation Agenda of Their Own, Including Through Violence
4. Bonus Reads

Comments or questions – email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org).

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Debate about Annexation at Center of Negotiations for the Next Israeli Government 

In a wild week in Israeli politics, the Blue & White party splintered as Benny Gantz entered into negotiations with  Likud party to form an emergency power-sharing government. As negotiations made significant headway, the issue of Israel’s annexation of West Bank land nearly derailed the deal. At the time of publication, Israeli press is reporting that the parties have come to some kind of an agreement and expect negotiations to be completed soon that finalize a coalition agreement; it remains unclear what if anything has been agreed with respect to annexation..

To recap how we got here, the Likud party – led by the quarantined Netanyahu – demanded that under a coalition agreement the unity government would move to quickly annex at least part of the West Bank.  Likud has reportedly made this point non-negotiable. The Times of Israel reports that Netanyahu is pushing the point by arguing that annexation must be done before U.S. elections in November 2020, at which time the window of opportunity might close if Trump loses. Netanyahu is facing pressure to be absolutist on this point from his “frenemies” in the Yamina party – Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked – who have threatened to advance legislation against Netanyahu for corruption if he reneges on his annexation campaign promise. Yamina leader Shaked further threatened Netanyahu over rumors (which are looking to be accurate) that the Justice Ministry will go to a Blue & White MK, which Shaked warns “will end chances of expressing sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”

The remnant of the Blue & White party led by Benny Gantz has not agreed to the Likud push for annexation, instead insisting that the first six months of a unity government focus solely on weathering the COVID-19 crisis. Gantz has also reportedly insisted that annexation should then only happen in coordination with the international community,  and not unilaterally with solely U.S. backing, as Likud prefers. This Gantz position has been met with confusion, given that the international community has not been supportive of the Trump plan, and by-and-large opposes Israeli annexation of West Bank land. To make matters even more confusing, Gantz has previously and very publicly welcomed the Trump Plan with open arms.

Reportedly, one possible Gantz-Netayahu “compromise” would be to go ahead with annexation only “if the Trump administration gave its full-throated backing to the move.”  Likud sources have leaked a different version of the deal, suggesting that the parties have agreed to delay annexation, but have agreed the delay will be for less than six months, permitting Gantz to claim victory in keeping the government focused in the immediate term on COVID-19, while enabling annexation to be carried out before U.S. elections. In addition, sources suggest that an agreement along these lines would include a Likud “concession” that will allow Blue & White party members to “vote their conscience” on an annexation proposal in the Knesset (i.e., allowing them an empty gesture of opposition against an initiative that, by joining the coalition, they are responsible for allowing to come to a vote). 

In response to the negotiations, Peace Now called on Gantz to oppose annexation and released a statement saying:

“When the settler right talks about applying sovereignty to the territories or swaths of them, they mean a unilateral and dangerous annexation. The role of the government is to maintain Israel’s ability to flourish as a Jewish and democratic state. This can best be done by keeping an open hand for peace, promoting negotiations with the Palestinians, and taking care to keep its relations with its partners in the region and beyond from deteriorating. The so-called “unity government” to be formed soon must commit not to carry out any unilateral annexation measures in the West Bank. Below is a breakdown of reasons why annexation is not in Israel’s national interest.”

Israel’s Response to Coronavirus Looks A Lot like the Implementation of the Trump Plan, Especially in East Jerusalem

Adding to the topics covered in last week’s Settlement Report (cutting off Shufat Refugee Camp, over-policing Issawiya, and settler violence), the Israeli government continues to roll out policies in the name of fighting the spread of COVID-19 that, in actuality, advance Israel’s annexation plans. 

Illustrative of the Israel’s overall policies towards East Jerusalem in the time of Coronavirus, Israel allowed the Palestinian Authority (PA) police force to enter the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab in order to disperse a riot between groups clashing over the installation of a roadblock leading into the neighborhood. The PA is expressly prohibited by Israel from operating in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. This prohibition that has left neighborhoods like Kafr Aqab, which is located within the Israeli-drawn municipal borders of Jerusalem but on the West Bank side of the separation barrier, in a no-man’s land limbo, with Israel shirking its responsibility for the welfare of legal residents of Jerusalem while simultaneously prohibiting the PA from accessing the areas. One Kafr Aqab resident put it succinctly:

“We [Palestinians living in Kafr Aqab] are paying taxes like anyone else in Israel, but in the first real test, the state is disassociating itself from us. From their standpoint, we may as well die.”

Consistent with this long standing policy of neglect, Ir Amim reports that the Israeli government is failing to  provide adequate services to Kafr Aqab at this time of extraordinary urgency and need. In a letter to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, Ir Amim noted that there is a shortage of medical supplies and disinfectant, that the water supply is insufficient, and that the city provided food baskets for only 300 families, while there are 800 families in need. Ir Amim also reports that there is a growing sanitation crisis as services have been impacted by employee furloughs at a time when trash production has increased due to families being quarantined at home.

Various Israeli plans and proposals for “Greater Jerusalem,” designated areas like Kafr Aqab, the Shufat Refugee Camp, and other neighborhoods beyond the barrier to be excised from the city, with the intent of engineering a stronger Jewish majority in Jerusalem. The Trump Plan adopts Israel’s position on the matter, and assigns the future (conditional) Palestinian state-in-name-only control/responsibility over Kafr Aqab neighborhood. By all appearances, the COVID-19 crisis has provided Israel a pretext to start implementing this reality by permitting the PA to operate openly in Kafr Aqab. 

Similarly, Palestinian police have also been openly operating in the Shufat refugee camp – where rumors swirled last week that Israel intends to close the only checkpoint leading into other areas of Jerusalem. Likewise, in the village of al-Walaja, located partially within the Israeli-drawn borders of Jerusalem and partially in the West Bank, residents are reportedly following orders from the PA offices based in Bethlehem. In both cases, Haaretz reports that the PA is acting in these areas to enforce quarantine/lockdown orders to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.

In East Jerusalem neighborhoods that Israel intends to formally annex, with the approval of the Trump Plan, Israeli actions are decidedly the opposite. Rather than allowing the PA to in any way play a role in helping Palestinian residents cope with the COVID-19 threat,  Israel continues clamp down on any hint of PA presence of activity — even arresting a prominent Palestinian Authority figure, Fadi al-Hidmi (the PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs), at his home on the Mount of Olives on April 3rd, based on allegations that he was conducting activities on behalf of the PA. In addition, on March 31st, Isareli authorities stopped a Palestinian food supply truck in East Jerusalem on the suspicion that the effort was organized by the Palestinian Authority. In fact, the supplies had been donated by Palestinians citizens of Israel for needy families in the  East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher. 

Finally, in what is perhaps the most egregious and inhumane face of Israel’s COVID-19 pro-annexation policies, on March 22nd the Israeli military closed the only entry/exit checkpoint for the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil. This small village is located on a strategic and highly prized hilltop (inside of a national park) just outside of the municipal borders of Jerusalem but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier — placing residents (who have West Bank ID cards) in a Kafka-esque situation wherein they are cut off from both Jerusalem and the West Bank (legally they are forbidden from taking the one road out of the village into Jerusalem, since they are West Bankers, and the West Bank is accessible only via a circuitous route that passes through an Israeli checkpoint – for background see: The Palestinian village where Israel forbids everything). The military enforced the closure with only 14 hours’ notice for residents. On March 25th, HaMoked submitted an urgent pre-petition to the State Attorney’s Office to re-open the checkpoint, arguing that the village does not have a permanent doctor and only one tiny store for supplies. HaMoked intends to submit another urgent petition to the High Court of Justice. HaMoked stressed that closing the checkpoint denies the village’s residents access to medical care and essential groceries. 

The suffocation of Nabi Samwil is in line with Israel’s long-time ambitions to completely de-populate the village and take control of the land.

Settlers Advance Annexation Agenda of Their Own, Including Through Violence

In addition to Israel government actions which advance an annexationist agenda (described above), settler efforts to take over more land have continued during the Coronavirus-based West Bank lockdown. Indeed, the lockdown may be aiding and even fueling these efforts. 

In the northern West Bank, for example, settlers are once again terrorizing Palestinians who come anywhere near the site of the former Homesh settlement, which was dismantled by Israel in 2005 as part of the Gaza disengagement. Since then, settlers have been obsessed with the desire to re-establish Homesh, hosting religious events and protests at the site of Homesh, some of which have been attended by Israeli MKs and politicians. Because of the settlers’ actions and the lack of enforcement by Israeli military/police, Palestinians were unable to access the area until as recently as February 2020. Now, while Palestinians’ movement is restricted due to PA-imposed efforts to stop COVID-19, settlers (who, as Israelis, are under far less strict COVID-19 related rules, which in any case the IDF doesn’t appear to be enforcing rigorously on settlers), have re-established a violent presence at the site intended to keep Palestinians away. Over the past month, Palestinians report at least five violent incidents.  On March 26, Yesh Din sent an urgent letter to Israeli authorities documenting the violent incidents and demanding that authorities immediately evacuate the settlers and investigate their crimes.

A key tool settles use to takeover Palestinian land is violence (as documented in great detail in this excellent report by Yesh Din). As the West Bank lockdown continues, settler violence towards Palestinians and their property has predictably continued and even increased, and fear is growing that it will get worse. According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, in data it provided to Haaretz, there were (at least) 16 physical confrontations between settlers and Palestinians in March, compared to only nine in February and five in January. B’Tselem recorded 21 cases of settler violence, including destruction of property, in March alone. 

The Executive Director of Yesh Din, which closely monitors settler violence in the West Bank, told Haaretz:

“The quantity and severity of the violent cases we’ve handled in recent weeks is mind boggling. As long as authorities continue to disregard Palestinians’ lives instead of protecting them and arresting the hooligans, the settlers’ violence will only increase and spread.”

Bonus Reads

1. “‘This Isn’t the West Bank’: Soldiers Deployed in South Tel Aviv to Enforce Coronavirus Lockdown” (Haaretz)
2. “COVID-19 and the Healthcare Systems in Israel/Palestine: Part 2 – West Bank & East Jerusalem” (Webinar ft. Jessica Montell/HaMoked and Tareq Baconi/ICG)

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.

July 28, 2017

1. Bibi Embraces “Population Transfer” – Asks for US OK
2. The Knesset & Bibi Move to Gerrymander Jerusalem
3. Settlers Set Up Outpost, Seek to Expand Settlement as “Response” to Murders
4. Settlers Seize Contested Building in Hebron
5. Construction on New Settlement in Shilo Valley Stalled (Due to Lack of Funds)
6. High-Ranking Government Officials Defend Outpost from Demolition
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Bibi Embraces “Population Transfer” – Asks for US OK

According to a report from Israel’s Channel 2 News, Prime Minister Netanyahu recently asked U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt to support a populated land-swap as part of a future peace deal.

The swap in question would transfer 300,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel (living in the Wadi Ara region, an area known as “the triangle,” near Haifa) to the Palestinians, in exchange for Israel’s annexation of settlements in the Etzion bloc. The plan – which was previously championed by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who even proposed it at the United Nations – is in effect a population transfer that would allow Israel to get rid of a large cluster of Palestinian cities, including the city where the two terrorists who attacked guards at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount last week grew up.

An unnamed White House official made a statement in response to the report saying, “This may have been one of many ideas discussed several weeks ago in the context of a peace agreement and not in the context of a separate annexation.”

FMEP President Lara Friedman commented on what message Bibi’s endorsement of this idea sends: for the current Israeli government, “citizenship of Jews is inalienable right; citizenship of Arabs is revocable privilege.”

Arab Israeli MK Aida Touma-Suliman responded to the report saying, “The cat is out of the bag and Netanyahu has shown his true colors regarding the Arab population…the [Wadi] Ara residents are not only Israeli citizens, they’re also indigenous people who dwell on their land, and are not to be compared with settlers dwelling on another nation’s land. We the Arab citizens aren’t part of any such equation and aren’t willing to pay the price again for Israel’s policy of occupation and settlements.”

When Avigdor Liberman promoted the idea back in 2014, then-President Shimon Peres said, “Israel cannot take away its citizens’ citizenship simply because they’re Arab.” Then-Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar said, “An Israeli citizen is not an object and not transferable as part of a framework political agreement.” Netanyahu has never expressed support for the plan prior to this news report, but the plan has allegedly come up in negotiations before.

The area of settlements known as the “Etzion Bloc” is home to over 22 settlements and 75,000 Israeli settlers. The loose cluster of settlements is located south of Jerusalem, extending from the 1967 Green Line deep into the West Bank; most of the settlements are on the Israeli side of the separation barrier. The major traffic junction in the area has recently seen numerous car-ramming and stabbing attacks by Palestinians targeting Israeli settlers and soldiers in the area, including an attack today that resulted in the death of the attacker and no other reported injuries.

 

The Knesset & Bibi Move to Gerrymander Jerusalem

In tandem with the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif crisis is, three important bills regarding Jerusalem’s future have advanced in the Knesset:

1. 

   Map by Haaretz

   Prime Minister Netanyahu announced his support for a bill in the Knesset that would allow 130,000 Israeli settlers living four West Bank settlements to vote in Jerusalem’s municipal elections while effectively excluding around 100,000 Palestinians from the Jerusalem municipality (most obviously the Shuafat refugee camp and Kafr Aqab, which are located outside the separation barrier). The four settlements are Maale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Beitar Illit, and Efrat, the last of which is six miles from Jerusalem. All are illegal under international law. Netanyahu’s support for this bill means that it is set to move forward when the Knesset’s reconvenes from its 3-month summer recess in November.
   

2. Another bill (introduced a few days before the one described above) would allow the Israeli government to transfer Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem outside the barrier to a separate, new municipality, created especially for this purpose. This bill and the one above aim to remove from the municipal area of Israel’s eternal, united capital those areas that threaten the Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem, relegating them to a separate authority.
3. These bills are complementary to a bill voted on last week that seeks to prevent the Israeli government from transferring parts of Jerusalem to a foreign power (i.e. the Palestinian government) in a future peace deal.

Settlers Set Up Outpost, Seek to Expand Settlement as “Response” to Murders

Following the horrific murder of three Israelis living in the Halamish settlement, the settlement’s leaders are seeking to consolidate and expand their illegal presence in the West Bank.

Within hours of the murder, hundreds of Halamish residents set up a campsite and a blockade of the eastern road leading to the settlement. The campsite is being called “Yad Ahi,” or “My Brother’s Hand” in memory of the three family members who were slain by a Palestinian youth last Friday. Settlers are rotating shifts inhabiting the campsite, aiming to make it an official outpost of the settlement and permanently close the road to Palestinians. 

Halamish leaders are also demanding the government allow the expansion the settlement’s borders. A spokesman of the Binyamin Regional Council (which represents and provides municipal services to settlements in the Halamish region) called on the government to approve construction plans connecting the Halamish settlement to a nearby outpost called Tzofit, in order to “create a bigger security area and allow building neighborhoods that have already received zoning approvals.” Tzofit (also known as “Zufit” and/or “Elisha Preparatory”) is an illegal outpost that was established in 2007.

U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt went to the illegal Halamish settlement this week to offer their condolences to the victims of the murder.

Halamish is located northwest of Ramallah, deep inside the West Bank. When the settlement was founded in the 1970s, Palestinian residents from the nearby towns of Deir Nidham and Nabi Saleh sued to stop the settlement’s construction, claiming it was being built on their villages’ land. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of the settlers, declaring the area to be state land. The Halamish settlement and its ever-growing encroachment on surrounding Palestinian villages has inspired weekly protests in Deir Nidham and Nabi Saleh, which has become infamous for weekly demonstrations – often involving clashes with the IDF – in recent years, often with international participation.

 

Settlers Seize Contested Building in Hebron

On the evening of July 25th — while events in Jerusalem were dominating the attention of the region and the world — 120 settlers broke into and illegally occupied a contested building near the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The Israeli army immediately surrounded the building and on the morning of July 26th the area was declared a “closed military zone.” Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the Defense Ministry to allow the settlers to stay as negotiations on their fate and ownership of the building continue.

The Times of Israel reports that, “sources close to the prime minister said that Netanyahu was looking to avoid having to evacuate the families.” On the other hand, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid called for their immediate evacuation. As of this writing, the settlers are still being allowed to illegally squat in the property. 

Peace Now warned that the settler’s action can “ignite the region” and called on the government to, “follow the law and the Israeli interest and evacuate the trespassers without delay.”

J Street issued a statement calling on the U.S. government and international actors to pressure Israel to remove the settlers, saying “the Hebron settlers and their allies clearly believe that they can take​ advantage of the present crisis and push their long-term expansionist agenda by creating new ‘facts on the ground.’ It is vital that the prime minister and defense minister act in the best interests of Israeli security and uphold the rule of law by swiftly removing these families from the property.”

Hebron’s settlers have for some time been waging in a legal struggle to prove they legally purchased the building, known as the Machpela House. Palestinians contend they did not purchase it from the legal owners. While proceedings are ongoing, the settlers have once before broken into and occupied the building; when they did so in 2012, they were allowed to stay in the house for a week before being evacuated at the urging of the then-Attorney General of Israel who argued that it was necessary to preserve the rule of law.

 

Construction on New Settlement in Shilo Valley Stalled (Due to Lack of Funds)

A month after construction began on the first new settlement authorized by Israel in 25 years, the project has come to a halt – no over politics but due to insufficient government funds. The government had promised to bankroll the settlement’s construction but has not contributed to costs yet, according to the Binyamin Regional Council, which is currently footing the bill. The spokesman for the Binyamin Regional Council speculated on July 25th that the issue will be resolved quickly and expressed confidence in the government’s commitment to the project. Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly gave orders to ensure construction is resumed quickly. As of this writing, there is no reporting to suggest construction has resumed.

 

High-Ranking Israeli Officials Defend Outpost from Demolition

Last week we reported on an impending demolition order against the Netiv Ha’avot outpost (near Bethlehem), along with the public relations efforts settlers were leading to elicit government intervention in their favor. The settlers got a helping hand this week when Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid (who heads the Yesh Atid political party) attended an event at the outpost. The Haaretz report suggests Bennett engaged in a conversation with the outpost’s leaders on how to “deal with” the demolition order and impending deadline.

 

Bonus Reads

1. “This Synagogue Furniture Factory Is Actually a Sweatshop That Tramples Palestinians’ Rights” (July 26, 2017, Haaretz+)
2. “The Settler Leader Who’s Even Charming Liberals as Israel’s Top Man in New York” (July 27, 2017, Haaretz+)
3. “A Rare Glimpse: Shabak Agent Recruiting Hilltop Youth” (July 3, 2017, Jewish Press)