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.

August 4, 2022

1. Encircling Jerusalem: Israel Advances Settlement Plans Across the City, While Settler Projects Tighten the Noose
2. Dumping Any Pretense of Respect for Rule of Law, Israeli High Court Reverses Course, Allows Mitzpe Kramim Outpost to be “Legalized”
3. Settlers Acquire Another Home in Downtown Hebron
4. Elad Closes Palestinian Access Road Near Sambuski Cemetary in Silwan
5. This Week in Area C, Part 1: JNF Approves Purchase of Palestinian Land In Jordan Valley While High Court Weighs Petition
6. This Week in Area C, Part 2: Regavim Files Petition Pushing for Immediate Demolition of Palestinian Construction in Area C
7. This Week in Area C, Part 3: Settlers Continue to Occupy Six Sites After Recent Attempt to Establish New Outposts En Masse
8. Groups Petition to Cancel New Israeli-Led Archeological Dig in the West Bank Citing Legal Questions
9. Bonus Reads

 

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Encircling Jerusalem: Israel Advances Settlement Plans Across the City, While Settler Projects Tighten the Noose

It must be stressed that events over the past several months (while the Settlement Report has taken an abbreviated form) have rapidly accelerated the encirclement of Jerusalem by settlements and settler-backed projects — developments which come at the direct expense of Palestinians — their presence in Jerusalem, their rights as land owners, and their quality of life. This encirclement continues to progress, unabated and almost entirely unchallenged, each day.

Last week, on July 25th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee advanced plans for two brand new settlements in East Jerusalem – “Givat HaShaked” and the “Lower Aqueduct” plan. These two settlements that would nearly complete the encirclement of Jerusalem to the south. Details of those plans are: 

• The Lower Aqueduct plan (1,465 new units) was approved for deposit for public comment. This plan would see a new settlement – called the Lower Aqueduct Plan – built on a small sliver of land between the controversial settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa – and is intended to connect them. In so doing, it will establish an uninterrupted continuum of Israeli settlements on the southern rim of Jerusalem, and destroy the contiguity of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 
• The Givat HaShaked settlement was also discussed, and the Committee opted to increase the total number of units that the plan outlines for construction, from ~400 to 700 housing units, plus schools and synagogues. Ir Amim and Terrestrial Jerusalem both report that, after a few technical requirements are met, the plan to build Givat HaShaked is expected to receive final approval when the Committee reconvenes in the coming weeks. The plan for Givat HaShaked is unprecedented, according to Terrestrial Jerusalem, in that it is the first settlement of this size that that Israeli government will establish inside of a Palestinian neighborhood – Beit Safafa, which will be completely encircled by Israeli construction if Givat HaShaked is built.

For more background on the Lower Aqueduct plan, see resources by: Terrestrial Jerusalem and Ir Amim.

These plans are significant developments in the effort to establish settler hegemony over East Jerusalem, but are only part of the story of how the encirclement of East Jerusalem has rapidly advanced over the past months. In addition to the construction of new settlements and growth of existing ones, settlers are succeeding in advancing new projects under the guise of tourism (like: the Cable Car, a new visitors center in Batan Al Hawa, and more) and the State is undertaking systematic efforts to take over more and more land. Those methods include the revival of a politicized land registration process in East Jerusalem and the expansion of “national park” lands onto the Mount of Olives. Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan also continue to face the looming threat of dispossession through Court proceedings. In a rare piece of good news — on July 21st the Israeli Supreme Court partially accepted a petition filed by the Duweik family, which has led to the (temporary) freezing of their eviction.

Another facet is the looming threat is the seemingly growing inevitability of the construction of the E-1 settlement to Jerusalem’s east. Prior to the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden in Jerusalem on July 13th, the Israeli government intervened to postpone a critical hearing on the E-1 settlement, rescheduling it for September 12th. The rescheduled hearing, if it is not postponed yet again, could result in granting final approval to the highly contentious plan (and barring intensive outside pressure such additional postponement seems highly improbable, given the Israeli domestic politics and the upcoming national election). See Terrestrial Jerusalem for a recap of President Biden’s visit.

Dumping Any Pretense of Respect for Rule of Law, Israeli High Court Reverses Course, Allows Mitzpe Kramim Outpost to be “Legalized”

Nearly two years after ruling there is no possible legal basis by which the Mitzpe Kramim outpost can be retroactively “legalized” under Israeli law, the Israeli Supreme Court has now reversed course and will allow the State to formally legalize the settlement using the so-called Market Regulation principle.

In its original ruling, issued in September 2020, the High Court held that construction of the Mitzpe Kramim outpost was not undertaken in “good faith” because there were “multiple warning signs” that the land was privately owned by Palestinians. The outpost was ordered to be dismantled at that time. Now, with apparently no new evidence, the Court decided to accept the settlers’ claim of “good faith.”

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

Yesh Din writes on the significance of this ruling:

“This ruling overtly indicates Israel’s intentions to continue to pursue retroactive legalization of illegal Israeli construction in blatant disregard of the rights of the local Palestinian population of the West Bank. The State of Israel continues to ignore the duties bestowed upon it by IHL, as the occupying power, to protect the occupied population. Additionally, as the occupying power, Israel is prohibited from transferring the occupier’s population into occupied territory. The interpretation of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion will, in practice, undoubtedly serve to fulfill the intentions of the repealed Regularization Bill from 2017. It will enable settlers, backed by the Civil Administration and other State authorities, to take over thousands of dunams of Palestinian land, leading to human rights violations on a massive scale all over the West Bank and serving as the basis for future negligent and illegal policies, which are now more likely to be given the go-ahead by the Supreme Court. This ruling symbolizes a turning point of Israel’s Supreme Court, which, for the first time, has endorsed the forced confiscation of privately owned land, which is not required for military needs, for the sole purpose of use by Israeli civilians for the establishment of a new settlement.”

In +972 Magazine, Orly Noy writes:

“The court’s ruling could potentially pave the way for the retroactive legalization of thousands more homes in outposts built on privately-owned Palestinian land…The legalization of Mitzpe Kramim is only a footnote in Israel’s policies of dispossession and land theft on both sides of the Green Line, carried out through what the Israeli regime deems completely “legal” expropriations…And one more word regarding the concept of “good faith,” which was sufficient reasoning for the High Court to retroactively legalize the theft of private Palestinian land. This same line of argumentation did not protect the residents of Umm al-Hiran, a Bedouin village in the Negev/Naqab, from being threatened with destruction and expulsion, even though they were physically placed where the village exists today in the 1950s by the military government after it expelled them from their original land, on which Kibbutz Shoval now sits. Although the state itself was the one to move them to their new location, the residents of Umm al-Hiran have lived for decades without basic infrastructure such as water and electricity — that is, until the state decided to destroy the village in order to build Hiran, a town for Jews alone, on its ruins. Unlike the settlers of Mitzpe Kramim, the residents of Umm al-Hiran did not take over land that did not belong to them, nor did they settle on private land that belonged to others. And yet, the state did not hesitate to brutally deport them — even killing a local resident, Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an, in the process. The same court that will allow the residents of Mitzpe Kramim to remain on land it itself admits does not belong to them did not hesitate to legalize the cleansing of Umm al-Hiran. Because, after all, in the apartheid regime, even the concept of “good faith” applies solely to Jewish citizens.”

Settlers Acquire Another Home in Downtown Hebron

On July 28th, a settler group called Harchvi announced it has purchased a three-story house in central Hebron, very close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque and on the Palestinian side of a key IDF checkpoint (the “Pharmacy” checkpoint), which Israeli Jews are supposed to be prohibited from crossing. The group was granted a purchase agreement by the Israeli Defense Ministry this week, which seemingly legitimizes the settlers claim to have purchased the property – but it is not a final determination of the legality of the transaction. This is the second such house in Hebron that settlers have claimed to have purchased from Palestinians owners this year. 

Providing more detail on the status of the house, Peace Now writes:

“Peace Now has no information regarding the alleged deal in this case. We know from many other cases in Hebron and in the West Bank that these are dubious purchases, which are sometimes based on forgery or the purchase of only small parts of the property. It almost always turns out that the settlers may have managed to acquire the rights from one person, but the rest of the rights holders did not agree and the issue gets to courts for lengthy hearings. When settlers entered the Za’atari house in March 2018, the case got to the courts and the legal argument is still pending, but the settlers are still in the house. Every purchase of land in the territories requires the approval of the Minister of Defense – according to the law in the Occupied Territories, in order to make a transaction and register it in the land registry, a transaction permit from the Civil Administration is required. Any such transaction-permit requires the prior approval of the Minister of Defense. In this case, it is hard to believe that the settlers have a transaction permit from the Minister of Defense. In all previous cases the settlers hurry to establish a fact on the ground, enter the house and only then submit applications for registration of purchase, and only then does it come to the Defense Minister’s approval. The defense minister can refuse and prevent the execution of the deal.”

In addition to the settlement activity in Hebron that the state of Israel has formally (and publicly) sanctioned, +972 Magazine reports this week that over the past month settlers have been bulldozing Palestinian stores that have been inaccessible to their owners for more than 20 years under Israel closure orders. Though the Israeli Civil Administration has denied authorizing the settlers’ destruction of the stores over the past month, one of the Palestinian shop owners, Tareq Al-Kiyal, raises the point that “Nothing moves in the Old City — and certainly no bulldozers come in and destroy buildings — without a green light from the army.” Palestinians have filed a police report regarding the damage to the stores, which they believe were demolished by settlers in order to expand the nearby settlement enclave, Avraham Avinu.

The shops are in an area referred to as the Kiyal Market, which was “temporarily” shuttered by the Israeli army in 2001 during the Second Intifada. Since then, Palestinians have been forbidden from reopening the shops and cannot even enter their shops to remove valuable equipment. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have systematically looted the stores, and have been using the buildings for warehouses, recreational spaces, and even as housing. 

Elad Closes Palestinian Access Road Near Sambuski Cemetary in Silwan 

Emek Shaveh reports that the Elad settler group has blocked an access road near the Sambuski cemetery in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a move which blocks car traffic to the Wadi Rababa area of Silwan where some 150 Palestinian families live. Palestinian residents, in partnership with Emek Shaveh, have appealed to several Israeli authoritative bodies (including the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the Israeli police) to remove the boulders blocking the road, but Elad has failed to cooperate with efforts to negotiate a solution and has instead continued their work at the site. Emek Shaveh reports that the ongoing blockage of the road has led to daily friction between Palestinians and Elad employees.

The Sambuski cemetery is deeply integrated into Elad’s overarching, comprehensive plan to control the Silwan neighborhood. However, the cemetery was a relatively unknown, neglected site until recent years. In 2020, the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan identified the Sambuski cemetery as a place of prime historical and religious importance to Israel, elevating the status of the cemetery. The Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – which has a special expertise on archaeology and the way archeology has been weaponized to serve the political agenda of the settlers and the state – wrote a report on exactly how the Trump “Vision” supports settler efforts to use Jerusalem’s history and antiquities to promote Israeli-Jewish hegemony and control over the city.

Emek Shaveh explains how the cemetery is connected to other settler endeavors in Silwan:

“For the Elad Foundation the cemetery is a strategic site as it links together two important focal points of its enterprise – the neighborhood of Silwan, home to the City of David archaeological park and specifically to the Pool of Siloam at the southern tip of the site, and the Hinnom Valley an area which Elad has been developing for the past two years (more below).”

This Week in Area C, Part 1: JNF Approves Purchase of Palestinian Land In Jordan Valley While High Court Weighs Petition

At the urging of the Israeli government, the Board of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) approved the allocation of $18 million for the purchase of 250 acres (1,000 dunams) of Palestinian-owned land in the Jordan Valley, land that is the subject of a petition with the High Court of Justice. 

Israel has controlled the land in question since issuing a military closure order in 1969. In the 1980s, the World Zionist Organization then allocated the land (which is privately owned by Palestinians) to settlers without any documentation of either having received control of the land from the government, or documentation allocating the land to the settlers. Since then, settlers have developed the land into profitable date farms. In 2018, several Palestinian landowners have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to have the settlers removed from the area and the land returned to their control. In a contentious court hearing in June 2022, in which the State conceded that it does not know how or why the settlers were allocated the land in the first place, High Court Justice Esther Hayut told the State lawyer: “Given that you cannot explain how the land was given to those to whom it was given, does that give them the right to remain there forever?” 

The JNF – via its subsidiary group Himnuta, which handles West Bank transactions –  allegedly secured a deal with a Palestinian landowner to purchase the land in phases, starting with a smaller plot in 2018. Further phases of the the transaction were canceled due to criticism of the JNF’s involvement in land purchases in the occupied West Bank at the time. The deal is now back in process at the request of the Isareli Defense Ministry in order to finalize the transaction before the High Court.

This Week in Area C, Part 2: Regavim Files Petition Pushing for Immediate Demolition of Palestinian Construction in Area C

The settler group Regavim filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice seeking to change operational procedures within the Civil Administration so that Palestinian construction in Area C can be immediately demolished – eliminating any chance for Palestinian landowners to challenge the demolition of their property – if it is believed to be illegal. Regavim calls it “absurd” that the Civil Administration would allow Palestinians a chance to assert their legal rights to build on land in Area C before demolition is carried out.

While settlers push for faster demolition of illegal (under Israeli law) Palestinian construction in Area C, a new piece by +972 Magazine reveals that an Israeli official who is in charge of handing out demolition orders against Palestinian buildings  in the Massaffer Yatta region, himself lives in an illegally built home in an illegally built outpost. This only furthers the clear message that settler groups are not interested in ensuring the faithful enforcement of Israeli law, but are rather interested in wielding Israeli law as a weapon to displace and replace Palestinians.

This Week in Area C, Part 3: Settlers Continue to Occupy Six Sites After Recent Attempt to Establish New Outposts En Masse

According to an op-ed by Arlene Kushner, settlers continue to ”maintain a presence” at six sites located in Area C where they are planning to establish new outposts. These are the same sites that were part of a large-scale effort two weeks ago, led by the Nahala settler movement, to establish six new outposts all at once. That effort was thwarted by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who ordered Israeli security forces to prevent and remove settlers from the sites.

The determination of settlers to violate the law is unsurprising, in the ensuing hours after the failed operation a leader of the Nahala Movement, Daniela Weiss, told Haaretz:

“We’ll be back, of course. We’ll try to come back in a day or two. If it’s this Shabbat, I can’t say. We’re taking it one step at a time.”

Groups Petition to Cancel New Israeli-Led Archeological Dig in the West Bank Citing Legal Questions

The Israeli NGOs Haqel and Emek Shaveh report that on July 25th, an Israeli archaeologist launched a new excavation of the “Tel Tibnah” site in the Ramallah district, with sponsorship from the Israeli Bar-Ilan University. The NGOs jointly raised concerns about the political motivation behind the excavation, given “several fundamental legal and ethical issues” with the dig. The groups have called for the immediate cancellation of the excavation.

Haqel and Emek Shaveh further explain:

To the best of our knowledge, the site is situated on private and public lands of three Palestinian villages: Deir-Nisham, Beit Rima and Nebi Salah, and lies in proximity to the village of Abud. These lands are used by the local Palestinian population for agriculture and herding. In addition, within the site there is a spring that serves for drinking and irrigation. Initiating archaeological projects on privately owned land, even if these are declared as archaeological sites, demands that notification be given to the owners of these lands and their approval is required in advance. Entering private property without the permission of the owner is defined as a criminal act of incursion, even more so when conducting actions that might damage property and prevent access to the property, as is a frequent occurrence throughout the West Bank. The local residents unambiguously submitted their objection to the proposed excavations which will have a dramatic effect on their lives, impact their freedom of movement and violate their property rights. So far, this objection has not been taken into consideration.

The main question at stake is the State of Israel’s range of legitimate courses of action and that of Israeli academia. Initiation of an academic archaeological excavation serves, by nature, a scientific-academic motivation. This project does not serve an immediate necessity or mitigate against a pending danger, and does not meet the criteria as a “salvage excavation”, nor does it serve the local population living around the site. Any attempt to “govern” archaeological sites that are not within the sovereign borders of Israel is a political act and not a scientific one.

In addition, the claims of “antiquity robbery” should not justify state actions, and the political act should not be concealed as an archaeological one. The erosion of the distinction between heritage protection on the one hand and settlement and annexation on the other, threatens the future of archaeology.”

 

As FMEP has chronicled, settlers and their allies are intent on taking control of archaeological sites in the West Bank, and and seizing artifacts that are currently under Palestinian control. Settlers claim the sites are neglected and/or damaged. To that end, the settler groups known as “the Shilo Forum” and the “Shomrim al HaNetzach” (“Preservers of the Eternal”) — see background on these groups here — issued a report surveying 365 sites in the West Bank and arguing that the Palestinian Authority is moving to “erase all traces of Israel’s ancient Jewish heritage.” The accusations were in addition to allegations of neglect, mismanagement, and intentional damage. The report is part of the organizations’ campaign to push the Israeli government to assert control over these sites.

Bonus Reads

1. “Saving Masafer Yatta: The Fight Against Expulsion” (Mondoweiss)
2. “Military Rule: Testimonies of soldiers from the Civil Administration, Gaza DCL and COGAT (2011-2021)” (Breaking the Silence)
3. “Palestinian family encircled by Israeli settlement” (Al-Monitor)

 

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

December 18, 2020

1. Draft Government Decision on Outposts Provides for Expropriating Private Palestinian Land for the Settlements & Retroactively Legalization of 43 Outposts
2. Knesset Advances Bill to Grant Retroactive Legalization to 65 Outposts
3. Tender Published for 290 Units in the Gilo Settlement, More to Come
4. New Evidence Showing Settler Council Funds Illegal Outposts via Amana; Petition on Amana Funding to be Heard by High Court in Coming Days
5. Israel Sovereignty Movement Launches New Campaign for Annexation
6. Israel’s Escalating Assault on Palestinian Life in Area C
7. Bonus Reads

by Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

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Draft Government Decision on Outposts Provides for Expropriating Private Palestinian Land for the Settlements & Retroactively Legalization of 43 Outposts

Peace Now has reported the details of a draft government decision on outposts, which Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz is currently holding back from coming up for a Cabinet vote (despite the fact that one of his key advisors reportedly helped draft the decision). With the measure blocked in the Cabinet, proponents of the legalization effort may try to bypass the government by going for Knesset approval of a bill to accomplish a similar goal (see below).

With respect to the details of the initiative: contrary to previous reporting on the matter, the effort does not relate to outposts built illegally on “state land,” but rather deals with 43 illegal outposts built either entirely or partially on land that is privately owned by Palestinians. According to Peace Now, the draft government decision seeks to:

• Establish a new mechanism for expropriating privately owned Palestinian land for the outposts/settlements. The decision calls for the recruitment of 17 staff (5 real estate coordinators, 3 legal advisers, 2 real estate department workers, 5 planning bureau workers and 2 coordinators) who would be tasked with finding legal means by which to declare private Palestinian land to be “state land” if there is an outpost built on it. According to Peace Now, the new staff will use recommendations from the Zandberg report and of Attorney General Mandelblit to accomplish this goal. To review, the 2018 Zandberg report suggested that, in order to legalize outposts, the government can and should (thorough explanation of these points can be found here):
  • Implement the “market regulation” principle to its fullest extent.
  • Expropriate of privately owned Palestinian land for “public use.”
  • Adopt a principle of flexibility in defining “adjacent areas.”
  • Establish new, official settlements (in the case where outposts cannot be regulated based on the prior three points).
  • End the work of the Israeli “Blue Line Team,” which maps the legal status of land in the West Bank.
  • Allow regional Settlement Councils to provide municipal services to (currently) unauthorized outposts.
• Approve 31 outposts as “neighborhoods” of existing settlements that are fully authorized by the Israel government. By doing so, Israel hopes it might avoid international consternation involved in establishing new settlements. Despite the legal turn of tongue, the authorization of outposts as new neighborhoods of existing settlements should be understood as the establishment of new settlements, especially but not solely because in many if not most cases the outposts are not contiguous with the built up part of settlements or even within the recognized borders of settlements’ Master Plans. For a list of these outposts, see the Peace Now report.
• Approve the authorization of 12 independent outposts, creating 11 fully fledged new settlements. For a list of these outposts, see the Peace Now report.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The proposed resolution awards a prize for systematic delinquency and gives the green light for the continued takeover of Palestinian land in a way that would never have been considered legal within Israel proper. Beyond the value and moral damage that the decision produces, it promotes the de facto annexation of the West Bank, without public debate and against the wishes of most Israeli citizens who breathed a sigh of relief with the cancellation of the annexation plans. The fact that the government found it appropriate to allocate tens of millions of shekels for the move, precisely in the midst of an economic crisis, also shows how flawed and distorted its priorities are, as well as its contempt for the electorate. It can still be stopped. We hope that the government will show responsibility and avoid the move. ”

Knesset Advances Bill to Grant Retroactive Legalization to 65 Outposts

In light of Benny Gantz’s delay in granting approval to a draft government decision on outposts, the Knesset has advanced a bill to grant retroactive legalization to 65 outposts (distinct from the initiative described above). The bill – introduced by far right-wing MK Bezalel Smotrich (Tkuma) and the Land of Israel Lobby (which he chairs), passed its first reading on December 16th. It will need to pass three more readings before becoming law. Smotrich said he hopes to expedite the next three readings before the year’s end (i.e. next week), while continuing to call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to approve a government decision on the matter. 

The legislation would, if passed, require the government to treat the 65 outposts as if they were legal – and would direct the government to complete the formal legalization process for the outposts within two years. In the interim, the state would be obligated to connect the outposts to Israeli municipal utilities like water, internet, phone, and also allow the granting of mortgages to settlers living on land. 

Notably, the bill enjoys broad support in the Knesset and passed by a 60 to 40 vote. Support for the bill includes Netanyahu’s Likud Party, Naftali Bennet’s Yamina Party, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu Party. And, despite official opposition to the bill, Gantz allowed four members of his Blue & White Party to vote in its favor – showing that there might be an even broader base of support. As part of its campaign to push the bill forward, a Knesset committee devoted to legalizing all outposts ran a survey of 502 Israeli adults that found 73% of respondents who identify as “centrist” or support the Blue & White party are in favor of the outpost legalization bill. 

Commenting on passage of the bill in its first reading, the Land of Israel Lobby said: 

“A huge majority of the elected Knesset members support the moral and humane process of regulating the young settlements.”

Tender Published for 290 Units in the Gilo Settlement, More to Come

Ir Amim reports that the Israel Lands Authority published a tender for the construction of 290 new units in the Gilo settlement, located in southern Jerusalem between the isolated Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Ir Amim reports that the proposed new units will be built within the built-up area of the settlement, meaning that this plan will not expand the footprint of the Gilo settlement.

Ir Amim further reports that Israeli authorities are advancing two more plans to expand Gilo:

• On December 21st, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee discussed a plan to build 253 new settlement units in Gilo. If implemented, the construction would expand the footprint of Gilo eastwards towards the West Bank city of Beit Jala. 
• Another plan for 464 units in the Gilo settlement has been scheduled for final discussion on January 4, 2021. This plan would replace and add to existing apartments in the settlement.

New Evidence Showing Settler Council Funds Illegal Outposts via Amana; Petition on Amana Funding to be Heard by High Court in Coming Days

Days before the High Court will once again takes up a petition seeking to bar governmental funding from going to the radical Amana settler group – which is engaged in illegal outpost activity – a new trove of documents has once again proven that settler councils have been secretly funneling money to Amana, explicitly to support the establishment and development of illegal outposts.

This week, after a year-long battle led by the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, the Gush Etzion Regional Council (a settler body governing settlement affairs in part of the southern West Bank) was forced to release documents that revealed its financial relationship with Amana, the largest and most powerful settler organization devoted to advancing settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Those documents show how the Council diverted nearly $500,000 (1.6 million shekels) in 2018 and 2019 to Amana directly in support of the establishment and development of illegal outposts.

The financial relationship between settler councils and Amana is not entirely new information (see here), but these newly-released  documents specifically reveal that Amana is behind the recent trend of establishing farming outposts. As Peace Now has previously explained, these agricultural/farm-based outposts enable a small number of settlers, with few resources, to take over large tracts of land by grazing cattle in the area. These settlers often push Palestinians off that land, sometimes violently. Peace Now has documented the establishment of at least 35 such agricultural outposts since 2006.

The new documents show that the Council’s funds were earmarked specifically to support these farming outposts, including over $250,000 (900,000 shekels) for their development. The docs also show that the Council paid 20% of the salary of a full time Amana staff “coordinator” for these outposts. The documents further showed the Council directed ~$195,000 (NIS 632,065) to the Makhrour outpost, ~$31,000 (NIS 100,733) in the Tekoa agricultural outpost, and ~$16,000 (NIS 52,650) in the Pnei Kedem agricultural outpost  (for the purchase of a truck).

The data comes at an interesting time, given the expectation that the High Court will soon hold a hearing on a petition regarding government funding to Amana. To review, in February 2019, Peace Now submitted a petition seeking to bar settler regional councils from funding Amana, arguing that Amana engages in illegal activity and should therefore not be eligible to receive funds from the government whose laws it is violating. The petition also notes that legally, public entities cannot transfer money to private organizations like Amana. In December 2019, the High Court said that while this petition is pending any government funding of Amana must receive the Court’s approval first. The case is scheduled for a hearing this Sunday, December the 20th.

Peace Now wrote:

“Amana and the regional councils in the territories have established a sophisticated mechanism to exploit the public coffers for illegal activity and to create facts on the ground. There is no limit to the chutzpah of the settlement heads. On one hand, they build outposts, with far-reaching diplomatic consequences, with public funds, and on the other hand, they cry to the government and ask for their criminality ==to be retroactively legalized. What a responsible and fair government needs to do is shut the spigot to Amana and immediately evacuate the illegal outposts.” And, “the regional councils and Amana go to great efforts to hide the information about their financial sources and illegal activities. Even with the legal process in Peace Now’s petition against granting support money to Amana, the councils have refused to provide basic information on the amount of funds transferred to Amana and their use. Amana received tens of millions of shekels from the regional councils every year, and the information received about the activities in Gush Etzion in 2018 and 2019 is just the tip of the iceberg. Peace Now uncovered the mechanism behind the illegal outposts in its “Unraveling the Mechanism behind Illegal Outposts” report which describes the operation by local authorities in the West Bank, together with Amana and the Settlement Division, to support illegal outposts and construction in the settlements, but not all financial sources have been clarified. The support by the Gush Etzion Regional Council is only a small part of Amana’s multi-million shekels operation in this illegal activity, with far-reaching ramifications for Israel’s future.”

Or Sadan, a lawyer with the Movement for Freedom of Information in Israel, said in a statement:

“The information that was received from the Gush Etzion Regional Council emphasizes, once again, the importance of the Israeli Freedom of Information Law. The information shows how public funds are being transferred to activities beyond the Green Line, with questionable legality. The fight against this kind of activity must be based on solid information directly from public authorities.”

Israel Sovereignty Movement Launches New Campaign for Annexation

The Israeli Sovereignty Movement – an Israeli nongovernmental organization- has launched a new campaign pushing for Israel to move ahead with unilateral annexation of the West Bank before the inauguration of a new U.S. president. On the first night of Hanukkah, the Sovereignty Movement co-hosted a virtual event titled “Lighting Sovereignty over the Jordan Valley,” drawing participation of 30 government officials, including the government’s coalition chairman Miki Zohar (Likud). The event was also sponsored by the US-based Zionist Organization of America, the settler group Regavim, the Israel Forever Foundation, and Americans for a Safe Israel. 

At the event, the hosts touted new polling that shows 56% of the general Israeli public supports the annexation of the Jordan Valley, including 80% of respondents who identify as “right-wing.”

The Sovereignty Movement – an offshoot of the Women in Green organization – has established and expanded its influence over Israeli politicians and public discourse over the past two years. Nadia Matar, one of the co-founders, told JNS:

“[the] overwhelming majority of the Israeli public believes that sovereignty should be applied over the Jordan Valley, and now that the left is once again raising the issue of the ‘two-state solution,’ the focus should be on the application of sovereignty.”

At the event, MK Zohar said:

“I think that Israel should work towards applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and also take the opportunity to advance the application of sovereignty over many communities in Judea and Samaria, if not all of them. It’s an opportunity that might not present itself again.”

Israel’s Escalating Assault on Palestinian Life in Area C

Directly from OCHA [emphasis added by FMEP]:

“In November, the Israeli authorities demolished, forced people to demolish, or seized 178 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank: this is the highest such figure in a single month since OCHA began systematically documenting this practice in 2009. This month’s incidents resulted in the displacement of 158 people and otherwise affected the livelihoods or access to services of over 1,000 others. All structures, except for one demolished on punitive grounds, were located in Area C or East Jerusalem and were targeted due to a lack of building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

Of the affected structures, 43 had been provided as humanitarian aid, for a total cost of 82,000 euros. It is the largest number of EU-funded structures targeted in a single month since January 2017, bringing the total number of such structures demolished or seized since the start of 2020 to 114.

About 50 per cent of all structures targeted this month were in small herding communities in sections of Area C designated closed for Israeli military training (‘firing zones’). The largest such incident took place on 3 November in Humsa Al Bqai’a, in the northern Jordan Valley, where the Israeli authorities demolished 83 structures, or about three-quarter of the community, including 29 structures provided as humanitarian aid. A total of 73 people, including 41 children were displaced as a result, but have been able to remain in the area following the delivery of emergency shelters and other assistance.

Additional 13 structures were targeted in the Massafer Yatta area of Hebron, most of which is also declared a ‘firing zone’. This included a donor-funded water network, part of which had already been dismantled in October, which served some 700 people from four communities. This incident took place on 25 November on the basis of an expedited procedure (Military Order 1797), while legal partners were presenting the case in court, to try and halt the removal of the network.

Nearly 30 per cent of Area C, where 38 Palestinian communities (5,000 people) are located, is designated as ‘firing zones’. These communities, many of which have existed in the area since prior to the start of the Israeli occupation, have limited access to basic services and are at heightened risk of forcible transfer. At  east ten unauthorized Israeli settlement outposts are also located either partially or completely in ‘firing zones’.”

Read the full OCHA report here.

Bonus Reads

1. “Deprived a Voice: An Investigation into Shrinking Space in Area C” (Al-Haq)
2. “After 60 years, East Jerusalem Palestinians face eviction under Israeli settler rulings” (Reuters)
3. “Palestine’s Cultural Property and the Israeli Occupation” (PLO-NAD)
4. “Tourism and Israel’s Settler Colonial Project Seeking Ethical Alternatives” (Al-Shabaka)
5. “‘Temporarily Uprooted’ Gaza Settlements Among ‘Miracles’ in Israeli Learning Kits” (Haaretz)

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

December 11, 2020

1. Israel Expected to Advance Plan for Yeshiva at Entrance to Sheikh Jarrah
2. Gantz Weighing Vote in Cabinet to Legalize 40+ Outposts
3. MK Planning to Call Vote on Bill to Prevent Future Evacuation of Any/All Settlements & Outposts (De Facto Annexation West Bank)
4. Annexation via Internet
5. Annexation via Roads & Infrastructure
6. Bahrain Backtracks On Annexation Recognition…As UAE Openly Embraces Settlers
7. Bonus Reads

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Israel Expected to Advance Plan for Yeshiva at Entrance to Sheikh Jarrah

Ir Amim reports that at the next meeting of the Jerusalem District Planning Committee the Committee, scheduled for December 16, is expected to advance a highly inflammatory plan to build a Jewish religious school (a yeshiva) and dormitory at the entrance of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The District Planning Committee was expected to grant approval to this plan in July 2020, but – based on data submitted by Ir Amim – unexpectedly ordered a new survey on the needs of the Sheikh Jarrah community. It is unclear at this time whether that survey has been completed, and if it has been completed, what the conclusions/findings were and if the Committee is now satisfied. The December 16th Committee meeting is closed to the public.

The plan to build the yeshiva and dormitory, which would house dozens of young religious settlers, as well as another project for a 6-story building in the same area, aims to strengthen Israeli settlers’ hold on the neighborhood. Once built, settlements will literally flank both sides of the road leading into Sheikh Jarrah, advancing the settlers’ goal of cementing the presence of the settlement enclaves inside of Sheikh Jarrah and connecting them more seamlessly to the neighborhood’s periphery and to West Jerusalem. 

Ir Amim writes:

“If approved, the construction of the yeshiva will significantly bolster the efforts of state-sponsored settler organizations to transform large portions of Sheikh Jarrah into a large Israeli settlement through evictions of Palestinians and settler takeovers of their homes. Over the past few months, the Israeli courts have upheld eviction demands against 12 Palestinian families, including the Sabbagh family, from the Kerem Al’ajoni section of Sheikh Jarrah, ruling on behalf of settler groups. Various appeals and legal proceedings have only temporarily halted the families forced removal from their homes.”

Just this week, FMEP hosted a webinar on Sheikh Jarrah and the impending dispossession of Palestinians from their longtime homes.

Gantz Weighing Vote in Cabinet to Legalize 40+ Outposts

The Jerusalem Post reports that Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue & White) is holding up – for unreported reasons – the Security Cabinet’s consideration of a draft decision to grant authorization to dozens of Isareli outposts across the West Bank. Gantz has not (yet) issued his approval for the draft text to be discussed and voted on at the Cabinet level, though he has allowed a senior Defense Minister, Michael Biton, to work with Settlement Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) on crafting that text over the past several weeks.

Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense subcommittee on December 9th, Hanegbi said that a draft decision is “almost 100% complete,” and that he expects it to provide for the retroactive authorization of 40-45 outposts.  Hanegbi said he had hoped to craft a decision that could apply to 69 outposts, but his negotiations with Biton limited its scope. Last week, Biton and Gantz made it clear that the party would support granting authorization to outposts which were built on “state land,” but not outposts which have a more complicated land status, including private Palestinian ownership claims.

According to Peace Now, there are a total of 124 outposts in the West Bank. There is a new urgency around granting a sweeping government authorization to outposts as Israel anticipates a closing window of opportunity to do so with the looming exit of President Trump and his openly pro-settlement, pro-outpost, pro-annexation policy. 

The push to grant retroactive legalization to all of the outposts is nothing new, nor is the more limited goal of granting authorization to outposts that were built on land that has been declared by Israel to be state land – a status which the Israeli government regards as less complicated than cases where the outposts were built on land that have recognized ownership claims from Palestinians. In addition to the myriad problems with how Israel has used its authority as an occupier to declare land as “state land” and subsequently designates that land for the sole use of settlers, the fact remains that outposts built on that land were built illegally even under Israeli law (though in many cases with the tacit support or active encouragement of the government). For years, Israel has openly sought to find creative bureaucratic and legal means to grant retroactive “legal” status to as many outposts as possible. 

In 2012, a government-commissioned report – called the “Levy Report” (after its author, retired High Court Justice Edmund Levy) declared Israeli’s occupation of the West Bank to be legal and recommended that outposts built on state land can be easily authorized (legalized) through the planning process without a government decision (i.e., outside of  the influence of political or diplomatic considerations). The Israeli government, though it did not formally adopt the report, has nonetheless proceeded to implement its recommendation to grant retroactive legalization to many of these outposts. According to a 2019 Peace Now report – 15 outposts have since been legalized and 35 are in the process of being legalized between 2012 and 2019. At the same time, 32 new outposts have been established.

The outposts that, to this point, have not been legalized have spurred new legal thinking in Israel – like the Regulation Law and the “market regulation” principle – to find new bases by which to legalize the outposts under Israeli law (aka, to suspend the rule of law to deprive Palestinians of recognized land ownership and legalize illegal actions). 

MK Planning to Call Vote on Bill to Prevent Future Evacuation of Any/All Settlements & Outposts (De Facto Annexation West Bank)

MK Tzvi Hauser (Derech Eretz) announced that he intends to bring to a vote in the Knesset a bill that would amount to the de facto annexation of the West Bank. The bill aims at preventing the Israeli government from ever evacuating any settlements or outposts, and it does so by expanding the application of an existing Israeli law to include the West Bank. That law, passed in 2014, requires that any proposed withdrawal/evacuation of territory in Jerusalem or the Golan Heights be approved in a national referendum or receive a supermajority of 80 votes in the Knesset. The logic behind this effort is that even if political leaders some day were interested in negotiating a two-state agreement with the Palestinains, the law would make implementation of any agreement politically difficult if not impossible (a situation which would in effect tell the Palestinians, formally, that they have no hope of ever ending the occupation via negotiations).

The bill was submitted to the Knesset in August, and can be brought up for a vote by a member at any time.

Various versions of this same bill have been repeatedly introduced to the Knesset, but not yet called up for a vote. For details, see Yesh Din’s handy database of annexation legislation here. Explaining a 2017 version of the bill introduced by MK Yehuda Glick (then a Likud party member), Yesh Din wrote:

“The bill addresses the West Bank territory as part of the State of Israel, and seeks to equate the legal standing of sovereign Israel and territories not subject to Israeli sovereignty.”

Annexation via Internet

On December 8, Israeli Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (Derech Eretz Party) accompanied settler leaders on a tour of the Etzion settlement bloc region in the southern West Bank. Speaking to reporters, Hendel reiterated his promise to deliver modern communications infrastructure, including high speed internet and fiber optics, to settlers living in the area.

Perfectly explaining why this is part of Israel’s entrenchment of the settlements and de facto annexation of the West Bank, Shlomo Ne’em (head of the settler Gush Etzion Regional Council) said:

“Adding communications infrastructure in Gush Etzion is equivalent to de facto sovereignty. Until we bring full national sovereignty, the residents here can live on par with 21 century standards.”

Annexation via Roads & Infrastructure

Breaking the Silence and the Israeli Centre for Public Affairs this week issued a new report entitled “Highway to Annexation: Israeli Road and Infrastructure Development in the West Bank.” The report lays out how Israel has, for decades, been implementing de facto annexation of the West Bank not only through the growth of the settlements, but through the construction of roads, water, electricity, and other infrastructure in the West Bank which in turn allows for the growth of the settlements.

In addition to providing a history lesson on Israel’s construction of infrastructure in the West Bank from the earliest days of the occupation, the report provides analysis of ongoing and likely infrastructure projects that are a key part of the ongoing annexation-through-infrastructure reality. Those projects, which are designed solely with the interest of the settlements in mind (though the GOI says that Palestinians will be able to use them as well), include:

1. 1. Expanding Lateral Roads, including: Highway 55 (running from Israel to the Kedumim settlement), Highway 5/505 (running from Israel through the Ariel settlement and on to the Jordan Valley), Highway 456 (running between Ramallah and Salfit), Highway 367 (in the western Etzion bloc). As explained in the report, lateral roads in the West Bank serve two goals: connecting settlements to Israel proper and restricting the growth potential of Palestinian communities.
   2. Expanding and renovating roads in the Jerusalem Metropolis, including the following –
      1. To Jerusalem’s south: doubling the size of Highway 60 (the “Tunnels Road”) as an entrance to Jerusalem from the south;
      2. To Jerusalem’s east: extending the Eastern Ring Road (aka the “Apartheid Road”), building an underpasses for the Talpiot and French Hill settlements and an overpass for the Ramat Shlomo settlement – all of which will allow settlers to more directly (without hitting a single traffic light) enter Jerusalem.
      3. To Jerusalem’s north: tunneling under the Qalandiya checkpoint (for settlers only) and connecting that tunnel via a new sections of several highways in the area (Highway 45, Highway 443, Highway 935). This will allow settlers (only) to bypass the notoriously congested Hizma checkpoint.
      4. And, expanding the Jerusalem light rail to service East Jerusalem settlements.
   3. Building the “Sovereignty Road” near Ma’ale Adumim. This road would be for Palestinians, designed to divert Palestinian traffic around the Maale Adumim and E1 settlement areas in preperation for massive settlement growth. This road has emerged as the Israeli government’s defense for its plans to build the E-1 settlement, which critics say will sever the West Bank in two. Israel, via this road plan, argues that Palestinians will continue to have “transportational contiguity” despite losing territorial contiguity.

For a full reporting on all of the infrastructure projects being advanced by Israel in the West Bank, see the full report.

The authors write:

“ The ultimate vision of the road and transportation projects currently planned and underway in the West Bank involve entrenching the segregation between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. These infrastructure projects, of course, do not provide for “separate but equal” development but are rather guided primarily by the interests of the settler population and come at the expense of Palestinian development… West Bank road and transportation development creates facts on the ground that constitute a significant entrenchment of the de facto annexation already taking place in the West Bank and will enable massive settlement growth in the years to come. By strengthening Israel’s hold on West Bank territory, aiding settlement growth, and fragmenting Palestinian land, this infrastructure growth poses a significant barrier to ending the occupation and achieving an equitable and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.“

Bahrain Backtracks On Annexation Recognition…As UAE Openly Embraces Settlers

This week, Bahrain clarified that it will not import goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank or Golan Heights (making the question of how such products are labeled moot). The policy clarification reverses comments made by a Bahraini trade official late last week that seemed to offer Bahrain’s de facto recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the settlements, and follows significant backlash for those comments.

Taking a different approach, this week the UAE — which previously welcomed a high-profile visit by a settler delegation — doubled down on its approach of actively embracing commercial ties with settlements. On December 8th, the Jerusalem Post reported that the UAE-based FAM Holding company has signed a deal with a settlement vineyard – the first time such a deal has been made between a UAE business and the settlements. The deal provides for the UAE to import goods from the Tura Winery (in the Rehelim settlement), the Har Bracha Winery (in the Har Bracha settlement), and the Arnon Winery (near the Itamar settlement), as well as Paradise Honey. 

Yossi Dagan, the head of the settler Samaria Regional Council, called the deal “a national-strategic achievement for the State of Israel” saying it is a:

“significant part of a strategic process to strengthen Samaria — in the number of residents, in infrastructure and culture. We’re working hard, consistently, and in any location, to turn Samaria into an economic powerhouse — another glass ceiling shattered!”

Discussing/rationalizing the deal, the head of Dubai’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry adopted longstanding hasbara talking points that paint doing business with settlements as a way of helping the Palestinians. According to the Times of Israel, he: 

“noted that Israeli factories provide work for tens of thousands of Palestinians and said the hope is to assist the Palestinians economy rather than harm it.”

As a reminder, “benevolent occupation” is an old hasbara argument founded on the view that Palestinian should appreciate the opportunities settlements provide for employment, even as those same settlements and the occupation deny them dignity, human and civil rights, freedom of movement and access to their own lands, and self-determination –and in parallel, deny them any chance to develop a productive Palestinain economy that could provide them employment and economic opportunities. For a an examination of this old hasbara line, see: Sodastream, ScarJo, and the Myth of Benevolent Occupation

Along these same lines, Avi Zimmerman – leader of the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce & Industry” – is once again touting the fiction that the success of settlement businesses benefits Palestinians. According to the Times of Israel’s reporting, Zimmerman said that, “in the spirit of symmetry” he is working to:

“find opportunities for Palestinian businesses to benefit from the accords as well, in the short term through partnerships with Israeli businesses and in the long term through large-scale environmental and infrastructure projects that incorporate both populations.”

Again, as a reminder, economic “coexistence” initiatives like the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce & Industry” are, in fact, efforts to normalize, entrench, and reward Israeli settlements while perpetuating Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). Labelling such initiatives as “coexistence” programs or suggesting that Palestinians should welcome the benefits of settlement economies is perverse.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel’s Tony Soprano Policies in the West Bank“ (Haaretz // Michael Sfard)
2. “Firing zones, Highway 10 to open to hikers on Hanukkah” (Jerusalem Post)
3. “Highways to Annexation: Across the West Bank, Israel Is Bulldozing a Bright Future for Jewish Settlers” (Haaretz)
4. “Peace for Peace? Israel-Morocco Deal Is Occupation in Exchange for Occupation” (Haaretz)

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

December 4, 2020

1. Israeli Courts OK (Again) Settlers’ Mass Displacement of Palestinians from Silwan, Eviction Notices Issued to 8 Palestinian Families
2. Har Homa E Settlement Plan Approved for Deposit
3. High Court Rules Against Ottoman Land Registration Laws, Paving Way for More Retroactive Legalizations and Presaging Ugly Land Registration Battle
4. Planning Committee Rejects Appeal Against Overtly Political Hebron Elevator Project
5. Likud Minister Calls For Israel to Enforce “Symmetry” of Construction in Area B + C of West Bank
6. Benny Gantz Make Clear His Support for Retroactive Legalization of Outposts on “State Land”
7. Bahrain: No Annexation. Also Bahrain: Settlements Are Israel
8. Aid to Amb. Friedman Appointed to Key Post, Will Stay In Control of U.S. Normalization Programs
9. Bonus Reads

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

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Israeli Courts OK (Again) Settlers’ Mass Displacement of Palestinians from Silwan, Eviction Notices Issued to 8 Palestinian Families

On November 30th, eight Palestinian families (45 individuals) received eviction notices ordering them them to vacate their longtime family homes as early as December 18, 2020, and if they do not they may be forcibly removed by Israeli forces any time between December 18, 2020-January 1, 2021. Ir Amim reports that the families intend to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, but there is no guarantee that the Court will agree to hear the case.

The issuance of eviction notices follow two significant court rulings on cases in late November 2020. In both cases, Israeli courts sided with the Israeli settler group Ateret Cohanim in seeking the eviction of a total of eight Palestinian families (45 individuals) from their long time homes in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan, located on the southern slope just outside of the Old City in East Jerusalem. The rulings further consolidate growing Israeli case law recognizing Ateret Cohanim as the legal owner of a significant amount of land in Silwan (and the buildings on it), entitling the group to pursue the eviction of as many as 700 Palestinians who in many cases have lived on that land for generations. If executed, this would be the largest displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem since 1967.

Ir Amim explains:

“The Ateret Cohanim settler organization is waging one of the most comprehensive state-backed settler takeover campaigns in East Jerusalem through initiating mass eviction proceedings against Palestinian families in Batan al-Hawa. Eighteen families have already lost their homes with over 80 other households facing eviction demands, placing some 600-700 individuals of one community at risk of displacement.  See Ir Amim’s and Peace Now’s joint report, “Broken Trust” for further details and analysis.

Peace Now said:

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

As a reminder, Ateret Cohanim has waged a years-long eviction campaign against Palestinians living in Silwan, on property the settler NGO claims to own. This claim is based on Ateret Cohanim having gained control of the historic Benvenisti Trust, which oversaw the assets of Yemenite Jews who lived in Silwan in the 19th century. Palestinians have challenged the legitimacy of the Benvenisti Trust’s claims to the currently existing buildings, saying that the trust only covered the old buildings (none of which remain standing) and not the land. Israeli Courts have continued to rule in support of Ateret Cohanim’s claims and against Paelstinians who have been living there for decades. Taking a different approach, in June 2020 Palestinians filed a new petition challenging the legality of the functional operations of the Trust/Ateret Cohanim, asserting that Ateret Cohanim is using the Benvenisti Trust as nothing more than an (illegal) front for displacing Palestinians, pointing out that the trust does not have a separate organizational structure, bank account,  lawyer, or accountant – and that Ateret Cohanim has folded the operations of the trust into its own operations and there is no distinction between the management or assets of the two entities.

As a reminder, in 2001 the Israeli Charitable Trust Registrar granted Ateret Cohanim permission to revive the trust and become its trustees, (following 63 years of dormancy). In 2002, the Israeli Custodian General transferred ownership of the land in Batan al-Hawa to the Trust/Ateret Cohanim. Since then, Ateret Cohanim has accelerated its multifaceted campaign to remove Palestinians from their homes, claiming that the Palestinians are illegally squatting on land owned by the trust. 

Har Homa E Settlement Plan Approved for Deposit

As expected, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved for deposit for public review the Har Homa E settlement plan which provides for the construction of 540 units on an open area of land which will significantly expand the Har Homa settlement to its west, tightening the noose around the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem.

The plan has been approved for deposit but as of this writing not yet deposited; Ir Amim predicts the Committee will deposit the plan in short order in light of the impending U.S. presidential transition. Once deposited, a sixty day comment period begins after which the Committee can reconvene to issue final approval for the plan. Ir Amim writes:

“As demonstrated by the swift developments in plans for Givat Hamatos and Har Homa E, it is likely that Israel will continue to exploit this narrow window of time before the US presidential inauguration to advance further measures the Biden administration is anticipated to oppose, including advancements in the E1 area.”

The plan for 570 units currently set for deposit 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.

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.

High Court Rules Against Ottoman Land Registration Laws, Paving Way for More Retroactive Legalizations and Presaging Ugly Land Registration Battle

On December 1st, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling that provides yet another basis on which the State is permitted to grant retroactive legalization to outposts and settlement structures built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. The ruling also, and perhaps even more significantly, establishes the Court’s willingness to sidestep Ottoman and Jordanian land registration practices when deciding land ownership claims (which since 1967 Israel has recognized as applicable in the West Bank and East Jerusalem) . This latter fact is particularly alarming given Israel’s reported intention to begin a new land registration process in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The specific case before the Court related to structures in the Kochav Yaakov settlement built on land that was declared to be “state land” by Israel in 2013. Palestinians petitioned the Court to reverse the state land declaration, arguing that they are the rightful owners of land. Their ownership claims are based on their having cultivated the land for at least ten years prior to 1967, and the fact that they were in the process formally registering their ownership of that land through the Jordanian real estate registration procedure – a procedure that was frozen by Israel shortly after it occupied the West Bank. 

The lawyer representing the Kochav Yaakov settlement, Harel Arnon, argued that the Court should care more about what has happened on the land since the Jordanian land registration process was frozen, not on what existed at the moment the law was frozen. This argument, by design, favors the settlements and the settlers, who have been able – with the backing of the state and the permission of the Courts – to illegally establish settlements and outposts while also preventing Palestinians from accessing their land.

Rejecting the significance of the Palestinians’ attempt to register their ownership of the land under Jordanian law (which was still in process and not complete at the time the process was frozen by Israel), the Court ruled on the basis of aerial photos which showed the land was not cultivated between 1969-1980. The ruling punishes Palestinians who, having cultivated land during the period before Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, did not (and likely could not) continue to cultivate that land following the 1967 war.  It establishes a new legal precedent according to which Palestinians who established land ownership under Ottoman law through the cultivation of that land for 10 years, can now have that ownership declared “lost” if they have subsequently left the land uncultivated for three or more years.

Shlomi Zacharia, a lawyer from Yesh Din that is representing the Palestinian petitioners, explained:

“The ruling offers a wide opening for a huge takeover of Palestinian land, and in effect this is a cancellation of Jordanian regularization procedures, just at a time when Israel is interested in renewing regularization procedures. The ruling contradicts itself on numerous points, and fails to address the huge complexity of the issue, certainly in light of the fact that the area is occupied territory. The undermining of Palestinian rights, with an emphasis on absentees, but not exclusively, is major, and it is evident that the court is aware of that but chooses nevertheless to approve a practice that already four decades ago was ruled illegal.”

After the court decision on Tuesday, Israel was reportedly planning to legalize two additional outposts, Netiv Ha’avot and Sde Boaz, as well as structures in as many as 20 settlements, using the same legal basis.

The Netiv Ha’avot outpost, in particular, has a long history of being at the forefront of Israel’s hand-wringing over its desire to retroactively legalize even outposts clearly built on land that even Israel recognizes is privately owned by Palestinians. See Peace Now’s comprehensive recap of the Netiv Ha’avot saga, in addition to FMEP’s reporting.

Planning Committee Rejects Appeal Against Overtly Political Hebron Elevator Project

On November 19th, the Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Council rejected two appeals against a plan to build accessible infrastructure, including an elevator, at the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarch in Hebron — a plan which requires Israel to seize land from the Islamic Waqf. The Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, which was behind one of the rejected petitions, raised several objections to the plan’s archeological and planning deficits. The Palestinian Municipality of Hebron submitted a second objection (now rejected) citing how the plan and Israel’s advancement of it violates agreements signed by Israel relating to governance and planning in Hebron. 

Emek Shaveh announced that it will not pursue further legal appeals against the plan, citing the consequences of a law passed by the Knesset in July 2018 which brought West Bank land disputes under the domestic jurisdiction of the Jerusalem District Court. Before the passage of that law (and since 1967), the court of first jurisdiction for cases related to Palestinians living in the West Bank — such as cases in which Palestinians want to challenge State actions (and inactions) regarding planning and construction, travel permits, freedom of information, and freedom of movement — was the Israeli High Court of Justice, reflecting the extraordinariness of Israeli judges issuing extra-territorial legal rulings. The 2018 law stripped Palestinians of this direct avenue to the High Court of Justice and compelled Palestinians living in the West Bank to file petitions with the Jerusalem District Court. The High Court of Justice now only hears Palestinians’ cases on appeal from the district court, adding more time and higher costs to any potential appellant. In a statement, Emek Shaveh said that it fears that if it brings this specific case to the Jerusalem District Court – which has a clear pro-settlements bent, openly manufactured by former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – it risks setting a “dangerous precedent for building at holy sites.”

Emek Shaveh further said:

“Following a prolonged process which revealed that the plan to build a lift at the most important ancient site in the West Bank was approved without serious attention to the historical, archaeological, and architectural aspects, the Civil Administration has decided to approve the plan. The frequent statements by politicians that they had instructed the planning bodies and the Civil Administration to approve the plan as soon as possible, and the speed of the approval process do not leave any room for doubt that political motivations were driving of this decision. The decision to violate the status quo of the fragile arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians may have long-term implications. Unfortunately what happens in Hebron does not remain in Hebron. Often, the dynamics at the Tomb of the Patriarch correspond with developments at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. The approval of the plan and the involvement of politicians in the planning processes could constitute a precedent that will impact other sites. We have looked into our legal options and decided not to pursue a petition to the Jerusalem District Court. In the past, petitions pertaining to the West Bank were discussed at the High Court of Justice, but this is no longer the case. It is our understanding that a hearing at the Jerusalem District Court will not improve our chances of reversing the plan and may even create a dangerous precedent for building at holy sites.”

Benny Gantz Make Clear His Support for Retroactive Legalization of Outposts on “State Land”

Two noteworthy events over the past week have led Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue & White) to clarify his position with respect to support for granting retroactive authorization to some of the 124 outposts and settlement structures that were built without Israeli authorization. The events highlight a growing division within the Blue & White Party, which was previously seen as representing a liberal-centrists ideology within the currency (crumbling) coalition government.

First, on November 25th, Israeli Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) announced that he is working with Blue & White Defense Ministry official Michael Biton to prepare a government decision to grant authorization to the outposts. Hanegbi’s insinuation that Blue & White is advancing a plan to issue a broad authorization for illegal outposts elicited a contradiction from Biton, who quickly distanced himself (and his party) from Hanegbi’s comments, insisting that he would only consider a decision that has the support of Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and that Hanegbi did not coordinate the announcement of that project with him.

Following that incident, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevich (Blue & White) caused even more controversy when she not only offered her support for the retroactive authorization of settlements to a crowd of pro-settlement protestors, but also told the protestors – who were gathered outside of the Prime Minister’s office to push for outpost regulation –  that Benny Gantz supports the move as well. 

Yankelevich’s comments resulted in a discussion of the matter at the recent Blue & White faction meeting, during which Gantz reportedly clarified for members of his party that he only supports granting retroactive legalization to outposts built on “state land.” Gantz also said that Michael Biton’s work concerns sorting out what outposts are built on state land and which have more complicated land ownership claims (i.e., outposts built on land that even Israel has been forced to recognize is privately owned by Palestinians).

The statements and reports about Blue & White party members over the past week suggest that Gantz’s party has lined up behind the position of Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit (known as “market regulation”) which is not as sweeping as most settlers would like to see, but nonetheless stands to see some 2,000 illegal structures magically become legal.

Adding to the crescendo of voices pushing for Netanyahu to act on outpost legalization, longtime right-wing settlement supporter and Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett called on Netanyahu to issue the approval swiftly. Politically, Bennett is on the ascent according to Israeli public polling, and is predicted to gain seats for his right wing alliance if new elections are indeed held. Clearly politicizing his position, Bennett said:

“There are more than 60 fledgling settlement communities…The Prime Minister promised in public to apply sovereignty over every settlement, but in practice hasn’t extended sovereignty over a single inch [of Judea and Samaria]….Don’t be afraid. They tried to scare me off of approving the establishment of a new neighborhood in Hebron, but I made the decision, ending 20 years of a building freeze. We are currently in a window of opportunity that will be closing. For years we heard all sorts of excuses. But the truth is, the decision is up to the prime minister.”

Likud Minister Calls For Israel to Enforce “Symmetry” of Construction in Area B + C of West Bank

During a tour of Area C in the West Bank – where settlers and their allies allege that the Palestinian Authority is orchestrating a brilliantly effective campaign to “steal” land from Israel – Likud MK and former Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat said that Israel should not only undertake a concerted effort to stop Palestinian construction in Area C but should enforce “symmetry” in Area B construction as well, enabling equal construction by settlers and Palestinians. 

As a reminder, Area B (in which Israel retains security control, but the Palestinians have civilian control) makes up some 21% of the West Bank; Area C (in which Israel retains full control) accounts for around 60% of the West Bank. In effect, Barkat is calling for Israel to treat Area B the same as it treats Area C — that is, to assert settlers’ right to build on fully 81% of the West Bank (meaning all of the West Bank except Area A, the 18% of the West Bank comprised of the narrowly-defined built-up area of Palestinian cities and adjacent villages). 

Barkat said:

“Today’s tour showed me that we need to perform a large series of actions to make sure that in the open areas, both in Area C and in Area B and in Judea and Samaria in general, there is symmetry between the activities we do and those of the Palestinians. It cannot be that one side blatantly builds in the open spaces and the other side converges inward into the settlements. This is unthinkable. In Jerusalem I was very strict about symmetry. What is good for Jews is good for Arabs. When you go up here you can also go up there. This symmetry is the key to success in looking ahead. I’m glad I was here today on the tour. I’m happy about the determination and what I saw. I will do everything I can with the tools I have, to see how they take the plan I made, the Barkat development plan for two million people for settlement. On this plan should now be added a second phase. Make sure the open spaces aren’t no man’s land. That Israelis and Palestinians use it appropriately – either no one uses or both sides use it symmetrically. This will be a key to what we need to do going forward.”

Bahrain: No Annexation. Also Bahrain: Settlements Are Israel

In a not-so-surprising yet shocking announcement, a senior Bahraini official announced that Bahrain will not differentiate between Israel and its settlements, in effect recognizing Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. The Bahraini announcement – which relates to how Bahrain will require Israel to label goods imported into the country – follows the significant shift in U.S. policy on labelling a few weeks ago. With respect to settlement products, Bahraini Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani said: 

“we will recognize them as Israeli products. And all Bahraini products, hopefully, will be recognized in Israel as Bahraini products. I don’t see, frankly, a distinction on which part or which city or which region it was manufactured or sourced from.”

Efrat settlement leader Oded Revivi rejoiced at Bahrain’s support for settlements, saying:

“Now we must adopt this view with our neighbors within and without Israeli borders. Buying products from Judea and Samaria strengthens the joint industrial areas, brings together cultures and actually strengthens peace. This is a message to Israelis and the world.”

Aid to Amb. Friedman Appointed to Key Post, Will Stay In Control of U.S. Normalization Programs 

Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone – who has served as a key aide to Ambassador David Friedman – has been installed as the Director of the Abraham Fund, a new investment fund that is the direct outgrowth of the normalization agreement signed by the U.S, Israel, and the UAE. Prior to serving in government, Lightstone was a prominent fundraiser for the radical far-right, proto-fascist Israeli group Im Tirtzu. Im Tirtzu makes it its business to attack and smear human rights organizations, accusing groups like the New Israel Fund and Breaking the Silence (and the individuals who work there) of being anti-Israel and seeking to defund them.

The fund is supposed to serve as the vehicle by which the U.S. advances business ties and investments between Israel, the U.S., and the Arab world – and has already raised $3 billion. The Fund, according to JTA, has been directly attached to the U.S. International Development Finance Corp (DFC), the U.S. government’s development bank. The relationship between the Fund and the DFC has already alarmed at least one Democratic Senate aide, who told JTA that the DFC must act in a strictly non-political manner, whereas the Abraham Fund is already engaging in highly political issues with its first project devoted to “modernizing” checkpoints across the West Bank.

JTA reports that Democrats in Congress are alarmed at Lightstone’s appointment to this post because it is a career government role, not a position which can be easily replaced by the incoming Biden Administration. Lightstone’s leadership at the Abraham Fund is clearly an effort to ensure that the Trump Administration’s legacy of pro-settlement, pro-annexationist policies will continue to be a part of how the U.S. will engage the region.

Bonus Reads

1. “Trump administration to name political appointee with ties to Israel’s right wing to Middle East development post” (JTA)
2. “Inside Trump and Netanyahu’s ‘end of season’ settlement bonanza” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Israel and PA push for control of West Bank’s Area C via land registration” (Jerusalem Post)
4. “Eight climate activists arrested in protest against new West Bank industrial zone” (+972 Magazine)
5. “Palestinians voice concern over new colonial settlement in Hebron’s Old City” (Wafa)
6. “Jerusalem cable car taken to Israel’s highest court” (Al-Monitor)
7. Would Trump Recognize Israeli Sovereignty in East Jerusalem? – analysis” (Jerusalem Post)
8. “Trump-Heights settlement in Golan here to stay” (Al-Monitor)
9. “A Life Exposed: Military invasions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank” (Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Breaking the Silence)

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

September 11, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ir Amim notes:

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

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

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

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

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

Peace Now said in a statement: 

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

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

Haaretz columnist Nir Hasson tells the story:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emek Shaveh said in a statement:

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

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

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

State Attempting to Circumvent High Court Order Against Mitzpe Kramim Outpost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terrestrial Jerusalem writes: 

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

The report ends with a warning:

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

Bonus Reads

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

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 19, 2020

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

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

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High Court Overturns Settlement Regulation Law

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

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

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

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

B’Tselem said:

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

Does It Matter?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terrestrial Jerusalem founder Daniel Seidemann explains:

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

Israel Announces New Opening Date for Givat Hamatos Settlement Tender

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

Peace Now said in a statement:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israel Demolishes Structures in Two Outposts, Arrests 13 Settlers

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

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

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

Israel Continues Prepping for Annexation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gantz Suggests Annexing Two Large “Consensus” Settlement Areas First

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus Reads

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

 

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

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

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Fuel on the Fire: Netanyahu Advances E-1 Settlement Plans

On February 26th, the High Planning Council of the Israeli Civil Administration deposited for public review two separate plans (for a combined total of 3,401 units) for the construction of the infamous E-1 settlement. This move sets in motion a 60-day public commenting period, after which the committee can grant final approval for construction. Long called a “doomsday” settlement by supporters of a two-state solution, construction of the E-1 settlement would sever the West Bank effectively in half,  foreclosing the possibility of drawing a border between Israel and Palestine in a manner which preserves territorial contiguity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. It would likewise consolidate the isolation of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the West Bank. In combination with the recent advancements on Givat Hamatos and new tenders for Har Homa,  Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Greater Jerusalem settlement construction announcements – leading up to the third round of Israeli elections – have crossed red lines (in the eyes of the international community) that Netanyahu didn’t dare cross in the past.

The day before the High Planning Committee’s decision to deposit the plans, Netanyahu announced that he had lifted the freeze on E-1 that his government has imposed since 2012. Though the plans were approved for deposit in 2012, the administrative act of actually depositing the plans (which requires the plans to be published in at least three newspapers to inform the public) never occurred, largely as a result of intense international opposition to E-1. Under the recently released Trump Plan, the area where E-1 is located is slated to become part of Israel, meaning the long-held U.S. opposition to E-1 has transformed into apparent support.

Peace Now explains important context to Netanyahu’s flood of East Jerusalem settlement approvals:

“This move to promote settlement units in E1 should be understood in the context of government actions to promote settlement construction in Givat Hamatos and Har Homa to sever the Bethlehem-Jerusalem continuum, and the early promotion of a plan to turn the decommissioned Atarot Airport into a new Jerusalem settlement that would work toward severing the Ramallah-Jerusalem continuum. With E1 added to the mix, the pattern of severing the East Jerusalem and the West Bank is a clear policy direction of this government. While this announcement may be connected to the upcoming election, Netanyahu should be taken at his word and his comments should not be written off as campaign bluster. Indeed just this week he fulfilled a promise he made the week prior to publish tenders in Givat HaMatos, another area that was seen as a red line by the international community. It is likely that if moving on E1 is not met with deterring action domestically or abroad then it will further encourage settlement activity, seeing as E1 is the most recognized red line on settlement construction. The US, which has traditionally played a large role in deterring activity in E1, will likely not do so now with its current administration. Indeed, the Trump Plan envisions E1 as part of Israel, and allows for Israeli annexation pending coordination with the US and not negotiations with the Palestinians.”

Ir Amim adds:

“Although these advancements have taken place against the backdrop of the upcoming Israeli elections, they should also be seen as an alarm bell in the context of a new reality which has been created with the publication of the US Peace Plan. Carte blanche has essentially been given to Netanyahu and the Israeli government to further carry out unilateral measures in the Jerusalem area with little to no resistance. An acute exemplification of this major shift is the spate of new settlement plans (Atarot, Har Homa E, Givat Hamatos) being advanced over the Green Line in East Jerusalem, and now within the E1 area. After years of restraint due to international opposition, Israel is now set to advance construction in some of the most controversial areas in Jerusalem and along its perimeter. The realization of these plans will serve as an immense obstacle towards the future establishment of a Palestinian capital in the city and the prospect of a negotiated agreement based on a viable two-state framework.”

PLO Executive Committeewoman Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement: 

“With the active participation and support of the current US administration, Israel is unilaterally and illegally annexing Palestinian territory and trampling on the Palestinian people’s most basic rights. These announcements are the practical translation of an extremist, ideologically-driven, and dangerous right-wing agenda that trounces Palestinian human rights and threatens to unravel the international order in favor of unilateralism, exceptionalism and political bullying.”

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, said:

“I am very concerned about Israel’s recent announcements regarding the advancement of settlement construction in Giv’at Hamatos and Har Homa, as well as the worrying plans for 3,500 units in the controversial E1 area of the occupied West Bank. All settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace. If the E1 plan were to be implemented, it would sever the connection between northern and southern West Bank, significantly undermining the chances for establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution. I urge the Israeli authorities to refrain from such unilateral actions that fuel instability and further erode the prospects for resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.”

Making Good On Bibi’s Promise, Israel Issues Tenders for Givat Hamatos Settlement – And Plans for More

As expected, on February 24th the Israeli Lands Authority published a tender for the construction of 1,077 housing units in the Givat Hamatos settlement. Haaretz reports that the tender relates to plans for “state land” and are intended to be sold as part of the the Treasury Ministry’s subsidized housing plan for young Jewish couples. Private companies will invited to bid on the project starting March 5th, with bidding set to close on June 22nd.

In addition to issuing tenders, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee met on February 27th to discuss the possibility of creating a new master plan for Givat Hamatos, in order to allow for more construction in the area. Ir Amim reports that the committee is considering a plan allowing for 6,500 residential units – which nearly doubles the total outlined in the current plan.

Ir Amim writes:

“This is the first time since the late 1990’s that Israel is constructing a new neighborhood/settlement in East Jerusalem. Furthermore, the location of Givat Hamatos means that its consturction will have dire consequences: It will serve to detach Bethlehem and the south of the West Bank from East Jerusalem while isolating the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. For several years Netanyahu has abstained from publishing the Givat Hamatos tenders, serving as a source of frustration among rightwing parties. Netanyahu’s announcement therefore constitutes a break in the longstanding restraint. This dramatic change of policy should be seen in the context of his re-election campaign and against the backdrop of the formal release of the US Peace Plan.”

In announcing his support for the construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement last week, Netanyahu also mentioned plans to build 1,000 new homes for Palestinian residents of Beit Safafa – an East Jerusalem neighborhood which will be completely encircled by Israeli construction if/when the Givat Hamatos and Har Homa West settlement plans are implemented. According to Haaretz, the plan was/is to build 1,000 units on “Arab-owned” land — and that plan, in fact, is frozen.

In reaction to the tender for construction of the Givat Hamatos settlement, European Union High Representative Josep Borrell said in a statement:

“The Israeli authorities have announced an imminent decision regarding settlement construction in the Givat Hamatos and Har Homa neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Such steps would be deeply detrimental to a two-state-solution. As set out clearly on numerous occasions by the European Union, including in Council conclusions, such steps would cut the geographic and territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, isolate Palestinian communities living in these areas, and threaten the viability of a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as capital of both states. Settlements are illegal under international law. The EU will not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties. We call on Israel to reconsider these plans.”

High Planning Council Advances Plans for 1,739 Settlement Units, Including a New Industrial Zone

On February 27th, the High Planning Council – a body within the Israeli Civil Administration responsible for regulating all construction in the West Bank – approved the advancement of plans for 1,739 settlement units in the West Bank. These advancements come on the heels of the publication of tenders to build the E-1 settlement , the initiation of plans to massively expand the Har Homa settlement, and the recommitment of Israel to build a new massive new settlement in East Jerusalem, at the site of the disused Atarot airport. All of these plans deal with construction on the edges of Jerusalem and serve collectively to sever the connection between Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the West Bank (consolidating Israel’s uncontested sovereignty over “Greater Jerusalem”).

Of the total, 703 units received final approval, including:

• Plans to grant retroactive legalization to 620 units in the Eli settlement, a move which had been frozen by the High Court of Justice for the past 5 years while the Court considered a petition filed by Palestinians (with the assistance of Yesh Din and Bimkom) claiming to own the land. Last week, the High Court ruled against the Pallestinian petition and removed the injunction against the plans. The Eli settlement is located  south of Nablus and southeast of the Ariel settlement in the central West Bank
• 48 units in the Har Bracha settlement, located just south of Nablus
• 35 units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement, located south west of Ramallah (north of Jerusalem).

Of the total, 1,036 units were approved for deposit for public review, including: 

• A new industrial zone – called “Shaar Hashomron” – to be located south of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya (a town which is literally surrounded on three sides by the Israeli separation barrier – which in this area is, indeed, a massive wall). Peace Now reports: “[the new industrial zone is] close to Green Line, east of Salfit and South of Qalqilya, near the planned Nahal Rabah cemetery. In the area of Nahal Rabah, there existed a firing zone for years that prevented the use of the land. The land’s designation as a firing zone was lifted a few years ago, and the government’s Blue Line team set new boundaries for the state lands that comprised this area, all in preparation for a plan to build a new industrial zone. Industrial zones are a type of settlement in of themselves, and the planned cemetery is likely to be the first component toward establishing the new industrial zone. The plan for this new industrial park is separate from the 1,739 housing units advanced in the HPC announcement.”
• A winery in the Kiryat Arba settlement, located on the border of Hebron.
• 534 units in the Shvut Rachel settlement, located near the Shilo settlement in the central West Bank. Shvut Rachel only recently became an authorized settlement area when Israel extended the jurisdiction of the Shiloh settlement to include it as a “neighborhood” (along with three other outposts). 
• Two plans for a total of 156 units in the Tzofim settlement, located just north of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya, a town completely encircled by Israel’s seperation barrier (except for a single road connecting it to the rest of the West Bank) – in the northern West Bank.
• 110 units in the Alon Shvut settlement, located south west of Bethlehem.
• 106 units in the Ma’aleh Shomron settlement, located east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya.
• 105 units in Kfar Eldad (formally a part of the Nokdim settlement), located south of Bethlehem.
• 24 units in the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel is planning to continue expanding Karnei Shomron with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area surrounding the settlement.

The Times of Israel notes that this is the second time the High Planning Council has convened in as many months, marking an uptick in the frequency of such meetings, which until now have taken place quarterly (4x/year) since the Trump Administration came into power.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The caretaker government, without a public and moral mandate, sets facts on the ground for a small and extreme minority, against the will of the majority. In the battle over the settler right-wing vote, Bennett and Netanyahu are dragging Israel to invest in thousands of harmful and unnecessary settlement units. This is how a cynical and irresponsible leadership that is willing to abandon the Israeli interest for its political survival behaves.”

Netanyahu Orders 12 Outposts Hooked Up to Israeli Infrastructure, with More to Follow

On February 23rd, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had ordered 12 unauthorized outposts to be connected to Israeli infrastructure, and that his government was working to formally legalize over 100 outposts. Connecting outposts to Israeli water, sewer, power, garbage collection, and other municipal services entrenches the permanence of these outposts and furthers the de facto annexation of Palestinian land.  It also copiously rewarding settlers for breaking Israeli law (by illegally building outposts), incentivizing further lawbreaking by Israel’s most radical and ideological settlers.

According to a letter from Netanyahu’s office, the 12 unauthorized outposts that will be connected to Israeli infrastructure were all built with “government encouragement” (though not formal approval or permits). In a perversion of the very notion of the “rule of law,” this unofficial encouragement for illegal actions is now treated by Israel as a valid legal basis for granting those outposts authorization.

The outposts slated for connection to Israeli municipal services are: 

• The Nofei Nehemia outpost, located east of the Ariel settlement in the heart of the West Bank.
• The Havot Yair (Yair Farm) outpost, located west of Nablus.
• An outpost called “Hill 851”, located south east of Nablus in the central West Bank.
• The Maoz Zvi outpost, located in the northern West Bank.
• The Shaharit outpost, located in a string of settlements stretching from Israel proper to the Ariel settlement in the central West Bank, and going on to the Jordan Valley.
• The Pnei Kedem Farm outpost, located halfway between Bethlehem and Hebron in the southern West Bank.
• The Tekoa D outpost, located southeast of Bethlehem.
• The Negohot Farm outpost, located west of Hebron. 
• The Avigayil outpost, located in the South Hebron Hills near the village of Susya.
• The Asa’el outpost, located east of the Palestinian village of Susiya in the southern tip of the West Bank. 
• The Esh Kodesh outpost, located east of the Ariel and Shilo settlements, in a string of settlements stretching to the Jordan Valley.
• Ahiya, located in the Shilo Valley in the central West Bank.

David Elhayani, head of the umbrella settlement body called the Yesha Council, cheered Netanyahu’s announcement, saying:

“This is an important step for the benefit of young communities that have been suffering from electricity problems for years, and will now be able to receive electricity, just like any other citizen in the country.”

Since the passage of the Regulation Law in February 2017 and the invention of the “market regulation” principle by the Israeli Attorney General, the Netanyahu government has undertaken an energetic effort to grant retroactive legalization to outposts for which the Israeli government has not yet found a means to grant retroactive approval (though it has tried). The obstacle in all of these cases has been the fact that the outposts were built on privately owned Palestinian land. Following passage of the Regulation Law, Netanyahu immediately formed a committee tasked with finding a way to suspend the property rights of Palestinians; that committee produced the Zandberg Report in May 2018 — a report that, indeed, offers several justifications for the government to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land (one of the Report’s recommendations is to connect the outposts to Israeli municipal services). Following the publication of the Zandberg report, Netanyahu formed another committee tasked with implementing the report’s recommendations, by preparing individualized plans for each outpost to gain retroactive legalization. That taskforce, headed by notorious settler Pinchas Wallerstein. helped secure Cabinet approval for another bill to grant authorization to 66 outposts. All but two of the outposts named by Netanyahu this week (Hill 851 & Negohot) were part of a December 2018 bill to regulate 66 outposts – a fact that has drawn the wrath of settler leaders who bemoan Netanyahu’s delayed implementation.

FMEP tracks all events related to Israeli annexation and the drive to authorize outposts in its regularly updated Annexation Policy Tables.

Israel is Planning New West Bank Electricity Grid to Serve the Settlements

Haaretz reports that the Israeli government is close to approving a Master Plan for a new electricity grid in the West Bank, which will service Israel’s settlements. It may also serve Palestinian villages but only if — and it is a big if — the Palestinian Authority agrees to jointly implement the project. The plan is in the hands of Israel’s National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Ministry, which seeks to “provide a blueprint for the electricity market in the West Bank through 2040 and to develop infrastructure for Israeli settlements as well as for the Palestinians residing there.” However, the Israel-conceived plan calls upon the the Palestinian Authority to take responsibility over the Palestinian side of the equation, and the PA has refused to play that role and has condemned the plan.

In a statement, the Palestinian Authority’s Energy Authority said that the plan is designed:

“to establish Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and to support the brutal presence of the settlements on our land.”

Settler leaders concurred with the PA’s assessment. Gush Etzion Regional Council chairman Shlomo Ne’eman told Haaretz: 

“All moves point to sovereignty, and when we build infrastructure, there is also a basic understanding that the State of Israel is the sovereign. We are pleased that more and more government ministries have realized that this sovereignty is the reality.”

The plan, as reported by Haaretz, would see the Israeli Electric Company build a vast network of power lines across the West Bank. Israel will build six substations in Area C of the West Bank to distribute the high voltage power to settlements. Palestinians, if they are willing, are called upone to build eight substations in order to distribute power to Palestinian homes. The project is expected to cost between $870 million to $1.2 billion. The integration of settlements into Israel’s domestic planning schemes and the construction of massive infrastructure in the West Bank to service the settlements are significant advancements in Israel’s ongoing, de facto annexation of land in the West Bank. 

Deputy Israeli AG Bemoans “Alarming Accumulation” Of Cases in Which Political Echelon Stops Outpost Evacuations

Haaretz reports that the Israeli Civil Administration planned  to evacuate the unauthorized Mitzpe Yehuda outpost, located east of Jerusalem, in September 2019, but was directed to cancel the evacuation by one of Netanyahu’s personal aids in the Defense Ministry – Avi Roeh. The political interference was revealed in a High Court case filed by Palestinians claiming to own the land upon which the outpost was illegally constructed. The Palestinians are seeking to have the outpost immediately evacuated. Settlers claim to have purchased the land, and even submitted an application to have the outpost retroactively legalized by the government.

At the time of the scandal, Deputy Attorney General Erez Kaminitz wrote to Ronen Peretz, acting director of the Prime Minister’s Office, criticizing Roeh’s role in the Mitzpe Yehuda case, as well as the recurrence of political interference on behalf of the outposts. Citing several cases in which such interference occurred (Sde Ephraim, Givat Assaf, and Havat Negohot), Kaminitz wrote:

“This is a very alarming accumulation of cases that raises the specter of the emergence of a highly problematic trend that undermines the rule of law. It’s important to make clear that, as a rule, the political echelon is not authorized to intervene in decisions related to law enforcement.

Joint U.S.-Israeli Annexation Mapping Team Begin Work in Ariel

On February 24th, members of the U.S.-Israeli team tasked with mapping Israel’s annexation of West Bank land under the Trump Plan met for the first time to “explore the terrain.” At a vista near the Ariel settlement, Netanyahu underscored the significance of the project:

“The joint mapping process of the Israeli team and the American team is underway here in Ariel. This is a major mission. The area has an 800-km. perimeter. There is serious work, but we will work as quickly as possible to get it done…[the mapping process will] allow for the application of Israeli law [sovereignty] on these areas and later American recognition as well…[once complete] sovereignty can happen immediately.”

U.S. Ambassador David Friedman said:

“In Israel rain is a blessing, and I hope that our efforts should be blessed as much as the rain is coming down right now,” Friedman declared before the meeting started, the US Embassy in Jerusalem said in a statement. “We have our team here, and we’re going to get to work right away. We hope to complete it as soon as possible, and complete it the right way for the State of Israel.”

Ariel Mayor Eli Shaviro – one of the few settler leaders who publicly supports the Trump Plan – praised the mapping team, saying:

“The sovereignty ship is under way. As I have said in the past, I believe that the prime minister will advance the ‘Deal of the Century’ with President Trump and US officials.  believe that the application of Israeli law in the Jordan Valley and in the communities of Judea and Samaria is closer than ever.”

Shaviro recently resigned from the settler Yesha Council over the group’s disavowal of the Trump Plan.

Bonus Reads + Resources

1. “An Alternative Guide to City of David Archeological Park” (Emek Shaveh)
2. “The Trump plan threatens the status quo at al-Haram al-Sharif”  (Al Jazeera)
3. “50 ex-European leaders and FMs condemn Trump plan, cite apartheid similarities” (The Times of Israel)
4. “Planned Western Wall Train Will Threaten Historic Jerusalem Spring, Report Says” (Haaretz)
5. “The Israelis fighting to keep the Jordan Valley Palestinian” (Al-Monitor)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 22, 2019

1. 1. Trump Administration Reverses U.S. Policy on Legality of Israeli Settlements
   2. A Quick Review of U.S. Settlement Policy
   3. Reactions to the New U.S. Settlement Policy
   4. European Union Rejects Conflation, Upholds Labelling of Goods from Settlements
   5. Will the Trump Admin Implement Conflation by Changing U.S. Labelling Policy?
   6. Netanyahu Backs Bill to Annex the Jordan Valley
   7. Tender Published for First Ever Ma’ale Adumim Hotel
   8. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Contact Kristin at kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Trump Administration Reverses U.S. Policy on Legality of Israeli Settlements 

On November 18th — on the heels of the European Court of Justice’s ruling in support of accurate labeling of settlement products — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that a comprehensive legal review by the State Department concluded that Israeli settlements are not “per se inconsistent with international law”:

“We believe that what we’ve done today is we have recognized the reality on the ground. We’ve now declared that settlements are not per se illegal under international law, and we have provided…the very space for Israel and the Palestinians to come together to find a political solution to this very, very vexing problem.”

According to a senior White House official, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman drove the effort to change U.S. policy on settlements, a mission that the ideologically-driven Ambassador began working on from the early days of his appointment. Friedman, who is much closer to President Trump than Secretary Pompeo,  offered a much more succinct and direct description of the latest policy shift, tweeting:

“After commissioning a lengthy and comprehensive review of the issues, Secretary Pompeo has concluded that Israeli civilian settlements in Judea and Samaria are not categorically illegal.”

Pompeo also stated that the U.S. will defer to Israeli courts concerning the legality of specific settlements – in effect suggesting that the U.S. is treating Israel as the sovereign power in the West Bank with sole authority to determine the legality/illegality of construction in it (a position which is arguably indistinguishable from recognition of Israeli annexation):

“we recognize that – as Israeli courts have – the legal conclusions relating to individual settlements must depend on an assessment of specific facts and circumstances on the ground.  Therefore, the United States Government is expressing no view on the legal status of any individual settlement. The Israeli legal system affords an opportunity to challenge settlement activity and assess humanitarian considerations connected to it. Israeli courts have confirmed the legality of certain settlement activities and has concluded that others cannot be legally sustained…”

As a reminder, the Israeli High Court of Justice is currently weighing major cases related to settlements, and specifically to the right of Israel to retroactively “legalize” illegal settler construction by means of seizing private Palestinian land. These cases highlight the fact that, in the opinion of Israel’s top law enforcement official, Israel has the right to suspend the rule of law to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and give it to Israeli settlers; the only disagreement he has with the Knesset is over the method of doing so. Specifically, the cases revolve around two competing legal strategies for legalizing outposts, as put forward by the government of Israel: 

1. The “market regulation” principle is a legal strategy developed by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit in November 2017. According to this principle – which contradicts any notion of rule of law or the sanctity of private property rights – Israeli settlement structures and outposts built illegally on private Palestinian land can be legalized by the State if the State determines that the Israeli settlers acted “in good faith” when they took over and built on the land. The principle has been twice accepted by the Jerusalem District Court as a valid basis for taking land/legalizing settlement structures; it is now pending, on appeal, before the Israeli High Court, in two separate cases (the Mitzpe Kramim outpost case and the Alei Zehav outpost case). How the Court rules in these cases will, in effect, be the final decision on the constitutionality of the “market regulation” principle. (Note for readers who are deep follow this issue in detail: the market regilation principle was first advanced in relation to the Haresha outpost; the State subsequently found yet another basis  (in this case, construction of a road) for temporary expropriating privately owned Palestinian land to pave the way for the retroactive legalization of Haresha).
2. The settlement “Regulation Law” was passed by the Knesset in February 2017. Its purpose is, in effect, to direct the Israeli government to literally suspend the rule of law to seize privately owned Palestinian land for the benefit of settlers. The law was quickly challenged by civil society groups and has ever since been frozen while the High Court of Justice considers its constitutionality. Despite the freeze, in December 2018 the Israeli Cabinet voted unanimously to endorse a bill – called the “Young Settlements Bill” or “Regulation Law 2” – that, on the basis of the Regulation Law, directs the government to treat 66 unauthorized outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land as legal settlements, while giving the government 2 years to find a way to legalize them retroactively. It should be noted that Israeli Attorney General Mandleblit opposed both the Regulation Law and the “Young Settlements Bill,” and in fact called on the High Court of Justice to overturn the Regulation Law (in favor of his own “market regulation principle.” In a letter to the High Court Justices, Mandleblit argued that implementing the “market regulation principle” is “a more proportionate and balanced measure than the arrangement prescribed in the Regulation Law,” providing a more narrow legal basis by which Israel can strip Palestinian landowners of their rights (estimating that 2,000 structures can be legalized under the “market regulation principle,” compared to an estimated 4,000 under the Regulation Law).

FMEP tracks all Knesset, Cabinet, and Judicial action related to annexation in its Annexation Policy Tables. For Knesset legislation related to annexation, see Yesh Din’s handy Annexation Legislation Database.

A Quick Review of U.S. Policy on Settlements 

The Nov. 18th announcement adds yet another chapter to the decades-long dance of U.S. Presidents articulating the stated U.S. policy vis a vis Israeli settlements, which by and large has remained remarkably consistent. 

The closest U.S. policy has ever come to calling the settlements illegal was under the Carter Administration, which produced the Hansell Memorandum to Congress stating  that the U.S. holds settlements are “inconsistent with international law.” However, Carter’s Chief of Staff wrote an even further in a memo  where he wrote “Our position on illegal settlements is well know.” The memo used the term “illegal” 16 times. 

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan softened the Carter Administration’s language, instead insisting that settlements are merely harmful to the peace process, language which has been echoed, if not in exact wording, by all the following administrations. Notably, President Reagan was the first U.S. President to call for a settlement freeze. 

Under Pres. George H.W. Bush, the stated U.S. policy was to “oppose new settlements in territories beyond the 1967 lines.”  Bush then insisted on conditioning U.S. loan guarantees to Israel based on Israel’s settlement activity. 

President Clinton called the settlements an “obstacle to peace” and later, in 2001, said that the settlement enterprise “is inconsistent with the Oslo commitment.” 

The “Roadmap”  produced by President George W. Bush insisted on a settlement freeze and the evacuation of outposts. 

The Obama Administration continued to call for a settlement freeze. At the tail end of the Obama Adminstration, in December 2016, Pres. Obama abstained from vetoing (but did not actively support) the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” While pains have been taken by the U.S. to perfectly enunciate its publicly stated policy, successive Israeli governments have continued to build settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem without consequences.

Noura Erekat, Palestinian human rights attorney, legal scholar, writer, and assistant professor at Rutgers University, explains the consistency in U.S. settlement policy over the years:

“This is not necessarily a reversal in U.S. policy, only in its stated policy. For 50 — for more than five decades, since 1967, all U.S. administrations have talked out of both sides of their mouth. On the one hand, they have condemned settlements as counterproductive to peace and as a contravention of international law, and, on the other hand, have provided Israel with the unequivocal diplomatic, military and financial aid in order to entrench their settlements. Even the Obama administration, as it was abstaining on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning the settlements as a flagrant violation, has been part of the problem. They issued that abstention only two weeks before they left office. Simultaneously, the Obama administration increased aid from $3 billion to $3.8 billion a year. And in 2012, that same administration used its first veto at the Security Council to condemn a resolution, a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning settlements using exact U.S. foreign policy language on settlements. So, what we’re seeing now is not a sharp reversal of U.S. foreign policy on the question of settlements and Palestine, but instead the culmination of it. For us to blame this on Trump is basically to exculpate ourselves and to create a revisionist history. Instead, we should be accountable and actually take responsibility for how we have been part of this problem.”

The overwhelming majority of the international community holds that all Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank are illegal pursuant to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states (as excerpted by Amnesty International): 

“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.

Reactions to the New U.S. Settlement Policy

The following are statements made by key international actors, organizations, and civil society organizations in reaction to the U.S. settlement announcement. Reactions from Israel – both predictable and unpredictable – are nicely summarized and analyzed by The Times of Israel settlements correspondent Jacob Magid here.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Malki called on the international community to issue a firm response to the U.S. declaration, saying in a statement:

“The State of Palestine condemns in the strongest terms the US administration’s lawless position on Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied territory of the State of Palestine, as announced by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This position violates international law, decades-long international consensus over the issue and determinations of the International Court of Justice, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and United Nations resolutions, including Security Council resolutions. The current US Administration has adopted an anti-Palestinian agenda and endeavored to empower and legitimize the Israeli colonial settler agenda. This ideologically driven and irresponsible policy, including this most recent announcement by Secretary Pompeo, proves beyond any doubt that the current US administration has aligned itself with Israel’s illegal colonial enterprise and thus fails to meet the most basic requirements to play any role in any future solution. This administration cannot and will not rewrite international law. However, the Trump administration’s disregard to the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights is symptomatic of its disregard and contempt to the rules-based international system and multilateralism, whose effects go beyond the Question of Palestine. Allowing this agenda to prevail would ensure the demise of the international order and cause irreversible damage to the achievements of humanity over the past seven decades and threatens to plunge the world into chaos and violence. The State of Palestine will not stop pursuing justice and redress for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian leadership will continue to take all measures possible to honor its moral and political responsibility towards our people, and defend their national rights including their natural right to a life of dignity, freedom and prosperity.”

Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in a tweet:

“Settlements in occupied Palestine are a blatant violation of Int’l law & UNSCRs. They are an illegal action that’ll kill 2-state solution. Jordan’s position in condemning them is unwavering. We warn against dangerous consequences of US change of position on settlements on MEPP”

The Saudi press reported that the Saudi government rejects the new U.S. position.

U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said at a press briefing:

“We continue to follow the long-standing position of the U.N. that Israeli settlements are in breach of international law. A change in the policy position of one state does not modify existing international law nor its interpretation by the International Court of Justice and the Security Council.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk said that the U.S. announcement is:

 “the latest in a series of recent moves that has undermined the rules-based international order. This will only confirm a one-state reality characterized by a rigid two-tier system of legal and political rights, based on ethnicity and religion. This would meet the international definition of apartheid.”

The European Union’s High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini said in a statement:

“The European Union’s position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: all settlement activity is illegal under international law and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace, as reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 2334. The EU calls on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power. The EU will continue to support a resumption of a meaningful process towards a negotiated two-state solution, the only realistic and viable way to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both parties.”

Reportedly, the state of Hungary blocked an effort by the European Union to issue a joint statement signed by all 28 member states condemning the new U.S. policy. Many European states issued independent statements, all opposing the U.S. statement.

The German government issued a statement saying:

“The Federal Government reaffirms its position with regards to Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied territories. In the Federal Government’s view, the construction of settlements is illegal under international law, represents an obstacle to the possibility of a peace process and makes a negotiated two-state solution more difficult. We wish to refer in this regard to Resolution 2334 of the UN Security Council, which reaffirms this assessment under international law. Together with its partners in the EU, the Federal Government will continue to work to achieve an amicable negotiated solution that takes into account the legitimate demands of both parties to the conflict.”

The French government released the following statement:

“Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied territories is illegal under international law, in particular international humanitarian law, and contravenes Security Council resolutions. Colonization also contributes to escalating tensions on the ground and undermines the two-State solution. Such is the constant position of France. We regret any decision likely to encourage the continuation of colonization.”

Switzerland released a statement saying:

“Switzerland’s position towards Israeli settlements is very clear: they are illegal under international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention. They also constitute a major obstacle to peace and the implementation of a two-State solution. Switzerland regularly calls on the Israeli authorities to cease all settlement activity, in accordance with their obligations as the occupying power.”

Spain released the following statement:

“The Government of Spain wishes to reiterate its public and constant position on the settlements, which coincides with the collection in various resolutions of the United Nations, especially Resolution 2334 of the Security Council, of December 2016. Spain considers, as stated in the aforementioned resolution , that the settlements in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of International Law. They are also an obstacle to the negotiated solution of the two States and the achievement of a just and lasting peace that meets the legitimate aspirations of both parties. Therefore, the Government of Spain calls for an end to the settlements, in line with that made by the High Representative of the European Union.”

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said:

“the ICRC has repeatedly stated that Israel’s settlements policy goes against key provisions of IHL, or the law of occupation, and is contrary to its intent and spirit. The recent U.S. declaration does not change the ICRC’s position on the matter.”

The Vatican released the following statement:

“In the context of recent decisions that risk undermining further the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the already fragile regional stability, the Holy See reiterates its position of a two-state solution for two peoples, as the only way to reach a complete solution to this age-old conflict. The Holy See supports the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security within the borders recognized by the international community and supports the same right that belongs to the Palestinian people, which must be recognized, respected and implemented.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“No declaration will change the fact that the settlements were built on occupied territory, in contravention of international law, and that they pose among the greatest obstacles to peace. It is an Orwellian absurdity to claim that greenlighting more egregious settlement activity by undermining the international consensus against them will foster better conditions for a just and viable conflict-ending agreement.”

B’Tselem said in a statement:

“The Trump Administration’s farcical announcement doesn’t just green-light Israel’s illegal settlement project, but also other human rights violations around the world by obliterating the principles of international law. In so doing, the American administration is pushing the world over 70 years backwards, to the period at the end of the 2nd world war, when only in its aftermath did the world come to terms with the consequences of the absence of such protections.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in a statement:

“Settlements and outposts are illegal under international law, and no political declaration can change that fact. The settlements, which are founded on occupied Palestinian land, lead to a continued and systematic violation of the rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank. To legalize such a sweeping violation and to justify the institutionalized legal regime of two legal systems in the West Bank-based on an ethnic-national basis violates the rights of millions of people living under occupation and cannot be justified via a baseless statement stemming from purely political interests.”

Amnesty International said in a statement:

“Today, the United States government announced to the rest of the world that it believes the U.S. and Israel are above the law: that Israel can continue to violate international law and Palestinians’ human rights and the U.S. will firmly support it in doing so.”

Human Rights Watch said in a statement:

“This changes nothing. President Trump can’t wipe away decades of established international law that settlements are a war crime.”

J Street said in a statement:

“The International Court of Justice and the United Nations have made clear the judgment of the world that Israel’s settlement enterprise is illegal under international law. This administration’s attempt to unilaterally erase those judgments only further shatters America’s limited remaining credibility in the region and around the world.”

Americans for Peace Now said in a statement:

“This latest announcement by the Trump administration will do further damage to prospects for peace, particularly if it is taken by right-wing Israeli politicians as yet another indication that President Trump will accept Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. This damages US national interests which, as successive US administrations of both parties have held, will be served by a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, in bucking the international legal consensus on the status of settlements in territory occupied by Israel, the Trump administration is deepening America’s isolation. It is also chipping away at the international legal order the US helped established, which has served US interests since the end of World War II.”

Jewish Voice for Peace said in a statement:

“The pronouncement by Pompeo is just the latest atrocity in the Trump administration’s farcical peace plan: Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, defunding UNRWA, embracing Netanyhau’s plans of massive annexation of Palestinian land, and now an attempt to undo decades of international consensus on the illegality of the settlements. That the plan is devoid of peace is no surprise, but the contempt it shows for cooperation and an agreed-upon set of ethics that safeguards the most vulnerable in war and conflict is alarming.  Pompeo couldn’t be more wrong claiming that, ‘arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace.’ In fact, holding ourselves and each other to principles, like those within international law, is essential to bring not just peace, but freedom, equality and justice. The Trump administration was never focused on promoting peace, but instead on propping up Netanyahu’s and Trump’s careers and perpetuating Israeli control and dominance over Palestinian land and lives at all costs. Pompeo and the Trump administration don’t get to rewrite international law.”

European Court Rejects Conflation, Upholds Labelling of Goods from Settlements

On November 12th, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that EU member states must properly identify products made in Israeli settlements on their labels, a decision upholding the EU’s legal distinction between Israel proper and Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. 

The ECJ said in the ruling:

 “[settlements] give concrete expression to a policy of population transfer conducted by that State outside its territory, in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law…[failure to identify the point of origin of produce meant that] consumers have no way of knowing, in the absence of any information capable of enlightening them in that respect, that a foodstuff comes from a locality or a set of localities constituting a settlement established in one of those territories in breach of the rules of international humanitarian law.”

The case came to court after the Psagot Winery, located in the Psagot settlement, brought a legal challenge against France’s labelling policy, arguing that any differentiation between Israeli products and products made in the settlements is discriminatory. In June 2019, a top advocate general for the European Court of Justice issued a preliminary opinion rejecting that argument and stressed that EU law requires labelling products based on their true origin in order to give customers the necessary information to make informed purchasing decisions. Reportedly, Psagot Winery hired a prominent U.S. lobby firm (which employs former US ambassador to the EU Stuart Eizenstat)  to lobby Congress on its behalf against the labeling effort.

Commenting on the ECJ’s ruling, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat urged further action, writing in a column in Haaretz:

“A large percentage of settlers live in occupied Palestine thanks to the economic incentives they receive, including benefits from international agreements signed with Israel, and the support of several organizations working freely in Western countries, such as the Jewish National Fund. That is why the decision of the European Union Court of Justice regarding the labeling of Israeli settlement products is an important step. It reiterates the international obligation of differentiation between Israel and the territory it occupies, as laid out in UN Security Council resolution 2334.Still, we believe that settlement products shouldn’t just be labelled, but banned. There is nothing ethical in trading in products made with stolen natural resources on stolen land. That is why we cannot understand why the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, still hasn’t fulfilled the mandate given to her by the UN Human Rights Council in Resolution 31/36 – to publish the long-overdue list of companies involved with the Israeli occupation.”

Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration issued a statement criticizing the court’s ruling:

“The United States is deeply concerned by the EU requirement identified in the decision issued yesterday by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Psagot Case. The circumstances surrounding the labeling requirement in the specific facts presented to the Court are suggestive of anti-Israel bias. This requirement serves only to encourage, facilitate, and promote boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The United States unequivocally opposes any effort to engage in BDS, or to otherwise economically pressure, isolate, or otherwise delegitimize Israel. The path toward resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict is through direct negotiations. America stands with Israel against efforts to economically pressure, isolate, or delegitimize it.”

As explained at length by FMEP’s Lara Friedman, forces in the U.S. have long worked to conflate Israel with its settlements as a matter of U.S. law and policy — including actions in Congress (i.e., legislation conflating the two, Congressional actions objecting to differentiation in labeling, etc.). 

Will the Trump Admin Implement Conflation by Changing U.S. Labelling Policy?

Speaking to Al-Monitor, FMEP President Lara Friedman warns that the timing of the Trump Administration’s settlement policy announcement might be linked to the ruling last week by a European court upholding the EU’s policy of differentiation and ruling that products made in Israeli settlements cannot be labelled “Made in Israel.” Friedman said:

“I don’t think it is a coincidence that this is happening days after the European Court of Justice ruling on labeling. That is clear. The substantive impact will depend on what flesh we [the U.S.] put on the bones. The President, the State Department can tell Customs and Border to change our policy on labeling [of goods produced from the settlements].”

If the policy change is directed by the White House, it would be doing so with ample standing in U.S. law as passed by the Congress, which for the past four years has intentionally included wording the explicitly conflates Israel with the settlements as far as U.S. law is concerned. Lara Friedman has maintained a detailed table documenting such legis;ation, which she first warned about in 2015.

Netanyahu Backs Bill to Annex the Jordan Valley

Following the Nov. 18th announcement changing U.S. policy on Israeli settlements, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to support and expedite the passage of a Knesset bill providing for the annexation of the Jordan Valley – some 25% of land in the occupied West Bank. The bill was introduced on November 3rd by Likud MK Sharren Haskell, and it calls for extending Israeli sovereignty over the area. On November 19th, Haskel tweeted that she has submitted a request to exempt the bill from the mandatory 6-week waiting period, so that it can be brought to a vote next week regardless of the fact that there is a caretaker government while Israeli political chaos continues to unfold.

In a video message posted to Twitter, Netanyahu said:

“The historic decision by the American administration from yesterday hands us a unique opportunity to set Israel’s eastern border and annex the Jordan Valley.”

Netanyahu previously vowed to annex the Jordan Valley should he be reelected, a plan which was endorsed by his rival Benny Gantz and supported by then-U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. Notably, when Netanyahu promised to annex the Jordan Valley, he stated that he would have already enacted his Jordan Valley annexation plan if not for Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit’s opposition to taking a decision of this magnitude while Netanyahu was overseeing a caretaker government. 

Shlomo Eldar, columnist for Al-Monitor, discusses the politics that contribute Netanyahu’s sudden endorsement of Haskell’s bill (which had been introduced in the previous Knesset but not supported by Netanyahu):

“It is not clear how the present Knesset will vote on the bill for annexing the Jordan Valley, should it ever come to a vote. What is clear is that the issue of the valley’s annexation has created a catch-22 for Gantz and the Blue and White. A vote in favor by his alliance will lead it to lose Joint List support after the next elections. There is no chance that members of the Joint List will support a faction that endorses any kind of annexation. If Blue and White begins to vacillate and oppose the bill, then Netanyahu will criticize and ridicule them during the election campaign. Therefore Knesset member Avi Nissenkorn (Blue and White), head of the Knesset’s Arrangements Committee, will definitely try to prevent the bill from reaching the stage of a preliminary hearing. Regardless of whether Nissenkorn succeeds, it seems that annexation of the Jordan Valley is on its way, with the encouragement of the Trump administration.”

Under Netanyahu’s own annexation plan, Israel would annex land constituting nearly a quarter of the West Bank (22.3%) including 30 settlements and 18 illegal outposts. According to Peace Now, 20% of the targeted land (62,000 acres) is privately owned by Palestinians and approximately 8,775 Palestinians live in 48 Palestinian herding communities in the area he plans to annex. 

In total, 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 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. 

Yesh Din tracks all Knesset legislation related to annexation in this handy Annexation Legislation Database, and FMEP tracks all Knesset, Cabinet, and Judicial action related to annexation in its Annexation Policy Tables.

Tender Published for First Ever Ma’ale Adumim Hotel

On November 18th, the Israel Lands Authority published a tender for the construction of a six-story hotel in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, located in the West Bank just east of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post reports:

“Hagit Ofran of Peace Now said tenders have unsuccessfully been published for hotels in Ma’aleh Adumim in the past. Such development should be inside of sovereign Israel and not outside of it, she said, adding that it does not serve Israel’s interest to encourage tourism in the West Bank settlements.”

Israel’s intentional investment and green light to expanding the settlement tourism industry is a strategic endeavor intended to entrench settlements, provide for their expansion, normalize their existence within the international community, and advance their seamless integration into Israeli territory. In a recent report on companies which profit from tourism in the settlements, Amnesty International further explains:

“In recent years the Israeli government has invested huge sums to develop the tourism industry in settlements. It uses the designation of certain locations as tourist sites to justify the takeover of Palestinian land and homes, and often deliberately constructs settlements next to archaeological sites to emphasize the Jewish people’s historic connections to the region.”

Bonus Reads

1. “With softening of US settlement policy, is annexation train leaving the station?” (Times of Israel)
2. “Secular Israelis Flock to West Bank Settlements in Search of Good, Cheap Life” (Haaretz)
3. “The Problem With Settlements Is Not That They Are Illegal. It’s That They Are Immoral” (The Forward)
4. “On West Bank, No One Rests Easy, No Matter What U. S. Says About Settlements” (New York Times)
5. “Stop Calling Violent Settlers Bad Apples. They Are The Inevitable Outcome Of Occupation” (The Forward)
6. “West Bank settlers escalate attacks on Arab olive harvesters in annual violence” (Washington Post)
7. “‘It’s So Easy to Live Here.’ Jewish Settlements Go Mainstream in Israel” (Wall Street Journal)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

July 5, 2019

1. With a Sledgehammer in Silwan, U.S. Officials Legitimize Radical Settler Agenda & Offer De Facto U.S. Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty over East Jerusalem
2. For the Second Time, Jerusalem District Court Accepts “Market Regulation” Principle as Basis For Seizing Privately Owned Palestinian Land for Settlements
3. Settlers, Anticipating Victory on Area C Annexation Push, Expand Annexation Campaign to Include (de facto) Extension of Israeli Control Into Area B
4. U.S. Owners of “Duty Free Americas” Are Sending Millions to the Settlements/li>
5. U.S. Envoy Greenblatt Prefers to Call Settlements “Neighborhoods and Cities” Because International Law is Not “Clear Cut”
6. Bonus Reads

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

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With a Sledgehammer in Silwan, U.S. Officials Legitimize Radical Settler Agenda & Offer De Facto U.S. Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty over East Jerusalem

In a gratuitous political stunt that represented an unprecedented statement of U.S. support for Israel’s assertion of sovereignty over East Jerusalem, as well as for agenda of radical right-wing Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, on June 30, 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Special Representative Jason Greenblatt participated in a highly provocative ceremony at an archeological site in East Jerusalem. The ceremony marking the “opening” of what Israel has dubbed the “Pilgrim’s Road”- an excavation project initiated by the radical settler group Elad beneath the Wadi Hilweh section of Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem adjacent to the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif. 

In response to widespread condemnation of his role in the ceremony (which, among other things, was protested by the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now), Friedman made his support for Israel’s claim over East Jerusalem even more explicit. He said:

“The City of David brings truth and science to a debate that has been marred for too long by myths and deceptions. Its findings, in most cases by secular archaeologists, bring an end to the baseless efforts to deny the historical fact of Jerusalem’s ancient connection to the Jewish people. It brings to life the historical truth of that momentous period in Jewish history. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians must be based upon a foundation of truth. The City of David advances our collective goal of pursuing a truth-based resolution. It is important for all sides of the conflict…The City of David is an essential component of the national heritage of the State of Israel. It would be akin to America returning the Statue of Liberty.”

Peace Now said in a responded: 

“This is no less than American recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the sensitive area of the Holy Basin, contrary to the American position throughout the years since 1967. The Trump Team chooses to strengthen the hold of the settler fringe in the sensitive area of ​​the Holy Basin instead of advancing a conflict-ending peace agreement. The tunnel, the way it was dug and its geo-political ramifications, are trampling on the reputation of Jerusalem as a city sacred to all religions and belonging to all its inhabitants. It is part of the transformation of Silwan into a Disneyland of the messianic extreme right wing in Israel and the United States – just steps from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Mount.”

Raising the ignored (by Friedman, Greenblatt, et al) issue of the project’s impact on Palestinians living above the excavation site, the Haaretz Editorial Board wrote, in a piece entitled “Settlers in the White House,”:

“The participation of American diplomats at an event sponsored by a right-wing group in East Jerusalem constitutes de facto recognition of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem’s historic basin…This recognition doesn’t just put the American administration on the extreme right of the Israeli political map – thus undercutting the claim that American can be an unbiased broker between Israel and the Palestinians – but it also ignores the complicated reality in Silwan, East Jerusalem and the entire region. The tunnel, which was excavated using controversial methods from a scientific standpoint, harnesses archaeology to politics while ignoring the nuances of Jerusalem’s ancient past. But the main problem is that excavating under the street blatantly ignores what’s happening at street level. In Silwan alone there are 20,000 Palestinians without citizenship or civil rights, who justifiably feel that this archaeological project is aimed at forcing them out of their neighborhood. Surrounding Silwan are another 300,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, also without rights.”

Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – a group of expert archaeologists – said in a statement:

“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.”

Greenblatt – who is not an archeologist, punched back with a tweet suggesting that Emek Shaveh “NGO seems to misunderstand the meaning of ‘archeology.’”

The Palestinian Authority said in a statement:

“We consider the participation of (US Mideast Envoy) Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman to be criminal collusion in the commission of a war crime that must be condemned as well as universally and unequivocally confronted.”

Elad launched its excavation of the “Pilgrim’s Road” in 2007, with the full support of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). For more background on the tunnels and how radical Israeli settlers have exploited excavation, tourism, and the ancient character of Jerusalem in order to serve their ideological agenda – see the comprehensive reporting by Emek Shaveh.

For the Second Time, Jerusalem District Court Accepts “Market Regulation” Principle as Basis For Seizing Privately Owned Palestinian Land for Settlements

In June 2019, Judge Carmi Mossek became the second district court judge to accept the “market regulation” principle as a valid legal basis for retroactively legalizing settlement buildings that were built on land that even Israel recognizes is privately owned by Palestinians. The case in question revolves around four buildings in the Alei Zahav settlement that are partially built on Palestinian land, as revealed by the results of a land survey in 2016 by the Israeli “Blue Line” team (a team whose purpose is to survey the West Bank in order to find more land onto which Israel can expand settlements).  

According to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit – who first promoted the use of the “market regulation” principle – the principle can only be applied to cases in which all parties involved in the “accidental” construction can demonstrate that they acted in “good faith,” – e.g., with support from the State and without knowing the land in question was privately owned Palestinian land (an argument which of course ignores Israel’s responsibility under international law to protect the property rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation). 

In this latest case, the state argued that the “market regulation” principle provides a basis for legalizing settlement construction that was “accidentally” built on privately owned Palestinian land in the Alei Zahav settlement. The judge accepted this argument, despite the fact that the High Court of Justice is still considering the validity of “market regulation” as a legal principle. Depending on how the High Court rules, the “market regulation” principle could pave the way for Israel to expropriate Paelstinian land across the West Bank instead of returning it to its legal owners in order to retroactively legalize as many as 3,000 settlement units. In her ruling, Judge Mossek agreed with the State that the settlers’ “good faith” entitles them to be recognized as the legal owners of the land. Jude Mossek gave the state until September to complete the administrative process of retroactively legalizing the houses.

The first case the state of Israel brought forward to test the “market regulation” principle, relating to the Mitzpe Kramim outpost, made clear that “good faith” is in the eye of the beholder, and that when the beholder is the state of Israel, there is a readiness to stretch and twist the meaning of the term “good faith” well beyond any reasonable understanding of the term. That case is the one currently being considered by the High Court of Justice.

Settlers, Anticipating Victory on Area C Annexation Push, Expand Annexation Campaign to Include (de facto) Extension of Israeli Control Into Area B

Settlers recently sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu asking him to stop Palestinian construction taking place in Area B of the West Bank, arguing that the construction is too close to Israeli settlements in Area C. As defined in the Oslo Agreements, Area C is 60% of the West Bank that Israel retained civil and security control over; Area B constitutes 22% of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority has civilian control, but Israel exerts control over all security matters.

This new plea from the settlers is a dangerous – but predictable – extension of the settlers’ success in pushing for Israel’s unilateral annexation of Area C, a demand which is increasingly validated in the official discourse of both the Netanyahu government and the Trump Administration. It is consistent with a tactic that has, for decades, served the settlers well: as settlements (by various means) expand ever-closer to Palestinian built-up areas, and ever-deeper into the West Bank, settlers complain that the close proximity of Palestinians threatens their security, and demand that the IDF take action (leading to road closures, land seizures or closures for “security reasons,” “temporary” seizures of homes for IDF use, etc).

In their plea to stop Palestinians from building on land that even Israel recognizes belongs to them, and that under Oslo is under Palestinian civilian control land, the settlers argue:

“This is a construction that seriously harms the personal security of every Israeli living in the communities of Gush Shilo and especially in Amichai, and the public expects the cabinet to wake up, take responsibility and stop this thing immediately.”

U.S. Owners of “Duty Free Americas” Are Sending Millions to the Settlements

An Associated Press investigation revealed that family that owns the highly profitable and ubiquitous retail chain “Duty Free Americas” is a major source of financial support for some of the most radical settler groups in Israel. According to documents uncovered by the Democratic Bloc, the Florida-based Falic family is the single largest donor to Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu and has given over $5.6 million to settler groups over the past decade. These donations have included:

1. $1 million to projects associated with the radical group Ateret Cohanim, which is focused on taking control of property in East Jerusalem, especially in the Old City, including by means that are morally and legally questionable;
2. Roughly $600,000 to “Hachnasat Orchim Hebron,” an organization that brings tourists to visit radical settlers living in downtown Hebron enclaves. The group was founded by Baruch Marzel, who served as an aid to the ultra-nationalist and racist leader Meir Kahane; Marzel is still listed by name in the CIA World Factbook as a leader of Kach/Kahane Chai, which are U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. In addition to bringing tourists to the settlers, the group also distributes snacks to Israeli soldiers who protect the radical enclaves;
3. Funding to organizations that call for Israel to take control over the Temple Mount, tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and build a synagogue in their place (the “Third Temple”);
4. Support for a winery inside the Psagot settlement. The Psagot winery – as is the case with other settler-run wineries in the West Bank and the Golan Heights –  is complicit in advancing and normalizing the settlements through tourism; 
5. A biblical theme park inside of the Shiloh settlement;
6. In 2014, the Falics donated to the construction of a synagogue and mikveh (a ritual bath) in the unauthorized Kerem Reim outpost. Since then the Israeli government retroactively legalized the Kerem Reim outpost;
7. $50,000 to an organization that acts as a fundraising arm on behalf of Lehava, an extremist, openly-racist Israel organization that advocates against Jewish-Arab couples and assimilation in Israel. Lehava is often is accused of using intimidation and even violence.

While the Falic family’s tax records disclose many causes their family foundation supports, when it comes to most of their donations to Israel-based groups, that money appears to be channeled via Panamanian-based companies, through the family’s Israel-based Segal foundation (whose name is a Hebrew acronym based on the Falic brothers’ first names). This arrangement – which the family states is because one of the Falic brothers lives in Panama – allows for next to zero transparency regarding where the money ends up.

Ran Cohen of the Democratic Bloc, an Israeli NGO which did key research for the AP investigative story on the Falic family,  told FMEP:

“Unfortunately, the Falic family story is just another example in a wider picture of private American funding that goes to support racist and anti-democratic trends in Israel. Many of these supporters maintain a public face as Israel-loving philanthropists, when in fact, they fuel some of the most dangerous, extreme, and racist agendas in Israel. We at the Israeli Democratic Bloc, took upon ourselves the mission to research , educate and systematically expose those who threaten Israel’s democratic space”

MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash-Ta’al) said:

“The Falics donate to racist organizations preserving the ‘purity of the Jewish race’ and to the most violent segregationists settling in Hebron and East Jerusalem. The settlements cannot exist without the support of extremist capitalists from the US, these donors must be exposed.”

This revelation is the latest in a growing body of investigative work into previously secretive channels of U.S. money flowing to Israeli settlements and extremists. In January 2019, the American NGO T’ruah investigated and revealed that U.S. donations were finding their way to Kahanist groups in Israel. A December 2018 investigation by Haaretz revealed that Christian groups have given up to $65 million in projects in the “Biblical Heartland” over the past decade, in addition to non-financial donations like volunteer laborers. In October 2018, journalist Josh Nathan-Kazis reported that the San Francisco Jewish Federation was using an Israeli organization to channel funds to organizations fighting to stifle criticism of Israeli policies and punish activists who engage in such criticism, particularly on college campuses. A 2017 Haaretz investigation revealed that millions of tax-deductible donations to the Jewish Federations of North America go to fund West Bank settlements.

U.S. Envoy Greenblatt Prefers to Call Settlements “Neighborhoods and Cities,” Claiming International Law is Not “Clear Cut”

U.S. Special Representative Jason Greenblatt told the audience at a conference on U.S.-Israel relations hosted by Sheldon Adelson’s “Israel Hayom” media outlet that:

“International law, UN resolutions and internationally recognized parameters are not always clear cut. They are interpreted differently in good faith by different parties and they do not provide an executable solution to this conflict…[To resolve the conflict, people have to stop] pretending that settlements, or what I like to call neighborhoods and cities, are the reason for the lack of peace.”

In fact, international law is clear. According to Article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention,  “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” [It is worth re-reading the whole thing to grasp the scope of Israel’s violations of international law in its conduct in the territories it occupied in 1967). Amnesty International also notes that:

 

“The extensive appropriation of land and the appropriation and destruction of property required to build and expand settlements also breach other rules of international humanitarian law. Under the Hague Regulations of 1907, the public property of the occupied population (such as lands, forests and agricultural estates) is subject to the laws of usufruct. This means that an occupying state is only allowed a very limited use of this property. This limitation is derived from the notion that occupation is temporary, the core idea of the law of occupation. In the words of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the occupying power ‘has a duty to ensure the protection, security, and welfare of the people living under occupation and to guarantee that they can live as normal a life as possible, in accordance with their own laws, culture, and traditions.’ The Hague Regulations prohibit the confiscation of private property. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the destruction of private or state property, ‘except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.’”

 

In addition to Greenblatt’s fawning over the settlements, Dr. Miriam Adelson also drew headlines for her speech in which she speculated that there might eventually be a “Book of Trump” added to the Bible in recognition of what Trump has done for the state of Israel. Adelson got the love right back, in the form of a remarkably candid comment from former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley (who many speculate is the Adelsons’ chosen candidate to succeed Trump). During a public interview in Jerusalem conducted by Miriam Adelson, Haley noted: “A lot of the strength the U.S. is showing for Israel, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson played a very big part in” [As noted by FMEP’s President Lara Friedman: “If a critic of Israel said this, they’d be instantly accused of antisemitism…”]

Bonus Reads

1. “How TripAdvisor is Fueling Human Rights Violation is Khirbet Susiya” (Amnesty International)

 

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 5, 2019

1. Israel Expected to Advance Nearly 5,000 Settlement Units
2. Glassman/Or Sameach Yeshiva Project at Entrance of Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood Approved for Public Deposit
3. Also in Sheikh Jarrah, The Sabbagh Family Receives Another Eviction Notice
4. New Settler Bypass Road Gets Go-Ahead After Deadly, Disputed Incident at Huwwara Interchange
5. Settlers Are Cultivating Palestinian Farmland Taken by the Construction of Israel’s Separation Wall
6. Transportation Ministry Voices New Concern About Elad’s Zipline Project in East Jerusalem
7. Yesh Din Issues Authoritative Report on Israel’s “Racist Endeavor” to Retroactively Authorize Outposts
8. Al-Haq Report: Israel Appropriated ‘Ein Fara Spring; TripAdvisor Now Promotes It as an Israeli Tourist Destination
9. Settler Leader: “Settlements are a Bridge to Socio Economic Peace”
10. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Israel Expected to Advance Nearly 5,000 Settlement Units

According to reports last week, Israeli planning bodies were expected to meet and advance plans for nearly 5,000 new settlement units at a meeting on April 1st. However, that meeting appears to have been delayed.

Nonetheless, it is worth reviewing the leaked details of the settlement plans slated to be advanced, of which 1,427 are reportedly set to receive final approval from the High Planning Council, including

• 603 new units in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement just east of Jerusalem;
• 325 new units in the Alon settlement, near the disputed Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem;
• 108 new units in the Etz Efraim settlement, in the northern West Bank, one of several settlements slated to become a “super settlement” area;
• 110 new units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement just north of Jerusalem;
• 281 new units in the Beitar Illit settlement.

A subcommittee of the Israeli Civil Administration was also set to meet on April 1st (no press reports indicate that the meeting actually happened), and was expected to advance plans for 3,474 new settlement units for public deposit, an earlier stage of the settlement planning process (reminder: all stages of the settlement planning process are significant, as each step through the publication of tenders is a political act of the Israeli government). The plans slated to be approved for public deposit include plans in settlement across the West Bank, reportedly include the following settlements:

• Elon Moreh, located east of Nablus in the central West Bank;
• Karnei Shomron, in the northern West Bank;
• Elkana and Oranit, which along with Etz Efraim, are slated to become a part of a “super settlement” area;
• Ariel in the central West Bank;
• Beit Aryeh northwest of Ramallah;
• Shiloh in the central West Bank;
• Talmon north of Ramallah.
• Peduel, in the northern West Bank but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier; and,
• Mitzpeh Yericho, just west of Jericho.

Glassman/Or Sameach Yeshiva Project at Entrance of Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood Approved for Public Deposit

On April 2nd, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved the Glassman/Or Sameach yeshiva project for public deposit. The plan, as FMEP has repeatedly covered, seeks to build a Jewish religious school (a yeshiva) at the entrance of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The yeshiva is one of several settlement projects set to flank the road leading into the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, designed to strengthen Israeli settlers’ hold on the neighborhood and seamlessly connect the growing settler enclave in Sheikh Jarrah with West Jerusalem.

Ir Amim warns and explains:

“[The Glassman/Or Sameach yeshiva] plan should be seen as an alarm bell in the context of Israel’s ramped up efforts to deepen its circle of control around the Old City Basin. The plan (Plan No. 68858)  calls for construction of an eleven-story building with eight levels above ground and three below, including a dormitory for hundreds of students and housing for faculty, to be located at the mouth of Sheikh Jarrah. It was submitted by the Ohr Somayach Institutions, to which the Israel Land Authority has already allotted land without a transparent tender process, and approved for deposit by the District Planning and Building Committee in July 2017.​”

In a detailed report on the Glassman yeshiva project, Terrestrial Jerusalem described it as:

“a clear effort to exploit Torah study to expand and normalize occupation in East Jerusalem (including by making the site politically untouchable, as it will now be linked with religious activities).”

Also in Sheikh Jarrah, The Sabbagh Family Receives Another Eviction Notice

On March 31st, the Palestinians Sabbagh family was handed another eviction notice, weeks after Israeli authorities rejected the family’s latest petition to reconsider the legal authority by which settlers are seeking to evict them from their home of 60+ years. Peace Now reports that the Sabbagh family is still attempting to delay their eviction, but is unlikely to succeed.

In a comprehensive briefing on the Sabbagh family’s protracted legal struggle, Ir Amim and Peace Now write:

“Increasingly, settler initiated, state-backed evictions of Palestinian families are being used as a strategy to help cement Israeli control over the area. Given their strategic location as gateways to the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah to the north of the Old City and Silwan to the south are the two neighborhoods under greatest pressure from Israeli settler groups. Some 150 families in these two areas alone are under threat of eviction…The Sabbagh family is only the latest family threatened with eviction in the Kerem Alja’oni section of Sheikh Jarrah. If evicted, their home will be the tenth to be seized by settlers. Roughly 30 Palestinian families are under threat of eviction and at least eleven have open court cases. Those cases were suspended pending the Supreme Court decision on the Sabbagh case; the recent removal of that stopgap could usher in a wave of new evictions. On the other side of Nablus road, in the Um Haroun section of Sheik Jarrah, an additional 40 or so families face the threat of eviction.”

New Settler Bypass Road Gets Go-Ahead After Deadly, Disputed Incident at Huwwara Interchange

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it approved the construction of a new bypass road to divert settler traffic around the Palestinian village of Huwwara. The new road will allow settlers to avoid the Huwwara interchange, a perpetually congested section of the main West Bank highway, Route 60, and an area that has been a site of Palestinian violence against the settlers, including a recent incident where a settler shot and killed a Palestinian teenager allegedly attacking the settler. Dubbed the “Huwwara Bypass,” the new road will be built on land historically a part of the Palestinian villages of Huwwara and Beita, which Israel seized for security reasons.

This road is one of five new bypass roads that Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to build under immense pressure from the settler lobby, known as the Yesha Council. It was one part of a massive security package that the Netanyahu government funded to the tune of $228 million in 2017. Peace Now detailed each of the five bypass roads slated for construction, and wrote:

“The planned roads…are meant to serve settlements located deep in the West Bank, which will not be a part of Israeli in the framework of an agreement according to the Geneva Initiative’s proposed border.Historically, the paving of bypass roads has led to an acceleration of the development of the adjacent settlements…Additionally, paving new roads in the West Bank entails the confiscation of private Palestinian lands. All of the roads are built due to needs of settlers rather than the needs of the Palestinians. In certain cases the roads can also be useful for Palestinians, but the majority of these roads are hardly used by Palestinians at all. This fact puts into question the Israeli legal argument behind the confiscation, as according to international law, the confiscation of lands must serve the local population, meaning the Palestinians.”

Transportation Ministry Voices New Concern About Elad’s Zipline Project in East Jerusalem

An official from the Israeli Transportation Ministry voiced reservations regarding the Elad settlement organization’s request to re-zone the “Peace Forest” as a “public use space” in order to allow for the construction of its zipline project there. At a meeting on April 1st (a previous meeting was covered by FMEP last week) to consider the request, a transportation official expressed concern that the project is a private commercial endeavor, not a public use project – meaning that the project might not be legal even if the forest were to be re-zoned for public use. The official said:

“[A zipline] constitutes commercial use: It’s not going to be operated by the municipality or a youth group. This alone is a reason not to approve the plan.”

The Haaretz report on the April 1st meeting also provides historical context on Elad’s illegal activities in the “Peace Forest” (which was established by the Jewish National Fund on privately owned land in East Jerusalem following the 1967 war) over the past 14 years. Haaretz writes:

“At first the NGO simply trespassed and built illegal structures there. But things changed and gradually various local and national bodies – including the Jerusalem Municipality, the Israel Land Authority, the Tourism Ministry and the JNF – began to grant Elad assistance. This assistance has included granting building permits retroactively, allocating land to the group without a proper bidding process, and generous funding to the tune of tens of millions of shekels…Most of Elad’s current focus is on managing and developing the City of David National Park in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and purchasing homes for Jews from the Arabs living there. But the NGO isn’t neglecting its other projects: It has been sponsoring activities in the Peace Forest since 2005, despite the fact that it has no ownership rights there or permits from the ILA (the legal owner of the land, which was expropriated from private Palestinian owners). These activities are essentially expanding Elad’s reach from Silwan into the entire historic basin of Jerusalem’s Old City, from the Mount of Olives to the Armon Hanatziv promenade (which actually consists of several different walkways, projects of the Jerusalem Foundation).”

Settlers Are Cultivating Palestinian Farmland Taken by the Construction of Israel’s Separation Wall

For the past six years, Israeli farmers have been farming Palestinian land that was left on the Israeli side of the separation barrier, an area Palestinian landowners are largely barred from entering.

When the separation wall was constructed in the early 2000s, it confiscated 35,000 acres (140,000 dunams) of Palestinian land as a result of its circuitous route that snakes deep inside of the West Bank. The land between the wall and the 1967 Green Line is commonly referred to as the “seam zone.”

Kerem Navot founder Dror Etkes – who obtained aerial photography documenting settler activity in the area – explained:

“One of the same plots to which landowners are barred from entering is located west of the Palestinian village of Nuba, about 15 kilometers northwest of Hebron. Nearly half of the village’s land was lost in 1948 because it remained west of the Green Line, and with the construction of the separation barrier in the area from 2005-2006, residents lost another 1,000 dunams that remained on the other side of the barrier. Although there’s an agricultural gate on site that was supposed to be used by landowners to reach their territory to the west, their entry has not been possible since the barrier was constructed. This ‘vacuum’ was identified by the ‘Mateh Yehuda Agricultural Association,’ which cultivates vast swaths of land that were transferred to Israeli moshavim in the area, including those west of the Green Line. After a few years in which the villagers didn’t access their land, the Agricultural Association decided that it was time to take over of one of the wadis in the area.”

Etkes separately told Haaretz:

“This story allows a peek into the jungle Israel created in areas left between the barrier and the Green Line. This area, called ‘the seam’ by Israel, is gradually becoming a looting ground for anyone who can grab a plot while exploiting a reality in which tens of thousands of West Bank residents are unable to reach their lands. All this proves that the route along which the barrier was built passes mostly through the West Bank, serving political interests, as anyone with eyes in his head saw and understood as the barrier was being built.”

Yesh Din Issues Authoritative Report on Israel’s “Racist Endeavor” to Retroactively Authorize Outposts

In a new report, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din analyzes the legal pretexts Israel has created to systematically legalize outposts across the West Bank that were built in contravention of Israeli law and on privately owned Palestinian land.

The report reviews and rebutts the findings of the “Zandberg Report”  – which (approvingly) outlined various legal tactics and tools the state can use to save those outposts.

Yesh Din found that the Zandberg Report’s recommendations allow for 99% of all unauthorized outposts to be retroactively approved within 2-3 years, anticipating that the government will declare 20 new settlements in the process.

Yesh Din’s report also examines how Israel has already undertaken the first step in this effort, by introducing the “market regulation” principle into the courts. If validated by the courts, the “market regulation” principle will provids legal cover to ‘regularize’ 2,700-3,000 illegal structures built on privately owned Palestinian land.

Yesh Din writes:

“The Zandberg Committee aids a racist endeavor whose essence is the dispossession of Palestinians from their land on the basis of ethnicity. The euphemisms used in the report and the legal terminology it employs do nothing to hide the fact that the ‘Regularization Committee’ report is, in fact, an expropriation report which provides the government more methods for normalizing and deepening the iniquity of Israel’s settlement policy: one area, the West Bank, with two populations – privileged Israeli citizens and Palestinians living under military rule, dispossessed and oppressed.”

Analyzing the Zandberg Report as an alternative to the settlement “Regulation Law,” Yesh Din states:

“The Zandberg Committee seemingly offers a more restrained framework for ‘regularization’ or retroactive authorization that purports to be less injurious than the ‘Regularization Law’ and relies on legal doctrines. In truth, however, the report cloaks landgrab, dispossession and expropriation on an extremely large scale – approaching that of the Regularization Law – in a shroud of legality.”

Al-Haq Report: Israel Appropriated ‘Ein Fara Spring; TripAdvisor Now Promotes It as an Israeli Tourist Destination

Al-Haq, the preeminent Palestinian human rights group, published a report documenting Israel’s appropriation of the ‘Ein Fara spring, located on the lands of the Palestinian village of Anata northeast of Jerusalem. The spring historically served as the primary source of drinking water and agricultural water for Anata and several surrounding villages.

Since 1967, Israel has appropriated the spring and its waters, and built five settlement on the surrounding land.

Israel renamed the spring the “En Prat Nature Reserve” and promotes religious tourism at the site, as does TripAdvisor.

Al-Haq writes:

“The appropriation of village lands, confiscation of water resources and continued denied access to Palestinians violates the right to self-determination, further breaches the prohibition of discrimination, the right to life including the duty to ensure access to water, the right to water, the rights of freedom of movement, the right to a livelihood, and cultural rights related to the integral use of the ‘Ein Fara spring to communal village life. Al-Haq reminds that Trip Advisor is advertising ‘En Prat Nature Reserve’ a settler tourism service, on its internet platform. Al-Haq stresses that Trip Advisor is providing an economic service for the benefit of Israeli settlements, which may amount to an involvement in settlement related activities.”

Settler Leader: “Settlements are a Bridge to Socio Economic Peace”

Writing in the Jewish News Syndicate, Yochai Dimri (chairman of Har Hevron Regional Council) makes a pitch for the Israeli public and elected officials to drop hopes of a “peace deal” in favor of socio-economic “co-existence” initiatives that normalize the settlements.

As FMEP has documented, this message lines up exactly with the activities and priorities of the Trump Administration, particularly with Amb. David Friedman who has been in partnership with the Har Hevron Regional Council to promote the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce as an Israeli-Palestinian business cooperative.

In a piece entitled – “Settlements are a Bridge to SocioEconomic Peace” – Dimri writes:

“The Barkan Industrial Park near Ariel is an outstanding model for collaboration between Jews and Arabs, and is the wellspring of local employment for both populations. A similar industrial area in Har Hevron is currently in the planning stages, and flourishing businesses and factories are expected to be established there to benefit the residents of Har Hevron and the Negev…The need of the hour is to expand collaborations to include health, education and other necessary areas as well—not through international initiatives, but through Israeli ones. Once Israel learns to view the settlement communities in Judea and Samaria as an asset and not a liability, as an impetus for change and not a roadblock, it will discover that they are not an obstacle to peace, but rather a bridge to achieving economic and social peace.”

FMEP’s Lara Friedman reacted to this notion in a recent op-ed:

“Last October, Friedman participated in a public event convened in the settlement of Ariel. The event, which featured Israeli settlers and a handful of Palestinians, promoted the view that the key to peace is not political agreements or negotiations. Rather, peace would come from economic and business cooperation between Palestinians (living under Israeli occupation, governed by Israeli military and military law designed to promote the interests and needs of Israel, entirely disenfranchised from the powers that control their lives) and settlers (living in settlements built on land taken from Palestinians, enjoying all the entitlements and protections of Israeli citizenship and law, and with representatives and allies at every level of Israeli government). This approach, not coincidentally, exemplifies a vision of ‘peace’ based on promises of improved quality of life for individual Palestinians, de-coupled from any pretense of helping Palestinians end an occupation that the United States no longer believes to exist, or achieve national self-determination that the United States no longer supports. Tweeting about that event, Friedman suggested that this kind of cooperation was precisely the kind of opportunity that the Palestinian people truly want and could have, if only their leadership would listen.”

Bonus Reads

1. “How Israel is Working to Remove Palestinians from Jerusalem” (The National)
2. “Annexation Will Free Israel from the Fake Commitment to Liberty and Equality” (Haaretz)