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December 5, 2025
- Israel Advances 765 New Settlement Units
- Israeli Court OKs New Outpost in Umm Al-Khair
- Two New Outposts Reported in East Jerusalem & Nablus
- Settlers Prompt Arrest of Prominent Jordan Valley Human Rights Activist
- Settlers Sue Israeli Government Over Sewage Run Off from Settlements, Get Immediate Fix
- Israel To Build New Wall in Jordan Valley, Dispossessing Palestinians for the Sake of Settlers “Security”
- Bonus Reads
Israel Advances 765 New Settlement Units
On December 10th, the Israeli High Planning Council met and advanced plans for the construction of 765 new settlement units. Peace Now reports: “Since the beginning of 2025, including the plans slated for approval this week, the council has advanced a total of 29,311 housing units. All time record.”
The plans advanced are:
- 230 new units in the Beitar Illit settlement, a massive ultra-orthodox settlement located west of Bethlehem.
- 1 new unit in the Eli settlement, located between Nablus and Ramallah in the northern West Bank as part of a string of Israeli settlements reaching from the Green Line to the Ariel, Eli, and Amichai settlements that bisect the northern West Bank and reach through to the Jordan Valley;;
- 478 new units in the Hashmonaim settlement, located in the northern West Bank just over the Green Line near the Israeli town Mod’in. Over half of the residents of the Hashmonaim settlement are American settlers from New York.
- 56 new units in the Givat Zeev settlement, located north of Jerusalem.
Israeli Court OKs New Outpost in Umm Al-Khair
On December 2nd the Jerusalem District Court cancelled a temporary order barring settlers from building and inhabiting a new illegal outpost next to the homes of Palestinians in the village of Umm Al-Khair, in the South Hebron Hills. The Court’s move effectively allows for the establishment of the outpost and condones the settlers actions, who not only built the outpost illegally but completely ignored the Court’s first order forbidding them from continuing construction and moving in.
In cancelling the order, Israeli judge Oded Shaham said that he sought to “balance convenience” and since the settlers already moved caravans onto the land, and the land is state-land technically within the jurisdiction of the Carmel settlement, they should be allowed to stay. The judge disregarded the illegality of the settlers’ construction of the outpost – which was built without building permissions and on land that is zoned for agricultural use only.
Peace Now said in a statement:
“The court’s willingness to ignore the violation of its own order is a direct result of the government’s ongoing judicial overhaul. The ruling effectively gives the government and the settlers a green light to flout the law and not only that, to disregard the court’s instructions as well , abandoning any pretense of upholding the rule of law. The residents of Umm al-Khair, who endure daily harassment by settlers, are the direct victims of state authorities that have subordinated themselves to an ideology seeking to impose Jewish supremacy in the occupied territories.”
For an in-depth background of Umm al-Khair is its struggle to stay on its land despite settler and state violence, see Peace Now’s reporting and 972 Magazine’s repository of stories on the village – including several written by Awdah Hathaleen, a native of Umm Al-Khair who was murdered by an internationally sanctioned settler earlier this year (a settler who is facing no legal repercussions for the murder).
Two New Outposts Reported in East Jerusalem & Nablus
Settlers are continuing to expand their control over Palestinian lands across the West Bank. In addition to the new outpost established near Beit Sahour on November 20th, the following new outposts were reported:
New Settlement Under Construction in Sur Baher, East Jerusalem
Peace Now reports that a group of settlers set up a new outpost near the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher on the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem. The settlers brought a shipping container and fenced off a hillside (2.5 acres / 10 dunams), posting signs that appear to indicate the new outpost is a construction project of the Elad settler organization.
Peace Now further reports that settlers are likely to have purchased from Palestinian land owners, indicated by the land being in the final stages of being officially titled under Israeli law (i.e. settlement of land title, “SOLT”). Most land in East Jerusalem has not had final ownership determined via Israel SOLT process, though the government has, for the past few years, secretly advanced the SOLT process in East Jerusalem to formalize state and/or settler control of land.
New Settlement Near Nablus
Middle East Eye reports settlers have established a new outpost on lands belonging to the Palestinian town of Jamma’in, located south of Nablus.
Settlers Prompt Arrest of Prominent Jordan Valley Human Rights Activist
On November 17th, Israeli forces arrested a prominent Palestinian human rights defender in the Jordan Valley, Ayman Ghrayeb. Ghrayeb is well known for his activism in the Jordan Valley, and for documenting settler attacks on Palestinians; in fact he was arrested as he travelled to the village of Fasayil which is in the process of being forcibly displaced from their homes under constant settler terrorism.
+972 Magazine reports that on the day of his arrest settlers blocked Ayman’s car and called the Israel army to the scene to arrest him, which the soldiers did. Settlers had reported Ghrayeb to Israeli authorities several times in the past, attempting to stop Ghrayeb from his work. Bilal told +972 Magazine:
“Ayman was arrested only to please the settlers. They know very well that he is active throughout the West Bank — in Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, and the Jordan Valley — and that he is working to get information out to the whole world along with many activists, journalists, and diplomats. They think that by arresting him they can silence him…The settlers have tried many times to silence him. They have physically attacked him, they have vandalized his car. Very few people know the communities he is in contact with. He brings in the media and human rights organizations. When Ayman is detained, there is no one to document their crimes, so they will increase their attacks and theft of land.”
For two days, no one knew where Ghrayeb was – as Israeli forces did confirm that he was in custody. When a lawyer was allowed to meet with him after two days, Ghrayeb reported that soldiers beat and tortured him (requiring hospitalization), kept him handcuffed outdoors, and denied him food for three days. It took two weeks for Israeli authorities to issue an administrative detention order against Ghrayeb, allowing Israel to hold him without charge for up to six months (at which point the order can be renewed).
Settlers Sue Israeli Government Over Sewage Run Off from Settlements, Get Immediate Fix
Settlers from the Peduel settlement, located in the northern West Bank, filed a lawsuit demanding the Samaria Regional Council (an Israeli municipal body with authority over settlements in the northern West Bank) address sewage runoff from settlements in the Council’s jurisdiction that is polluting nearby land. Filed in conjunction with an Israeli environmental group, the lawsuit complains that sewage from the settlement is polluting nearby streams and open areas, creating foul smells and mosquito breeding grounds.
In response, the Samaria Regional Council announced it would spend 136 million shekels to connect all of the settlements in the Samaria region to a Tel Aviv waste treatment facility inside of Israel’s borders. The move further integrates settlements into the core infrastructure of the Israeli state, entrenching their presence.
For decades, Palestinians have documented and petitioned against the detrimental impact of Israel’s approach to the management of settlement sewage and wastewater, with little to no remedy from the Israeli state. As documented by B’Tselem and the Norwegian Refugee Council, Israel created a system in the West Bank that allows for lax environmental laws while importing sewage and waste from inside of Israeli borders to the West Bank for treatment.
Israel To Build New Wall in Jordan Valley, Dispossessing Palestinians for the Sake of Settlers “Security”
Haaretz reports that the Israeli army is building a new section of a fenced separation barrier in the Jordan Valley, meant to protect settlers in the area even though settlers are most often the perpetrators of great violence against Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley. There are a total of seven settlements and 16 illegal outposts in the area, all of which stand to benefit from the construction of the barrier, the additional constraints on Palestinian grazing, and the de facto annexation of the land taken from Palestinians.
The barrier is designed in a circuitous way that will separate Palestinians from their privately owned lands and disconnect Palestinian communities from each other. To allow for the construction of the barrier, the Israeli army has already issued demolition orders against Palestinian homes and vital agricultural infrastructure used by the mostly agricultural shepherding communities in the Jordan Valley.
The new barrier will encircle the Khirbet Yarza community, which experts believe is a coercive move to force Palestinians out of the fertile areas of the Jordan Valley.
Haaretz further reports:
“The new barrier, which will in practice sever various access routes for Palestinians, adds to existing movement restrictions: locked iron gates on side roads, the closed Tayasir checkpoint to the north, and the Hamra checkpoint where vehicles are delayed for long hours. Dror Etkes of the Kerem Navot organization, which researches Israeli land takeover in the West Bank, estimates that the current stage of the “Hut HaShani” project will disconnect farmers and landowners from the areas of the towns of Tammun, Tubas, Tayasir and Aqaba – from some 45,000 dunams (11,120 acres) of their land that will be trapped between the Allon Road and the new barrier….
The expulsion of communities carried out over the past two years was preceded by decades of Israeli policy meant to prevent the development of Palestinian communities in the area. Alongside the unofficial adoption of the Allon Plan – which sought to include the Jordan Valley in Israeli territory – the army declared large areas of the valley firing zones closed to Palestinian presence, despite the fact that Palestinian communities lived there and made their living from grazing and farming. Israel also forbade additional construction in the permanent villages and prohibited connecting other communities to water and electricity infrastructure. In the 2000s, further severe movement restrictions were added, which at times even limited entry to the area for Palestinians not registered as Jordan Valley residents.
In addition, the Civil Administration frequently demolished – and does so to this day – the simple structures these communities were forced to build without permits, cut irrigation pipes extended to their fields, confiscated tractors and water tankers, and fined vehicles transporting water to them for “slow driving.” According to residents, every possible signal was given that they should move westward, across Allon Road. With the construction of the barrier, Attorney Jabareen concludes, the message is that they must move even further west, into the A and B enclaves that are under Palestinian Authority control.”
Bonus Reads
- “The hidden list of Jewish terrorists Israel’s far right wants to free” (+972 Magazine, 12/3/25)
- “Activists Report Increase in Israeli Army Orders Preventing Volunteer Work in West Bank” (Haaretz, 11/30/25)
- “Israel must confront the wider system enabling settler violence – opinion” (Jerusalem Post, 11/30/25)
- “Israeli Settler Indicted for Assault, Terrorism After Beating Palestinian Woman in Alleged Attack Captured on Video” (Haaretz, 11/27/25)
- “Israel to Seize Palestinian Municipal Powers for Construction at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs” (Haaretz, 11/25/2025)
- “Israel is set to destroy our guesthouse. But Masafer Yatta still welcomes all who resist” (+972 Magazine, 11/25/25)
- “Israel’s Devastating Pincer Movement Seeks to Confiscate the Palestinian Future” (Haaretz Editorial, 11/21/25)
- “Singapore imposes sanctions, entry bans on four Israeli West Bank settlers” (Reuters, 11/21/25)
- “‘Why We Are Here’: IDF Campaign Encourages West Bank Tourism With Settler Propaganda” (Haaretz, )
- “Hundreds of Palestinians in Three Villages Haven’t Received a Permit to Stay in Their Homes” (Haaretz, 11/10/2025)
- “Only Trump Can Stop Jewish Settlers Terrorizing Palestinians. This Is How” (Haaretz, 12/2/25)