Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.
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November 1, 2024
- Israel is Bolstering Settlement Militias
- Yesha Council Pushes Intervention to Ease International Sanctions
- Smotrich, Saar Call for Annexation, Enlists U.S. Evangelical Support
- Settlers Continue to Terrorize Palestinians & Hamper Olive Harvest
- Bonus Reads
Israel is Bolstering Settlement Militias
The Samaria Regional Council recently announced that it purchased new long range rifles to equip settler militias guarding 30 settlements, reportedly purchased with the help of international donations, and 500 guns for women living in settlements. The head of the Council, Yossi Dagan, also announced he had purchased advanced surveillance equipment including drones and night vision devices. These militias – known as standby squads, rapid response teams, and/or settlement defense teams – are composed of local settlers, usually veterans but not actively serving in the IDF.
Ynet also reports that the IDF’s West Bank division is focused on fortifying settlements by sending additional arms and equipment as well as deploying reservists to the West Bank.
Yesha Council Pushes Intervention to Ease International Sanctions
The hugely powerful settler lobby, the Yesha Council, asked the Israeli State Comptroller urging the office to review how the Israeli government has internally responded to international sanctions against settlers and settler entities. The Yesha Council is frustrated with what it perceives as inaction to reverse sanctions and forestall further sanctions.
The Chairman of the Yesha Council, Yisrael Ganz, has previously requested the government to appoint a “Sanctions Czar” to take on this portfolio. Ganz told JNS:
“The sanctions are a danger to the sovereignty of the State of Israel. This is a slippery slope and the Israeli government is not doing enough in this regard to protect its sovereignty. We must not allow other countries, even if they are friendly, to dictate policies and control citizens and non-parliamentary organizations.”
Ganz also told Reuters:
“If Trump takes the election, there will be no sanctions. If Trump loses the election, we will in the state of Israel … have a problem with sanctions that the government over here has to deal with.”
Meanwhile, the Kohelet Forum – which has played a hugely significant role in shaping Israel’s far-right legislative agenda – published a new report claiming to prove that the United Nations OCHA-OPT (The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,) is a key driver of the international sanctions targeting settlers and settler entities. The report claims OCHA-OPT has published biased and false reports, and recommends cutting off official cooperation between Israel and the organization – to include denying visas and permits to its employees.
Smotrich, Saar Call for Annexation, Enlists U.S. Evangelical Support
On October 28 Bezalel Smotrich – who serves as Israel’s Finance Minister and a minister in the Defense Ministry who has effective control over civilian affairs in the West Bank Area C – made a speech at a conference in Jerusalem that called for Israel to unilaterally annex the West Bank and Gaza and the establishment of settlements across the land. At the same event Gidon Saar – head of the New Hope Part and expected to be the next Defense Minister – also supported annexation, saying Israel must put up an “iron wall” against international support for a two state solution.
The conference was hosted by Israel365, an Israeli media company focused on cultivating U.S. evangelical support for Israel. The Executive Director Tuly Weisz wrote an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post (which co-sponsored the 2023 conference) after the conference explaining that his motivation for his work lay (in part) in the recent book published by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. In the book, Friedman rejects Palestinian statehood and calls for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank while denying Palestinians equal voting rights.
Bonus Reads
- “The Israeli task force deporting foreign activists from the West Bank” (+972 Magazine)
- “A Palestinian Family Goes to Pick Olives. It Ends in an Execution by Israeli Soldiers” (Haaretz)
- “Israeli settlers in Gaza? Netanyahu’s allies lay out a strategy” (NPR)
- “’You Entered Gaza to Take Revenge’: Mourners Eulogize IDF Soldier, West Bank Settler” (Haaretz)
- “A History of Settlements” (NPR)