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 19, 2024

1. Israeli Courts Order Two Significant Evictions in East Jerusalem, Presaging Mass Forced Displacement in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan
2. Supreme Court Green Lights Eviction of Shehadeh Family from Batan Al-Hawa Home
3. Israeli Court Orders Eviction of the Diab Family from Sheikh Jarrah Home
4. Lower Aqueduct Settlement Plan Published Tender
5. Ir Amim & Bimkom: Israel Has Accelerated East Jerusalem Settlement Building Since Oct 7th
6. Ben Gvir Seizes Authority Over East Jerusalem Housing Demolitions
7. New Plan to Massively/Strategically Expand the Ariel Settlement Industrial Zone
8. Smotrich Designates Symbols for Four Outposts Previously Approved for Retroactive Legalization
9. The U.S. & E.U Unveil New Sanctions Targeting Settlers & Settler Entities
10. Bonus Reads

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Israeli Courts Order Two Significant Evictions in East Jerusalem, Presaging Mass Forced Displacement in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan

Over the past week – on the eve of Passover and in days after the end of Ramadan, while genocide continues in Gaza and violence escalates in the West Bank – two separate Israeli courts have ordered the eviction of Palestinian families from their longtime homes in East Jerusalem in favor of Israeli settlers; both cases set a terrifying precedent for dozens more Palestinian families fighting against settler groups on the same basis of argumentation. The mass dispossession and displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem is advancing. These cases put on full display the tight cooperation between settler entities and the Israeli state in advancing the displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, and their replacement with Israeli Jews.

Ir Amim explains:

“Although the Israeli government often characterizes these cases as private real estate disputes, they are rather part and parcel of a systematic campaign to further entrench Israeli control of the most politically sensitive areas in East Jerusalem. The eviction claims are filed on the basis of a discriminatory Israeli law (see more below) by settler groups working in collaboration with the state to expand Jewish settlement in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. This thereby serves to foil any possibility of East Jerusalem serving as a future Palestinian capital.

…A common thread between these cases is that the eviction lawsuits were filed by settler groups based on the 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters law. Article 5 of this law exclusively affords Jews with land restitution rights for assets allegedly owned by Jews in East Jerusalem before 1948 despite many of these properties now inhabited by Palestinians. No parallel legal mechanism exists for Palestinians to recover pre-1948 assets on the Israeli side of the Green Line, many of which are now inhabited by Jews. To the contrary, the 1950 Absentee Property Law enshrines that Palestinians who were forced to abandon their homes and lands in what became Israel after the war of 1948 can never retrieve them…Settler organizations aided by state bodies act to secure ownership rights of these assets despite having no relation to the previous Jewish owners or occupants. Acquisition of these rights provides settler groups with the legal platform to “retrieve” the property from the General Custodian and initiate eviction lawsuits against Palestinian families through application of the 1970 law. A department within the Ministry of Justice, the General Custodian is the Israeli body responsible for managing abandoned property, including alleged pre-1948 Jewish assets in East Jerusalem until “reclaimed.” Between 1948-1967, these properties were administered by the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property and then transferred into the management of the Israeli General Custodian in 1967 following Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem.”

Supreme Court Green Lights Eviction of Shehadeh Family from Batan Al-Hawa Home

On April 11th, the Israeli Supreme Court  Justice Noam Sohleberg dismissed a final petition in the case of the Palestinian Shehadeh family, who has spent years fighting against their eviction from their home of 60 years in the Batan Al-Hawa section of Silwan at the behest of the Ateret Cohanim settler organization. Justice Sohlberg ordered the Shehadeh family to leave by June 1st or face forced eviction by Israeli authorities, and also ordered the family to pay legal fees for the settler group. The case has been ongoing since 2021, and the Supreme Court’s ruling last week marks the end of any potential avenues of further appeal. Ir Amim writes that only state intervention can halt the eviction.

The Shahadeh family is one of 85 families (700 people) in Batan al-Hawa facing displacement at the behest of Ateret Cohanim, a settler organization which has waged a years-long eviction campaign against Palestinians living in Silwan, on property the settler NGO claims to own. The group’s claim is based on having gained control of the historic Benvenisti Trust, which oversaw the assets of Yemenite Jews who lived in Silwan in the 19th century. 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 (i.e., to Ateret Cohanim). Since then, Ateret Cohanim has accelerated its multi-pronged campaign to remove Palestinians from their homes, claiming that the Palestinians are illegal squatters.

The Supreme Court ruling ignores ongoing litigation initiated in 2020 by Ir Amim that challenges the legitimacy and legality of Ateret Cohanim’s control of the Benvenisti Trust. In response to the filing, the Israeli Registrar of Trusts (department within the Justice Ministry) announced that it will open an investigation into the allegations. Ir Amim is still awaiting news on the investigation.

Israeli Court Orders Eviction of the Diab Family from Sheikh Jarrah Home

On April 15th, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled that the Palestinian Diab family (30 people) can be evicted from their home of 70 years in the Kerem al-Jaouni area of Sheikh Jarrah at the behest of the Nahalat Shimon settler group. The Court ruled that Nahalat Shimon owns the land based on the claim that it was owned by Jews before 1948, which Israeli law allows Jews to “reclaim.” The Diab family was ordered to leave by July 15th, or face forcible displacement by Israeli authorities. The family, who was also ordered to pay the legal fees of the settler group, can appeal this ruling to the Jerusalem District Court.

The Diab family is one of 30 Palestinian families in the Kerem al-Jaouni area of Sheikh Jarrah fighting against the settler group Nahalat Shimon, which is seeking their dispossession. Peace Now explains the 

current context of evictions across all of Sheikh Jarrah:

“In 1948, the land, which was then without structures, came under Jordanian rule. The Jordanians designated the land for the rehabilitation of dozens of Palestinian refugee families, who exchanged their refugee status for homes in the newly built neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah. After 1967, the Jewish associations recovered the ownership rights of the land based on the Legal and Administrative Matters Law (see below), and began to demand that the refugee families vacate their homes. To that extent, the associations were exercising the “right of return” of Jews to properties taken in 1948 (a right not afforded to Palestinians).

The [Israeli] settlement in Karem Ja’uni in Sheikh Jarrah began in 2008 when the al-Kurd family was evicted from their home, and in 2009 the Rawi, Hanoun and part of (another) al-Kurd families were evicted. Since then, settlers have filed at least 14 eviction cases against dozens of families of hundreds of people in Karem Ja’uni in Sheikh Jarrah. On the western side of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in Um Haroun, there are another few dozens of families facing eviction lawsuits by settlers, and in Batan Al-Hawa in Silwan there are almost 100 families at risk of eviction.

About two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled with regard to four of the Karem Ja’uni families, that they will be able to stay in their homes at least until the land registration procedure in the area is completed. Following this ruling, the Magistrate’s Court applied the same arrangement to two of the eviction cases. The cases of seven additional families is still pending in the Supreme Court, while the cases of the rest of the families are still ongoing in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“This is a heinous injustice based on a discriminatory system of laws. The story here is not legal but political. The court is only the tool by which settlers use with the close assistance of state authorities to commit the crime of displacing an entire community and replacing it with settlement. The Israeli government and settlers have no problem to displace thousands of Palestinians in the name of “the Right of Return” to properties before 1948, while they strongly claim that the millions of Israelis living in Palestinian properties before 1948 cannot be evicted. This injustice can and should be stopped by the government”.

Lower Aqueduct Settlement Plan Published Tender

Peace Now reports that the Israeli Housing Ministry has published a tender for the construction of 1,047 settlement units constituting a new settlement in East Jerusalem called the Lower Aqueduct” plan. The settlement will be located on a sliver of land located between the controversial settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa in East Jerusalem, adjacent to the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Tuba and fall on both sides of the 1967 Green Line. The settlement is designed to connect the two settlements and seal East Jerusalem off from Bethlehem, and in so doing establish a huge, uninterrupted continuum of Israeli settlements on the southern rim of Jerusalem. According to Ir Amim, this is the first major new East Jerusalem settlement established by Israel since 2012.

Peace Now writes:

“The plan was promoted at an unprecedented speed from its inception to the tender issue: it was placed on the table of the District Planning Committee in July 2021, discussed in January 2022 by the District Committee which ordered revisions to the plan, and was approved for deposit in July 2022. That is, the tender was issued less than three years after the plans were submitted.

Politically, this is a strategic plan that will severely impact the possibility of a continuous urban Palestinian connection in East Jerusalem. In practice, the plan blocks the last corridor remaining for connecting Beit Safafa and Sur Baher with other parts of East Jerusalem. It should be noted that although about half of the plan’s area is beyond the Green Line, and half within it, its strategic location between Givat HaMatos and Har Homa makes it particularly problematic politically.”

Ir Amim has previously written:

“This plan carries serious ramifications on the political future of Jerusalem. If constructed, it will extend the Israeli settlement wedge along East Jerusalem’s southern border, further creating a sealing-off effect of East Jerusalem from the southern West Bank, while fracturing the Palestinian space and depleting more vacant land for Palestinian development….Beyond its geopolitical ramifications, the advancement of this plan underscores the systematic discrimination implicit in Israeli planning and building policy in Jerusalem. Since the beginning of 2023, over 18,500 housing units have been advanced for new or existing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, while residential development for Palestinians has been all but neglected. This is despite the fact that Palestinians constitute nearly 40% of Jerusalem’s population. 2023 is slated to join 2022 as being the two years with the highest number of settlement units advanced in the last decade in East Jerusalem. Such inequitable urban planning policy has long served as a driver of Palestinian displacement in service of solidifying a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem and further cementing Israeli territorial control to foil prospects for a just political resolution.” 

Ir Amim & Bimkom: Israel Has Accelerated East Jerusalem Settlement Building Since Oct 7th

The Israeli anti-settlement NGOs Bimkom and Ir Amim have released a joint report reviewing the Israeli government’s wartime policies and how they have led to the acceleration of both settlement activity and home demolitions, posing an ever increasing threat to the rights and futures of Palestinian residents.

The report reads:

“Since the outbreak of the war six months ago, there has been a major surge in the promotion and fast-tracking of new settlement plans in East Jerusalem and a dramatic spike in the rate of demolitions of Palestinian homes. The Israeli government is clearly exploiting the war to create more facts on the ground to predetermine the final status of Jerusalem and thwart all prospects for a negotiated political agreement, while forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homes and the city. 

Measures are being taken to establish eight brand-new settlements in East Jerusalem within or adjacent to Palestinian neighborhoods with a total of over 12,000 housing units. For details and analysis of these plans, click here or above for the full policy brief.

In juxtaposition to this major uptick in the advancement of new settlements, demolitions of Palestinian homes have reached unparalleled levels since the start of the war. This serves as a form of collective punishment and part of a series of repressive measures currently being employed by Israel against Palestinians under its control. Between October 7, 2023—March 10, 2024, 98 homes were demolished, which marks a nearly two-fold monthly increase compared to the period preceding the war. (Demolitions were halted during the month of Ramadan as in the past).”

Ben Gvir Seizes Authority Over East Jerusalem Housing Demolitions

On April 8th, the Israeli Cabinet decided to hand extremist minister Ben Gvir power over demolitions and housing enforcement in East Jerusalem. The CAbinet’s decision moved the Real Estate Enforcement Division from the Finance Ministry to the Ministry of National Security, which is controlled by Ben Gvir. The Real Estate Enforcement Division has the power to enforce against illegal construction in East Jerusalem and conducts demolitions and imposes fines alongside the Jerusalem municipality’s Building Supervision Department. It is important to note that the rate of demolitions in East Jerusalem during the Gaza war and in 2023 overall was higher than in other months or years, and it seems that transferring authority to Ben Gvir will only exacerbate this trend.

Daniel Seidemann, founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, explained on X:

“In the eyes of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, home demolitions are the most brutal & egregious manifestations of Israeli occupation. W/the exception of real or perceived threat to Al Aqsa, no issue in Jerusalem is more volatile & more incendiary than home demolitions. As per yesterday’s Cabinet Resolution, very broad powers will now be vested in Ben Gvir and an Authority or which he is responsible. these include administrative demolition orders, cease work orders, execution of judicial demolition orders, and much more. Ben Gvir has repeatedly declared his intent to carry out large scale home demolitions, particularly in E. Jerusalem. He then was opposed by the Police Chief, who now does his bidding.  Ben Gvir has already expedited demolitions. However Ben Gvir had a problem: he had absolutely no statutory power in relation to demolitions. The role of the Police was to secure the demolitions ordered by the Jerusalem Municipality or Government of Israel (incl. judicial bodies). Bravado aside, he was a spectator.All that changed yesterday by means of the Cabinet Resolution. Having declared his intent “to show the Arabs of East Jerusalem who’s boss” by carrying out large scale demolitions.  He will now have all the statutory powers and resources necessary to make good on his promise.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“It has been unequivocally proven that law enforcement authorities under the responsibility of Itamar Ben Gvir exacerbate tension, violence, and hatred between the state and its citizens. The Real Estate Enforcement Division should operate with integrity and profound sensitivity to our political and social reality. However, it is highly doubtful that this will occur under the authority of Itamar Ben Gvir, the Minister of National Insecurity, who has previously been convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization.”

New Plan to Massively/Strategically Expand the Ariel Settlement Industrial Zone

Peace Now reports that the Israeli Civil Administration’s High Planning Council convened on April 10th to consider 26 settlement plans, the most consequential of which is a plan to significantly expand the Ariel settlement industrial zone. This plan proposes to significantly expand the industrial zone eastward toward the new Ariel West settlement, which just began construction, connecting the two for all practical purposes.

Peace Now further explains the consequences of this plan:

“Expanding the industrial area eastward, on the one hand, and the establishment of the planned settlement of Ariel West, which infrastructure works for its establishment have recently begun, on the other hand, are intended to create a territorial continuum of settlements that will effectively block any possibility of development for Palestinian communities in the vicinity, including Salfit, Harres, and Kifl Harres. The plan essentially disconnects Salfit – the district town from the surrounding villages it serves.”

It’s worth revisiting the role settlement industrial zones play in perpetuating ISraeli occupation, annexation, and apartheid. For decades Israel has used industrial zones as another tool to expand and deepen control over West Bank land and natural resources. Industrial zones are part of Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). Presented as benefiting both Israelis and Palestinians, it is in fact Orwellian to label such initiatives as “coexistence” programs, or to suggest that they offer the Palestinians benefits they should welcome. Importantly, jobs in industrial zones – often the only jobs available for Palestinians living under an Israeli occupation that prevents the development of any normal Palestinian economy – are widely viewed by Palestinians as a double-edged sword. The NGO Who Profits explained:

“Israeli Industrial Zones constitute a foundational pillar of the economy of the occupation. They contribute to the economic development of the settlements, which are in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, while relying on the de-development of the Palestinian economy and the exploitation of Palestinian land and labor…The Industrial Zones in the oPt form part of a practice of ‘financial annexation’ which is an essential component of the broader policy of annexation taking place.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The government of Israel continues to build at an unprecedented pace in the Occupied Territories. Expanding an industrial area in the heart of the West Bank is not an Israeli interest, and certainly not a Palestinian interest. The industrial area west of Ariel does not promote economic growth, but rather harms both the Israeli and Palestinian economies alike.”

Smotrich Designates Symbols for Four Outposts Previously Approved for Retroactive Legalization

On April 6th, Finance Minister Smotrich (who also heads the Settlement Administration and a minister in the Defense Ministry) issued a statement announcing that he has designated “locality symbols” to four outposts that the government has previously approved to be retroactively legalized as new settlements: Mitzpe Yehuda, Beit Hogla, Shacharit, and Asa’el. 

Peace Now explains:

“A ‘locality symbol’ is a serial number assigned by the Ministry of Interior to each official Israeli locality. For the government to allocate funds and resources for settlement development or to prepare construction plans, a settlement must have a “locality symbol.” Smotrich’s announcement aims to bolster his standing among his supporters as someone who does a lot for the settlements. Therefore, he exploits a bureaucratic maneuver and tries to present it as a new achievement.

The significance of assigning locality symbols to these four new settlements is that the government bureaucracy has already begun working to promote these settlements. It should be noted that since the government’s decision in February to establish nine new settlements, the commander of the military’s Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs has issued orders in recent months defining the jurisdictional areas of six of them: Mishmar Yehuda, Givat Haroeh. Apparently, defining the jurisdictional area of the remaining three settlements is delayed due to land ownership issues.”

The U.S. & E.U Unveil New Sanctions Targeting Settlers & Settler Entities

On April 19th the United States Department of State announced a third round of sanctions targeting one Israeli settler and two settler entities. The European Union announced sanctions on the same day, against four settlers and two settler entities. This round of sanctions is particularly notable because it expands the sanctions’ targets to include entities which fund settlers involved in violence, and because it targets a prominent political ally and confidant of Itamar Ben Gvir.

The U.S. sanctions target:

• Ben Zion (Bentzi) Gopstein – founder of the radical, violent Lehava settler organization, and “one of the closest confidants” of Kahanist Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The U.S. State Department says that Lehava and its members “have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas.” Gopstein was convicted in early 2024 for incitement to racism
• The Mount Hebron Fund – an organization leading a fundraising campaign for Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler previously sanctioned by the U.S. The U.S. group DAWN writes that the crowdfunding campaign had the declared intention of bypassing US sanctions. The AP reports the fundraising effort raised $140,000.
• Shlom Asiraich – an organization leading a fundraising campaign for David Chai Chasdai,  an Israeli settler previously sanctioned by the U.S.. The AP reports the fundraising effort raised $31,000.

The European Union sanctions target:

• Lehava – the organization run by Ben Zion Gopstein (who the U.S. sanctioned as an individual, but did not sanction Lehava).
• The Hilltop Youth settler organization – a notoriously violent group based out of the Yitzhar settlement and involved in establishing illegal outposts throughout the West Bank. The Hilltop Youth have been called “the Jewish ISIS,” and regularly engage in violence against Palestinians, Israeli authorities, and activists.
• Neriya Ben Pazi – who was previously sanctioned by the U.S..
• Yinon Levi – who was previously sanctioned by the U.S..
• Meir Ettinger – who is the grandson of the late, extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, and a well-known leader of the Hilltop Youth leader. 
• Elisha Yered – who previously served as a spokesperson for MK Limor Son Har-Melech, an ally of Ben Gvir.

Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the new sanction, saying:

“The harassment of the Lehava organization and dearest settlers, who never engaged in terrorism or harmed anyone, are the result of a blood libel by Israel-hating, antisemitic elements who for years have openly supported Hamas, Fatah, and other anarchist organizations that harm IDF soldiers.”

Bonus Reads

1. On Settler Terrorism: 
   1. “West Bank sees biggest settler rampage since war in Gaza began as Israeli teen’s body is found” (AP)
   2. “Al-Haq, Al Mezan and PCHR Urge the International Community to Intervene as Israeli Forces and Settler Violence Intensifies Across the West Bank” (read)
   3. “Homes burned, animals killed: Palestinians describe Israeli settler rampage” (Washington Post)
   4. “Israel Responsible for Rising Settler Violence” (Human Rights Watch)
   5. “Opinion | Dear President Biden, Are You Okay With Israeli Settlers Using American Weapons?” (Amira Hass in Haaretz)
2. “Blinken Is Sitting on Staff Recommendations to Sanction Israeli Military Units Linked to Killings or Rapes” (Pro Publica)
3. “Blinken says he’s made ‘determinations’ linked to human rights accusations against Israel” (The Times of Israel)
4. “Ben Gvir forms police team targeting left-wing activists in the West Bank” (The Times of Israel)
5. “Editorial | Goodbye, Green Line: The Israeli Government Goes All Out to Boost West Bank Settlements” (Haaretz Editorial Board)
6. “Housing, Showers, Electricity: These Are the Outposts the Israeli Army Is Building in the Heart of Gaza” (Haaretz)

 

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.

March 29, 2024

1. Israel to Legalize Ahiya Outpost, Framing it as a Neighborhood of the Shilo Settlement
2. Israel Expedites New West Bank Road for Settlers, Foreshadowing Mass Expansion of Settlement Growth West of Ramallah
3. U.S. Undercuts Its Own Sanctions on Settlers, Says Israel Banks Can Continue Hosting Accounts
4. Haaretz Reveals Mortgage Fraud Behind Some Outposts Construction
5. Palestinian NGOs Issue Alert on Israeli Crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem
6. The Health & Psychological Impacts of Settler Terrorism
7. Settlement Wastewater is Damaging Palestinian Land, Livelihood & Contributing to Forcible Displacement
8. Bonus Reads

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Israel to Legalize Ahiya Outpost, Framing it as a Neighborhood of the Shilo Settlement

Peace Now reports that the Israeli Civil Administration announced that it will grant retroactive authorization to the Ahiya outpost by massively expanding the jurisdiction of the Shilo settlement to include the land on which the outpost was illegally constructed. The outpost is not contiguous with the built up area of the Shile outpost, and is more properly understood to be a new outpost, not simply an expansion of an existing one. 

Peace Now explains:

“According to Peace Now’s estimation, the decision to approve the outpost of Ahiya as a neighborhood of Shilo rather than a new settlement is intended to prevent international criticism and the need to pass the decision in the security cabinet. On the other hand, the decision serves Minister Smotrich, who in the past month has exerted increased authority over settlements and declared a record number of dunams as state lands, promoted thousands of housing units, and more. In 2023, Israel approved five outposts as new settlement neighborhoods, reaching a record number of 15 outposts approved as settlements in 2023. In 2018, Minister Smotrich proposed legislation to regulate approximately 70 outposts as settlements. Since assuming office, he has announced several initiatives to achieve this objective.”

The Shilo settlement is located  in the heart of the northern West Bank, in the Shiloh Valley, in an area of settlements that are designed to form an uninterrupted corridor of Israeli control connecting sovereign Israel to the Ariel settlement, through the isolated Shiloh Valley settlements, all the way to the Jordan Valley. In so doing, It will completely bisect the northern part of the West Bank. 

The Shiloh settlement has spun off several illegal outposts (Amichai, Adei Ad, Shvut Rachel) which have systematically been added to the Shilo settlement by expanding the settlements borders, a move which rewards illegal construction and land theft and further encourages it. This pattern is exemplified by the Amihai outpost. 

The Amichai settlement was approved for construction in 2017, making it (at that time) the first new settlement formally approved by the Israeli government in 25 years. Aerial imagery from 2021 show the massive growth Amichai has enjoyed in the years that followed its establishment, a previously empty hilltop with cultivated fields nearby have been transformed into a sizable suburban neighborhood. In addition to new construction, Amichai was also massively expanded, subsequent to its initial construction, when the Israeli Civil Administration announced that its plan to retroactively legalize the Adei Ad outpost by significantly expanding the borders of the Amichai settlement to turn Adei Ad into a (non-contiguous) neighborhood. In effect, this was a slight-of-hand by Israel to turn the Adei Ad outpost into an entirely new official, legal settlement. In 2013, Israel allocated additional land near the Amichai settlement to the World Zionist Organization, in order to expand the settlement. This has all come at the continued cost to Palestinians from the nearby village of Turmus Ayya on whose land Amichai was established and whom settlers from the Amichai outpost and others nearby routinely harass and terrorize.

In a statement, Peace Now says:

“Establishing another settlement is the last thing Israel needs. Deepening Israeli presence in the West Bank serves only a small and extremist group in Israel and harms the entire Israeli public. The Israeli government, under Minister Smotrich’s leadership, continues to evade a political solution and imposes facts on the ground that will escalate violence and deepen the dispossession and oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Israel Expedites New West Bank Road for Settlers, Foreshadowing Mass Expansion of Settlement Growth West of Ramallah

Peace Now reports that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Transportation Minister Miri Regev announced plan to fast-track the planning and construction of a new road for settlers in the West Bank, designed to connect the Gush Talmonim settlement area west of Ramallah to Route 443. This road will give the settlements in this area (including Dolev, Almon, Haresha, and others) a more direct route to Jerusalem through Palestinian land, which Israel will expropriate. – and, according to Peace Now, will facilitate the massive expansion of the Gush Talmonim settlement by the tens of thousands.

Peace Now writes:

“The Gush Talmonim Road – Route 443 is an extremely dangerous project for the area west to Ramallah. Its construction will create a wide and densely populated settlement bloc, exacerbating friction between settlers and Palestinians and further complicating a political solution. The road will not reduce violence in the area but rather escalate it to new heights. The political solution lies not in such illogical roads but in a political horizon and hope for both peoples.”

U.S. Undercuts Its Own Sanctions on Settlers, Says Israel Banks Can Continue Hosting Accounts

According to reporting by the Times of Israel, this week the U.S. government sent a letter to the Israeli Finance Ministry saying that, in effect, Israeli banks can maintain accounts for the seven individuals sanctioned by the U.S. government without facing repercussions. The letter is reported to have stated that the sanctions were not intended to cut off sanctioned individuals from all of their assets, only from international/foreign transactions, and that the individuals should be permitted access to their bank accounts for basic purchases.

The letter was prompted by a series of events stemming from recently announced sanctions on Israeli settlers who have participated in violence against Palestinians. Following the U.S.’s announcement, several European countries (and possibly the EU) followed suit, and Israeli banks moved to close accounts for those individuals in fear of being locked out of international banking systems for violating sanctions. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, seeking retaliation against the banks for the decision to close the accounts, threatened to take steps to cut Palestinian banking off from Israeli banks (the Palestinian economy operates in shekels and is largely dependent on the Israeli banking sector). 

Muhammad Shehada, Chief of Communications at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, posted on X: 

“Biden quietly reverses the (feckless) sanctions he put on 7 individual settlers, removing the freeze on their accounts & effectively emptying the sanctions of any practical content according to Israel Hayom! It was purely a PR stunt all along to whitewash his complicity in Gaza.”

Tariq Habash, a former political apointee in the U.S. Department of Education who recently resigned in protest of the Biden Administration’s Israel policy, posted:

“The Biden Admin has now eroded the primary policy to deter illegal settlement expansions in the West Bank, undermining the entire purpose of issuing sanctions and compromising U.S. policy yet again.”

Hugh Lovatt, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, posted on X:

“Once again, the U.S. is scared of its own bark and inherently unable to put any meaningful pressure on Israel.  It has promised to undermine the potency of its (secondary) sanctions regime.  What could potentially have turned into a game changer is now barely an inconvenience.”

Former J Street lobbyist Dylan Williams posted:

“Between this bizarre move to ease the impact of sanctions on violent settlers and accepting Israel’s patently false assurance that it’s following US and international law per NSM-20, the Biden administration is regressing when it comes to standing up for US interests with Israel.”

Haaretz Reveals Mortgage Fraud Behind Some Outposts Construction

Haaretz and Kerem Navot recently revealed a pattern or mortgage fraud behind the construction of some outposts. The investigation shows that Israeli banks issue mortgages to settlers for the construction of homes in a settlement (with specific land parcel numbers recorded), but the actual construction happens elsewhere – thereby enabling the costly construction of outposts. The complicity/knowledge of the banks in issuing these mortgages is unclear and different for each case – but it is clear that the World Zionist Organization is deeply involved in these dealings.

Most flagrantly, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry overseeing settlement affairs – himself engaged in this fraud. He took a mortgage for a lot in the Kedumim settlement, but built the house on totally unrelated land located outside the settlement’s zoning plan. 

In addition, Yehuda Eliyahu – who Smotrich appointed as head of the Settlement Administration that Smotrich created – also participated in this scheme. He received a 2004 mortgage on a land parcel in the Neria settlement, but built in what is now called the Haresha outpost.

Dror Etkes, founder of the Kerem Navot settlement watchdog group, told Haaretz: 

“The two main protagonists of this story, Finance Minister Smotrich and his longtime friend-partner Yehuda Eliyahu, together with their friends in the settlement department, were part of a group of settlers who obtained mortgages while misleading the banks. This may be the reason why 11 years later, as an MK, it was so important for Smotrich to exempt the activity of the settlement department from the Freedom of Information Act.“

Palestinian NGOs Issue Alert on Israeli Crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem

Amidst ongoing genocide in Gaza, the three preeminent Palestinian human rights groups – Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, and the Palsetinian Center for Human Rights, have issued a new report on spike in Israeli violations and crimes in the West Bank in the first months of 2024. These crimes include extrajudicial killings, attacks on medical personnel, raids and arrests, demolitions and land razings, land confiscation, settlement expansion, settler violence, and more.

In conclusion, the groups write:

“Our organizations believe that the main target of the Israeli crimes and violations in the West Bank is the existence of the Palestinian people in Mandatory Palestine, for the purpose of entrenching the Zionist settler-colonial project. This is particularily evident in Gaza as well, where the Israeli military aggression has led to the forced displacement of approximately 1.9 million Palestinians within the Gaza Strip amid systematic targeting and destruction, rendering the Strip unlivable and thereby forcing its people to flee. The absence of accountability and concrete enforcement of international law, the international community’s inaction and third states’ complicity are fueling the continuation of Israel’s settler-colonial project and ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Our organizations emphasize that these crimes and violations would not have continued without Israel’s long-enjoyed impunity and third states failure to hold perpetrators accountable and put an end to these crimes, according to Common Article 1 of the Four Geneva Conventions and Articles 146 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Our organizations also call upon the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to expedite the investigation into the situation in Palestine initiated more than two years ago and issue arrest warrants  to hold the perpetrators accountable for these crimes, particularly the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

As Israel attempts to eliminate the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, our organizations reiterate that addressing the situation in Palestine requires tackling the root causes of the Palestinian struggle, emphasizing that the international community and the United Nations member states hold the primary responsibility for the violence in Palestine through their inaction and complicity in Israel’s systematic and widespread violations. We urge the international community to assume its responsibilities to stop the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

The Health & Psychological Impacts of Settler Terrorism

Physicians for Human Rights has released a new report detailing the multifaceted trauma inflicted on Palestinians in the West Bank by settler terrorism. PHRI writes in the intro:

“For over five years, we’ve been flooded with reports chronicling settler violence. However, this worn-out term obscures a grim reality: life beside settler outposts and farms entail daily exposure to oppressive and coercive mechanisms, systemic discrimination, and a continuous sense of insecurity and fear. Our latest position paper explores how constant exposure to such routine violence is detrimental to the health of Palestinians, highlighting the social and psychological repercussions.”

The paper can be downloaded here.

Settlement Wastewater is Damaging Palestinian Land, Livelihood & Contributing to Forcible Displacement

The Norwegian Refugee Committee has issued a new report on the damage that settlement wastewater is inflicting on Palestinian land and livelihoods. The organization investigated two sites in the West Bank and found human sewage and animal waste flowing from settlements into Palestinian land, destroying crops and land. This, in turn, severely impacts the productivity of Palestinian agriculture, and contributes to the many pressures from Israeli settlers and the government which force Palestinians off their land. The Israeli Water Authority is responsible for water and sewage management for settlements in the West Bank.

One Palestinian farmer who has land close to Immanuel settlement industrial zone, told NRC:

 “Wastewater has extensively flooded my land. A salt layer now covers the soil, significantly impacting the quality of the produced oil from my olive groves. Olive trees each used to yield no less than 25 kilograms of olives, but today production has dropped by half.” 

Samah Hadid, NRC’s Middle East and North Africa Head of Advocacy said: 

“Israel’s settlements routinely contaminate critical water systems and agricultural lands with wastewater, exacerbating environmental risks, further destabilising the already fragile Palestinian economy, and heightening the likelihood of various diseases like diarrhoea and kidney failure.”

In 2017, B’Tselem published a comprehensive report criticizing the illegal Israeli practice of exporting its waste to the occupied territories. The report provides more context for the extent to which hazardous wastewater poses significant damage to Palestinian land and futures. The report says: 

“Israel regards the facilities built in the West Bank as part of its local waste management system, yet it applies less rigorous regulatory standards there than it does inside its own territory. Whereas polluting plants located within Israel are subject to progressive air pollution control legislation, polluting plants in the industrial zones of settlements are subject to virtually no restrictions. Moreover, the facilities in settlements are not required to report on the amount of waste they process, the hazards their operation pose, or the measures they adopt to prevent – or at least reduce – these risks. B’Tselem sent requests for information on these matters to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Civil Administration. The requests have gone unanswered.

…For many years, Israel has been taking advantage of its power as occupier to transfer the treatment of waste (including hazardous waste) and sewage from its sovereign territory to the West Bank. To that end, it has created a situation in which environmental legislation in the West Bank is much laxer than inside Israel, conveniently overlooking the long-term impact of environmental hazards on the Palestinian population and on natural resources, and neglecting to prepare future rehabilitation plans. This has created a financial incentive to transfer the treatment of environmental hazards from Israel to the West Bank. The Palestinians who live in the occupied territory are the ones to pay the price for this environmental damage, even though they were never asked their opinion on the matter and although, as a population under occupation, they have no political power and no real ability to resist.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Israeli settlers step up attacks on Palestinian farms, expanding West Bank outposts” (NPR)
2. “In a West Bank settlement, Israelis tend red cows and plan the Third Temple” (Middle East Eye)

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.

March 22, 2024

1. Jordan Valley, Part 1: Israel Declares Massive Swathe of Land in Jordan Valley as “State Land”
2. Jordan Valley, Part 2: Israel Expands Three West Bank Nature Reserves – Including an Outpost in the Jordan Valley
3. Jordan Valley, Part 3: B’Tselem Documents Post-Oct 7th Acceleration of Settler-Terrorism in the Jordan Valley
4. HR Group Petitions for the Demolition of Outpost Affiliated with U.S.-Sanctioned Settler
5. Smotrich Moving to Appoint Settler as Top Dog on Outposts Demolitions, Over the Authority of High-Ranking Military Authorities
6. Bonus Reads: Sanctions
7. Bonus Reads

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Jordan Valley, Part 1: Israel Declares Massive Swathe of Land in Jordan Valley as “State Land”

Peace Now reports that the Israeli Ministry of Defence is prepared to announce the declaration of 2,000 acres (8,000 dunams) in the northern Jordan Valley near the Yafit settlement as “state land”. According to Peace Now, this is the largest declaration of “state land” since the Oslo Accords were signed.

Peace Now explains: 

“The declaration of state land is one of the main methods by which the State of Israel seeks to assert control over land in the occupied territories. Land declared as state land is no longer considered privately owned by Palestinians in the eyes of Israel, and they are prevented from using it. Additionally, the state leases state land exclusively to Israelis.”

This declaration comes just a few weeks after Israel issued another “state land” declaration, for 652 acres of land east of Jerusalem between the Ma’ale Adumim and Keidar settlements.

Jordan Valley, Part 2: Israel Expands Three West Bank Nature Reserves – Including an Outpost in the Jordan Valley

Haaretz reports that the Israeli Civil Administration has signed orders expanding the boundaries of three nature reserves in the West Bank, a move which not only closes off more West Bank land from Palestinians, but is also designed to include an illegal outpost. Under Israeli law, no construction is allowed to occur in areas designated as a nature reserve. 

Two of the nature reserves – Umm Zuka and Petza’el, are located in the Jordan Valley. The third, Kana and Samar, is located near the northern shore of the Dead Sea.

The illegal outpost Havat Ori/Ori’s Farm is now included within the expanded boundaries of the Umm Zuka nature reserve in the northern Jordan Valley. Over the past few years, the outpost – which grazes herds of cattle – has already successfully forced Palestinians off of large amounts of land in its vicinity while facing no enforcement against its illegal construction. In the past, when the IDF has been called to assist Palestinian herders in their struggle to graze cattle in the area, Israeli soldiers have removed Paelstinians from their land and confiscated their cattle (a practice which Yesh Din has recently filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to stop). The settlers, even when entering a nearby firing zone, have been protected and allowed to continue taking over more land and entrenching their illegally constructed outpost.

The story is repeated throughout the Jordan Valley and the West Bank, as so-called “herding outposts” have proven to be extremely successful and efficient way for a small number of settlers (and their cattle) to take over a large amount of land.

In 2019, a group of Israeli human rights activists petitioned the Israeli High Court to revoke the special status of the Umm Zuka nature reserve and firing zone in the West Bank, saying the Israel’s designation of the land as a protected area has only served as a pretext to remove Palestinians and allow settlers to take over. Part of the petition cited the impacts of an unauthorized outpost near Umm Zaka, which had essentially turned the wilderness area into a private settler park where Palestinians are not allowed to enter. The Civil Administration spokesperson told Haaretz that it is undertaken unspecified “enforcement proceedings” against the unauthorized outpost.

After the petition was filed, Israeli lawyer Eitay Mack who made the filing, told Haaretz:

“the reserve and the firing zone have effectively become a private settler farm that receives personal security service from Israel Defense Forces soldiers and bars entry to the farm’s enormous territory on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, religion and political opinions.”

Jordan Valley, Part 3: B’Tselem Documents Post-Oct 7th Acceleration of Settler-Terrorism in the Jordan Valley

In a new paper and accompanying video, B’Tselem documents how settlers and the Israeli government have “ramped up efforts to drive Palestinian shepherding communities out of the northern Jordan Valley.” The paper documents testimonies from Palestinian communities at risk of forced displacement, and unpacks several methods employed by settlers and the Israeli government pushing their removal. Those methods are: land takeover, settler violence, travel restrictions, soldier violence, and harassment by the settler regional council.

B’Tselem writes:

“Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has stepped up its efforts to drive dozens of Palestinian shepherding communities in the northern Jordan Valley out of their homes and lands. Through cooperation and collaboration among the military, police, settlers and the Jordan Valley Regional Council, Israel has reduced grazing areas available to Palestinians, blocked regular water supply and took measures to isolate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank. This policy is nothing new. Israel has been undermining these communities’ subsistence for decades, in part, by denying Palestinians’ access to nearly 80% of the Jordan Valley declared as firing zones, nature reserves or the municipal area of settlements. Israel uses these zoning declarations to justify its refusal to approve building plans that would allow residents of these pastoral communities to build homes legally and connect to water and electricity infrastructure. On top of this, with full backing and protection from the military and the police, settlers subject residents of these communities to severe violence on a daily basis. This policy imposes impossible living conditions on Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley.”

HR Group Petitions for the Demolition of Outpost Affiliated with U.S.-Sanctioned Settler

While the reach and impact of U.S.-led sanctions against Israeli seven settlers and two illegal outposts continues to grow, the Israeli anti-settlement group Torat Tzedek and five Palestinian landowners have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice seeking the demolition of the HaMahoch Farm outpost, which is affiliated with an Israeli settler (Neriya Ben Pazi) who was recently sanctioned by the U.S. government.  The outpost, located east of Ramallah, was not one of the two outposts also sanctioned. 

Neriya Ben Pazi and his associates are alleged to have organized and participated in a particularly gruesome attack and subsequent torturing of Palestinians who were in the process of abandoning the Wadi al-Seeq village (having chosen to abandon their longtime homes in light of routine and severe harassment by settlers). 

TIn addition to calling for the HaMahoch Farm outpost to be demolished, the petition asks the Court to order the IDF and Civil Administration to adopt a protocol that prioritizes enforcement actions (evacuation and demolition) of any/all outposts which are a staging ground for violent settlers should be a high priority for demolition. Though the IDF apparently has criteria for prioritizing along these lines, it has not translated to practice. The Times of Israel reports that in May 2023 Bezalel Smotrich intervened to stop the Israeli Civil Administration from demolishing the HaMahoch Farm outpost in May 2023.

Torat Tzedek, led by Rabbi Arik Ascherman, alleged in its petition:

“These settlers have constantly and daily attacked and harassed Palestinian residents who use private Palestinian lands in the area, harming them, their animals and their property, destroying trees and vegetation, and causing them to abandon the area after decades in which these territories were cultivated and used by Palestinians. Even after the departure, the settlers continue to harass and loot the property of the Palestinians, to invade the private lands and prevent the return of the Palestinians to the area.”

Rabbi Ascherman further explains:

“Because of him and the series of outposts he has set up since 2019, there are thousands of dunams of land where Bedouin who’ve lived there for 40 years are no longer there. What is new about this petition is that it challenges the standard defense by the state that it carries out the demolition of illegal structures according to a [pre-determined] timetable.”

Smotrich Moving to Appoint Settler as Top Dog on Outposts Demolitions, Over the Authority of High-Ranking Military Authorities

Haaretz reports that Bezalel Smotrich – who serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry who oversees the Settlement Administration, enjoying near unchecked authority over Area C -plans to install one of his allies as a Deputy head of the Civil Administration. The move is seen as a reaction to the Civil Administration’s enforcement of building law against unauthorized outposts, which Smotrich wants to protect and authorize as settlements. In recent weeks, the Civil Administration has dismantled two outposts (1, 2 and 3).

Haaretz explains that in tandem with the installation of his ally, Smotrich wants to force Israeli district brigade commanders to explain any/all decisions to demolish structures in settlements and outposts. This would subordinate high ranking IDF personnel to a civilian, political appointee.

That appointee is reportedly set to be Hillel Roth, who lives in the Yitzhar settlement – which is notoriously violent and defiant of Israeli enforcement actions against its illegal activities.

Bonus Reads: Sanctions

There was a tremendous amount of analysis and news regarding international sanctions on settlers and outposts. Including a few:

• “From Drones to Construction: U.S. Sanctions Liable to Hurt Donations to Illegal West Bank Outposts” (Haaretz)
• “The Settler-run Government Is Mortgaging Israel’s Future” (Haaretz Editorial Board) Excerpt: “These measures are highly significant. However, because the criminal settler infrastructure is deep, and it has many accomplices, these sanctions are only the start of dismantling the occupation and settlement enterprise.”
• “How will new US sanctions impact the illegal West Bank farming outposts they target?”​​ (The Times of Israel)
• “Israeli minister calls for expanding West Bank settlement activity due to EU sanctions” (Al Andalou)

Bonus Reads

1. “How Israeli settlers are expanding illegal outposts amid Gaza war” (Al Jazeera)
2. “Israeli study says settlement policy in occupied West Bank’s ‘Area C’ has failed” (The New Arab)
3. [INSANE headline alert] “The grandmother who wants to lead Israelis back to a Gaza without Palestinians” (CNN)
4. “​​’Israeli Settlers Can Now Do Whatever They Please. They Want to Drive Off Those Who Live There’” (Haaretz)
5. “Delayed Ambulances and Traffic Holdups: Israeli Army Blocks Entry to West Bank Villages Since Start of Gaza War” (Haaretz)
6. “The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?” (+972 Magazine)

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.

March 15, 2024

1. Yesh Din Files High Court Petition to Stop Jordan Valley Regional Council
2. Construction Starts on New Settlement, Ariel West
3. IDF Demolishes Outpost Near Ofra
4. Subcommittee Hearing Defends Settler Violence, Points Finger at Human Rights Activists
5. US Announces New Sanctions on Three Individuals & Two Outposts
6. Bonus Reads

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Yesh Din Files High Court Petition to Stop Jordan Valley Regional Council

On March 7th the Israeli NGO Yesh Din assisted Palestinians in the Jordan Valley to file a petition with the High Court of Justice seeking to force the IDF Central Command to prevent settlers and settler regional councils in the Jordan Valley from illegally seizing and ransoming herds of livestock belonging to Palestinians, and to return all livestock currently confiscated and funds paid to the regional council for the return of livestock. Since October 7th, Yesh Din has documented several instances of settlers conspiring with the Jordan Valley Regional Council to confiscate herds of livestock belonging to Palestinians based on the claim that they are illegally grazing in the Regional Council’s jurisdiction, and then demanding exorbitant fees for their return. Yesh Din identifies this not only as an illegal practice, but as a policy “designed to annex and take over Areas C while pushing Palestinians out…to force Palestinian communities from their homes.”

The IDF’s own legal council has recently issued a legal opinion confirming that settler municipalities do not have jurisdiction or authority to enforce any laws or regulations against Palestinians. But the settler regional council rejected this opinion, saying that its jurisdiction applies to an area of land – not just a certain type of people (i.e. Israeli settlers). As a reminder, the West Bank remains under Israeli military rule via the Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF. Israel has extended its domestic laws to settlers, so that settlers are subject to Israeli domestic law and Palestinians remain under military rule. In this case, the settler regional argues that it has authority over land, and any Palestinians (and their property) who enter that land. 

Yesh Din explains why this is a significant legal claim:

“The danger posed by the pretension of the regional council, which seeks to hold the power to regulate the grazing of Palestinian herders, has enormous ramifications. This is a new and predatory form of economic violence by settlers and an authority that has distinct annexationist aspects, as it expresses the degradation of the military commander’s responsibility in the occupied territory and the assignment of its authorities to civilian governmental bodies.”

Over the past six months, settlers have  regional councils have repeatedly kidnapped herds of livestock and demanded exorbitant fees 

Construction Starts on New Settlement, Ariel West

Peace Now reports that Israel has begun construction of a new settlement, Ariel West, plans for which were first made public in November 2021 and tenders were issued in May 2023 — all under the guise of a plan to “expand” the Ariel settlement [for more on how this plan was kept quiet, see Peace Now’s detailed history]. The Ariel West settlement is being built on a hilltop located 1.2 miles away from Ariel, in an area that is non-contiguous with the built-up area of the current Ariel settlement. To perpetuate the framing of this new construction as the growth of an existing settlement rather than a new settlement – settlers and the government call Ariel West the“Amririm Neighborhood.” The new settlement will be directly adjacent to the Palestinian village of Salfit, further limiting the future development of Salfit and restricting Palestinian agricultural workers’ access to land, as illustrated in this video by Peace Now.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The construction of Ariel West, a new settlement deep in the West Bank, just before Ramadan and amidst the imminent danger of escalation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is further proof that the Israeli government is seeking violent escalation and opening a third front of war. It is also further proof, for anyone still in doubt, that it is doing all it can to destroy the possibility of the two-state solution. Israeli citizens deserve a better government, and its actions and decisions are endangering the lives and futures of both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as that of the entire region. The construction of a new settlement is part of recent initiatives amidst the ongoing war, aimed at advancing thousands of housing units in the territories, declaring thousands of dunams as state land, and approving significant budgets for settlements in the 2024 budget.”

IDF Demolishes Outpost Near Ofra

The Times of Israel reports that on March 11th, the Israeli Civil Administration  demolished an illegal outpost known as “Or Ahuvia,” located close to the Ofra settlement north east of Ramallah. The IDF forced settlers to leave the area, demolished a rudimentary house, and confiscated other materials – saying that the outpost was built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land.

The “Or Ahuvia” or “Ma’aleh Ahuvia” outpost was originally erected (and demolished) in 2022 in memory of Ahuvia Sandak, a settler “hilltop youth” who died when the car he was traveling crashed as it was fleeing Israeli police with a group of settler youth who allegedly has been stoning Palestinian cars. Settlers and their supporters have painted Israeli police as perpetrators of a crime of negligence (or worse) against the settler youth; the Knesset has taken up the issue; and Sandak has been memorialized as a hero and a martyr to the cause of Greater Israel.

Subcommittee Hearing Defends Settler Violence, Points Finger at Human Rights Activists

At the demand of settler groups, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee convened a subcommittee hearing on March 12th to hear testimony regarding the alleged “harassment” perpetrated by human rights defenders against Israeli security personal. MK Merav Michaeli denounced the hearing saying the chairman, Tzvi Succot, seeks to “present an upside down and false world.” MK Limor Son Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) said at the hearing:

“They [pro-Palestinian activists] are aggressive to IDF soldiers, to settlers, they damage property, they blacken Israel’s name around the world, engage in the demonization and delegitimization of Israel and damage our image.”

The hearing turned out to be more than a smear campaign against human rights defenders, but also a defense of extremists settlers. The senior police commander in the West Bank perpetuated the claim that settler violence is over exaggerated, testifying to the committee that 50% of complaints regarding settler violence turn out to be false.

US Announces New Sanctions on Three Individuals & Two Outposts

On March 14th the U.S. government announced it had imposed sanctions on three Israeli settlers and two settlement outposts, adding to the four individuals it had previously sanctioned. This is the first time the U.S. has imposed sanctions on entities (the two outposts) in addition to individuals – demonstrating the possible far-reaching targets of U.S. sanction authority. The settlers and outposts were documented to have taken part in (or be a base of action for) acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The two outposts sanctioned are known as “Moshe’s Farm” and “Zvi’s Farm” – and the individuals are the leaders of those outposts.

The U.S. Department of State said in a statement: 

“Today, we are taking further action to promote accountability for those perpetuating violence and causing turmoil in the West Bank by imposing sanctions on three Israeli individuals and two associated entities involved in undermining stability in the West Bank. There is no justification for extremist violence against civilians or forcing families from their homes, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, race, or religion.  The United States is committed to enduring peace and prosperity for Palestinians and Israelis alike and will continue to use all available tools to promote accountability for those engaging in actions that threaten the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Norway Advises Against Trade, Business With Israeli Settlements” (Bloomberg)
2. “The government is tightening its grip on Israeli settlements – the Pole is considering stopping the sale” (NRK)
3. “Israel deploys 15,000 troops in West Bank as Ramadan starts” (Mondoweiss)

 

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.

March 8, 2024

1. Israel Advances Plans for 3,400 Settlement Units
2. A Must-Watch WSJ Feature on Outposts & Illegal Settlement Roads
3. Bonus Reads

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Israel Advances Plans for 3,400 Settlement Units

As anticipated, the Israel Higher Planning Committee convened on March 6, 2024 and issued approvals for the advancement of plans to build a total of 3,476 new settlement units in three settlements. The advancements are:

• 2,452 new units in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement;
• 694 new units in the Efrat settlement; and,
• 330 new units in the Kedar settlement.

Notably, last week the Israeli government declared the land between the Kedar and Ma’ale Adumim settlements to be “state land,” which would allow the two settlements to be connected with future settlement construction. The plans approved this week are not designated for this newly expropriated land, where Palestinian bedouin communities are living under threat of forced displacement.

The United States criticized the announcement, alongside global condemnation. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called settlements a war crime.

A Must-Watch WSJ Feature on Outposts & Illegal Settlement Roads

This week the Wall Street Journal published a must-watch video examining the illegal construction of roads and entrenchment of outposts in the aftermath of October 7th.

The investigation features Dror Etkes, founder of Kerem Navot, and a deeper dive into the strength, funding, and a strategy of the agricultural farming outposts. The role of the Israeli government in funding and permitting these illegal activities is also highlighted.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel Surrounds Itself With Ruins in Gaza for the Sake of ‘The Land of Israel’’ (Alon Arad and Rafael Greenberg in Haaretz)
2. “Israeli settlers cross into Gaza, build ‘symbolic’ outpost” (+972 Magazine)
3. “West Bank Mayor’s Ambassadorship Revoked Following Italian Government Opposition” (Haaretz)
4. “NY congresswoman introduces bill requiring US refer to West Bank as ‘Judea and Samaria’ (ABC)
5. “I met the Israeli settlers Biden placed sanctions on. They’re bad – but part of a rotten system” (Zak Witus in The Guardian)
6. “Understanding Biden’s Settler Sanctions Strategy” (Jewish Currents)
7. “Ambiguity of Netanyahu’s Recent Statement on Muslim Access to Al Aqsa during Ramadan Leaves Room for the Imposition of Restrictions” (Ir Amim)

 

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.

March 1, 2024

1. Israel Declares 652 Acres of “State Land” Near Ma’ale Adumim Settlement & E-1 Site
2. Israel Approves Municipal Boundaries for Outpost to be Authorized as a New Settlement
3. Defense Ministry Demolishes Two Outposts
4. Settlers Enter Gaza During Rally at Erez Crossing
5. Settler Head Calls for Genocide Against West Bank Palestinians – Akin to Gaza – In Response to Palestinian Attack Near Eli Settlement
6. Blinken: New Israeli Settlements are Inconsistent with International Law
7. Bonus Reads

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Israel Declares 652 Acres of “State Land” Near Ma’ale Adumim Settlement & E-1 Site

On February 29th, the Israeli Civil Administration announced that it had declared 652 acres of West Bank land south of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement to be “state land,” bringing it under the management of the Israeli state and preparing it for the possibility of settlement construction. The land had previously been designated as part of the E-1 settlement plan, even though Israeli law does not allow Israel to plan construction on land that is not under its management. Additionally, this land is located between the Ma’ale Adumim and the Kedar settlement to its south, if construction indeed takes place – the two settlements (which both received planning advancements last week) could be connected.

Palestinian landowners have 45 days to submit an objection to the Israeli military to challenge the declaration. The land previously belonged to the Palestinian towns of Abu Dis and Al-Azaria, but it had not been formally registered in the Land Registry at the time Israel suspended registration proceedings in 1968. The land was registered in the property tax books of the villages, but these records are not accepted by the state of Israel as proof of ownership unless the land has been continuously cultivated (which, in a lot of cases, is impossible given Israeli restrictions and settlements). 

Three Palestinian bedouin communities currently live in the area – the Abu Nuwar, Wadi Abu Al-Suwan, and the Abu Hindi communities – totalling 1,000 people. Since arriving on these lands in the 1970s after being forced to flee their land in Israel, these communities have been regularly targeted by Israeli policies designed to force them to once again pack up and leave.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Instead of planning for a future of peace and security, the Israeli government continues to further the occupation and dispossession by perpetuating the conflict and bloodshed. Expropriating thousands of dunams of land from Palestinian communities demonstrates how settlements are already negatively impacting Palestinian lives and are not just a future problem or obstacle to a political solution. Construction in settlements must be halted immediately, regardless of negotiations and political arrangements.”

Israel Approves Municipal Boundaries for Outpost to be Authorized as a New Settlement

On February 27th Bezalel Smotrich announced the approval of municipal boundaries for the retroactive legalization of the illegal farming outpost known as Mitzpe Yehuda. The outpost-turned-settlement has been named Mishmar Yehuda, and is located east of Bethlehem and south of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. Peace Now reports that the Israeli Ministry of Housing has already contracted architects and planners to continue advancing the settlement plans, which holds potential for over 13,000 new settlement units housing approximately 65,000 settlers. The next step in the planning process is for Smotrich’s “Settlement Administration” to prepare a Master Plan for the construction.

Celebrating the announcement, Smotrich said:

“We came to this land to build and to be built up in it. We will continue the settlement momentum throughout the land. Congratulations to Gush Etzion, congratulations to the settlements, and congratulations to the State of Israel.”

In February 2023, the Israeli Security Cabinet issued a decision to retroactively legalize ten illegal outposts including Mitzpe Yehuda. The approval of a jurisdiction is the carrying out of this order. At the time, Haaretz reported that a source said the Cabinet chose these outposts for authorization specifically because they are all located in remote or isolated locations — meaning they could not be “legalized” via expanding the borders of a nearby settlement and declaring the outposts to be merely neighborhoods of those “legal” settlements (a legal maneuver Israel has repeatedly used to expand settlements and retroactively legalize settlements). This means, among other things, that legalization of these 10 new settlements will likely lead to additional land seizures for related infrastructure work (work that was not legally possible until now).

Defense Ministry Demolishes Two Outposts

The Times of Israel reports that the IDF demolished two farming outposts this week: Sde Yonatan and Or Mier. Both are built on privately owned Palestinian land, and both have been repeatedly dismantled by the IDF.

Settlers Enter Gaza During Rally at Erez Crossing

On February 29th while dozens of Israeli settlers gathered at the Erez Crossing point into Gaza to rally for the reestablishment of Gaza settlements, several individuals “violently” broke through the IDF checkpoint and entered Gaza. Some of the settlers made it 500 meters past the IDF checkpoint before being caught by the IDF. Nine were arrested by Israeli police for violating a closed military order, though none have been charged.

Other settlers participating in the protest built two rudimentary structures, which they said are meant to be for “New Nisanit”, which settlers want to establish in northern Gaza in the area where the Nisanit settlement stood prior to 2005, when the Israeli government dismantled it along with 21 other settlements. The campaign to reestablish settlements in Gaza is being led by the Nachala organization, which called on its followers to bring “appropriate gear” and “sleeping bags” to the protest this week. As became clear in January 2024, the Nachala has thousands of supporters, including at least 12 Israeli government ministers and 15 members of Knesset – all of whom attended Nachala’s recent conference entitled “Conference for the Victory of Israel – Settlement Brings Security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria.”

Israel has kept the Erez Crossing point closed, even to humanitarian aid, since October 7th – despite increasing international pressure to allow the entry of needed supplies.

Settler Head Calls for Genocide Against West Bank Palestinians – Akin to Gaza – In Response to Palestinian Attack Near Eli Settlement

On February 29th, two Israelis were killed by a Palestinian shooting in an attack near the Eli settlement. In addition to the typical responses from the Israeli government (calling for more settlements, more checkpoints, road closures, and retribution against the attackers family), the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Gantz, called for the Israeli government to launch a West Bank operation like the one it is waging in Gaza – which the International Court of Justice said is plausibly genocide. 

Haaretz reports that Israel Gantz said:

 “the terrorism here and in Gaza is the same terrorism, with the same terrorists and the same ambitions. It is necessary to mount a crushing attack on the West Bank, enter the city centers, destroy infrastructure and get rid of terrorists just like in Gaza.”

Blinken: New Israeli Settlements are Inconsistent with International Law

Responding to questions at a news conference in Buenos Aires on February 23rd, U.S. Secretary of State said that the Biden Administration believes new Israeli settlements are “inconsistent with international law” – a statement which is being widely interpreted as a reversal of the so-called “Pompeo Doctrine.” Blinken’s statement of illegality was in relation to new settlements, but he later went on to say that the Biden Administration “maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion,” explaining that it weakens Israeli security.

White House National Security Adviser John Kirby later said:

“We [the Biden Administration] are simply reaffirming the fundamental conclusion that these settlements are inconsistent with international law… this is a position that has been consistent over a range of Republican and Democratic administrations.”

Blinken was sharply criticized by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Ambassador to Israel under Trump, David Friedman. Friedman recently published a proposal outlining Israeli annexation of the West Bank “in accordance with biblical prophecy and values.” The plan calls for granting Palestinians permanent residency but no voting rights. Friedman cites the U.S. rule of Puerto Rico as an example.

Bonus Reads

1. “Settler Colonial Spillover of the Gaza Genocide” (Al-Shabaka)
2. LISTEN – “Settler Colonial Spillover in the West Bank with Fathi Nimer” (Rethinking Palestine by Al-Shabaka)
3. “‘They took our home, our land, everything’: Palestinians displaced by illegal settlers tell their stories” (The Guardian)
4. “The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors” (The New Yorker)
5. “Sparking the Next War? Any Restrictions to Al Aqsa Imposed During Ramadan Will Violate Muslim Freedom of Worship & Liable to Foment Unrest” (Ir Amim)
6. “In Israeli-occupied Hebron, Palestinians describe living in ‘a prison’” (Washington Post)

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.

February 23, 2024

1. Israel Announces Plans for 3,000+ New Settlement Units In Retaliation for Terror Attack Near Ma’ale Adumim; Ben Gvir Pushes for More Retaliatory Measures
2. U.S. Reportedly Consider More Sanctions on Settlers, Revoking “Pompeo Doctrine”
3. ICJ Hears Arguments on Israeli Occupation
4. Peace Now Dissects Proposed 2024 State Budget
5. Bonus Reads

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Israel Announces Plans for 3,000+ New Settlement Units In Retaliation for Terror Attack Near Ma’ale Adumim; Ben Gvir Pushes for More Retaliatory Measures

On February 22nd, Bezalel Smotrich – who is both the Israeli Finance Minister and the de facto governor of West Bank settlements – announced that he is advancing plans for over 3,000 new settlement units in response to a terror attack perpetrated by three Palestinians near the Ma’ale Adumim settlement just east of Jerusalem. Smotrich said that he will convene the High Planning Committee next week to advance the plans, calling the settlement announcements a “security response to the attacks.”

Smotrich said that the government has greenlighted plans for:

• 2,350 new units in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement located just east of Jerusalem;
• 300 new units in the Kedar settlement, just east of Ma’ale Adumim; and,
• 694 new units in the Efrat settlement – units which can receive final approval. Efrat is located south of Bethlehem, inside a settlement block that cuts deep into the West Bank. Efrat’s location and the route of the barrier wall around it, have literally severed the route of Highway 60 south of Bethlehem, cutting off Bethlehem and Jerusalem from the southern West Bank. The economic, political, and social impacts of the closure of Highway 60 at the Efrat settlement (there is literally a wall built across the highway) have been severe for the Palestinian population.; and,

In his announcement, Smotrich emphasized the annexation intent behind these announcements, saying:

“May every terrorist planning to harm us know that lifting a finger against Israeli citizens will be met with a death blow and destruction in addition to the deepening of our eternal grip on the entire Land of Israel.”

As a reminder, Smotrich is in effect the reigning sovereign over the West Bank via the newly established “Settlement Administration” within the Defense Ministry, which he appointed Yehuda Eliahu to lead (Eliahu and Smotrich co-founded the radical settler group Regavim) . This “Settlements Administration” enjoys virtually total autonomy and unchecked power, with almost no accountability to anyone in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. In June 2023 the Israeli Cabinet approved a measure to expand Bezalel Smotrich’s authority over construction in existing settlements by significantly shortening the planning process and removing almost any role for Israeli politicians in that process, a lever which – for decades – has been utilized by successive Israeli governments to intervene in settlement planning usually in consideration of pressure from the international diplomatic community. Under the new procedures, political approval is only needed once at the very beginning stage of the planning process, whereas for the past three decades political approval was needed at each and every phase.

Israeli National Security Minister Ben Gvir pushed for the government to respond with more than just settlement approvals, calling for more restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank in addition to more weapons for Israeli citizens.  Speaking at the scene of the attack, Ben Gvir said:

“The right to life for Jewish residents in the West Bank is more important than the freedom of movement for residents of the Palestinian Authority. I expect there to be more and more barriers here, there will be restrictions. We need to come to an understanding that our enemies are not looking for excuses. They only want to harm. I will fight for restrictions – it’s good that the prime minister accepts my principled position.” And on weapons: “A very big disaster was avoided here thanks to the fact that all the police officers have weapons and the citizens have weapons. There were those who criticised me for that, but I think that today everyone understands that weapons save lives.”

U.S. Reportedly Consider More Sanctions on Settlers, Revoking “Pompeo Doctrine”

According to press reports, the United States is preparing to issue sanctions against “several” more Israeli settlers, after having sanctioned four settlers earlier this month. A source told The Times of Israel that the next round of sanctions will target “higher-profiled Israeli extremists” but not Israeli government officials.

Two U.S. officials further leaked that the Administration is also considering revoking the so-called “Pompeo Doctrine” in response to Israeli steps to significantly expand its footprint in the West Bank (i.e. land on which settlements are constructed). The “Pompeo Doctrine” established as U.S. policy that Israeli settlements are not “per se inconsistent with international law.” It was issued by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in November 2019 in a reversal of decades of American policy. 

ICJ Hears Arguments on Israeli Occupation

Starting on February 19th, the International Court of Justice opened six days of hearings on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza (unrelated to the recent genocide case). After the hearings conclude, the Court is expected to finalize a nonbinding, advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation – which will likely take several months.

Israel has rejected the validity of the ICJ’s case, and has refused to participate – though the Deputy Legal Advisor for the Israeli Foreign Ministry is in attendance. Fifty other states are expected to participate – including the United States, Britain, and Germany launching defenses of Israel’s actions, and South Africa, Algeria, Belgium, and the Palestinians arguing that the occupation is illegal. South Africa – which lodged a new complaint accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza weeks ago –  argued that Israeli control over the West Bank is colonial and amounts to Apartheid, saying that Israel should dismantle its settlements and pay reparations to Palestinians. All states arguing that Israel’s occupation is illegal highlight that the occupation has lost any illusion of being temporary.

To further unpack this case and its impacts (as well as the distinction between the ongoing case against Israeli officials lodged at the ICC), you can listen to FMEP’s podcast, “The Quest for Justice for Palestine at the ICC and ICJ: Where Things Stand Today & Why it Matters” featuring Lara Friedman (FMEP) and Vito Todeschini i (legal expert in human rights law, international humanitarian law and international accountability, focusing on Palestine/Israel and the wider MENA region). [3/29/2023]

Peace Now Dissects Proposed 2024 State Budget

Peace Now reports that the Israeli government is poised to approve a 2024 state budget that allocates a substantial amount of state funding to the settlement enterprise. Peace Now examined the only available draft – which is incomplete and not detailed – that the proposal includes:

• $203 million (737 million NIS) in budget allocations to the settlements (a $107 million increase from last year);
• An additional $112 million (409 million NIS) for specific settlement plans, which are:
  • The Sebastia archaeological site;
  • Elad tourists sites in East Jerusalem;
  • The “preservation of antiquities” in the West Bank; and,
  • A plan to strengthen Israeli control over the Old City Basin
• $1 million (3.6 billion NIS) for roads in the West Bank servicing settlements. This is 20% of all funds allocated to Israeli road development);
• $3 million (12 million NIS) for “special grants” to settler municipal authorities;
• $5.5 (20 million NIS) for agricultural farms, many of which are illegal outposts in the West Bank; and,
• Additional funds for further specific settlement projects including:
  • A “Heritage Center” at the Sebastian train station;
  • Developing the Hirbet Arqed archaeological site;
  • Development of the Hasmonean Palaces site and related projects;
  • Compensation for Israeli settlers who face higher export fees than their colleagues based in internationally recognized Israeli territory;
  • Security for 3,000 settlers located in East Jerusalem settlement enclaves inside of Palestinian neighborhoods.

Please see Peace Now’s report for more granual detail on the plans contained within these budget categories.

Bonus Reads

1. “East Jerusalem on the Eve of Ramadan and Municipal Elections” (Peace Now)
2. “Olive harvest 2023: hindered access afflicts Palestinian farmers in the West Bank” (OCHA)
3. “Netanyahu vows to maintain security control over Gaza, West Bank” (Al Andalou)
4. “Online fundraisers for violent West Bank settlers raised thousands, despite international sanctions” (AP)

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.

February 16, 2024

1. Tenders Issued for Construction in Geva Binyamin and Karnei Shomron Settlements, Bringing 2024 Total to 523 Tenders
2. Hebron Settler Council Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for U.S.-Sanctioned Settler & His Illegal Outpost
3. New Outpost Near the Tekoa Settlement
4. Israel Has Expedited East Jerusalem Settlement Planning & Home Demolitions in Wake of October 7th
5. Israel to Pay Immigrants $550/Month to Move to Settlements
6. East Jerusalem Cable Car Project Stalled as Israel Looks for Construction Company
7. Settler Population Grew By 3% in 2023
8. B’Tselem Details “Extreme Restrictions” on 2023 Olive Harvest
9. Peace Now Launches New Settler Violence Hotline
10. Israel to Buy 200 Armored Vehicles for Civilan Standby Units, Including in Settlements
11. Israel Spying on U.S.-PA Settler Violence Channel
12. News & Analysis of Sanctions on Settlers
13. Bonus Reads

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Tenders Issued for Construction in Geva Binyamin and Karnei Shomron Settlements, Bringing 2024 Total to 523 Tenders

Peace Now reports the Israeli Ministry of Housing published tenders on February 9th for the construction of 60 new settlement units, 12 new units in the Geva Binyamin settlement and 48 in the Karnei Shomron settlement,  located in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel has openly declared its intention to continue expanding settlements in this area with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area. 

These tenders come just five days after the publication of tenders for 62 new units in the Efrat settlement. 

So far in 2024, the Israeli government has issued tenders for the construction of 523 new settlement units in a total of eight settlements.

 Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The rapid pace and widespread scope of tender publications indicate a clear policy aimed at promoting extensive construction in the West Bank. The Israeli government is capitalizing on the international focus on the Gaza Strip to further entrench Israeli control deep in Palestinian territory, hindering the possibility of a two-state solution.”

Hebron Settler Council Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for U.S.-Sanctioned Settler & His Illegal Outpost

Peace Now reports that the settler municipal body in Hebron (the Har Hevron Regional Council) has launched a crowdfunding campaign to assist Yinon Levy and the illegal outpost he established (“Meitarim Farm”). The campaign was launched in response to the U.S. sanctioning Levy, who is purported to have engaged in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank that lead to the forcible displacement of four nearby Palestinians communities (approximately 300 people). 

Peace Now makes the important point:

“The settlers on whom sanctions were imposed are not the story. Behind every violent settler lies an entire governmental system that supports and funds them. Settler violence is not an isolated incident but rather a part of an organized and financed strategy by the authorities to dispossess Palestinians of their lands in the Occupied Territories, and to undermine any potential political solution.”

Proving that point, the Har Hevron Regional Council’s commitment to Levy and his illegal outpost runs deep. In 2021 a coporation owned by the the municipality awarded Levy a contract to establish the outpost as an agricultural farm and to explicitly take control of the whole area. The contract states [emphasis added]:

 “The Directorate wants the farmer to establish an agricultural farm … that will maintain a presence in the lands of the area and thus help to preserve the state’s lands and the seizure and preservation of the surrounding lands … The farmer will establish on the farm… a corral for the herd and housing residences near it  and necessary additional facilities.” 

New Outpost Near the Tekoa Settlement

Haaretz reports that settlers have undertaken a large-scale project to establish a new outpost near the Tekoa settlement, located south of Bethlehem. Photos of the outpost show that the land has been cleared, roads established, and power lines have been installed. A total of six trailers have been moved to the site already. A Defense source told Haaretz that it is “doubtful that the government will evacuate the outpost, which was built on state-controlled land.”

Israel Has Expedited East Jerusalem Settlement Planning & Home Demolitions in Wake of October 7th

Ir Amim and Bimkom jointly report that Israel has led a “stark rise” in home demolitions in EAst Jerusalem since October 7th and the start of Israel’s latest war on Gaza. The groups write:

“As the war rages on in Gaza, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians and displacing nearly two million, Israel adds to the conflagration by accelerating demolitions across East Jerusalem. The recent home demolitions in al-Walaja are part of a major surge in demolitions in East Jerusalem since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which has likewise profoundly impacted the community of Al Bustan, Silwan. Yesterday, the home of community leader and well-known activist, Fakhri Abu Diab, was demolished despite ongoing negotiations with the Jerusalem municipality and strong international outcry. Some 100 homes in Al Bustan are at risk of mass demolition with over 1500 Palestinians under threat of displacement due to Israeli plans to establish an Israeli tourist and archaeological park in the area

Since October 7, there has been a total of 94 demolitions in East Jerusalem, 63 of which were homes. This marks a nearly 70% increase in demolitions compared to the months preceding the war. Moreover, expected changes in the government ministry responsible for the National Enforcement Unit are likely to cause an even more dramatic rise in demolitions. According to recent news reports, on Sunday, the government is slated to approve the transfer of the National Enforcement Unit from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of National Security, placing it under the direct authority of ultranationalist and far-right Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The transfer of the unit was included in coalition agreements during the formation of the government last year. Over the past year, Ben Gvir has made numerous statements calling for the intensification of demolitions. Such a move is cause for extreme alarm and will directly impact areas of East Jerusalem, including al-Walaja.”

While home demolitions are surging, so too are the advancement of settlement plans. Haaretz has fresh reporting on how Israel is expediting plans to build new settlements across Jerusalem, including Nofei Rachel, Givat HaShaked, Umm Lysoon, and Kidmat Zion. The article surveys the planning processes advancing these plans, including the secret land registration and settler interests involved.

Israel to Pay Immigrants $550/Month to Live in Settlements

The Israeli government announced plans to offer heightened financial incentives to new immigrants who settle in the West Bank, along with areas in the country’s northern and southern peripheries. The plan estimates a $19 million cost to provide $550/month for two years to new immigrants choosing to live in settlements or in the periphery areas, as compared to $100-$200/month for new immigrants living in central Israel or Haifa. These funds are dedicated to subsidizing housing costs.

The plan was announced on February 15th at a joint press conference held by Immigration and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer and Finance Minister Smotrich, who holds immense power in the West Bank in his role as a minister in the Defense Ministry with virtually unchecked authority of Area C civilian matters.

East Jerusalem Cable Car Project Stalled As Israel Looks for Construction Company

Haaretz reports that the Israeli government has struggled for 8 months to secure a qualified (and therefore foreign) construction company to build the settler-backed cable car project. Several companies have pulled out of consideration due to the political sensitivities invovled.

As a reminder, the Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative backed by the powerful, state-backed Elad settler group and advanced by the Israeli Tourism Ministry. 

Emek Shaveh and other non-governmental organizations, including  Who Profits and Terrestrial Jerusalem, have repeatedly challenged (and provided evidence discrediting) the government’s contention that the cable car will serve a legitimate transportation need in Jerusalem, and have clearly enumerated the obvious political drivers behind the plan, the archeological heresies it validates, and the severe negative impacts the cable car project will have on Palestinian residents of Silwan.

Despite lacking a qualified construction firm, Israel has already proceeded to issue 17 orders confiscating privately owned Palestinian land in highly sensitive East Jerusalem neighborhoods to prepare for the construction of the cable car line. Attorney Sami Arshid, who represents the Palestinian residents of Silwan, told Haaretz: 

“This is the most unnecessary project in the history of the city. The residents of Silwan and the Old City, like most experts in Israel and around the world, see it as a serious hazard to the city’s urban heritage. The expropriation of properties and homes will cause severe harm to the residents and this in order to establish a megalomaniacal project that harms the history, urban heritage and landscape of the Old City of Jerusalem and its environs.”

Emek Shaveh told Jerusalem: 

“The cable car is a political project that lacks feasibility and professional justification. Its goal is to strengthen [Jewish] settlement in Silwan and bring tourists to sites run by Elad. A year and a half after the High Court of Justice rejected petitions against the project, a tender has yet to be published, and now it turns out that even commercial companies whose sole purpose is to make money understand that they are better off staying away from this project. At a time when the State of Israel is facing huge deficits, we say frankly that this is a harmful and superfluous project that should be scrapped, the sooner, the better.”

Settler Population Grew By 3% in 2023

A pro-settler organization released data showing that the West Bank settler population increased by nearly 3% in 2023 (not including East Jerusalem). The population now stands at 517,407.

The report also forecasts “excellerated growth” in the aftermath of October 7th, claiming that “Serious cracks have indeed developed in the wall of opposition to Jewish settlement of the West Bank.”

B’Tselem Details “Extreme Restrictions” on 2023 Olive Harvest

In a new report, B’Tselem asserts that Israeli policies restricting the ability of Palestinians to harvest olive trees in the 2023 harvest season has resulted in financial harm to tens of thousands of Palestinian families. Those policies include canceling the allocation of harvest days to farmers whose land falls in Area C (access to which is regulated by the IDF), the closure of gates in the separation barrier that permit Palestinians to access their land in the “seam zone” (the IDF is solely able to open theses gates), and – of course – unmitigated settler violence.

B’Tselem writes:

“The systemic obstruction of the olive harvest this year, augmented by organized settler violence against harvesters and their property, is not unique to this time of war. It is part of Israel’s longstanding violent policy, which aims to cement the apartheid regime in the West Bank and allow continued expansion of settlements. Bezalel Smotrich, who serves as Minister of Finance and Minister in the Ministry of Defense, and MK Tzvi Sukkot, Chair of the Knesset Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria Affairs, have already said “sterile security spaces” should be created near settlements, where Palestinians would be denied entry altogether. This would clear the way for the state to take over this land and use it for its own purposes. “

Peace Now Launches New Settler Violence Hotline

Peace Now and Looking Occupation in the Eye have launched a dedicated hotline for Palestinians to report instances of settler violence. The groups reported the new initiative to the U.S. and other governments who have recently issued sanctions against four Israeli settlers believed to have participated in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. A graphic urging people to report instances of violence says, “we will make sure it gets to the right people in the right places.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The state is not doing enough against an organized and dangerous attempt to turn the West Bank into a third front. This unequivocally constitutes terrorism and undermines our national interests, yet it is no longer condemned by the Israeli government. We must change the rules and exert all possible pressure. The lawlessness has ended, and those who harm will pay dearly. We will convey the reports to Israel’s friends and allies worldwide.”

 Looking the Occupation in the Eye said in a statement: 

“For years, we have been active in the occupied territories and have been dealing with terrorism by settlers, complaining to law enforcement authorities but receiving no response. Since October 7th, Jewish lawbreakers have been doing as they please throughout the West Bank, and no one stops them. Like in third-world countries – when a state does not deal with terrorism itself, the big brother across the ocean does it for them. Let’s help stop the process of turning us into a failed, disintegrating, and lawless state.”

Over the past week, many instances of settler violence have been reported on X and in the media. A small sampling includes:

• Settlers from Yitzhar (including the head of security and several wearing IDF uniforms) perpetrated several attacks on February 12th. The IDF was later deployed to the area but no arrests have been made.
  • Fifteen settlers were filmed attacking Palestinian property in the village of Asira al-Qibliya on February 12th. Settlers set cars on fire, threw stones, and shooting a Palestinians. Three were injured.
  • Settlers were filmed attacking Palestinian property in the village of Madama on February 12th. This followed settlers harassing a farmer and shooting at a tractor.
  • Another group of Yitzhar settlers raided the village of Huwara and set cars on fire there.
• On February 11th, 15 settlers were documented throwing rocks and tear gassed at Palestinians near the Bazariya junction. A similar event happened last week as well.

Israel to Buy 200 Armored Vehicles for Civilian Standby Units, Including in Settlements

The JNS reports the Israel Defense Ministry has approved the purchase of more than 200 armored vehicles for civilian “standby units” – including the units based in settlements, the Gaza envelope, and on the Lebanon border. The vehicles will be delivered in the coming months.

Speaking about the purchase, the deputy director of the Defense Ministry said:

“Ordering the security vehicles is another step in the large-scale procurement we are undertaking for the standby squads, which also includes weapons and protective equipment.”

Israel Spying on U.S.-PA Settler Violence Channel

+972 Magazine published a report citing Israeli intelligence sources admitting that Israel is actively spying on reports on settler violence from the the Palestinian Authority to the the Office of U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC), with the aim of preventing that information from “developing into sanctions.” A source told +972 that “the Israelis are finding themselves embarrassed. The fact that we are being asked to look for the materials indicates that Israel has no good answers.” The source also said, “we’re working to help refute these allegations, or prevent them from developing into sanctions. The political echelon is concerned that all kinds of international moves will be taken that will force Israel to deal with this issue.”

News & Analysis of Sanctions on Settlers

There was an absolute torrent of news and analysis regarding the U.S. sanctions against four Israeli settlers, which the U.K. and France have replicated. 

News/Reporting

• “Scoop: Bibi protests to Biden, criticizes order targeting Israeli settler violence” (Axios)
• “US could target Israel’s Ben-Gvir, Smotrich in latest sanctions” (The Jerusalem Post)
• “Israel Fears Additional Western Countries Will Follow Suit in Sanctioning Violent West Bank Settlers” (Haaretz)
• “Biden urged to include politicians in sanctions on violent Israeli settlers” (The Guardian)
• “France leads EU in sanctioning violent Israeli settlers” (Al-Monitor)
• “​​France follows UK, U.S. adopting sanctions against 28 ‘violent Israeli settlers’” (i24 News)

Key Analysis

• “Explaining Targeted U.S. Sanctions Under the West Bank Executive Order” (Human Rights First)
• “Palestinians see little solace in Western sanctions against some settlers” (Reuters)
• “Israeli settlements stand in the way of peace. Biden can defund them all” (Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man in The Guardian)
• “Next U.S. Sanctions May Target More Than Just ‘Rogue Elements,’ and Israel Only Has Itself to Blame” (Zvia Bar’el in Haaretz)
• “Biden’s sanctions set ominous precedent for the settlement enterprise” (Shuki Friedman in The Jerusalem Post)
• “The Sleight of Hand in Dismissing Settler Violence” (Michael Koplow for the Israel Policy Forum)

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel’s Crackdown on Hebron” (Jewish Currents)
2. “Meet the Israelis Who Are Trying to Physically Block the Ethnic Cleansing Unfolding in the West Bank” (Haaretz)
3. “The special unit recruiting hilltop youth” (Israel Hayom)
4. “Blinken demands investigation into reported killings of U.S. citizens in West Bank” (Washington Post)
5. “US investigators visit homes of two Palestinian-American teens killed in the West Bank” (AP)
6. “A Fanatical Israeli Settlement Is Funded by New York Suburbanites” (New Lines)

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.

February 9, 2024

1. State Begins Land Registration in the Armenian Quarter, Where Settlers Look to Win
2. Tender Issued for Efrat Settlement
3. Terrestrial Jerusalem Updates Settlement Tracking Tool
4. Peace Now: Final Report on 2023 Settlement Activity
5. U.S. Now Requires Countries to Certify Compliance with International Law as Condition for Military Aid
6. Israeli Banks Respond to U.S. Sanctions on Four Settlers
7. Bonus Reads

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State Begins Land Registration in the Armenian Quarter, Where Settlers Look to Win

Ir Amim reports that the government of Israel has recently initiated land registration in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, where the state appears to be backing efforts by settlers to take control over a significant portion of land. Elsewhere in Jerusalem, it has become painfully obvious that the State has weaponized the land registration (also called settlement of land title) process to transfer ownership of strategic land wanted for settlement construction into the hands of settlers, thereby fueling the dispossession of Palestinians who have not had access to land registration 

The specific tract of land undergoing land title registration proceedings is located in the heart of the Armenian Quarter, and is involved in a disputed land transaction between the Armenian Patriarchate and an Israeli real estate developer believed to be aligned with the Ateret Cohanim settler organization. For a detailed history of events, see Ir Amim’s reporting here.

Terrestrial Jerusalem has previously warned that these events are not a mere land dispute, and:

“are of such consequences as to jeopardize the viability of the Armenian community and the very character of Jerusalem…This purported sale of rights [by the Armenian Patriarchate to the Israeli real estate company] was done without legal authorization, and with the community intentionally uninformed as to what was happening.”

Ir Amim warns:

“Such a move threatens to solidify the company’s attempted seizure of the land and challenge the community’s right of standing to contest the deal. This should be seen within the larger context of state and settler efforts to Israelize the Old City and erode its historically multicultural and multireligious character, including the Christian presence in Jerusalem. Recent threats against the Christian population have been marked by attempted settler takeovers of properties, plans to expand a National Park onto church lands on the Mt. of Olives, and acts of desecration of Christian sites and cemeteries among other incidents of harassment.”

In a June 2023 report, entitled “The Grand Theft,” Ir Amim and Bimkom explain the history of land registration in East Jerusalem, unpacking how the entire legal land ownership situation Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem find themselves in today is an Israeli-imposed “Catch-22”, resulting directly from Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. The report explains:

“Although the lack of settlement of land title procedures has had detrimental consequences for Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, its renewal carries far worse repercussions. After five years of monitoring the implementation of SOLT [settlement of land title]  in East Jerusalem, its alarming nature has become clear. SOLT is being exploited as a new and potent tool of land theft, under the guise of a legitimate legal process to establish Palestinian property rights. It appears to have become the State of Israel’s main method to appropriate more land in East Jerusalem and advance the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from areas of strategic interest to the State. SOLT is almost exclusively being initiated to finalize ownership rights in existing or planned Israeli settlements, settler enclaves in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, areas with state-deemed ‘Absentee Property,’ or property allegedly owned by Jews pre-1948.”

In September 2022, FMEP hosted a podcast with Ir Amim’s Amy Cohen on land registration, which you can listen to (or watch) here.

Tender Issued for Efrat Settlement

Peace Now reports that on February 4th, the Israeli Ministry of Houseing published a tender for the construction of 62 settlement units in the Efrat settlement. The Efrat settlement is located south of Bethlehem, inside a settlement block that cuts deep into the West Bank. Efrat’s location and the route of the barrier wall around it, have literally severed the route of Highway 60 south of Bethlehem, cutting off Bethlehem and Jerusalem from the southern West Bank. The economic, political, and social impacts of the closure of Highway 60 at the Efrat settlement (there is literally a wall built across the highway) have been severe for the Palestinian population.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“Advancing construction deep in Palestinian territory, adjacent to Palestinian population, undermines the chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel and deepens the conflict. The current tender is a clear statement by the Israeli government that settlement construction continues unabated, and any political resolution is far from the goals of this government.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem Updates Settlement Tracking Tool

On February 6th, Terrestrial Jerusalem published an updated version of its detailed table tracking settlement plans in East Jerusalem. In the introduction to the table, Terrestrial Jerusalem writes:

“In recent months, the pace with which settlement schemes have been advancing through the statutory processes that advance them towards final approval and implementation has been frenetic. That pace has been so intense that even those who follow these developments have found it difficult to keep abreast of them. On occasion, significant development goes unnoticed. This in turn makes it more difficult to detect the underlying trends, to prioritize the plans that are most consequential and to identify means of engaging on them. 

This report – a table of all of the significant settlement schemes in East Jerusalem that are being currently expedited – aspires to address these challenges. For those who monitor settlement activity with high granularity, it will draw attention to the relevant developments as they occur, accessing the relevant documentation and maps through links in the document. For those who track the settlement issues in East Jerusalem from a wider perspective, the table will serve as a reference, when needed, and allow for an overview of the more general trends that have emerged. 

This is not a comprehensive list. We have selected only those town plans that we deem to be consequential in the context of the conflict that grips East Jerusalem. For example, numerous plans for adding stories to buildings in existing settlement neighborhoods are no less illegal than new settlements, but citing these in the current context would merely be a distraction. On the other hand, we do include statutory plans that are settlement-related, but not plans for new settlement units: plans for expanding roads, plans entailing large-scale demolitions of Palestinian homes and national parks are also included, provided that they directly serve the settlement enterprise .”

Peace Now: Final Report on 2023 Settlement Activity

Peace Now has issued a report reviewing the major settlement advancements of 2023, calling it the best year for the settlement enterprise since the Oslo Accords. The report’s key finding are:

1. Establishment of new outposts and displacement of Palestinian communities – A record number of 26 new outposts were established during 2023, while 21 Palestinian communities were forcibly displaced from their homes. 
2.  Advancement of construction plans – A record number of 12,349 housing units were promoted in settlements in the West Bank (East Jerusalem excluded). 
3. The legalization of 15 illegal outposts was advanced. 
4. Structural and administrative changes towards annexation of the Occupied Territories. 
5. Development and promotion of roads – Allocation of approximately 3 billion Shekels for roads in settlements, constituting around 20% of the total Israeli road investment.

U.S. Now Requires Countries to Certify Compliance with International Law as Condition for Military Aid

On February 8th, U.S. President Biden issued a new national security memorandum that requires all recipients (with no exception) of U.S. military assistance to submit a written certifications that they are complying with humanitarian and international law, and will cooperate with U.S. humanitarian aid efforts. Specifically for countries which are presently engaged in hostilities, the memo gives a 45-day deadline for those countries to provide these assurances to the U.S., or face the possibility of a suspension in aid. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance. 

The memo further requires that the White House provide periodic briefings and reports to Congress including “an assessment of any credible reports or allegations that such defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services, have been used in a manner not consistent with international law.” It also requires Congress to receive a formal notification when the measure is waived.

Israeli Banks Respond to U.S. Sanctions on Four Settlers

One week after the U.S. announced sanctions against four Israeli settlers accused of participating in violence in the West Bank, two Israeli banks have followed suit by closing the accounts for each of the designated individuals (reminder, these individuals are sanctioned by the U.S. but are not in Israeli jail or under criminal proceedings in Israel, the U.S. sanctions were announced in large part because the U.S. did not believe Israel was doing enough to prosecute criminal settlers and discourage violence in the West Bank). 

In response to outcry against the Israeli banks which close the accounts, the Bank of Israel defended the banks, explaining:

“Banking corporations by virtue of their international activity must establish policies and procedures for the use of international sanctions lists and foreign countries’ national sanctions lists, and for engaging or carrying out actions with entities declared on such lists. Overriding such sanctions regimes can expose banking corporations to significant risks, including compliance risks, money laundering risks and terrorism financing, legal risks and reputation risks. Maintaining the proper management and regular activity of Israel’s banking corporations is necessary for maintaining the regular activity of the economy as a whole, maintaining a proper relationship with the global economy, and finally for the proper functioning of the Israeli economy.”

The U.S. investigative research and advocacy group DAWN issued a call for the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate and possibly sanction several other monetary bodies, including Israeli Bank Leumi, which DAWN discovered to be continuing to service U.S. sanctioned individuals.  Notably, the Israeli bank Hapoalim continues to process payments for a crowd-funding campaign explicitly in support of a sanctioned individual and his family. Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN said in a statement: 

“If the administration is serious about sanctioning violent Israeli settlers, it should ensure that it creates consequences for the Israeli banks and charities openly defying the sanctions rules. Sanctions against individuals without enforcement against the institutions helping them evade those sanctions only formalizes Israeli impunity.”

Finally, +972 Magazine published an in-depth look at each of the four sanctioned individuals – — David Chai Chasdai, Shalom Zicherman, Einan Tanjil, and Yinon Levi — revealing the failure of Israeli law enforcement against settlers and the far-reaching ramifications of the violence in which these individuals participate.

Bonus Reads

1. “Silwan faces escalating home demolitions in fight against messianic settlers” (Mondoweiss)
2. “Biden Executive Order on West Bank violence more likely to be used against Palestinians than Israeli settlers” (Mondoweiss)
3. “First Settlers, Now Cyber: U.S. Threatens to Cancel Entry Visas for Spyware Makers”  (Haaretz)
4. “Biden’s Wake-up Call: Reminding Israelis That the West Bank Stands Apart From Israel” (Carolina Landsmann for Haaretz)

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.

February 2, 2024

1. Israel’s High Planning Council Convenes for First Time in 2024, Promotes Plan for Expanding Givat Ze’ev
2. Conference Planning for Gaza Resettlement Draws Israeli Ministers
3. Biden Issues Executive Order on Settler Violence
4. Bonus Reads

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Israel’s High Planning Council Convenes for First Time in 2024, Promotes Plan for Expanding Givat Zeev

Peace now reports that the High Planning Council – the body within the Israeli Defense Ministry which oversees planning and construction in the West Bank, and is under the authority by minister Bezalel Smotrich – met for two days this week, January 31st and February 1st, marking its first meeting in 2024.

On February 1st, the Council reportedly considered a plan to build 68 new settlement units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement, located south of Ramallah in an area that is on the Israeli side of the barrier.

In 2023, the High Planning Council promoted plans for 12,349 new settlement units (not including East Jerusalem) which was a record high since Peace Now began systematically recording such figures in 2012. Bezalel Smotrich gained nearly unilateral authority over the High Planning Council in 2023, while also receiving approval from the Israeli Cabinet to significantly shorten the planning process for settlement construction. Importantly, the shortened planning process removed any significant role for Israeli politicians to intervene – a lever which designed and used successive Israeli governments to throttle settlement planning in response to internal and/or international pressure.

 Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government continues its destructive construction in the West Bank, adding to the illegal construction widespread throughout the West Bank in the past year and an unrestrained development across all areas of the Occupied Territories. The government of Israel begins 2024 with a clear signal that it is heading towards eliminating the two-state solution, despite the clear understanding that only this solution can halt the cycle of violence.”

Conference Planning for Gaza Resettlement Draws Israeli Ministers

On January 28th over 3,000 people – including no less than 12 Israeli government ministers and 15 members of Knesset – attended the “Conference for the Victory of Israel – Settlement Brings Security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria,” held in Jerusalem. The conference was organized by the Nahala settler organization, which was founded and continues to be ran by Daniella Weiss. At the conference, Weiss suggested Palestinians will eventually choose to leave Gaza after Israel withholds food long enough, saying Palestinians have “lost the right” to live there. 

As the title suggests, the conference featured speakers calling for – and actually planning in detail – the reestablishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip, and for the permanent removal (ethnic cleansing) of Palestinians from the area. The conference included maps showing where settlers aim to reestablish communities, including in Gaza City, and vendors offered chances for attendees to sign up for relocating to specific settlements.

This was by no means a fringe event. The speakers included not only the far-right ministers like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, but Likud ministers like Haim Katz who said Israel has “opportunity to rebuild and expand the land of Israel” in Gaza. In fact, one third of Netanyahu’s cabinet members attended.

Analyst and pollster Dahlia Scheindlin said:

“We can no longer look at this as some kind of fringe phenomena Even if the idea [of settling Gaza] sounds far-fetched right now, we have to realize that over time, Israel has developed a tradition of beginning with what seem like extreme policies on the margins and [them] then creeping into the mainstream. I would expect that this government over the next number of years will make efforts to increasingly legitimize the idea of Israel occupying the Gaza Strip and rebuilding settlements, and then little by little, try to lay the groundwork to do it.”

Haaretz columnist Alon Pinkas wrote:

 “This was not a fringe opposition group: it was the government of Israel in all its political splendor, unabashedly showing its true colors. This was the governing coalition in an orgy of anti-state and antidemocratic euphoria…What you saw was messianic ecstasy and religious fervor in a position of power. What you saw was not merely a theocratic-fascist strain in Israeli society and politics but almost half of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition (27 lawmakers), including five ministers in his government.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu did not attend nor publicly criticize the conference. Indeed, Netanyahu has called for Israel to retain security control over Gaza following the its current war – which the International Court of Justice recently ruled constitutes plausible genocide.

The conference was, however,  condemned by left wing members of the Israeli opposition, including Benny Gantz, who said the conference ““harmed Israeli society during wartime, harmed our legitimacy in the world, harmed efforts to create a framework for the return of our hostages.” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said the conference “poses an international damage, undermines potential negotiations, endangers IDF soldiers, and reflects a grave lack of responsibility.”

The conference  – which received widespread international media coverage – was roundly criticized by key Israeli allies, including the United States, France, and Germany.

Biden Issues Executive Order on Settler Violence

On February 1st, the Biden Administration issued an executive order aimed at punishing Israeli settlers involved in violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The order allows the U.S. to sanction any Israeli found to be “directing, enacting, implementing and enforcing or failing to enforce policies that threaten the peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”  The Administration simultaneously announced sanctions against four Israeli settlers, all of whose participation in violence against Palestinians and Jewish activists in the West Bank has been recently documented. Haaretz calls the EO the “most punitive measure ever taken from the U.S. government against Israeli citizens.”

This is an escalation of the U.S. decision to issue visa bans to several dozen violent settlers December 2023. In addition to being banned from traveling to the U.S., the four settlers sanctioned this week will have their assets and bank accounts in the U.S. (if they have any) frozen, and they will be locked out of the U.S. financial system and unable to engage in any commerce with people in the United States. 

Axios reports that the U.S. had considered sanctioning Israeli government ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, but ultimately did not. U.S. officials have denied this. Smotrich called the new order an “antisemitic lie.”

Reaction to the Executive Order has been mixed. 

Voicin skepticism, political analyst Yousef Munayyer posted on X: 

“First, this is significant because it represents, as far as I can recall, the US effort to sanction Israelis over their violations of Palestinian rights.That said, the extent to which it is effective depends a lot on the political will to designate violent Israeli settlers. If done honestly, it could have a significant impact not just on the violent settlers themselves but an entire transnational financing network. That is the test that will tell us whether this is a serious effort at addressing a real problem on the ground or an unserious effort at trying to save face for Biden in an election year with voters appalled at his handling of Palestine.Settler violence has long been a major problem and politically it is among the easiest for the admin to address given the US’s history of opposing settlements in its public statements. But it has taken years for even this action which we still should doubt will be enforced.More of a problem however is that this fits into a liberal Zionist understand of the settlers, not the state, being the problem. It is an off ramp that puts the onus on the settlers while ignoring the elephant in the room; The settlement enterprise is a state enterprise. It won’t take long to find out whether this is a fig leaf or a genuine effort and the designations and the designation process will tell us a lot. However, if the Biden admin thinks that taking lukewarm measures on an issue they should have seriously addressed years ago is going to make voters forget about the genocide they are backing in Gaza they are sorely mistaken.”

Articulating the potential power of the EO, Joel Braunold, Managing Director of the S. Danny Abraham Center, posted on X: 

“This is a weapon of mass destruction in the sanctions world and the targeting is extremely broad in who the Sec of State and Treasury have authorities to hit – and by large I mean gigantic. Reports says they will start with a scalpel. Authority gives them ability to target heads of government entities who threaten the peace security and stability of the West Bank or who plan order or direct acts of violence targeting civilians, place civilians in reasonable fear of violence including property destruction or seizure by private actors – this includes leaders of government agencies. The sanction power applies also to U.S. citizens so having a passport doesn’t get you out of it. It’s a full spectrum material support ban meaning any FX, credits payments by or through banks securities etc that touch US jurisdiction. The level of banking risk for anyone in the West Bank who is Israeli just jumped up into a different stratosphere. All Israeli banks are tied into the SWIFT system and have U.S. branches so can’t run afoul. For foundations who have been supporting settlements calls your lawyers. Starting from the moment the State department lists you need significant material support statue vetting and the risk of others being added will have a freezing effect in major ways. More then differentiation this EO opens up possibilities of full sanctioning of major parts of settlement movement up to and including ministers and gov departments should admin go that route.”

Matt Duss, Executive Vice President of Center for International Policy, told Time Magazine:

“Steps like this are a good way to show that they are serious this time. Consequences for Israeli violence against Palestinians—whether in the form of just physical violence, settlement growth, expulsion of families, demolition of homes—that has always been a missing piece in the U.S.-led peace process. There have always and only been consequences imposed on one side, the weaker side, the Palestinian side. So what I think the administration is importantly signaling here is that’s going to change.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Israeli Settler Rampage: Hundreds of Olives Almond, Vine Trees Destroyed in West Bank” (Palestine Chronicle)
2. “ The War in Gaza Brings Severe Poverty and Despair to the West Bank” (Haaretz) 
3. “In the West Bank, Palestinians Struggle to Adjust to a New Reality” (The New York Times)
4. “‘We Are Not Very Far From an Explosion’” (The New York Times)