Settlement & Annexation Report: November 22, 2023

News from the West Bank

News from East Jerusalem

  • “Attempt for the Establishment of a New Settlement in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City” Peace Now
  • Correction to last week’s report regarding activities on Mount Scopus: Ir Amim and Bimkom report that Israel is expected to revive its plans to declare the open area between the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya and A-Tur. In last week’s report, the plan to declare the area as a national park was erroneously confused with separate plans to build a new settlement on a different part of Mount Scopus. 

On Reestablishing Settlements in Gaza

  • Breaking the Silence posts on X: “The Israeli right has a focus right now. The goal? Resettle the Gaza Strip. Their way to establish it in the hearts and minds of Israelis: to aggressively push the false notion that the 2005 disengagement was the main failure that led to this moment. This lie must be debunked…” (1/11)

News From the U.S.

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 17, 2023

    1. West Bank Stats via OCHA (as of November 16th)
    2. Settlers Take Over Large Amount of Property in the Armenian Quarter
    3. Plan for New National Park in East Jerusalem Resurfaces (Mount Scopus Slopes National Park)
    4. “Lower Aqueduct” Settlement Plan on the Agenda Again
    5. Israel Opens Huwwara Road for Settlers, While Keeping Palestinians Under Lock Down
    6. Sheikh Jarrah Eviction Case Postponed
    7. Accountability as Settlers Terrorize South Hebron Hills
    8. B’Tselem: H-2 Area of Hebron Suffering Under Collective Punishment
    9. Bonus Reads

West Bank Stats via OCHA (as of November 16th)

OCHA reports that in the West Bank since October 7th:

  • 248 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded, resulting in Palestinian casualties (30 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (182 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (36 incidents). This reflects a daily average of six incidents, compared with three since the beginning of the year. Over one-third of these incidents included threats with firearms, including shootings. In nearly half of all incidents, Israeli forces were either accompanying or actively supporting the attackers. 
  • At least 143 Palestinian households comprising 1,014 people, including 388 children, have been displaced amid settler violence and access restrictions. The displaced households are from 15 herding/Bedouin communities.
  • 186 Palestinians, including 51 children, have been killed by Israeli forces; and an additional eight, including one child, have been killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Four Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.  
  • Israeli forces have injured 2,661 Palestinians, including at least 282 children, over half of them in the context of demonstrations. An additional 74 Palestinians have been injured by settlers. Some 33 per cent of those injuries have been caused by live ammunition. 
  • A total of 48 Palestinians, including 24 children, have been displaced since 7 October following punitive demolitions.  
  • An additional 135 Palestinians, including 66 children, have been following demolitions in Area C and East Jerusalem, due to lack of permits.  

Settlers Take Over Large Amount of Property in the Armenian Quarter

Terrestrial Jerusalem reports that on November 16th a group of settlers guarded by Israeli police entered and took control over several tracts of strategically located  land in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem owned by the Armenian Patriarchate. The settlers assert that the lands were leased to them by the Armenian Patriarchate, a lease the Patriarchate contests the legality of and then formally canceled on October 26, 2023.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued the following statement on Nov. 16th:

“The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem is under possibly the greatest existential threat of its 16-century history. This existential-territorial threat fully extends to all the Christian communities of Jerusalem. 

The Armenian Patriarchate has recently canceled a contract tainted with false representation, undue influence, and unlawful benefits.

Instead of providing a lawful response to the cancellation, the developers attempting to build on the Cow’s Garden have completely disregarded the legal posture of the PAtriarchate toward this issue, and instead have elected for provocation, aggression, and other harassing , incendiary tactics including destruction of property, the hiring of heavily armed provocateurs, and other instigation.

In recent days, the cast destruction and removal of asphalt on the grounds of the Armenian Quarter have been done without the presentation of permits from the municipality by neither the developer nor the police. Despite this fact, the police have chosen in the last few days to demand that all the members of the Armenian Community vacate the premises.

We plead with the entirety of the Christian communities of Jerusalem to stand with the Armenian Patriarchate in these unprecedented times as this is another clear step taken toward the endangerment of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and the Holy Land”

Rumors of this sale first surfaced in 2021, but it wasn’t until June 2023 the details of the sale were publicly reported. At the time, the Associated Press reported that the Armenian Orthodox Church signed a 99-year lease giving several church properties in the Old City of Jerusalem to an Australian-Israeli businessman, Danny Rothman (sometimes referred to as Danny Rubenstein). The lease reportedly includes the Hadiqat Al-Baqar (The Cows’ Garden) and its surrounding properties, including the Qishla building in Bab al-Khalil (Jaffa Gate), located in the Armenian Quarter. In total, 

In June 2023, settlers placed a sign on one of the tracts saying the land is the property of Xana Capital, the company which Danny Rothman owns. According to a bishop involved in the sale, Rothman and his business Xana Capital plans to develop the land into a luxury resort managed by a Dubai-based company.

The Armenian Archbishop, Nourhan Manougian, alleged that the Church’s real estate official and priest – Baret Yeretsian – sold the land in a “fraudulent and deceitful” deal that he was unaware of. Yeretsian, in turn, said he carried out the deal at the direction of Manougian. Both Manougian and Yeretsian have been forced into hiding due to communal outrage.”

Terrestrial Jeruslame’s Danny Seidemann stresses the active role of the Israeli government in collaborating with settlers to take control of these properties, as in the case of other settler takeovers  across the Old City. He writes.:

“We have seen this pattern all too often. In the past, both distant and recent, settlers succeeded to take over strategically located Church sites of great historical, religious and cultural value. These include enormously important Greek Orthodox properties only meters away: the Imperial and Petra Hotel at Jaffa Gate, the St. John’s Hospice in Muristan, adjacent too the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, etc…

The most important aspect is the least visible: the location suggests that this property has been singled out, and is likely an integral part of an ambitious and highly consequential Government plan. For many years, and under the radar, the Government of Israel has been implementing projects to encircle the Old City w/ Biblically motivated settlements and settlement-related projects: a planned Israeli National Park over the Christian holy sites on the Mount if Olives, a cable car from West Jerusalem to the settler headquarters n Silwan, the opening of an Israeli Night spot at the entrance to the Christian Quarter at New Gate, etc. are just a few, of the prominent examples. There are dozens more. More than a billion sheqels have been invested in this Government project. Its goals are to encircle the religious, historical and cultural core of Jerusalem with settlement enclaves, and projects that will etch the Biblically motivated settler narrative into the landscape and urban fabric. 

This is no mere “bad thing”. The Government plan will radically undermine the character of Jerusalem, fragmenting Palestinian Jerusalem and marginalizing the already challenged Christian presence in the city. This is so impactful, that one prominent Christian cleric cautioned that the tome is not far off when Jerusalem will no longer be hospitable to Christians.”

Plan for New National Park in East Jerusalem Resurfaces (Mount Scopus Slopes National Park) 

Ir Amim and Bimkom jointly report that the Israeli government appears to have renewed its efforts to designate the open area between the Palestinian neighborhoods of al-Isawiyyah and a-Tur in East Jeruasalem as a new national park, called the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park.

Ir Amim and Bimkom explain:

“The plan aims to turn the large vacant space between the aforementioned neighborhoods into a national park, which would extend eastward from Hebrew University towards the edge of the city and the E1 corridor. This will severely limit proper development of both neighborhoods, including the ability to adequately expand, which is essential. In addition, a large national park in this location would contribute to Israeli territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and the E1/Maaleh Adumim area. It will likewise serve as a form of touristic settlement, which increases Israeli control over more land and fractures the Palestinian space in the city.

The designation of areas as national parks and/or green spaces is a common practice in East Jerusalem used to alter the character of the space, fragment the Palestinian environs, and suppress urban planning, while enabling the seizure of their lands for Israeli interests.”

“Lower Aqueduct” Settlement Plan on the Agenda Again

Ir Amim reports that the JErusalem District Planning Committee is scheduled to meet on November 21st to discuss objections submitted against the “Lower Aqueduct” settlement plan, located in East Jerusalem. This plan would see a new settlement of 1,465 units built on a sliver of land located between the controversial settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa – and is intended to connect the two. In so doing, it will establish a huge, uninterrupted continuum of Israeli settlements on the southern rim of Jerusalem, and will destroy Palestinian contiguity between the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  For more background on the Lower Aqueduct plan, see resources by: Terrestrial Jerusalem and Ir Amim.

Adding insult to injury, two years ago the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs initiated a plan to build a new Palestinian business center in the precise area targeted by the “lower aqueduct” plan, as part of an Israeli government initiative to reduce poverty in East Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Municipality subsequently abandoned the plan for the Palestinian business center under pressure from settlers, specifically from the Har Homa settlement which borders the area. Ir Amim comments:

“Not only is this yet another example of severe planning discrimination, but construction of this new neighborhood will serve to further create Israeli territorial contiguity along East Jerusalem’s southern perimeter while depleting more land reserves for Palestinian development.”

Peace Now notes that the majority of the land on which the new settlement will be built (half of which is in East Jerusalem and half in West Jerusalem) is privately owned, or managed by the Israeli Custodian General. Although recent reporting suggests the Custodian General is moving to advance settlement construction on lands it manages across East Jerusalem, its legal ability to do so is questionable (and doing so has historically not been its practice).

Israel Opens Huwwara Road for Settlers, While Keeping Palestinians Under Lock Down

Peace Now reports  that the first section of the Huwara Bypass Road – near Nablus – opened for vehicular traffic on Sunday, November 12, 2023. Settlers – along with Bezalel Smotrich, who is effectively the governor of the West Bank – have pressed for this road to open for settlers since before the October 7th attacks. With the opening of the Huwara Bypass road, settlers now have exclusive use of two highways in the area, while Palestinans do not have access to either one.

The Huwwara Bypass Road is designed for residents of Nablus-area settlements to bypass the Palestinian village of Huwwara (which is an area with heavy traffic congestion from daily commuters), in order to more easily/directly access Jerusalem. This bypass road has long been a top priority for the settlers, who have complained about the long commute to Jerusalem and the limits this puts on the potential for growth of Nablus-area settlements. Building the road also gained urgency for the settlers after the release of the Trump Plan’s conceptual map, which left the area where the road is slated to be built within the borders a future Palestinian “state.” On October 6th (the day before Hamas’ heinous massacre of civilians in the south of Israel), Smotrich and settlers pressed for the road to be completed and opened after a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israeli persons and cars in the area.

Peace Now reports:

“Despite the ongoing war, the government is investing considerable efforts to open the road quickly, and construction continued even during the Gaza war, despite interruptions in other building and infrastructure projects during this period. The road’s trajectory required the confiscation of private Palestinian lands from the villages of Burin, Huwara, Beita, Awarta, Yasuf, Yatma, and A-Sawiya. The old Huwara Road, which until recently served both settlers and Palestinians, has been a central artery for Palestinian traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and southern West Bank. The road has been closed to Palestinian traffic since the beginning of the war. The Central Command Chief decided to reopen the road to Palestinians in parallel with the opening of the bypass road. However, settlers opposed its reopening, arguing that the old Huwara Road should also serve as a secure passage only for settlers. Eventually, the old Huwara Road was reopened to limited Palestinian traffic only on the evening of Sunday, November 12, 2023.”

Sheikh Jarrah Eviction Case Postponed

FMEP has been informed that the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority (ECA)  has postponed its discussion of the eviction of the Salem family from their home of 60+ years in the Umm Haroud section of Sheikh Jarrah, which was scheduled for November 14th. The Salem family is one of approximately 40 Palestinian families under threat of forcible displacement by settlers from the Um Haroun section of Sheikh Jarrah.  

The Salem family has been fighting efforts by settlers to evict them from their home since 1988.  The individuals behind the years-long effort to evict the Salem family are Yonaten Yousef, a Jerusalem city councilmember, and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Aryeh King. Yousef and King claim to have bought the house from the Jewish family that owned it before 1948 — based on an Israeli law known as the Legal and Administrative Matters Law of 1970. This law provides Jewish Israelis the right to “reclaim” properties lost in the 1948 War. In contrast, under Israeli law the Salem family lacks any legal basis to claim both its home in Sheikh Jarrah – where the family has lived since being displaced from their home inside the Green Line during the 1948 War – or to their original home inside Israel, which they lost in the 1948 War (Israel law recognizes no such property claims by Palestinians who fled or were otherwise absent from the areas that became Israel in the course of that war)/.

In February 2022  the Jerusalem Magistrate Court froze an impending eviction of the Salem family based on the family paying the court a $7,700 “guarantee”. Around that same time the Israeli government seized a piece of the Salem property, located adjacent to the home that is now under demolition threat. Itamar Ben Gvir (who is now serving as the National Security Minister, with authority over demolitions in East Jerusalem) subsequently set up a tent on that seized property and called it his parliamentary office – a deliberate provocation.

For further background on the Salem family’s case (including on the Israeli laws that were expressly designed to enable the eviction of Palestinians in favor of settlers), see reporting by Ir Amim and Peace Now.

Accountability as Settlers Terrorize South Hebron Hills

The intensification of settler terrorism and displacement efforts in the South Hebron Hills has continued to escalate. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote an urgent appeal to the head of the IDF, calling for the IDF to intervene on behalf of Palestinians. Citing many specific incidents, ACRI writes:

“settlers living in outposts in the South Hebron Hills, have presented themselves in Palestinian communities dressed in military uniforms, sometimes masked, and intimidated residents, violently attacked them, damaged property and even ordered them to leave their homes.”

B’Tselem: H-2 Area of Hebron Suffering Under Collective Punishment

B’Tselem has called the IDF-imposed curfew on Palestinians living in the H-2 area of Hebron “collective punishment.” It also collected testimonies of families living in H-2 under highly restrictive and frightening conditions. B’Tselem writes:

“Since the war broke out on 7 October 2023, the military has been imposing a curfew on 11 neighborhoods in Area H2 in Hebron. Stores and businesses have been shut down and thousands of people, amounting to about 750 families, are imprisoned at home. Only after two weeks of full curfew, on 21 October 2023, did the military permit residents to leave home on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. 

Venturing out of the house requires crossing checkpoints and engaging with soldiers. This invariably involves humiliating treatment and meticulous body searches, and takes up most of the brief window of time allotted to the residents. As a result, many cannot get back in time to the checkpoint and have to stay out an entire day or night until it reopens. This prevents residents from getting what they need, and some are running low on food, water, medication and cooking gas.

The curfew has completely disrupted life in H2. Residents cannot get to work and school or visit family, and all the businesses are closed. They are living in complete uncertainty, without knowing when they will return to normal. Meanwhile, settlers in Hebron are enjoying full freedom of movement, which they use to harrass residents and damage their property. 

There is no justification for keeping hundreds of people under a blanket movement ban, locked up at home for weeks on end. Israel is taking advantage of the fact that local and international attention is currently diverted from the West Bank to impose far-reaching measures that constitute collective punishment, which is prohibited under international law. This conduct is integral to Israel’s apartheid regime, which is at its most flagrant in Hebron.” 

Bonus Reads

  1. “West Bank olive harvest ‘more dangerous than ever’ under shadow of war” (+972 Magazine)
  2. ”​Coalition of 11 right-wing organizations unveils Gaza strip resettlement initiative” (Jerusalem Post)
  3. “From Montana to Samaria – The cowboys who came to help” (Arutz Sheva)
  4. “‘They Don’t Want People to Know We Exist’ Palestinians across the West Bank describe what life has been like since October 7.” (New York Magazine)
  5. “While It Bombs Gaza, Israel Is Now Shooting to Kill Palestinians in the West Bank” (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.

November 10, 2023

  1. Smotrich Calls for West Bank Land Grab To Create “Sterile” Areas Near Settlements
  2. After 30 Years, Israeli High Court Orders Settlers Off Palestinian Land
  3. With Settlers Acting as a West Bank Militia, U.S. Transfers 24,000 Rifles to Israel
  4. On Reestablishing Gaza Settlements
  5. Bonus Reads

 

Smotrich Calls for West Bank Land Grab To Create “Sterile” Areas Near Settlements

Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Finance Minister and deputy minister in the Defense Ministry who operates as the de facto governor of Area C in the West Bank – wrote a letter to PM Netanyahu  and Defense Minister Gallant calling for the establishment of extensive “sterile security zones” (i.e. closed to Palestinians) to form a wide perimeter around settlements and key roads throughout the West Bank. The recommendation is tantamount to a call for unilateral annexation of more West Bank land to the settlements and a proposal for removing Palestinians from their land under the guise of security. This would include seizing actively cultivated agricultural land that is privately owned by Palestinians (ownership which is recognized by Israel).  

Smotrich made a point to say that the “sterile security zones” would be used to stop Palestinians from harvesting their olives during peak season (now). Palestinian farmers in the West Bank are already struggling to harvest olives this season due to the near total military shutdown of the West Bank. Smotrich, in his proposal for creating these “sterile” zones around settlements and roads, also argued that the creation of these zones would accomplish “the removal of left-wing [Israeli] anarchist activists who set the area on fire.” Israeli and international activists have long accompanied Palestinians during the olive harvest season in part to offer protection to the farmers posed by settlers and the IDF.

Commenting on Smotrich’s proposal Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Committee, said on X: 

“Israel’s Additional Minister of Defence Bezalel Smotrich has called to establish extensive closed military zones around illegal Israeli settlements + along major routes in occupied West Bank, which would prevent Palestinians freely moving & increase risk of forced displacement. In Gaza, we have witnessed the transfer, en masse, of Palestinians without any guarantees of their safety, survival, and eventual return to their homes.  Public statements by Israeli officials are also calling for the deportation of millions to Egypt. Israel must not further perpetrate forcible transfer, and should allow the safe return and compensate for damages caused to displaced Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza according to international law.”

After 30 Years, Israeli High Court Orders Settlers Off Palestinian Land

Haaretz reports that on November 8th, the Israeli High Court ordered settlers to vacate a land in the Jordan Valley that they had been given illegally and improperly by the State over 30 years ago. The judge sharply criticized how the State, which originally seized the privately owned land via a temporary military seizure, proceeded to allocate the privately owned land to the World Zionist Organization. The State was ordered to pay the legal fees of the petitioners and also intimated that the State could be liable to pay for its illegal profit off the land for the past 30 years.

This case dates back to a 1969 military seizure order for a vast tract of land in the Jordan Valley, including a parcel of land privately owned by Palestinians. Instead of canceling the seizure order and returning the land to its owners, the state instead gave control over that land to the World Zionist Organization. Then, on the 1980s, the World Zionist Organization allocated the land to settlers without any documentation of either having received control of the land from the government, or documentation allocating the land to the settlers. Since then, settlers have developed the land into profitable date farms. In 2018, several Palestinian landowners have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to have the settlers removed from the area and the land returned to their control. In a contentious court hearing in June 2022, in which the State conceded that it does not know how or why the settlers were allocated the land in the first place, High Court Justice Esther Hayut told the State lawyer: “Given that you cannot explain how the land was given to those to whom it was given, does that give them the right to remain there forever?” 

With Settlers Acting as a West Bank Militia, U.S. Transfers 24,000 Rifles to Israel

On November 7th, a coalition of 26 Palestinian human rights groups appealed to the third state parties to press for an immediate intervention to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem from state-backed settler violence. On the day the letter was sent, OCHA reported that Israeli settlers killed at least nine Palestinians, including at least one child, and injured 62. In addition, at least 905 Palestinians, including 356 children, have been forcibly displaced because of Israeli settler violence and access and movement restrictions. These numbers continue to grow. Since the Oct. 7th Hamas attack, there has been an average of seven settler attacks a day and the scale of displacement has escalated sharply, with nearly four times as many West Bank communities depopulated in the past month as in the preceding year and eight months combined. 

In a rare public criticism, President Biden and the U.S. Secretary of State Blinken have both raised concern about the scale of settler violence in the West Bank in the wake of the October 7th massacre by Hamas and Israel’s war on Gaza. On Oct. 25 President Biden warned that settler violence was “pouring gasoline on fire,” and Secretary Blinken raised concerns while in Israel on November 3rd.

Nonetheless, the Biden Administration finalized the sale of 24,000 assault rifles to Israel despite the settler violence and loosened gun regulations in Israel. Before the sale was complete, the U.S. reportedly received assurances from the Netanyahu government that these particular guns will not end up in the hands of settlers  policing Palestinians in the West Bank. The government said these guns would arm Israeli civilian response teams that operate within sovereign Israeli territory, under control of the Israeli police (which, it should be recalled, are under the control of Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir).

In the wake of rare public concerns from the U.S. administration, on November 8th, PM Netanyahu convened a meeting with settler leaders during which he was reported to have told them that he would not tolerate a “handful of extremists[settlers]…[who] cause great damage to the State of Israel.” 

In a new report on settler violence since Oct 7th, Peace Now writes:

“The war in Gaza has created a new reality where the security system in the West Bank increasingly relies on settlers within the framework of operational activities, becoming more dependent on them. Ideological and violent settlers leverage the war to coerce the military for their own goals of expulsion and harm to Palestinians, even interfering with IDF activities. This blurring of boundaries between the army and civilians, which has always been a significant problem in the Israeli occupation system in the territories, might cause a dire deterioration, potentially leading to the creation of a third front in the West Bank. Meanwhile, amid the war, a group of settlers managed to strengthen their hold over Area C, advocating for the coercive displacement of Palestinians and exacerbating the discriminatory practices and oppression against them in the West Bank. A decisive political decision to evacuate violent outposts not to disrupt security during wartime could prevent numerous attacks. Initiating law enforcement against violent settlers could restrain and deter others. Preventing the conscription of violent settlers into the reserves and the immediate dismissal of reservist soldiers involved in or enabling violence are essential steps, not mandating political decisions”

On Reestablishing Gaza Settlements

Several senior Israeli officials have been publicly proclaiming their hope to reestablish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which were removed by the Israeli government as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan. In fact, members of Netanyahu’s Likud party have introduced a piece of legislation in the Knesset that would cancel the part of the Disengagement Law that bars Israelis from entering the Gaza Strip. 

Amira Hass warns that these statements should be taken seriously, writing in Haaretz: 

“As the last 50 years have shown, any single settler’s hallucination should be taken seriously, and treated as a plan of action by the next government, if not the current one. And when the hallucination is built on overt plans for total destruction and mass expulsion, wars are the most suitable ground for its realization.”

Bonus Reads

  1. ““‘Leave or Die’ An account from a Palestinian in the West Bank” (Slate)
  2. “Trending: Israeli Soldiers Document and Proudly Post Their Own Abuse of Palestinians” (Haaretz)
  3. “How a Campaign of Extremist Violence Is Pushing the West Bank to the Brink” (New York Times)
  4. “Local Construction Firm for Secret US Base in Israel Also Built an Illegal Settlement” (The Intercept)
  5. “The Gaza-fication of the West Bank” (The New Yorker, interview with Hagai El-Ad)
  6. “​​Kathy Hochul’s Israel Trip Bankrolled by Group Funding Illegal Settlements” (The Intercept)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 3, 2023

  1. Sheikh Jarrah Eviction Case Scheduled for November 14th
  2. Settler Violence & Forcible Transfer Continues to Escalate
  3. IDF Launches Program to Formalize Settler Militia Unit
  4. Events

Sheikh Jarrah Eviction Case Scheduled for November 14th

Ir Amim reports that the Enforcement and Collection Authority (ECA) has scheduled a November 14th hearing to discuss authorizing the forcible eviction of the Salem family from their home of 60+ years in the Umm Haroud section of Sheikh Jarrah. The Salem family is one of approximately 40 Palestinian families under threat of forcible displacement by settlers from the Um Haroun section of Sheikh Jarrah.  

The Salem family has been fighting efforts by settlers to evict them from their home since 1988.  The individuals behind the years-long effort to evict the Salem family are Yonaten Yousef, a Jerusalem city councilmember, and former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Aryeh King. Yousef and King claim to have bought the house from the Jewish family that owned it before 1948 — based on an Israeli law known as the Legal and Administrative Matters Law of 1970. This law provides Jewish Israelis the right to “reclaim” properties lost in the 1948 War. In contrast, under Israeli law the Salem family lacks any legal basis to claim both its home in Sheikh Jarrah – where the family has lived since being displaced from their home inside the Green Line during the 1948 War – or to their original home inside Israel, which they lost in the 1948 War (Israel law recognizes no such property claims by Palestinians who fled or were otherwise absent from the areas that became Israel in the course of that war)/. 

In February 2022  the Jerusalem Magistrate Court froze an impending eviction of the Salem family based on the family paying the court a $7,700 “guarantee”. Around that same time the Israeli government seized a piece of the Salem property, located adjacent to the home that is now under demolition threat. Itamar Ben Gvir (who is now serving as the National Security Minister, with authority over demolitions in East Jerusalem) subsequently set up a tent on that seized property and called it his parliamentary office – a deliberate provocation.

For further background on the Salem family’s case (including on the Israeli laws that were expressly designed to enable the eviction of Palestinians in favor of settlers), see reporting by Ir Amim and Peace Now.

Settler Violence & Forcible Transfer Continues to Escalate

According to 32 Israeli human rights NGOs in a joint report, at least 13 Palestinian communities have abandoned their homes under constant, ever increasing, and unchecked violence by settlers. In a letter to the international community, the consortium of human rights groups write:

“For the past three weeks, since Hamas’s atrocities of October 7th, settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities. During this period, no fewer than thirteen herding communities have been displaced. Many more are in danger of being forced to flee in the coming days if immediate action is not taken. 

Palestinian farmers are particularly vulnerable at this time, during the annual olive harvest  season, because if they are unable to pick their olives they will lose a year’s income. Yesterday Bilal Muhammed Saleh from the village of As-Sawiya south of Nablus was murdered while tending to his olive trees. He was the seventh Palestinian to have been killed by settlers since the current war began.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence. On the contrary: government ministers and other officials are backing the violence and in many cases the military is present or even participates in the violence, including in incidents where settlers have killed Palestinians. Moreover, since the war has begun there has been a growing number of incidents in which violent settlers have been documented attacking nearby Palestinian communities while wearing military uniform and using government-issued weapons.

With grave concern and with a clear understanding of the political landscape, we recognize that the only way to stop this forcible transfer in the West Bank is a clear, strong and direct intervention by the international community.”

This past week there have been severa reports on the extent and seriousness of what is happening across the West Bank, including a report by OCHA that warns “Israeli settler violence has increased significantly, from an already high average of three incidents per day thus far in 2023 to a current average of seven per day.”

There have also been many first hand accounts of settler violence published, and world leaders have begun to express worry about what’s happening in the West Bank. These testimonies include:

  • Hamdan Mohammed Al-Huraini wrote in +972 Magazine about what is happening in the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills, a region where many villages are under intense, imminent threat of displacement from the IDF and settlers. Al-Huraini describes how Susiya is blockaded by settlers and the IDF, so residents cannot reach nearby towns to buy food, water, medicine, or fodder for their flocks – – which threatens the income and survival of the community. He says, “If the closure of roads, the settler-soldier attacks and threats, and the lack of access to water and animal feed continue for much longer, the situation will devolve into a large-scale crime against humanity.”
  • Amer Abjdullah (name changed for safety) described to Mondoweiss a raid on his community of Umm al-Khair in Massaffer Yatta. Masked men lined 17 Palestinians against a wall and threatened to shoot. Abdallah recounted one man saying, “I am not military, I am not police, I am nothing. I came here to punish you and to make you pay the price of what happened on October 7.” Further details about what is transpiring in the South Hebron Hills can be found in this spot report by FMEP and in this newsletter from Human Rights Defenders Fund.
  • Hashem Saleh, who watched settlers shoot and kill his brother Bilal while they were harvesting olives in their groves in Al-Sawiya village near Nablus.
  • Tariq Mustafa, who spoke to the Washington Post about his village Wadi Al-Siq, where over 40 Palestinians – including Tariq –  have fled from under constant threats of violence. He said, “The war in Gaza gave the settlers the green light…Before, they would yell at us to go to Ramallah. Now they are telling us to go all the way to Jordan.”

IDF Launches Program to Formalize Settler Militia Unit

Instead of bringing law and order to the West Bank, the Israeli government and military are further empowering and arming settlers to continue their terror campaigns across the West Bank. Haaretz reports that the IDF plans to formalize the role of settlers in its military control of the West Bank by recruiting settlers – even settlers with criminal records – to join a new “regional defense militia.” With three weeks of training, these settler-soldiers will be stationed at settlements.

Events

  • On November 9th, Americans for Peace Now is hosting “Meanwhile in the West Bank” featuring Hagit Ofran and Yonatan Mizrachi from Peace Now. Register here.
  • Over the past week, FMEP has hosted three incredible webinars – which you can watch or listen to here:
    • “Catastrophe in Gaza: What’s Next? Part 1“- featuring ft. Inès Abdel Razek (Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy), Fadi Quran (Avaaz), & Lara Friedman (FMEP)
    • “Catastrophe in Gaza: What’s Next? Part 2“- featuring Sari Bashi (Human Rights Watch), Amjad Iraqi (+972 Magazine) & Lara Friedman (FMEP)
    • “Gaza, Israel and the 2023 War: Are There Any “Red Lines”?” – featuring Jamil Dakwar (Human Rights Lawyer & Adjunct Professor, New York University and Hunter College),  Katherine Gallagher (Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional rights), Dr. Raz Segal (Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide, Stockton University), in conversation with Khaled Elgindy (MEI) and Lara Friedman (FMEP)

 

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.

October 27, 2023

  1. Israel Advancing “Ramot Alon West” Settlement Plan in East Jerusalem
  2. Settlers, IDF Terrorize West Bank Palestinians
  3. Bonus Reads
  4. Resources to Follow the Horror

Israel Advancing “Ramot Alon West” Settlement Plan in East Jerusalem

Peace Now reports that the Jerusalem District Planning Committee will convene on Monday, October 30 the to advance the “Ramot Alon West” settlement plan, outlining the construction of 439 settlement units on the northern tip of East Jerusalem. It is designed to extend the existing Ramot Alon settlement westward with nine new highrise buildings along with new educational and religious buildings, playgrounds, promenades, pathways, and other public use items.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“In the midst of the war against Hamas, the government of Israel is maintaining its commitment to actively opposing any potential political solution with the Palestinians. This, like the Kidmat Zion plan at the Palestinian al-Amud neighborhood that was advanced on the second day of the war, continues the government effort to establish facts on the ground that contradict the long-term interests of peace from both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives.”

Settlers, IDF Terrorize West Bank Palestinians

On October 26th OCHA reported that a total of 103 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th – of which 32 are children. Of the total, settlers are responsible for six deaths, including one child.

In addition to these fatalities, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din has documented and mapped over 100 settler-led attacks on 62 Palestinian communities between October 7-22. Yesh Din writes:

“To Yesh Din’s knowledge, out of the hundreds of settlers involved in these attacks, not a single one has been detained, investigated, or arrested in relation to these incidents. This is not a failure of law enforcement in the West Bank but rather policy of the GOI that supports the violent acts carried out by settlers against innocent Palestinians. Since October 7, 96 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers.”

With the ongoing war in Gaza, attention to the lives, freedom, and property lost in the West Bank are barely receiving attention. But it is clear from reports by Palsetinians and human rights groups that Palestinians have no protection from settler attacks, which are often aided by the IDF.

One Palestinian posted on X (formerly Twitter):

“Settlers are exploiting the war in order to do whatever they want. Armed and wearing uniforms, they are becoming the law since there’s no one who will stop them. It scares and sorrows me that the man who shot at us will in all likelihood not be arrested by the police.”

For further reading on the conditions Palestinians in the West Bank are enduring, see:

  • “Dispatches from the West Bank” (Jewish Currents)
  • “‘The Settlers Can Do Whatever They Want With Us’” (Mohammed Matar as told to Al-Haq and published by Jewish Currents)
  • “Settlers rampage through Palestinian olive grove, harass activists in West Bank” (The Times of Israel)
  • “Under Attack From Settlers and Clashing With the IDF, Palestinians Fear the ‘Take Over of the West Bank’” (Dalia Hatuqa in Rolling Stone)

Bonus Reads

  1. “Hamas’ Attack Has Accelerated Israel’s Domestic Arms Race” (Haaretz)
  2. “Israel Uses Warplane to Strike in West Bank for First Time Since 2000s” (Haaretz)
  3. “Some Israelis dream of return to Gaza settlements as IDF readies to go back in” (The Times of Israel)

Resources to Follow the Horror

West Bank

East Jerusalem

Gaza

Live Blogs

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.

October 20, 2023

  1. Israel Advances Plan for New East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave, “Kidmat Tzion”
  2. Settler Terrorism & the Ongoing Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank
  3. Bonus Reads

WATCH: On October 17th, FMEP hosted a webinar entitled “The Situation in Gaza: A Briefing” featuring Tania Hary (Gisha), Nour Odeh (political activist), Omar Shakir (Human Rights Watch) and Lara Friedman (FMEP).

Israel Advances Plan for New East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave, “Kidmat Tzion”

Peace Now reports that on October 9th the Jerusalem District Planning Committee met to review amendments to the “Kidmat Tzion” settlement plan, which calls for 384 settlement units to be built in the heart of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood Ras al-Amud. The plan was initially approved for public deposit on September 11, 2023 but the Committee had requested further input from the Israeli Ministry of Transportation and the Defense Ministry, given the particularly sensitive location of the enclave, which is designed to be heavily fortified and only accessible via road that goes through densely populated areas of Ras al-Amud. At the October 9th meeting, the Transportation Ministry proposed a plan to pave a new access road to the east; the Defense Ministry was unable to attend given the major attack and massacres by Palestinian militants from Hamas on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. The Committee again approved the settlement plan, but also scheduled another hearing to consider the details of the proposal for an alternate road.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Even in times of war and just two days after the largest security disaster in the history of the State of Israel since its establishment, the Israeli government does not forget to advance additional flashpoints and confrontations. It seems that the fact that the entire country is entangled in the southern, northern, and western frontlines and the tension in the West Bank does not prevent the Israeli government from promoting potential sources of future conflict. The East Jerusalem settlement is a clear statement of the government’s priorities. We have already seen who pays the price.״

As a reminder, the Kidmat Tzion settlement enclave will located on a tiny strip of land between the Ras al-Amud neighborhood and the Israeli separation barrier, with the Abu Dis neighborhood on the other side of the wall. Kidmat Tzion will be accessible only by driving through densely populated areas of Ras Al-Amud. To deal with the reality of its location, the architects of the plan have designed the enclave to be a heavily guarded and gated community. It will be surrounded by an electric fence, a patrol road, a concrete guard station at its entrance, and the roofs of the houses will have cameras and spotlights installed. The security plan for the enclave had to be prepared and filed by the IDF’s Central Command, which specified that four armed security guards will patrol the neighborhood at all times, as well as a security chief and an armored vehicle.

Haaretz notes that – despite its sensitivity – the plan has been flying through the planning process at a much faster speed than is typical, and was brazenly approved while U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf – a senior U.S. official – was in Israel in September. Sari Kronish of the Israeli NGO Bimkom told Haaretz: 

“The lightning speed with which the District Committee is promoting a plan to build a Jews-only, gated village in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in [East] Jerusalem raises the suspicion that this is a political ploy.”

Amy Cohen, Ir Amim’s Director of International Advocacy told Haaretz:

“Israel promotes tens of thousands of housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem every year, while systematically denying Palestinians the same housing rights, all with the aim of pushing them out of East Jerusalem and influencing the city’s demographic balance in a crude and artificial way,” said “This proposal severs the single access road leading to Palestinian homes and is being advanced with a speed we have never seen before. The move is doubly problematic since the City Engineer himself notes that necessary basic tests were not conducted.”

Originally introduced in April 2023, the plan is the product of the Ateret Cohanim settler group – rather, its affiliate the Bahorim Company – which filed documents with the planning committee that show it (Bahorim) only owns 10% of the land where Kidmat Tzion is planned for. The land is unregistered, but Bahorim submitted a table of ownership purporting to show that dozens of plots were owned by Jews prior to 1948, still other plots are owned by settler affiliated groups including one run by U.S. millionaire and settlement financier Irving Moskowitz, and 1 or 2 plots are owned by Palestinians. Part of the land is owned by the Israeli Custodian General.

Construction of this settlement could well achieve the considerable geopolitical consequences the settlers hope for — most notably by complicating if not outright blocking any future division of Jerusalem (or sharing agreement) under any possible Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. It is worth recalling that Abu Dis has been repeatedly suggested by Israel and its allies (including in the Trump Plan) as the capital of a future Palestinian state (as a substitute for Jerusalem), and an unfinished building in Abu Dis was designed to be the future home of a Palestinian parliament. This settlement plan would scuttle all such ideas. Indeed, in the planning documents Ateret Cohanim explained: 

“Palestinian institutions in Abu Dis were built with the vision of turning the town into the capital city of Palestine and building a corridor and passage to the center of Jerusalem, and thus promoting the takeover of the entire city…The significance of establishing and developing the neighborhood is to create a shield for Jerusalem against Palestinian ambitions. The neighborhood will disturb the contiguity [of the area] and protect us from dividing the city.”

The new settlement enclave will also further solidify the infrastructure connecting settlements south of Jerusalem to the city. Kidmat Zion will be located adjacent to the so-called “American Road,” which will tunnel underneath parts of Abu Dis. The “American Road” is a section of north-south highway that is meant to seamlessly connect settlements located in the north and south of Jerusalem to one another, and to serve as a bypass for settler traffic to cut through East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods. While the road will be accessible to Palestinians (a fact touted by Israel as proof of Israeli good intentions), the obvious primary purpose is to entrench Israel settlements, expand Israeli control over all of East Jerusalem, and close off Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods from the rest of the West Bank, thereby (further) torpedoing Palestinian hopes of one day establishing a capital in East Jerusalem. 

Settler Terrorism & the Ongoing Displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank

Settler terrorism – which was already at an astonishing high level of frequency and violence – is actively displacing more Palestinian communities across the West Bank. OCHA has recorded 100 settler attacks since October 7th, which on average is eight incidents per day, resulting in 79 deaths and 1,434 injuries. The violence and terror are resulting in the significant displacement of Palestinians from Area C of the West Bank. On October 17th, OCHA reported that “at least seven Palestinian communities in Area C of the West Bank have been fully or partially displaced amid settler attacks and threats. At least 43 Palestinian households comprising 283 people, including 146 children, were displaced from the herding Bedouin communities in the Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Nablus governorates.”

In a particularly horrific incident on October 12th, three Palestinians were blindfolded, brutally assaulted, and urinated upon by a gang of 20-25 settlers and uniformed IDF soldiers. The victims are residents of the Wadi al-Seeq bedouin community, and while most of the village residents had fled their homes weeks before under the constant and escalating violence of settlers, the three victims returned to gather the remaining belongings when the attack occurred.

In an piece entitled, “Israel’s Expulsion of Palestinians in West Bank Amid the Fog of War” the Haaretz Editorial Board writes: 

“What is happening in the territories calls for military intervention and governmental attention. This time it isn’t “just” deepening the annexation and apartheid. Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, the settlers’ crimes may push the Palestinians in the West Bank to violence, and bring about the opening of another front, which will make it difficult for the IDF to defend the country. The fact that the military and government allow these crimes to take place during wartime is itself a crime and a security failure. Unlike the failures that brought the current disaster upon Israel, this one can be stopped. The question is whether a government populated by settler representatives, who dream of Nakba 2.0 – or worse – is interested in, and capable of, enforcing limits upon these people.”

In a report on surging settler violence, Peace Now says:

“The IDF and the police must do everything possible to stop the escalating violence. During the past week, settler violence has intensified and reached new peaks. Meanwhile, Palestinians are experiencing a lack of security forces and protection from Israeli authorities. It seems that the first week of the war in Gaza is marked by security chaos. The bodies of law and order on the West Bank do not prevent violence and, at times, even align with settler demands. Revenge and harm to the innocent do not constitute a policy. If the legal authorities and the IDF do not take action, the West Bank will become a war zone. Like in any cycle of violence, the price will be paid by all residents, Israelis, and Palestinians.”

Notably, the surging violence and Israel’s war footing in the West Bank coincides with the start of the annual olive harvest season. HaMoked reports that Palestinian farmers are being systematically denied access to their land in the Seam Zone (i.e. on the Israeli side of the West Bank barrier inside of the West Bank), and Palestinians living the Seam Zone are being subjected to new restrictions on crossing the barrier into the West Bank. Palestinian farmers risk losing an entire year’s salary if denied the ability to tend to and harvest their crop.

Bonus Reads

  1. “Collective Punishment and Aggressive Policing in East Jerusalem Infringe on Palestinian Rights and Liable to Ignite Violence in the City” (Ir Amim, October 16, 2023)

Given the horrific events of the past week, there will not be a regular settlement report. Instead, we are sending out recommended resources for tracking events in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. 

West Bank

East Jerusalem

Gaza

Live Blogs

News & Articles

  • Israel is arming settlers and making it easier to get a gun permit.
  • On October 13th, settlers shot a Palestinian at point-blank range in the South Hebron Hills, and then opened fire at the ambulance trying to transport the wounded man. The victim’s condition is unclear.
  • On October 12th, an Israeli police officer was shot and wounded by a Palestinian gunman near the Old City of Jerusalem. Subsequently, Israeli police have shut down the Old City of Jerusalem – preventing Palestinians under 70 years old from entering the city or reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers. Police then tear gassed Palestinians who gathered outside of the city walls to pray and protest.
  • On October 11th, masked settlers attacked the Palestinian village in Qusra, killing four Palestinians. At the funeral, the IDF shot and killed one more.
  • On October 13th, four Palestinians were shot and killed by the Israeli police while allegedly attempting to take down part of the West Bank barrier near Tulkarem.
  • Amira Hass writes, “Israeli Settlers Aren’t Pausing the Expulsion and Dispossession in the West Bank”

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.

October 6, 2023

  1. Smotrich Sidelines Military Legal Advisor In Order to Pursue Agenda
  2. Smotrich & Settlers Demand Bypass Road Near Huwara Following Latest Violence
  3. Israel Tightens Grip on Sebastia Site
  4. Settlers, Knesset Continue Push for IDF to Seize “Archaeological Site” at Mt. Ebal/El-Burnat
  5. The Acceleration of “Herding Outposts”, And Their Impact
  6. OCHA Reports on Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing of Masafer Yatta
  7. The JNF Is Funding Hilltop Youth
  8. Bonus Reads

Smotrich Sidelines Military Legal Advisor In Order to Pursue Agenda

Haaretz reports that Bezalel Smotrich has taken further steps to consolidate his governance over settlements and outposts in the West Bank by sidelining the Defense Ministry’s top military legal advisor in favor of his own hand-picked deputy legal advisor, Moshe Frucht. Prior to joining Smotrich, Frucht was a researcher at the far-right Kohelet Policy Forum, an organization that is widely understood to be the architect behind the anti-democratic judicial revolution and author of many legal opinions arguing for the legality of Israeli settlements under international law.

In recent meetings on the topic of settlements, Smotrich has gone from overruling the objections of the military advisor to excluding them from meetings altogether. One Israeli MK, Gilad Kariv (Labor), also accuses Smotrich of hiding the army’s official legal position from the Knesset in committee hearings and when discussing government decisions. 

As a reminder, in February 2023 Smotrich was effectively made the ruling sovereign of Area C of the West Bank via his role as a minister in the Defense Ministry and as the head of the newly created Settlements Administration, which was given power over civilian affairs in Area C.

Smotrich & Settlers Demand Bypass Road Near Huwara Following Latest Violence

The Palestinian village of Huwara has been a focal point of violence over the past few days after a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a settler vehicle on October 5th, following repeated incidents of rock-throwing at Israeli vehicles near Huwara this week. Over the night of October 5th, hundreds of settlers – including MK Zvi Sukkot – descended upon Huwara in what they claim was an attempt to set up a Sukkah in celebration of the Sukkot holiday and in response to the attack. Settlers attacked Palestinian homes and businesses resulting in clashes with Palestinians. A 19-year old Palestinian boy, Labeeb Mohammed Dmaidi, was shot and killed while standing on the roof of his family home and allegedly throwing rocks towards the settlers and IDF soldiers. Palestinians believe a settler was the shooter.

The violence has resulted in the settlers demanding that the government complete the Huwara Bypass road, which has dragged on since construction began in 2021. Bezalel Smotrich publicly stated his support for the demand while in Huwara the day after the attacks, where he further called on Netanyahu to force Palestinian shops on Huwara’s main road to remain closed until the road is complete. Smotrich later criticized Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant for closing down Route 60 during the funeral procession for Dmaidi. Recall that earlier this year Smotrich said that Israel should “wipe out” Huwara.

The initial shooting attack occurred on Route 60, which is used by both settlers and Palestinians as the main thoroughfare connecting central and northern West Bank. Route 60 passes through Huwwara. The bypass road is designed so that residents of Nablus-area settlements can more easily/directly access Jerusalem without driving through Huwara. Israel unilaterally expropriated private Palestinian land along the route of the road in preparation for construction.

Beyond the new demand and the possible implications it will have on the freedom of movement for Palestinians to and from Huwara, National Security Minister Ben Gvir posted on X during the settlers October 5th attack on Huwara that “”Our [Jewish Israeli] lives take priority to the Palestinians’ freedom of movement (and commerce). We’ll continue to say this truth and actively work to implement [this truth].” This is the second time that Ben Gvir has said that the rights and freedoms of Jews are more important than Palestinians.

Israel Tightens Grip on Sebastia Site 

Emek Shaveh reports that on October 1st Israeli Minister for Environmental Protection, Idit Sliman, toured the archaeological site of Sebastia alongside settler leader Yossi Dagan, declaring that the land belongs to Israel. The Sebastia site is located near the Palestinian village of Sebastia, north of Nablus in the heart of the West Bank, and straddles the line designating Areas B and C, with most of the site is in Area C. The Palestinian village of Sebastia – which settlers travel through to reach the site – is in Area B entirely. During Sliman’s tour of the site the IDF sealed off all entry points to the village.

On May 7, 2023, the Israeli government approved nearly $9 million (NIS 32 million) for a project to develop and “renovate” the archaeological site of Sebastia. The project includes plans to pave a new access road for Israelis to reach the site, which they currently have to access by traveling through the Palestinian village of Sebastia.

Settlers have been openly agitating for Israel to assert control over the archaeological site in Sebastia for years, and the settler Samaria Regional Council organizes regular tours to the site. To secure the settlers’ visits, the IDF shuts down the town of Sebastia, closing Palestinian streets and businesses. As in other cases across the West Bank, settlers allege that Palestinians are damaging the Sebastia site and that the Israeli government needs to intervene. In 2021 amidst  intensifying settler efforts related to the site, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on UNESCO to “protect all Palestinian archaeological and religious sites from Israeli violations, attacks and falsifications.” The archaeological site of Sebastia is on the tentative list of World Heritage sites in Palestine.

Emek Shaveh further explains the history and politicization of this archaeological site

“The battle over Sebastia is also played out in the narratives each side presents to the public. The informational material distributed by the PA does not include an explicit reference to the Kingdom of Israel or to the Hasmonean connection. On the other hand, in recent years the settlers have been rehabilitating the figure of Omri, a King of the Kingdom of Israel, in an effort to imbue Sebastia with greater nationalist significance. Sebastia also holds a special place in recent history for the settlers because it is the place where the leaders of Gush Emunim, the group that first fought for the establishment of settlements in the West Bank in the 1970s, celebrated the government’s agreement to establish the first settlement in the area in 1975.  

In tandem with the growing campaign of recent years to apply full Israeli control over Sebastia, larger numbers of Israelis visit the site every week in buses organized by the Samaria Regional Council and accompanied by soldiers.

Sebastia, is a declared national park. National parks and nature reserves in Area C of the West Bank are managed by the Civil Administration and are referred to as “parks”. Their total area spans approximately 500,000 dunams and constitutes roughly 14.5% of Area C. Palestinians’ rights are violated in these territories through various means. In the Ein Prat Nature Reserve, for example, landowners cannot cultivate their land as their access is restricted. In Herodion National Park and Nabi Samuel, residents can neither construct nor renovate their homes.”

Settlers, Knesset Continue Push for IDF to Seize “Archaeological Site” at Mt. Ebal/El-Burnat

This week settlers have carried out daily trips to the archaeological site at Mt. Ebal, known as el-Burnat to Palestinians, located in Area B of the West Bank. On Monday, the Israeli army coordinated a trip for hundreds of Israelis to the site, but has not coordinated with settlers on their trip to the site in the subsequent days. Over the past two years, settlers have been clamoring for the army to take unilateral control over the site after the Palestinian Authority began to develop land nearby. 

On October 6th, MK Son-Harmelech participated in a trip to the site and subsequently called on the government of Israel to establish a new settlement at the site (which, again, is located in Area B). 

In a further show of the settlers influence and the government’s intentions with the site, Emek Shaveh reports that on September 25th a subcommittee of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense met to discuss accusations (which have proven to be false yet  are weaponized by settlers) that the Palestinian Authority has recklessly damaged and is attempting to destroy the site. Emek Shaveh explains: “The reports and the special subcommittee session are part of an orchestrated attempt by the settlers and their representatives in the Israeli parliament to use antiquity sites as a ruse for advancing annexation.” 

At the hearing, the Civil Administration’s Head of Infrastructure, Lieutenant Colonel Adam Avidan, acknowledged that the site is in Area B where the IDF has limited authority. He also said the IDF constructed an observation tower to monitor Palestinian activity at the site. Avidan also explained that the IDF had summoned the Palestinian village leader to warn him not to conduct any construction work at the site, showing a map that marked the borders (reminder that the IDF does not have any authority over antiquity sites in Areas A or B).

Mt.Ebal/el-Burnat is purported to be an antiquity site where the biblical prophet Joshua built an altar, originally identified as such in the 1980s by an Israeli archaeologist though the majority of professional archaeologists do not support that conclusion.  Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO with expertise in archaeology, called the settler campaign to seize Mt. Ebal as a “watershed in Israeli archaeology.” In July 2023, Emek Shaveh reported that a triad composed of settlers, an American Christian evangelical organization, and the Israeli army collaborated on a recent unlicensed excavation on Mount Ebal, which Emek Shaveh called antiquity theft. Further, the groups transferred some 80 cubic meters of soil from Mount Ebal to the Shavei Shomron settlement, where settlers then promoted an opportunity for members of the public to join the archaeologists in sifting through the materials (thereby promoting tourism to the settlements). Haaretz called the excavation “is mainly used as a tourist attraction to the West Bank and is of little scientific significance.”

Emek Shaveh’s explained the significance of what is happening on Mount Ebal: 

“The archaeological site at Mount Ebal is becoming a watershed in Israeli archaeology. The activity on the site has turned from a pirate operation led by a group of Messianic Jews and Christians into a state sponsored operation under the auspices of the Civil Administration led by Minister Bezalel Smotrich.This is yet another violation of the Oslo Accords and suspected violation of domestic and international law that is whitewashed by Israeli authorities and intended to serve as a method for advancing the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.In addition to the alleged violation of the law, the excavation constitutes an ethical failure by the entire archaeological community in Israel whose silence continues to grant legitimacy to such projects. A comprehensive and immediate investigation is required by all the relevant parties as well as independently by the Israeli Archaeological Association.”

The Acceleration of “Herding Outposts”, And Their Impact

On October 3rd The New York Times published an article describing the impact of so-called herding outposts on the battle for control over land in the West Bank, highlighting reporting from Kerem Navot that shows how settlers have been establishing herding and farming outposts as a way to coerce the displacement of Palestinians and assert control a maximal amount of land with a minimal number of Israeli settlers.

That 20 new herding outposts have been established so far this year, showing how this tactic has accelerated since 2018 when settlers began to strategically focus on herding outposts as an effective mechanism. Three Palestinian herding communities have been displaced from their lands this year, largely in fear of nearby settlers.

The Times reports:

“The Israeli settlers’ stated intention is to chip away at wide expanses of land that the Palestinian leadership, at the advent of the Oslo peace process 30 years ago, hoped would form the territorial spine of a future Palestinian state. ‘It’s not the nicest thing to evacuate a population,’ said Ariel Danino, 26, an Israeli settler who lives on an outpost and helps lead efforts to build new ones. ‘But we’re talking about a war over the land, and this is what is done during times of war’.”

In a 2022 report on this herding phenomenon, Kerem Navot explains:

“…the development of Israeli sheep and cattle grazing in the West Bank, […] has gradually become Israel’s most significant mechanism for dispossessing Palestinian communities. At issue are tens of thousands of acres of open areas expropriated by the Israeli authorities and settlers through dozens of shepherd outposts and farms, the great majority of which have been established over the past decade. The use of grazing to seize land began in the early 1970s and continued intermittently in the 1980s and 90s. In recent years, however, the phenomenon mushroomed in terms of area size, investments, and the destructive repercussions for Palestinian communities.

The declared objective of the farm outposts is to “protect state lands”. In practice, however, they are designed to uproot Palestinian grazing and farming communities from public or private lands, and turn them into lands that only settlers can use. To promote this objective, one instrument must be used above all others: violence. Indeed, the farm outposts have recently seen some of the most violent incidents in the West Bank. It is no wonder that the uprooting of people from their lands, often also their ancestral lands, requires severe and ongoing violence. Accordingly, countless incidents involving threats, harassments, and assaults on Palestinian farmers and shepherds have occurred around these outposts in recent years, often in the presence and full support of military or police forces.

These outposts are the spearhead of a violent land-grabbing system, well planned and generously funded by various state and quasi-state bodies. These include the military, the Israeli Civil Administration (of the West Bank), regional and local councils, the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, the Ministries of Agriculture and Education, and the new Ministries of Settlement and Intelligence. All are preoccupied with what has recently been referred to as the “Battle for Area C”, meaning the coercive transfer of Palestinians from the area, which represents 61% of the total area of the West Bank, and their enclosure in isolated enclaves.”

OCHA Reports on Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing of Masafer Yatta

In a new report, OCHA OpT reports that over the past three months, 13 Palestinian families (84 individuals, 44 of which are children) have been forcibly displaced from the homes and grazing lands in the Masafer Yatta region in the South Hebron Hills.

OCHA reports:

“Over the years, and increasingly since May 2022, the Israeli authorities have imposed movement restrictions, confiscated property, demolished homes, and carried out military trainings in Masafer Yatta. Jointly, these practices have contributed to a coercive environment that has pressured residents to move out. In the past three months, movement restrictions have further intensified. Operating from a newly established military base, Israeli forces now patrol the area more frequently, further restricting people’s movement and access to markets and basic services, as well as the shipment of fodder and other inputs for livestock, on which most families rely. They have additionally confiscated vehicles used by residents. Two schools in the area report that 24 students have dropped out this year, including pupils whose families have left amid this coercive environment, and others who fear the unsafe journey to school. In one incident, in September, Israeli forces stopped teachers who were travelling to work and threatened to seize their vehicle if they used it again.”

The JNF Is Funding Hilltop Youth

Haaretz reports that the Jewish National Fund has givn $1million over the past two years to organizations which are involved in the construction of illegal outposts, specifically to support a project aimed at the “Hilltop Youth.” The funding is meant to offer professional training for young high school drop outs living in illegal WEst Bank outposts.

In response the this revelation, the Haaretz Editorial Board writes:

“The Jewish National Fund is continuing to bolster its role as a key player in the settlement enterprise and its accompanying looting and dispossession of the Palestinians in the West Bank, in preparation for a future annexation. Like all other settlement players, JNF too seems to view all means as kosher. And if they aren’t kosher, then they’ll be koshered retroactively in the future, after the settlers finish their takeover of Israel. Over the last two years, the Jewish National Fund has invested 4 million shekels in a project to rehabilitate teen dropouts living on farms and herding outposts in the West Bank. The money, which was meant to fund professional training for teens, is passed on to organizations that encourage the establishment of illegal settlement outposts….. the occupied territories aren’t the periphery, and “agricultural farms” in the West Bank lie outside Israel’s borders. And judging by its response, JNF is indifferent to their illegality. “The JNF is active in educational programs and does not deal with the legal status of these farms,” it said. In practice, it is directing at-risk youth to join the settlers’ extremist “hilltop youth.” Like all of Israel’s other national institutions, JNF completed its national mission once the state was established and should have been closed at that time. This is doubly true now that it has become the Settlement and Annexation National Fund.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “How to establish a new settlement without the world noticing” (+972 Magazine)
  2. “Settler violence is fueling the effects of climate breakdown on Palestinians” (+972 Magazine)
  3. “West Bank Dispatch: Settlers escalate harassment campaign, while army targets more resistance groups” (Mondoweiss)
  4. “Biden and Europe Beware: Your Silence on Israel’s Annexation Strengthens Putin” (Haaretz)
  5. “PA police extract 5 tourists mobbed after illegally entering Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus” (The Times of Israel)
  6. “How Israel uses settler violence to displace Palestinians” (The New Arab)
  7. “Why I spent Yom Kippur protecting Palestinian villagers from settler violence” (JTA News)
  8. ”Analysis | Israeli Far Right’s Ambitious West Bank Plan Could Be Saudi Deal’s Achilles’ Heel” (Amos Harel in 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.

September 22, 2023

  1. Attention World Leaders: Israel is Violating International Law
  2. State-Backed Settler Terrorism Is Working
  3. Bonus Reads

Attention World Leaders: Israel is Violating International Law

With all eyes on the United Nations General Assembly meetings taking place in New York City this week – on the sidelines of which Prime Minister Netanyahu met with President Biden – several organizations have published incisive briefing documents in hopes of reminding world leaders of exactly how much Israel respects international law.

Peace Now published a briefing note – “Annexation as a Process in the Making: The First Nine Months of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir Government” – chronologically detailing thirteen of the most significant acts of annexation and settlement expansion undertaken by the Israeli government in 2023. The briefing “outline[s] the key political decisions and actions taken by Israel during these nine months, highlighting how settlement expansion and the annexation became the central policy of the current Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government.”

Ir Amim published an overview of East Jerusalem settlement advancements thus far in 2023, documenting a total of 18,223 new settlement units being pushed through the planning process. See the full briefing for the history and context of each settlement, along with data tables and maps.

Ir Amim writes: 

“These developments only continue to cement a one-state reality of permanent occupation and systematic oppression whereby one group is afforded full civil and human rights, while the other is deprived of those rights.

In Jerusalem, one of the most severe expressions of this reality is the deprivation of Palestinian housing rights exemplified by discriminatory urban planning policy which aims to engineer Jewish demographic dominance and push large portions of the Palestinian population out of the city. In contrast to the thousands of housing units advanced annually for Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, residential development in Palestinian areas is systematically neglected, which undermines Palestinian rights to housing and serves as a lever of displacement.  

In the absence of equitable urban planning and housing solutions, Palestinians are either forced out of Jerusalem or compelled to construct homes without building permits, which subjects them to the threat of demolition. Between January 1-September 21, 2023, there have been 150 demolitions across East Jerusalem, 87 of which were homes. This marks a significant rise from 2022 for the same period.”

State-Backed Settler Terrorism Is Working

A new United Nations report is calling more attention to the large and growing scale of Palestinian displacement caused by settler violence. The report states that 1,105 Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes and land since 2022, all under coercive duress caused by unmitigated settler violence. The report documents:

  • 1,105 people from 28 Communities…have been displaced from their places of residence since 2022, citing settler violence and the prevention of access to grazing land by settlers as the primary reason
  • 93% of the Communities reported a higher frequency of settler violence and 90% reported that the severity of the settler violence had increased since the beginning of 2022….
  • In 81% of the Communities, residents had filed complaints with the Israeli Police in some or most of the settler violence incidents that they faced. However, only 6% of these community representatives were aware of any follow up actions being taken by the Israeli authorities.”

B’Tselem published a new paper – “The Pogroms Are Working: The Transfer is Already Happening” – documenting what this forced displacement looked like for six bedouin communities this year, explaining how Israeli policies and measures make life so untenable for these communities that they are forced to leave. B’Tselem writes:

“Israel works to make the lives of residents in communities located in areas it covets miserable to the point that they can no longer take it and uproot themselves, leaving their homes and land for the state to take. This policy is implemented using two parallel tracks. In one track – given a stamp of approval by military orders, legal advisers and the Supreme Court – the state evicts Palestinians from their land. In the other parallel track, settlers use violence against Palestinians, aided and abetted by state forces, and sometimes, with their participation. This policy has led to the forcible transfer of at least six communities, but many other communities throughout the West Bank experience the same brutality and are under an immediate threat of expulsion. 

This is an illegal policy that implicates Israel in the war crime of forcible transfer. International law, which Israel is obligated to respect and has undertaken to abide by, forbids the forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory – no matter the circumstances. The fact that this particular case does not involve soldiers arriving at residents’ homes and physically forcing them out is irrelevant. Creating a coercive environment that leaves residents no other choice is sufficient to find Israel liable for this crime. 

These communities are not displaced because of some natural disaster or other unavoidable circumstances. It is a choice the apartheid regime is making in order to realize its goal of maintaining Jewish supremacy in the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This regime views land as a resource designed to serve the Jewish public only, and so land is, therefore, used almost exclusively for the development and expansion of existing Jewish settlements and the establishment of new ones. 

As such, resisting the ongoing transfer is a duty, and there is, obviously, no obligation to continue cooperating with the implementation of the policies that drive it. Growing segments of the Israeli public have recently declared their refusal to serve in the army in an undemocratic country. There is nothing more worthy of refusing than participating in the commission of a war crime and the implementation of a transfer policy.”

Bonus Reads

    1. “Palestinians’ new method of encroaching on Israeli territory: B&Bs” (Israel Hayom) [Alt Headline: “Settlers Furious Palestinians Are Developing Land They Want to Steal”]
    2. “Far-right Israeli Lawmaker Calls Settler Convicted of Murdering Palestinian Family ‘Holy Righteous Man’” (Haaretz)
    3. “Campaign for Settler Convicted of Murdering Palestinian Family Raises Over NIS 1 Million” (Haaretz)
    4. “Israeli Far-right Activists Disrupt EU Delegation’s Visit to West Bank” (Haaretz)
    5. “Palestinians Demand Israel-Saudi Deal Include Settlement Freeze, Increased Autonomy” (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.

September 15, 2023

    1. New from FMEP
    2. Israel Advances Plan for New, Heavily Fortified Settlement Enclave in East Jerusalem – “Kidmat Tzion”
    3. Israel Advances Plan to Massively Expand of Givat Hamatos Settlement (New Talpiyot Hill/Hebron Strip Plan)
    4. Settlers Forcibly Seize East Jerusalem Home, Later Removed
    5. Oslo & The Settlements
    6. Bonus Reads

New from FMEP

  • This week FMEP launched a new microsite dedicated to tracking Palestine-related lawfare. Lawfare refers to efforts that seek to exploit U.S. laws and courts in order to quash criticism and activism challenging Israeli policies, to delegitimize Palestinian organizations and the Palestinian cause, and to undermine and even criminalize support for and/or solidarity with the Palestinian people. This includes legislation and policies targeting Americans’ rights to boycott Israel and/or settlements. Notably: these efforts almost universally mandate, explicitly or implicitly, that Israeli settlements in the OPT be treated as part of Israel. You can visit the new site here: lawfare.fmep.org
  • This week FMEP hosted a webinar entitled, “Forcible Transfer is a War Crime: West Bank Pogroms are Working” featuring B’Tselem’s Sarit Michaeli and Kareem Jubran in conversation with FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin. The discussion highlights the role settler terrorism is playing in forcibly displacing entire Palestinian communities from Area C. You can watch or listen to the discussion here.

Israel Approves New, Heavily Fortified Settlement Enclave in East Jerusalem – “Kidmat Tzion”

On September 11th, the Jerusalem Local Planning & Building Committee met, and subsequently approved for deposit, plans to build a massive new settlement enclave inside of the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The new enclave – called “Kidmat Tzion” – was approved for the construction of 384  settlement units, to be located on a tiny strip of land between the Ras al-Amud neighborhood and the Israeli separation barrier, with the Abu Dis neighborhood on the other side of the wall.

The settlement enclave will be accessible only by driving through densely populated areas of Ras Al-Amud. To deal with the reality of its location, the architects of the plan have designed the enclave to be a heavily guarded and gated community. It will be surrounded by an electric fence, a patrol road, a concrete guard station at its entrance, and the roofs of the houses will have cameras and spotlights installed. The security plan for the enclave had to be prepared and filed by the IDF’s Central Command, which specified that four armed security guards will patrol the neighborhood at all times, as well as a security chief and an armored vehicle.

Haaretz notes that – despite its sensitivity – the plan has been flying through the planning process at a much faster speed than is typical, and was brazenly approved this week while U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf – a senior U.S. official – was in Israel. Sari Kronish of the Israeli NGO Bimkom told Haaretz: 

“The lightning speed with which the District Committee is promoting a plan to build a Jews-only, gated village in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in [East] Jerusalem raises the suspicion that this is a political ploy.”

Amy Cohen, Ir Amim’s Director of International Advocacy told Haaretz:

“Israel promotes tens of thousands of housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem every year, while systematically denying Palestinians the same housing rights, all with the aim of pushing them out of East Jerusalem and influencing the city’s demographic balance in a crude and artificial way,” said “This proposal severs the single access road leading to Palestinian homes and is being advanced with a speed we have never seen before. The move is doubly problematic since the City Engineer himself notes that necessary basic tests were not conducted.”

Originally introduced in April 2023, the plan is the product of the Ateret Cohanim settler group – rather, its affiliate the Bahorim Company – which filed documents with the planning committee that show it (Bahorim) only owns 10% of the land where Kidmat Tzion is planned for. The land is unregistered, but Bahorim submitted a table of ownership purporting to show that dozens of plots were owned by Jews prior to 1948, still other plots are owned by settler affiliated groups including one run by U.S. millionaire and settlement financier Irving Moskowitz, and 1 or 2 plots are owned by Palestinians. Part of the land is owned by the Israeli Custodian General.

Construction of this settlement could well achieve the considerable geopolitical consequences the settlers hope for — most notably by complicating if not outright blocking any future division of Jerusalem (or sharing agreement) under any possible Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. It is worth recalling that Abu Dis has been repeatedly suggested by Israel and its allies (including in the Trump Plan) as the capital of a future Palestinian state (as a substitute for Jerusalem), and an unfinished building in Abu Dis was designed to be the future home of a Palestinian parliament. This settlement plan would scuttle all such ideas. Indeed, in the planning documents Ateret Cohanim explained:

“Palestinian institutions in Abu Dis were built with the vision of turning the town into the capital city of Palestine and building a corridor and passage to the center of Jerusalem, and thus promoting the takeover of the entire city…The significance of establishing and developing the neighborhood is to create a shield for Jerusalem against Palestinian ambitions. The neighborhood will disturb the contiguity [of the area] and protect us from dividing the city.”

The new settlement enclave will also further solidify the infrastructure connecting settlements south of Jerusalem to the city. Kidmat Zion will be located adjacent to the so-called “American Road,” which will tunnel underneath parts of Abu Dis. The “American Road” is a section of north-south highway that is meant to seamlessly connect settlements located in the north and south of Jerusalem to one another, and to serve as a bypass for settler traffic to cut through East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods. While the road will be accessible to Palestinians (a fact touted by Israel as proof of Israeli good intentions), the obvious primary purpose is to entrench Israel settlements, expand Israeli control over all of East Jerusalem, and close off Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods from the rest of the West Bank, thereby (further) torpedoing Palestinian hopes of one day establishing a capital in East Jerusalem. 

Israel Approves Expansion of Givat Hamatos Settlement (New Talpiyot Hill/Hebron Strip Plan)

On September 11th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee also approved for deposit a plan that will expand the Givat Hamatos settlement. The plan – referred to as “New Talpiot Hill” and/or Hebron Strip – stands to double the number of housing units in the Givat Hamatos settlement and increase its land mass by 40%, introducing not only 3,500 new settlement units but 1,300 hotel rooms in highrise buildings, posing a direct competition to the Palestinian tourism industry in nearby Bethlehem.

Further, the new settlement will be built on a strategic strip of land that will expand the area of Givat Hamatos eastward, connecting it with another new settlement plan – the “Lower Aqueduct Plan.” These plans ultimately create a string of settlements — spanning from Gilo to Givat Hamatos to Har Homa — that, together with the planned “Givat HaShaked” settlement to its north, completely encircle the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa with Israeli settlement construction. 

Peace Now reports that the project is a joint initiative of the Greek Orthodox Church and a private company. The Church has said that part of the development is intended for use by the city’s Christian community, though previous reports indicate that the plan calls for five synagogues and two mikvehs, clearly showing that the construction is designed to serve Israeli Jews.

Ir Amim writes:

“Together, Givat Hamatos A and New Talpiyot Hill along with concurrent settlement advancements in the area are cumulatively sealing off East Jerusalem’s southern perimeter from Bethlehem and the southern West Bank. These measures likewise further fracture the Palestinian space and deplete all remaining land reserves in the area for Palestinian development. Such conditions severely undermine the prospects of an agreed political future of Jerusalem, while depriving Palestinians of their fundamental right to housing and shelter.”

Settlers Forcibly Seize East Jerusalem Home, Later Removed

On September 12th, a group of settlers forcibly seized a Palestinian home belonging to the Idris family in the Old City of Jerusalem. At the time, the matriarch of the family was in the hospital. The family arrived back home to find their house taken over by settlers. They were told to file a complaint in order to prove their ownership of the house.

The settlers were guarded by the Israeli security forces while they removed the families furniture, changed the doors and locks on the home and installed metal bars on the windows and roof. PCHR also reports the settlers built a “steel staircase and a mobile room to be later attached to the house.”

The settlers were later removed from the house by the Israeli police.

Oslo & The Settlements

Peace Now has published a host of information looking at how the settlement enterprise has thrived since the signing of the Oslo Accords thirty years ago. Key facts are:

1993 2023
110,000 settlers living in the West Bank 465,000 settlers living in the West Bank
128 settlements in the West Bank 300 settlements and outposts in the West Bank
140,000 settlers living in East Jerusalem settlements 230,000 settlers living in East Jerusalem settlements
800 settlers living in enclaves inside of Palestinians East Jerusalem neighborhoods 3,000 settlers living in enclaves inside of Palestinians East Jerusalem neighborhoods

Peace Now concludes:

“The thirty years following the Oslo Accords were characterized by a significant expansion of the settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, growing from approximately 250,000 in 1993 to nearly 700,000 by 2023. This population growth is a result of Israel’s ongoing expansion of settlements, the establishment of new settlements in the form of outposts, and the construction of hundreds of kilometers of bypass roads, making it easier for settlements to connect to Israel. Additionally, a significant reinforcement of the settler population comes from the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), who have no ideological connection to the settlements and had not settled in the West Bank before the Oslo Accords, except for a few neighborhoods in East Jerusalem (Neve Yaakov, Ramat Shlomo, and Ramot).

The conclusions drawn from the data are clear. The settlement enterprise did not suffer from the Oslo Accords but rather thrived. Israel continued to expand, develop, and authorize settlements in the West Bank unabated. Even in years when few new settlements were established (1993–1997), infrastructure work continued. When factoring in agricultural land and pastures seized by settlers, it can be concluded that the settlement enterprise has never been in a better position, while the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank remains difficult and fraught with challenges.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “The Palestinian Boy Whose Village Was Destroyed Turned Into a True Freedom Fighter” (Haaretz)
  2. “Settlers Assault Palestinian and Left-wing Israeli Activists in Separate West Bank Attacks” (Haaretz)
  3. “Israel to close West Bank, Gaza Strip crossings over Rosh Hashanah” (i24 News)
  4. “Israel’s finance minister now governs the West Bank. Critics see steps toward permanent control” (AP)