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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 17, 2018

1. U.S. Ambassador: There is “No Reason” to Evacuate Settlements from West Bank
2. Israel Publishes Tenders for 603 new units in East Jerusalem Settlement of Ramat Shlomo
3. Massive Jerusalem Development Deal for 20,000 New Apartments – Including Settlement Expansion Projects
4. Israel Triples Size of New Settlement Industrial Zone In Hebron
5. Knesset Sends Funds to New Settler Council in Hebron, Despite High Court Injunction
6. Knesset Approves Past Due Payment for the Construction of Amichai Settlement & “Temporary” Outpost
7. Delay in Opening of new Jerusalem “Park” That Confiscates Palestinian Spring
8. Israel Evicts Palestinians from Bethlehem Home Despite Court Order
9. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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U.S. Ambassador: There is “No Reason” to Evacuate Settlements from West Bank

According to MK Yehuda Glick (Likud), U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman – who is one of three lead authors of the supposedly forthcoming U.S. peace plan – told a group of settler leaders that he does not see any reason why settlements would need to be evacuated from the West Bank in a peace deal with the Palestinians. MK Glick said Friedman was “very explicit” about that point during the meeting, which was held at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Notably, the position attributed to Friedman is consistent with positions he has taken in the past, both in speaking and writing. 

The Embassy declined to comment on the headline-making statement or the meeting itself. Without an American statement, settler leaders are the only source for what transpired in the meeting. According to MK Glick, the small group of settler leaders pushed Ambassador Friedman to endorse an “economic peace plan” as a substitute for a political solution to the conflict. Glick said that an economic proposal would “make redundant the discourse of concessions” (under previous U.S. proposals, Israeli concessions would have included the evacuation of far flung settlements in the West Bank).

Along those lines, the group presented Ambassador Friedman with a plan for a new industrial zone and medical center in the southern West Bank that, according to Glick and Har Hevron Regional Council Chairman Yochai Damari, would employ and serve thousands of Palestinians. The plan was presented by Glick, Damari, and Palestinian businessman Muhammad Nasser, who also attended the meeting. According to Glick, the U.S. Ambassador was supportive of the plan and offered U.S. assistance once the initiative was up and running.

[UPDATED 9/28/18: More details on the joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone in the Har Hebron region was later fleshed out by Ynet in a report here. The plan calls for an industrial zone and commercial center to be built near the Tene-Omarim settlement. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon briefed the details of the plan to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Jason Greenblatt, U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations. The U.S. is expected to present the plan to the World Economy Forum during its annual meeting in January 2019]

Israel Publishes Tenders for 603 new units in East Jerusalem Settlement of Ramat Shlomo

On August 15th, the Israel Land Authority published construction tenders for 603 new settlement units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem. The 603 units are part of a larger plan for 1,500 units in Ramat Shlomo (tenders for almost all of which have been published now) that was announced by Israel in 2010, during the visit of then-Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of that announcement, and the inflammatory nature of settlement approvals in East Jerusalem (which the Obama Administration pressured Israel to halt), sparked outrage and prompted Biden to issue harsh criticism of Israel while on the ground. The incident earned the 2010 Ramat Shlomo plan the nickname the “Biden Plan.”

Anti-settlement watchdog Ir Amim comments that the Ramat Shlomo tenders are a part of the Israeli endeavor to:

“expand the Israeli neighborhoods/settlements in such a way as to consume the remaining space between them and nearby Palestinian neighborhoods ( a critical geo-political link between Jerusalem and Ramallah) so as to inhibit their development and further complicate any future division of the city.”

There has been a significant uptick in East Jerusalem settlement advancements since President Trump assumed office in January 2017, reflecting the sea change in U.S. policy towards settlements (evidenced again this week by Ambassador Friedman’s remarks, detailed above). As Ir Amim details, Israel’s unrestrained advancement of settlement construction in East Jerusalem has been coupled with legislative schemes to change the borders of Jerusalem (annexing far flung settlements into Jerusalem and cutting Palestinian neighborhoods out of Jerusalem) in order to engineer a Jewish Israeli majority in Jerusalem.

Massive Jerusalem Development Deal for 20,000 New Apartments – Including Settlement Expansion Projects

On August 15th, the Jerusalem Municipality signed a $380 million deal with the Israel Land Authority to finance a plethora of projects across the city, including 20,000 new apartment units. While much of this development will be in West Jerusalem, some will reportedly be in the East Jerusalem settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, and Atarot. The Jerusalem City Council is expected to give final approval to the plan next week.

Israel Triples Size of New Settlement Industrial Zone In Hebron

According to The Jerusalem Post, on August 12th the Israeli government approved a plan that will triple the size of an industrial zone in the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron, approving 10 million shekels for the project. FMEP reported on the initial plans to build the Kiryat Arba industrial zone in March 2018, noting that the industrial zone is technically within the borders of the settlement but well outside of the developed lines of the settlement and beyond the fence that surrounds it – making it, in effect, a new Israeli settlement in Hebron. Now, the new settlement is set to significantly expand in one of the most volatile areas in the West Bank.

Knesset Sends Funds to New Settler Council in Hebron, Despite High Court Injunction

On August 12th, the Knesset Finance Committee approved 2 million shekels (about $550,000 USD) to fund the new local settler committee in Hebron. The Finance Committee requested that the money be disbursed to the Hebron settler committee “in accordance with an agreement in the past with MK Bezalel Smotrich,” (Habayit Hayehudi)…after the necessary professional and legal checks.”

The creation (via military order) of a new autonomous committee to represent and service a cluster of settlers living in enclaves in Hebron’s city center is being challenged by the Hebron Municipality. In response to the Palestinian petition, the High Court of Justice put a freeze on the plan, effective July 4, 2018, and gave the Israeli government 120 days to explain the legality of the plan. The petition argued that the military order creating the new body was intentionally vague in defining its legal and geographical jurisdiction, and pointed out that the new committee would be able to override decisions by the Hebron Municipality thereby stripping Palestinians of autonomy and representation in matters that directly affect them.

It is unclear from reporting if the Knesset Finance Committee’s decision to fund the new committee is related to the High Court’s ongoing consideration of the case. However, what is clear is that the Knesset is not concerned about undermining the High Court of Justice’s power over West Bank issues — indeed, the Knesset is actively pursuing that end with the recent passage of a new law stripping the Court of jurisdiction over land disputes and transferring it to a domestic Israeli Court, and with ongoing consideration of a bill that would allow the Knesset to reinstate laws that the High Court strikes down.

Knesset Approves Past Due Payment for the Construction of Amichai Settlement & “Temporary” Outpost

On August 12th, the Knesset Finance Committee approved the transfer of $9.5 million to pay contractors for their ongoing work on the first new settlement built with government approval in 25 years, Amichai, and a new “temporary” outpost for settlers whose homes were built on privately owned Palestinian land in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost and were recently demolished. Amichai is the new settlement approved as a pay-off to the settlers who were evacuated from the illegal Amona outpost. Construction on Amichai has begun, but has been interrupted several times due to lack of government cash, a problem ostensibly solved by this week’s cash transfer.

With respect to the new outpost for the Netiv Ha’avot outpost settlers, in February 2017 the Israeli government approved an unusual plan to place 15 mobile homes — connected to Israeli water, power, sewage, roads, and other infrastructure — at a site located near, but not within, the borders of the Alon Shvut settlement, in effect creating a new outpost for settlers evacuated from another outpost. When the High Planning Council initially approved the advancement of this plan in October 2017, it noted that “the plan is improper, but we will have to approve it as a temporary solution.” At the time, the Council ordered the government to go about expanding the borders of the Alon Shvut settlement to include the land. Under the approved plan, the new homes will be allowed to stay in that location for three years. However, based on past practice, it can be expected that within that time, or at the end of those three years, the site will “regulated” by Israel to become a permanent area of Israeli settlement.

In both cases – the Amichai plan and the Netiv Ha’avot plan – the Israeli government massively “compensating” citizens for the inconvenience of having been caught brazenly breaking Israeli law (i.e., for building without permits on privately owned Palestinian land). The two cases highlight the way in which the Israeli government not only encourages illegal settlement building, but generously incentivizes and rewards its. At this point, in addition to two new settlements, approximately 20 million shekels ($5.4 million) has been paid to the Amona evacuees and 15 million shekels ($4 million) to the Netiv Ha’avot evacuees.

Delay in Opening of new Jerusalem “Park” That Confiscates Palestinian Spring

A dispute between Israeli government agencies has led to a delay in the opening of a new Jerusalem tourist site – a park established for the express purpose of taking control over the Ein Al-Hanya spring,  which was historically part of the al-Walajah Palestinian village. Originally slated to open April 1st, the delay centers around a battle over who will fund the operations of the site. For now, the site is closed and the grounds are not being maintained.

Regardless of the dispute, Israel has implemented policies that prevent Palestinians from accessing the spring and surrounding lands, including illegally moving a police checkpoint to further choke off al-Walajah from Jerusalem. As detailed in Haaretz, the plan for the park includes three pools filled by the spring – two for Israelis and tourists, and one for al-Walajah residents to water their crops and flocks. However, that third pool for Palestinians has not been built, and the water “merely spills into the nearby wadi.” The other pools, like the park, are currently empty and fenced off.

Israel Evicts Palestinians from Bethlehem Home Despite Court Order

Haaretz reports that settlers have forcibly evicted a Palestinian family from their home near Bethlehem, in defiance of an Israeli court order. The Palestinian Samara family reports that settlers tricked them into leaving the property, after which settlers locked them out, forcibly evicted them and their belongings, and then used a bulldozer to demolish their home. The family has filed an appeal to the High Court of Justice.

The Samara family – which since the early 1980s lived in 3 small units within a larger apartment building – has been targeted for eviction by settlers since 2012, when ownership of the building was transferred to an American organization controlled by Irving Moskowitz, a major funder of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. In 2016, the Gush Etzion Regional Council was given jurisdiction over the compound to move in Jewish Israeli settlers. Since that time, the building has been taken over by settlers, except for 2 units in which the Samara family lived as protected tenants (the third was welded shut), based on an Israeli court ruling under which the building’s owner promised not to restrict access to the building for four members of the Samara family (no other family members or visitors were allowed access). Regarding the arrangement, the judge wrote:

“This arrangement will remain in force unless a different judicial order is issued after a legal proceeding instituted by one of the parties.”

As Haaretz notes, there does not appear to be a different or new judicial order that would change the 2016 agreement.

In 2017, the Samaras reported that a new settler family had moved into the compound and began harassing the family members who remained – prompting them to file a complaint on July 26, 2018 with the Israeli police in the Beitar Illit settlement. Two weeks later on August 6th, the family was forcibly evicted and their units were demolished.

Despite the Samara’s harassment complaint and a real-time call to the police while the eviction was taking place, Israeli police took no action to prevent settlers from evicting the Samaras, reportedly stealing their cellphones, and bulldozing the properties. The Beitar Illit police station even refuse to allow the Samara family to enter the station and file a complaint until a lawyer for the family got involved many hours later.

Following intervention by UNRWA, the family was allowed to return to search the site for their ID cards and other important belongings. Now homeless, the Samara are taking their case to Israel’s the High Court of Justice.

Bonus Reads

1. “A Palestinian Bedouin Village Braces for Forcible Transfer as Israel Seeks to Split the West Bank in Half” (The Intercept)
2. “Between Garbage and Sewage: Israel’s Future Plans for Khan al-Ahmar” (+972 Mag)
3. “Their Parents Settled the West Bank for Ideology, They’re Staying for the Vibes” (The Times of Israel)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

June 28, 2018

1. Israeli Govt Advances Plans for 1,064 New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
2. Justice Minister Pushes Bill to Further Politicize Legal Environment
3. New Moves Make Bad Situation Worse for al-Walajah
4. Israeli Ministry Funds Settlement Farm Schools Built on Private Palestinian Land
5. Israeli Anthropological Association Rejects Annexation-By-Academia
6. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israeli Govt Advances Plans for 1,064 New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem

The Israeli government in recent days deposited for public review six plans to expand the East Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev, totaling 1,064 new settlement units. After being deposited, the public has 60 days to submit objections, which will then be considered by the High Planning Council which will either recommend changes to the plan or validate it (meaning, give it final approval).

Ir Amim reports:

“Most of the plans will expand Pisgat Ze’ev to the west, pushing it further to the limits of Beit Hanina, and east toward Hizma [two Palestinian neighborhoods in the norther part of East Jerusalem]. The narrowing proximity of Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods along the northern perimeter increases tensions on the ground, throwing into stark relief the endemic discrimination between planning and resource investment in Palestinian and Israeli neighborhoods. Further, enduring discrimination in the planning process – the suppression of detailed outline plans (requisite for access to building permits) for Palestinian residents alongside continued growth and expansion of Israeli neighborhoods/settlements in East Jerusalem – serves as a powerful Palestinian displacement mechanism in support of Israel’s demographic goals.”

Justice Minister Pushes Bill to Further Politicize Legal Environment

On June 25th, the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee considered a bill, introduced by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), that would empower Cabinet Ministers to select their own ministerial legal advisors. Historically non-political positions, the ministerial legal advisors, referred to as “gatekeepers,” work to ensure that ministerial activities are taken up and implemented in accordance with Israeli law. This move is just the latest Shaked effort to politicize elements of the Israeli legal environment in favor of the de facto annexation of settlements.

Under current Israeli law, legal advisors are appointed through a public tender process that ministers cannot influence. Under Shaked’s bill, each ministry would create a selection committee to the fill the position. The members of the selection committee would be chosen by the relevant minister, and the committee’s decision on a candidate would then require the approval of the relevant minister and the Attorney General. The proposal would effectively allow each minister to choose the legal advisor he or she wants. Haaretz explains:

“The ‘selection committee’ would exist in name only, a way to whitewash the complete politicization of the position of ministry counsel. In the name of governability, Shaked seeks to eliminate the gatekeeper function of the legal adviser, protecting human and minority rights and fighting corruption and damage to proper public administration.”

Current Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit submitted an 11-page brief to the Knesset ahead of the hearing, which he attended in person to argue against the bill. He was joined by two former Attorneys General, Yitzhak Zamir and Elyakim Rubinstein, who also argued against the bill in the Knesset on June 25th.  Zamir told the committee, “the entire legal community,” opposes the politicization of the ministerial legal advisor position as proposed in the bill.

Shortly after assuming office in 2015, Shaked hired a private lawyer, Amir Fisher (who also represents the settler group Regavim), to essentially write the State’s responses to petitions before the High court that deal with settlements. In June 2017, Shaked announced that all Knesset bill’s seeking government backing must include a legal opinion explaining the method by which the bill can be applied to the settlements (by Military Order or directly). In January 2018, Shaked announced that she had reorganized the Justice Ministry in order to create a new unit tasked with coordinating the application of Israeli laws in the settlements across government ministries. In February 2018, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted to give government backing to a bill introduced by Shaked which would transfer jurisdiction over certain West Bank legal petitions (including Palestinian petitions relating to land disputes, travel permits, and building permits) from the High Court of Justice to the Jerusalem District Court – where Shaked installed a pro-settlement judge. The bill received government backing in February 2018 and passed its first reading in the Knesset May 2018. In April 2018, Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) advanced a bill that would allow the Knesset to reinstate a law that the High Court of Justice overturned (the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, of which Shaked and Bennett are members, voted to give government backing to the bill in May 2018).

FMEP tracks all these developments in the Israeli legal system with regards to settlements and annexation in its regularly-updated annexation policy tables.

New Moves Make Bad Situation Worse for al-Walajah

Haaretz reports that that the Jerusalem District Planning Committee gave final approval to a plan to relocate the “Ein Yael” checkpoint, which controls traffic into and out of the Palestinian village of al-Walajah. By moving the checkpoint, Israel will be able to prevent Palestinian access to the recently renovated Ein Haniya spring and further consolidate Israeli control over the village’s access to Jerusalem.

FMEP has covered the relocation of the Ein Yael checkpoint previously, first and most extensively in February 2018, when construction on the new checkpoint began, and then in March 2018 when the Israeli government admitted in court that construction permits for work on the new checkpoint had been issued illegally. Since them, all the necessary authorizations have been properly issued and construction of the new checkpoint can resume.

Haaretz observes that the relocation of the checkpoint, coupled with the June 15th advancement of a plan to build the Har Gilo West settlement (see FMEP reporting here) will completely isolate al-Walajah and create an “unbroken stretch of Jewish construction from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the West Bank.”

Ir Amim research Aviv Tatarsky said:

“Har Gilo’s expansion and the checkpoint’s relocation give us an opportunity to see the true significance of the greater Jerusalem plan. The expansion will create contiguity between Jerusalem and the settlements near Bethlehem, and also strangle Al-Walaja. These are two sides of the same coin. The situation in which Israel chooses to expand settlements in a way meant to perpetuate its control over millions of Palestinians without citizenship cannot be sustainable. But when the day we finally understand this arrives, the price of fixing it will be much higher.”

FMEP has repeatedly documented various Israeli efforts to seal off al-Walajah from Jerusalem. Residents of al-Walajah have fought the growing encroachment by the nearby Etzion settlement bloc and the Israeli government’s attempt to de facto annex the bloc as part of “Greater Jerusalem.” Ir Amim explains several prongs of this effort, including a particularly unbelievable section of Israel’s separation barrier planned to almost completely encircle the village, to turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.

Israeli Ministry Funds Settlement Farm Schools Built on Private Palestinian Land

Haaretz reports that the Israeli Education Ministry is supporting two farm schools built on privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank. The farms in questions – one near the Efrat settlement and one near the Geva Benyamin settlement – were built by local settlement councils for “ecological agricultural education,” and are officially supported by the Education Ministry. In 2017, the Efrat settlement received $274,000 USD from the government to build the farm (the settlement’s budget did not specify which ministry transferred the funds).

The Efrat local council argued that their farm school is located on state land (and therefore, even if built improperly, is eligible for retroactive legalization). However, the council acknowledges the school is outside of the so-called “blue line,” which is the Israeli government’s demarcation of land in the West Bank that it has granted to settlements. The council’s disregard for the blue line’s relevance adds to the call to disband the IDF team responsible for accurately demarcating the “blue line.”  If the blue line team is disbanded, Israel will cease making any effort to identify if and where settlement boundaries include private Palestinian land, let alone retroactively returning such land to the control of its owners. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly already agreed to this recommendation.

Israeli Anthropological Association Rejects Annexation-By-Academia

The Israeli Anthropological Association voted 49-25 to stop cooperating with institutes of higher education based in the occupied West Bank, a ban which extends to holding “conferences and workshops or any general interaction.” The Association states that the decision is applied only to institutions, not students or professors associated with the institutes.

In a statement, the Israeli Anthropological Association said:

“Putting Ariel University, Herzog College, and Orot Israel College [all in West Bank settlements] harms both Israeli society and the academy (and…) it undercuts the Council’s position as a barrier to the politicization of the Israeli academy, science, and higher education, and drags academics working in Israeli academic institutions into supporting the occupation and annexation efforts.”

The decision follows the February 2018 passage of a bill to extend Israeli domestic law over universities and colleges in the settlements. Know as the “Ariel Bill,” it effectively annexes colleges and universities in settlements by bringing them under the authority of the domestic Israeli Council for Higher Education.

Bonus Reads

1. “As Israel Pushes to Build, Bedouin Homes and School Face Demolition” (New York Times)
2. “In memory of Felicia Langer, the first lawyer to bring the occupation to court” (+972 Mag)
3. “Trump and Netanyahu have not learned from history – they are repeating it” (+972 Mag)
4. “Donald Trump’s Policies are Hurting Palestinians and Middle East Peace Prospects” (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, USA Today)
5. “Israeli settlers burn 300 Palestinian olive trees in Nablus District” (Maan)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

June 15, 2018

1. “Greater Jerusalem” Annexation Bill Back on the Agenda
2. Expanding a Settlement, Suffocating a Village – Har Gilo West vs. al-Walajah
3. Full Steam Ahead on 325 New Settlement Units Near the E-1 Settlement Area
4. Plans for Largest-Ever Settlement Industrial Zone, as Part of “Super Settlement” Area
5. Israel Admits: We Gave Settlers Part of Silwan Without Checking Who Owned It
6. Despite Pay-Offs and Promises, Settlers Violently Resist Netiv Ha’avot Demolitions
7. New Bill Would Hand Over Area C to the World Zionist Organization
8. Settler Whistleblower: Not Concerned With Law, Only Concerned with Dispossessing Palestinians
9. MK Introduces Bill to Dismantle the Civil Administration, Annex the Settlements
10. Settlers Kill Knesset Plan to Complete the West Bank Barrier
11. While No One Was Watching, Jerusalem Suburb Has Been Annexing “No Man’s Land”
12. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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“Greater Jerusalem” Annexation Bill Back on the Agenda

Jerusalem Settlement watchdog Ir Amim reports this week that, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation (the body of Israeli Cabinet members which decides whether or not the  government will endorse legislation) is once again scheduled to discuss the “Greater Jerusalem” annexation bill. Members of the Ministerial Committee have long pushed for the Committee to consider the bill – with Ministers Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) and Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) eager to secure government support for it – but Prime Minister Netanyahu intervened at the last minute to take the bill off of the committee’s October 2017 agenda, relegating the bill to political uncertainty. At the time, reports insinuated that Netanyahu blocked consideration of the bill due to international pressure. At the time the Trump Administration publicly stated it would not oppose the bill, but reportedly it discouraged movement on the bill at that time, apparently over concerns that it would undermine ongoing US efforts to engage other regional parties.

FMEP has regularly reported on the “Greater Jerusalem” bill, which was introduced in July 2017 by two members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, Yoav Kisch and Yisrael Katz. The bill proposes absorbing 19 settlements into the Jerusalem municipality (an act of incremental de facto annexation), allowing the settlements to participate in Jerusalem elections and be counted in the Jerusalem census. Earlier versions of the bill also included a clause that would have applied Israeli domestic law to these same settlements – another means of de facto annexation – but the clause was stripped from the (ostensibly) final version that the Committee is now set to consider.

FMEP continues to track the Greater Jerusalem bill in its weekly settlement reports and in its tables tracking annexation policies.

Expanding a Settlement, Suffocating a Village – Har Gilo West vs. al-Walajah

The Planning and Building Committee of the Gush Etzion Regional Council met on March 25th to discuss a 330-unit plan to expand the Har Gilo settlement onto a non-contiguous plot of land that would effectively seal shut the Palestinian village of al-Walajah. The Council’s discussion of the plan kicks off the official planning process; the next step will be a discussion by the High Planning Council and then deposit of the plan for public review.

The plan – called “Har Gilo West” – will nearly double the population of Har Gilo by building what is by all measures a new settlement on the far side of the Palestinian village of al-Walajah.  Ir Amim explains:

“Though publicized as an expansion of the Har Gilo settlement, the area demarcated for the plan is clearly distinct from Har Gilo, with the Palestinian village of Walaja and the Separation Barrier positioned in between the two… In effect, along with Har Gilo, the new development would create a wall of settlement around the West Bank portion of Walaja, completing a series of steps to entirely seal the village off from its surroundings.

…In the last decade, Israeli authorities have established several dramatic facts on the ground – including completion of the Separation Barrier around Walaja and a national park built on its land – to strategically address Walaja’s obstruction of Israel’s plan to absorb the Gush Etzion bloc into Greater Jerusalem. Har Gilo West should be seen in the context of this overarching geo-political goal. It is one more measure in a series of steps to disconnect the built-up area of Walaja from its surroundings, create an isolated enclave out of the village, and enable a contiguous Israeli controlled territory from Jerusalem to the Gush Etzion Regional Council.”

FMEP has repeatedly documented various Israeli efforts to seal off al-Walajah from Jerusalem. Residents of al-Walajah have fought the growing encroachment by the nearby Etzion settlement bloc and the Israeli government’s attempt to de facto annex the bloc as part of “Greater Jerusalem.” Ir Amim explains several prongs of this effort, including a particularly unbelievable section of Israel’s separation barrier planned to almost completely encircle the village, to turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.

Full Steam Ahead on 325 New Settlement Units Near the E-1 Settlement Area

On June 14th, the Israeli Defense Ministry deposited for public review a plan, previously approved by Israeli High Planning Council, to build 325 settlement units in the Alon settlement, situated on the northern edge of the area slated for the E-1 settlement, east of Jerusalem. The plan includes a residential zone, a commercial area, a park, roads and public buildings.

As FMEP has reported on repeatedly, the E-1 area has long been slated for Israeli settlement construction, but plans have been continuously delayed by the Israeli political echelon – due in large part to pressure from past U.S. administrations and others in the international community. E-1 is often called a “doomsday settlement” because it will seal Palestinian East Jerusalem off from the West Bank to its east, and creating a land bridge from Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement that bisects the West Bank. The settlement will render the two-state solution impossible because it would preclude the ability to draw contiguous borders for a future Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann issued numerous warnings in 2017 that E-1 might be slated for advancement under the current settlement policy of the Netanyahu government and with no discernable counter-pressure from the Trump Administration. Seidemann warned in January 2017, “The main obstacle preventing a green light for E-1 has, until now, been wall-to-wall opposition from the international community, led by the United States (dating back to the era of President Clinton).”

Plans for Largest-Ever Settlement Industrial Zone, as part of “Super Settlement” Area

According to the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet, a number of settlement municipalities have agreed to a plan to build the largest-ever settlement industrial zone — in the area where Israel is planning to unite multiple settlements into one “super settlement area.”

FMEP reported on the future “super settlement” in February 2018, when rumors first broke about the government’s plan to unite several settlements (Elkana, Sha’arei Tikva, Etz Efraim, and Oranit). FMEP covered the story again in March 2018, when Palestinians began to protest the plan. By uniting the settlements, Israel will significantly increase the footprint of developed land, allowing for massive projects like the industrial zone. The four settlements and the land between them are located in the “seam-line” zone, the area created by the weaving route of the Israeli separation barrier that was built to keep many settlements on the Israeli side of the barrier despite being east of the 1967 Green Line.

The planning of the new mega industrial zone – which will cover 2 million square meters (nearly 500 acres) near the Shaarei Tikva, Elkana, and Etz Efraim settlements – has been delayed for nearly 10 years amidst disputes between competing settlement municipalities. Now, with the consensus amongst the planners, the proposal will be submitted for approval.

The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said:

“this is a historic move that is expected to change the face of settlement in Samaria in general and the settlements of Samaria Gate in particular. The new industrial zone is planned on an area of ​​3,000 dunams (340 acres) north and south of Highway 5, and it will include areas for commerce and high-tech offices, areas for regional public buildings, and industrial areas.”

With a consensus around the location and details of the planned industrial zone, Arutz Sheva speculates that construction will begin by the end of 2018. The plan includes a major upgrade to a settler transportation hub, known as the Sha’ar Shomron interchange, which is expected to be a stop on the future settler-only light rail line slated to cut across the West Bank.

Arutz Sheva also reports that settlers are ready to submit another plan for a new cemetery to  be located east of the area where the industrial zone will be built, to “provide a regional response to the needs of the towns in western Samaria.”

Israel Admits: We Gave Settlers Part of Silwan Without Checking Who Owned It

Palestinian residents of the Batan al-Hawa section of the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem have petitioned the High Court to stop the government facilitated settler takeover of a large area of their neighborhood and the eviction of 700 Palestinian residents.

In a hearing on the petition held on June 10th, the Israel government’s lawyer admitted that the State gave the land to the settler organization Ateret Cohanim without a proper investigation into the underlying legal status of the land and the buildings on it, but argued that the Palestinians’ petition should be dismissed because the land was granted to Ateret Cohanim  in 2002 (intimating that Palestinians should have petitioned against the move earlier). Ateret Cohanim facilitates and encourages Jewish Israelis to settle in Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Ir Amim reports that Ateret Cohanim’s takeover of land in Batan al-Hawa is, “the single largest takeover campaign in a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem since 1967.”

According to Ir Amim, 17 Palestinian families have been evicted from the homes on the land since the deed was transferred in 2002. 83 Palestinian families, approximately 700 people, remain the target of eviction. Ir Amim writes:

“This well organized Ateret Cohanim campaign represents not only the displacement of an entire community but also the direct involvement of the Israeli government in facilitating private settlement in the Old City and surrounding band of Palestinian neighborhoods. The government has acted through the General Custodian and the Registrar of Trusts (both under the Ministry of Justice) to facilitate settlers’ seizure of Batan al-Hawa, as well as increasing its security budget by 119% from 2009 – 2016 to ensure the protection of radical Jews settling in the hearts of Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board also weighed in vehemently criticizing the Israeli government’s handling of the case. The Board wrote:

“The settlement in Batan al-Hawa is the most problematic of all the settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It is located in the heart of a crowded inner city, weighs heavily on the residents’ daily lives and is intended to prevent any diplomatic solution with the Palestinians. Every Jewish family there needs security that costs around 1 million shekels ($280,000) a year. But the damage doesn’t seem confined to Silwan. This settlement has also corrupted Israel’s bureaucracy.

When the administrator general and state prosecutors found that the 2002 decision had been mistaken, the only decent thing to do would have been to cancel it and freeze the eviction proceedings against the Palestinian families. Instead, government clerks and lawyers are fighting for eviction along with Ateret Cohanim. This is further proof of the extent to which the settlements have corrupted public administration in Israel. Now the issue rests with the High Court. Hopefully, despite the pressure being put on the justices, they will halt the oppression and corruption.”

On June 6, Peace Now published a backgrounder, “The Systematic dispossession of Palestinian neighborhoods in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.” Back in 2016, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem produced a comprehensive multi-media backgrounder on the threat to Batan al Hawa. Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann has also published extensive background and analysis on the assault on Batan al Hawa (here and here).

Despite Pay-Offs and Promises, Settlers Violently Resist Netiv Ha’avot Demolitions

Approximately 1,000 Israeli settlers and their sympathizers gathered to protest the long-planned, court-ordered demolition of 15 structures built on privately owned Palestinian land in the unauthorized Netiv Ha’avot outpost. The demolitions were completed on June 14th. Dozens of settlers barricaded themselves inside the last two structures to be demolished, some of whom hurled stones and other objects at Israeli policeman who were forced to drag them out of the buildings, resulting in thirteen injuries to police officers. Three suspects were arrested, but released a day later.

Touting the growing governmental effort to compensate the settlers of Netiv Ha’avot for paying a price for their illegal activity, several prominent leaders from the Jewish Home party joined protesters at the outpost during the demolitions, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who said:

“The evacuation is the result of a serious mistake. It began with an erroneous response from the state several years ago, but that was fixed from the root, and ended with an erroneous High Court decision. The news is that it ends here. In the past three years, we have changed the discourse. Instead of asking, ‘When are we evacuating?’ we’re asking, ‘How do we regulate?’”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett also attended and said:

“Whoever wishes to raze 15 homes will receive 350 on this hill. This is a difficult evening. It is incomprehensible to the residents of the Netiv Ha’avot neighborhood and to anyone who has settled the precious Land of Israel. It’s absurd. I cannot recall a legal action as irrational as this. The campaign will not be won until the prime minister abides in full and builds a huge neighborhood here on this hill.”

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) was also on hand and said:

“There’s no benefit in demolishing homes and driving people from their homes. The High Court hearing was conducted as if it was in Sodom and Gomorrah, but we won’t give in. We won’t let this keep us from settling throughout the Land of Israel.”

In contrast, Peace Now declared a partial victory against illegal settlement growth, saying:

“After 17 years of theft, evasions, delays, and manipulation, justice is being served as the private land on which the Nativ Ha’Avot outpost was built is being vacated, in line with the High Court of Justice’s ruling. We hope these evictions will send a clear message that crime does not pay, and that anyone who builds on land without authorization or even purchasing it first will ultimately be compelled to leave. Peace Now will continue to monitor all settlement construction in the West Bank, and will fight against any land theft or attempt to destroy the viability of a two-state solution.”

However – as the Jewish Home party leaders made clear – the victory is not complete, as the Netiv Ha’avot settlers have successfully waged a public shaming campaign against the government for failing to prevent the enforcement of its laws against the settlers. As reported succinctly by The Times of Israel, various arms of the Israeli government are currently working in concert to retroactively legalize the remaining structures in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost and to prepare plans for 350 new units there. In addition, the government has already rewarded Netiv Ha’avot with what is effectively a new outpost built for the settlers affected by the demolitions – settlers who will additionally receive a monetary compensation package paid for by Israeli taxpayers for their misfortune of having built illegally on land that is owned by Palestinians. For more background, see Peace Now’s comprehensive recap of the Netiv Ha’avot saga.

New Bill Would Hand Over Area C to the World Zionist Organization

Peace Now reports that the Knesset is moving a bill that would transfer the responsibility of “managing” rural land in Area C of the occupied West Bank to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), a body dedicated to the establishment and development of settlements, whose activities have been dogged by fraud and illegalities for decades.

The bill was introduced by MKs Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), Yoav Kisch (Likud), and David Bitan (Likud), and it passed through the first of three Knesset readings on June 13th. Reportedly, the bill will be put on hold for two weeks so the government has time to examine the possibility of achieving the same result through a Cabinet decision, avoiding the politics and pushback that might come in Knesset debate.

As Peace Now notes, under international law Israel, as an occupying power, cannot grant non-governmental organizations the authority to manage lands outside of its borders.

Peace Now said:

“The Knesset today approved a bill allowing five decades of land theft, delinquency and corruption under the guise of ‘unique characteristics and development of settlement.’ Despite stacks of State Comptroller reports, complaints from legal advisers and evidence of criminal offenses, the government is scandalously planning to give the biggest land thieves responsibility for managing the land distribution, which will continue to be done under the cover of darkness if the bill passes into law.”

Peace Now also provides an excellent overview of the activities the WZO has engaged in since 1968, when the Israeli government gave the organization’s Settlement Division the authority and the funding to build settlements in the occupied territory. The arrangement worked for the Israeli government, by contracting out settlement building the government found a way to escape the rules, restrictions, and transparency norms that inhibit government bodies from operating freely. Peace Now reports:

“The Settlement Division manages the land without any transparency, contrary to the rules of proper administration, without supervision, and sometimes with corruption and fraud. Thus, for example, the Settlement Division gave settlers in Amona, Giv’at Haulpana, Mitzpeh Kramim and others the rights to build on what was private land belonging to Palestinians.”

For more information on the WZO, and for background on a High Court case seeking to make the WZO’s land holdings public, see the Peace Now report. The legal issues with the WZO’s operations were highlighted in the official report by Talia Sasson, commissioned by Ariel Sharon. Also see media reports: here, here, here, and here, for example.

Settler Whistleblower: Not Concerned With Law, Only Concerned with Dispossessing Palestinians

The Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a comprehensive investigation into the leaders of the publicly-funded Regavim settler group. The group’s stated mission is “to ensure responsible, legal, accountable & environmentally friendly use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation.” The investigation reveals, however, that the organization’s efforts to identify and stop illegal construction are merely a tool to dispossess Palestinians of their land.

The Investigation found, in fact, that Regavim and its leader have a demonstrable disregard for the Israeli planning and building laws that they purport to be dedicated to enforcing, evidenced most plainly by the fact that 15 Regavim officers are living in structures built on privately owned Palestinian land, some with demolition orders issued against them. These include the building where Yehuda Eliyahu, the current executive director of Regavim, lives.

The outlaw behavior of Regavim leaders is more consequential than just 15 units.  The investigation also details how leaders of the group have helped to illegally establish settlements at the cost of Palestinians. Yediot Ahronot reports:

“Somehow, all this doesn’t prevent the movement and its representatives from appealing to the High Court of Justice in dozens of petitions, and to successfully act as the guarantors of law and order to eliminate construction violations. Among other things, Regavim operates in sensitive areas of international interest, such as a legal proceeding following which 76 members of [U.S.] Congress recently demanded that the government not demolish Palestinian homes.” [referring to Khan al-Ahmar]

Dror Etkes, founder of the anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot, commented:

“Regavim’s lie holds no water: they preach action against illegal construction, but live in illegally built homes. They talk about the ‘rule of law’ as they violently transgress it.  The findings exposed today indicate that Regavim is in fact an enemy of the principle of ‘rule of law,’ which its members use manipulatively to strip it of its meaning.”

J Street weighed in on the investigation, urging:

“Yedioth Ahronoth’s report underscores the long-term impact and agenda of the settlement movement. For decades, they have moved aggressively to build housing in — and push Palestinians out — of key parts of the occupied territory, with varyingly strong degrees of support from successive Israeli governments…The fanatical ideology of Regavim and the broader settler movement — along with their allies in the Netanyahu government and the Trump administration — must be confronted.”

The report and investigation was published two weeks after the Israeli High Court of Justice upheld demolition orders against the Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin community, a case that Regavim and its supporters in the government (including Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich, who founded Regavim in 2006) have been pushing for years. MK Smotrich and Regavim are simultaneously pushing legislation like the settlement “Regulation Law,” which seeks to retroactively legalize Israeli settlement activity that does not comply with Israeli planning and building law. The Regulation Law, which FMEP has reported on extensively, will resolve the conundrum of demolishing unauthorized Palestinian building while legalizing unauthorize Israeli building by gutting the rule of law entirely.

MK Introduces Bill to Dismantle the Civil Administration, Annex the Settlements

Punctuating a busy week, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) announced that he has submitted a new bill to dismantle the Israeli Civil Administration, the governing body of the West Bank (operating under the Israeli Defense Ministry). Smotrich also featured prominently in the investigative report into Regavim (covered above), participated in the protests at the Netiv Ha’avot outpost (covered above), and saw his bill to empower the World Zionist Organization to manage Area C pass through its first reading (covered above).

According to a report by the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet, Smotrich alleged that the Civil Administration’s “lack of modern computing and mapping tools” is the real culprit behind the accidental, illegal settlement construction that necessitate legislation like the settlement “Regulation Law.”

Speaking at a conference organized by Regavim, Smotrich said:

“The Civil Administration has no normal website, no access to the public. A lot of the mistakes that led to the enactment of the [settlement] regulation law were caused by a lack of modern computing and mapping tools. There is very little organizational memory in the Civil Administration system because many of them are military personnel who change positions every two years. If I want to buy an apartment in Tel Aviv, within three minutes a document will arrive in my email. In order to sell or buy a house in Judea and Samaria, I have to enter a military base and go through an archaic system with a clerk who still works with binders and then wait for weeks to receive any documents. The bill sets a target date for the dismantling of the Civil Administration, and the Administration’s responsibilities will be distributed to the various government ministries, as already happens today, for example, in the Education Ministry. This is the right thing in terms of democracy, it is the right thing in terms of values, [and it puts us] on the path to normalization in Judea and Samaria. Also on the practical level it improves services to the citizens.”

The report on Smotrich’s new bill does not mention anything regarding the future of the Palestinians, who lives are governed, in virtually every aspect, by the Civil Administration.

Settlers Kill Knesset Plan to Complete the West Bank Barrier

Israeli settlers have successfully lobbied the Knesset to kill, for a third time, a bill to compel the Israeli government to finish building the West Bank the separation barrier. The Knesset voted to reject the bill 42-23. The government has failed to complete the construction, which began in 2002 amidst international outrage and allegations of war crimes, despite the adamant arguments of the Israeli government that the wall is a security necessity. According to B’Tselem, only 65% of the barrier has actually been erected – leaving significant gaps that seem to undermine the security logic of the barrier. Adding to that, 85% of the barrier is located inside West Bank territory, creating one form of de facto annexation of the areas on the Israeli side of the barrier, which include a long list of Israeli settlements and surrounding lands for their expansion.

In Al-Monitor, Mazal Mualem explains:

“…the right is concerned that an Israeli initiative of putting up a fence that separates West Bank settlements from Palestinian villages around them would constitute an official endorsement of a future border between Israel and a Palestinian state.”

The bill was pushed by members of the Zionist Union coalition on the left – without the support of the Joint List MKs (representing Palestinian citizens of Israel) – who stress the security imperative of closes the existing gaps. Avi Gabbay, head of the Labor Party, slammed the government’s foot-dragging, saying that delaying the completion of the barrier risks allowing the next terrorist attack Israel. Gabbay said the Netanyahu government is:

“simply afraid of settlers who don’t want to close the gaps for political considerations. These so-called political considerations damage the security of the State of Israel.”

Gabbay’s coalition partner, Tzipi Livni who heads the Zionist Union, explained the left-wing coalition’s rationale for supporting the barrier. Livni said:

“If you support the idea of two states for two people, you need to support this fence. At the beginning, we need a border between us and the Palestinians and then maybe in 50 years, when we live happily ever after, we can dismantle it. For now, this is the concept: security for Israelis but also dividing the land into two states for two peoples.”

The annexation of the West Bank land on the Israeli side of the barrier is an implicit assumption of Gabbay and Livni’s statements.

While No One Was Watching, Jerusalem Suburb Has Been Annexing “No Man’s Land”

For decades, the Israeli government has expanded the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mevasseret Zion into the no-man’s land between the internationally recognized 1967 Green Line and the Israeli separation barrier. Kerem Navot, an anti-settlement watchdog, recently discovered the cross-border expansion – which is plain to see on Google maps – of the neighborhood, along with a slew of other buildings, including a water facility and a synagogue. Additionally, the Israel Land Authority is advancing plans to build 300 new homes in the northern part of Mevasseret Zion, where it crosses over the Green Line.

Dror Etkes, the founder of Kerem Navot, told Haaretz:

“It’s obvious that the planners of this neighborhood knew very well where the Green Line runs. But they chose to ‘straighten’ the line there in order to make room for a few dozen more homes. It’s only natural that the state, which for decades has been investing massive resources in seizing control of the space of a neighboring people, should also expand communities situated within the Green Line into the West Bank. The amazing thing is that any sort of effort is being made still to maintain the distinction between communities within the Green Line and the settlements, since the declared policy of most of Israel’s governments in the past five decades was and remains the very opposite.”

A spokesman for the Mevasseret Zion neighborhood – whose residents almost certainly did not know they were living in a settlement –  issued a disgruntled statement regarding the discovery and the Israel Land Authority’s plan to expand the encroachment:

“The plan currently being promoted [by the Israel Land Authority] is vigorously opposed by the council and the local residents, and they are working together to block the project. The council and residents object to the plan going ahead with regard to both the areas across the Green Line and those in the permitted areas.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Ex-Jewish Agency Chief Slams Fellow Settlers Over Eviction of Neighboring Bedouin” (Haaretz)
2. “Israel’s New Tool for Disposessing Palestinians” (Haaretz)
3. “The Silent Transfer of Palestinians from Area C” (Ynet)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

March 9, 2018

1. New Settlement in Hebron
2. Palestinians Protest Rumored Plan to Unite & Expand Settlements Near Qalqilya
3. High Court Reviewing Government Practice of Paying Off Settler Law-breakers
4. Israel’s New West Bank Commander Promises to Defend the Settlements
5. Documents Reveal: Government Funds Are Going to Unauthorized Outposts
6. Israel Admits Theft of Spring was Carried out Illegally, Promises Court to Steal it Properly
7. EU Report Shows Major Acceleration in Settlement Planning
8. Settlement-Related AIPAC Conference Happenings
9. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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New Settlement in Hebron

Signaling the start of construction on what is effectively a new settlement in Hebron, settlers have moved four caravans onto a site located around a kilometer from the border fence of the radical Kiryat Arba settlement, on a site designated to become a new industrial zone for the settlement. The Civil Administration (a branch of the Israeli Army which is the sovereign ruling power in the occupied West Bank), told the press that the new industrial zone is being built on land seized decades ago by Israel as “state land,” according to a plan approved in “accordance with procedures.”

The anti-settlement watchdog organization Peace Now disputes the Civil Administration assessment of the project. Peace Now notes that the project takes advantage of a plan for the Kiryat Arba settlement that was approved 30 years ago (in 1988), but never executed — and that present day realities are much different than they were 30 years ago. Peace Now notes, too, that the project is located well outside of the developed lines of the settlement and beyond the fence that surrounds it – making it, in effect, a new Israeli settlement in Hebron.

Peace Now said:

“This is Prime Minister Netanyahu’s gift to U.S. President Trump on the day of their meeting. For years, Israeli governments have refrained from establishing new settlements, especially in as sensitive a place as Hebron, but in recent months the Netanyahu government has permitted settlement activity without restraint and has taken steps that undermine the chances of a two-state solution. The new settlement near Hebron is liable to cause significant harm to the lives of dozens of Palestinian families who live nearby who are expected to suffer new security arrangements that will restrict their freedom of movement and harm the daily fabric of their lives.”

OCHA recently published a timely new report titled, “The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlements in Hebron City.” The Kiryat Arba settlers and their security arrangements in the city are important contributing factors to the combined humanitarian toll settlements take on Palestinian residents of Hebron, whose entire lives – including freedom of movement, ability to engage in commerce, and access to education – are acutely strangled by the presence of Israeli settlers.

Palestinians Protest Rumored Plan to Unite & Expand Settlements Near Qalqilya

Since FMEP’s initial report on February 2018, scant further details have emerged regarding Israel’s rumored plan to unite four settlements near Qalqilya into a super settlement, thereby significantly expanding the collective footprint and population of those settlements. Nonetheless, Palestinian fears are growing about the plan’s implementation, which the governor of Qalqilya Rafi Rawajba recently called “state terror.” 

Qalqilya residents have long held weekly protests against Israeli settlement expansion and the separation wall (while in some areas the separation barrier is composed of fencing, the city of Qalqilya is surrounded on all sides by a high cement wall, with only a narrow opening left for access into the rest of the West Bank). This past week, the Israeli army violently dispersed the protests, reportedly using rubber coated bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades.

The plan to unite and expand Qalqilya-area settlements should be understood alongside the July 2017 political battle that ultimately killed the implementation of a plan to build new homes and infrastructure for Palestinians in Qalqilya, which in addition to being surrounded by the Israeli separation wall is also the West Bank’s most densely populated city. The plan – which was formulated and defended by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, would have granted Israeli permission to the Palestinian Authority to double the size of Qalqilya by building on land in Area C (the 60% of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority is not allowed to operate).

High Court Reviewing Government Practice of Paying Off Settler Law-breakers

The High Court of Justice temporarily blocked the Israeli government from offering monetary compensation to residents of illegal settlement outposts whose homes are demolished by the government of Israel. Such homes were built illegally according to Israeli law, and oftentimes on privately owned Palestinian land. The ruling ordered the government to submit a defense of the practice by March 12th.

The High Court’s ruling is in response to a petition filed by Israeli lawyer Shachar Ben Meir that specifically challenges the legality of Israel’s decisions to pay-off settlers evicted from the outposts of Amona and Ofra, as well as a recently approved pay-off for Netiv Ha’avot outpost settlers. None of those pay-offs have actually been transferred to date, and the ruling this week freezes the government’s ability to do so.

Ben Meir told the Times of Israel:

“The state cannot compensate building offenders for their homes being demolished when they built without a permit on land that wasn’t theirs. And if it decides to do so, it must be according to rules that are equal to everyone.”

It is worth noting that when it comes to “illegal” Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem – that is, construction on land owned by Palestinians but for which Israel has not (and generally will not) approve plans for building — Israel not only doesn’t compensate them financially for their loss, but it charges them for the cost of the demolition unless they demolish their own home first (called a self-demolition).

Israel’s New West Bank Commander Promises to Defend the Settlements

In a transfer of power ceremony this week, Major General Nadav Padan was sworn in as the new head of the Israeli Defense Force Central Command, becoming the highest ranking Israeli official in charge of all Israeli affairs in the West Bank. In his speech, Padan committed to “enabling a [high] quality of life for both Israelis and Palestinians while maintaining the rule of law and the spirit of the IDF.”

The outgoing commander also gave a speech at the ceremony, in which he embraced and praised the the settler population as a whole, while admonishing settlers leaders, saying:

“Regrettably, there is still a small handful of settlers challenging authorities as well as law and order. I urge you to continue to act and denounce this group”

Maj. Gen. Padan takes over the West Bank after serving previously as, among other things, the top general leading Israel’s incursion into Gaza during the summer of 2014, known in Israel as “Operation Protective Edge.” That assault lasted 50 days, during which Israel lost 66 soldiers and four civilians, while according to the United Nations, 2,131 Palestinians were killed, of which 1,473 were civilians, 501 were children, and 257 were women.

Documents Reveal: Government Funds Are Going to Unauthorized Outposts

In response to a freedom of information request filed by Peace Now, the Israeli government released a trove of documents revealing that the Binyamin Regional Council – which receives government funding – has been funding infrastructure in far-flung outposts built without authorization and therefore considered illegal according to Israeli law (all settlement activity – whether or not it is permissible under Israeli law – is illegal under international law). The Binyamin Regional Council is the largest settler regional council and acts as a governing body officially representing 42 settlements (and unofficially many illegal outposts), covering a large area starting just north of Jerusalem and reaching almost to Nablus.

The government data shows that the Council spent $1.9 million over a three-year period to finance 24 projects in illegal outposts, including access roads, youth clubs, temporary homes, and two preschools. All of the projects lack permits (issuance of permits would be impossible, since the outposts themselves are unauthorized).

Avi Roeh, the elected head Binyamin Regional Council, defended the projects – telling Haaretz:

“every community located on state land, and this is true for these places such as Kida, Adi Ad, Esh Kodesh, etc., we intend on legalizing them. It is taking its time and in the meantime there are children and families there”

Peace Now Settlement Watch Director Shabtay Bendet responded:

“The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council is supposed to be the one to enforce the law and act according to it. Not only does it not enforce [the law], it funds and promotes illegal projects with our public funds. No police investigation has been opened on the matter. We call on the legal authorities to open an investigation.”

Israel Admits Theft of Spring was Carried out Illegally, Promises Court to Steal it Properly

This week Israeli government admitted to the Jerusalem District Court that permits were issued illegally to relocate a military checkpoint near the city of al-Walajah in order to prevent Palestinians from accessing a historic natural spring (See FMEP’s Feb. 22nd Settlement Report for more details on the scandal surrounding construction of the new checkpoint). Though admitting that the permits were granted illegally, the government suggested it was merely a bureaucratic glitch that would be fixed in short order, and asked the High Court to allow construction of the checkpoint to continue while it corrects the problem (that is, gets the permits to steal the spring issued properly). The Court ordered the State to explain the steps it will take to rectify the matter (that is, to get the proper permits in order) and will rule on the petition against the spring at some date in the future.

Ghaith Nasser, the lawyer representing al-Walajah residents in the case, told Haaretz:

“I think that what happened in this case is a scandal. They want the court to give legal validity to an outrage whose entire management from beginning to end is stained by blatant illegality…When the court is asked to approve such a thing despite all the faults, the role of the court is to champion the principle of the rule of law and explain that this isn’t how it’s done.”

Notably, FMEP reported last week that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has recently installed a settler-aligned judge to the Jerusalem District Court, which is hearing this case. The judge, Haya Zandberg, previously headed a government committee tasked with retroactively legalizing outposts and in two cases “adopted a creative pro-settler legal position that contradicted the views of both the Justice Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces’ legal adviser in the West Bank” according to Haaretz.

EU Report Shows Major Acceleration in Settlement Planning

The European Union recently published its regular report on Israeli settlement activity in the second half of 2017. That report documents a “three- to four-fold increase in advancement of housing units through plans and the issuance of tenders compared to 2016.”

All told, if the plans advanced during the latter half of 2017 materialize on the ground, housing will be created for potentially 23,000 additional settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The report specifically highlights the creation of a new settlement in Hebron, the first since 2002, and the construction of large-scale road projects that are proposed to connect Israeli settlements more seamless to Israel.

The report is part of the European Union’s efforts to monitor and inform its member states about Israeli settlement growth, and to assist its member states in differentiating between economic dealings with Israel and Israeli settlements, consistent with international law and EU policy.

Settlement-Related AIPAC Conference Happenings

For the blissfully unaware, the annual AIPAC conference was held this week in Washington, D.C. It drew big-name U.S. administration officials, members of Congress, and Israeli lawmakers and leaders including Prime Minister Netanyahu. And those big names made some big headlines.

A few events/happenings pertinent to settlement observers include:

1. Prominent settler leader Yossi Dagan (head of the Yesha Council, a settler umbrella group) wrote a letter to AIPAC decrying AIPAC’s assertion that Israel supports a two-state solution. Dagan asserts that Israel does not support such a solution. Dagan’s anger was quickly echoed by scads of Israeli lawmakers, including Likud MKs and members of the right-wing Israel Land Caucus.  The Times of Israel has a great summary of the event and the new dynamics, titled “As AIPAC is out-hawked by Trump, settlers reevaluate ties to the pro-Israel lobby.”
2. On the sidelines of AIPAC, the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs joined with the Yesha Council to host an event to “combat the delegitimization of Israel through the embrace of Judea & Samaria.” The event was attended by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Israeli Consul General in New York Dani Dayon, and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz who said: “Israel cannot survive without its settlements.” J Street had a sharp response to the event, saying “This Israeli government thinks the way to combat delegitimization is to embrace settlements. Embrace. Settlements. This is patently absurd.”
3. U.S. Ambassador and settlement financer David Friedman took to the stage on the last day of the conference to attack J Street and its motto, “pro-Israel, pro-peace.” He argued that such a motto suggests that some people are both pro-Israel and anti-peace, and that “It is no less than blasphemous to suggest that any Jew or any Christian is against peace and that’s just not a matter of religious belief.” Implied in his remark, it seems, is that only Muslims are capable of being anti-peace. His full remarks are available here.
4. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the AIPAC crowd that “it’s sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace,” after blasting Hamas for what happened after Israel pulled out from Gaza settlements. He went on to say, among many things, that there is no peace because Palestinians do not believe in the Torah.

Bonus Reads

1. “What would the [“SOFTENED”] Israel Anti-Boycott Act Actually Do?” (FMEP) 
**U.S. settlement policy is impacted by this bill. Analysis written by FMEP’s Lara Friedman
2. “In West Bank reality, annexation is a pipedream” (Times of Israel)
3. “East Jerusalem Palestinians confront Israeli diggers over damaged to homes” (Middle East Eye)

 

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

February 22, 2018

1. Caravans Move Into New Shiloh Valley Settlement
2. State Requests Delay of Demolitions in Netiv Ha’avot Outpost
3. Process Begins for Major Expansion of Gilo Settlement in East Jerusalem
4. Construction of New Checkpoint Near al-Walajah Proceeds, Despite Lacking Permit
5. High Court Issues Injunction Against Construction & Sale of Homes in Shvut Rachel “Neighborhood”
6. Israel Evacuates Outpost, Again
7. Jordan Valley Annexation?
8. U.S. Ambassador: “Settlers are Here to Stay”; Settler Leader Credits Trump for Settlement Growth
9. Bonus Must-Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Caravans Move Into New Shiloh Valley Settlement

This week, the delayed construction of the Amichai settlement in the Shiloh Valley got a temporary fix: the Israeli Civil Administration (a branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry that is the sovereign power ruling over the West Bank) began installing 36 trailers for settlers to move into while the permanent settlement is being built. The construction of Amichau has hit many snags since the government green-lighted the project. Budgetary fights led to repeated delays, and several NGOs have filed legal petitions on behalf of nearby villages whose land the settlement will steal.

As we have written about many times in the past, Amichai is the first of two new settlements approved by the Israeli government in early 2017 as pay-off to settlers forced to evacuate the Amona outpost by the High Court of Justice. That Amona outpost was established without authorization from the Israeli government and on private Palestinian land; the government of Israel fought for years to legalize it post-facto, but eventually was forced by the High Court to evacuate its residents (evacuation that some residents resisted violently). The establishment of Amichai clearly demonstrates that settler law-breaking not only goes unpunished, but is handsomely rewarded by the Israeli government, and that establishing illegal outposts is an effective route to establishing new settlements.

The Amona settlers have been some of the most vocal and demanding advocates for ever more concessions from the Israeli government, including the installation of these temporary mobile homes on their preferred site. With the approval of that demand, a spokesman for the Amona evacuees said triumphantly:

“Beyond the Regulation Law, the legalizing of thousands of homes in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the establishment of a new settlement after decades of drought, the great thing that the people of Amona have achieved in their uncompromising struggle is a change in discourse and consciousness.”

Peace Now – which has filed one of the petitions against the construction of Amichai – said:

“42 families, which the court ruled had stolen private land, are extorting the government…”

State Requests Delay of Demolitions in Netiv Ha’avot Outpost

Two weeks ahead of the slated demolition of 15 structures in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost – structures built on privately owned Palestinian land – the state of Israel is urging the High Court of Justice to delay the demolition for three additional months. The reason? To allow more time for another outpost to be constructed for the settlers to move in to (plans for which were approved last week).

The delay will also allow more time for settlers to advance plans to save seven of the 15 structures ordered to be demolished; settlers have proposed saving the seven buildings by demolitioning only the parts of the buildings that sit on Palestinian land, leaving the rest intact. 

While the Netiv Ha’avot settlers are trying to stay put, Israeli press reports this week suggest that Netanyahu has asked his Cabinet to approve a payout of millions of shekels to the settlers, in advance of their evacuation, ostensibly to to facilitate a public-relations friendly demolition of the targeted 15 structures. Cabinet ministers are now seeking funds from their ministry budgets to help fund Netanyahu’s Netiv Ha’avot bribe. The bribe money will come in addition to the estimated $14 million to $17 million it will cost Israeli taxpayers to dismantle the 15 structures slated to be demolished in Netiv Ha’avot.

Once again, the establishment of a new outpost for setters who built illegally on land recognized by Israel as privately owned by Palestinians, plus a huge financial pay-off to them, demonstrates clearly that settler law-breaking not only goes unpunished but is actively rewarded and incentivized by the Israeli government.

Process Begins for Major Expansion of Gilo Settlement in East Jerusalem

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann’s NGO, Terrestrial Jerusalem, reports that the Jerusalem planning authorities met on February 21st to initiate the planning process for a new neighborhood of the Gilo settlement in East Jerusalem. The plan seeks to significantly expand the footprint of Gilo in the direction of Bethlehem (the Gilo settlement literally looms over Bethlehem; the new plan will develop the southern slope leading down into the Palestinian city). The plan calls for building 2,992 new units. 

Terrestrial Jerusalem writes:

“In 1995, Israel made a commitment to the U.S. government that no additional land in East Jerusalem would be expropriated for the purposes of building or expanding settlement neighborhoods. That commitment has guided the boundaries of Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem in the ensuing years. While the scope of the expropriations under this scheme will be limited, this significantly contravenes the spirit of that undertaking, significantly expanding the built-up footprint of the Gilo settlement.”

Ir Amim writes: 

“The Gilo Southeast plan is yet one more link in a chain of developments designed to seal off the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem from the West Bank, nullifying prospects for a two state solution. Advancing a new plan for 3,000 units on land near Givat Hamatos indicates that the Israeli government will continue to do everything just short of taking action on Givat Hamatos to fill in any remaining gaps along the southern flank of the city.”

Construction of New Checkpoint Near al-Walajah Proceeds, Despite Lacking Permit

The Jerusalem Municipality recently began (and has nearly completed) the construction of a new checkpoint that will further isolate and imprison the Palestinian city of al-Walajah, which is surrounded on three sides by the Israeli separation barrier. The construction of the checkpoint is going ahead despite the fact that it lacks the legally required permit and in contravention of an Israeli court order.

The new checkpoint is meant to replace the current one, located further down the road. The current arrangement allows al-Walajah residents to access an important and historic natural spring without passing through a military checkpoint. The new checkpoint will block the village’s access to the spring and it will advance the consolidation of Israeli control of the village’s only remaining access point to Jerusalem.

Terrestrial Jerusalem provides background on the spring, which is now inside of an area Israel has declared an Israeli national park, and Israeli actions to consolidate control over it:

“The move comes as part of the Municipality’s decision, supported by the government, to designate the area as an Israeli national park. The decision to move the Ein Yael checkpoint is designed, deliberately, to prevent el-Walajeh’s resident from accessing the park (for further background on the national park project, see our previous report here). Following the inauguration of the area as a national park by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Tourism Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), construction works for the relocation of the checkpoint started on February 12, 2018, without a permit being issued and in contravention of a court order requiring the Municipality to suspend all work in order to enable el-Walajeh’s residents to appeal the Municipality’s decision.”

Ir Amim further explains the drama that ensued when the Jerusalem Municipality began the construction illegally, against the orders of the court:

“On February 12, the District Committee approved a permit for construction, rejecting separate objections from residents of Al-Walaja and the Har Gilo settlement. Despite the committee granting a week for the attorney for the residents of Al-Walaja to submit an appeal, the Municipality – which initiated and is funding the multi-million shekel project – launched construction two days later. The director general of the Municipality, Amnon Merhav, personally supervised the illegal construction, refusing to halt the equipment when confronted by the residents’ attorney and Ir Amim field researcher, Aviv Tatarsky. Tatarsky was arrested and jailed on his way to work the following morning for disrupting the peace.”

Peace Now adds even more color to the late-night legal proceedings and wacky defenses that the Jerusalem Municipality deployed in order to continue the construction. In the end, the presiding judge decided to nullify the 1-week injunction to allow the construction to proceed, a ruling that accepted the Municipality’s argument that stopping the construction would endanger motorists. The judge will hear complaints filed by al-Walajah residents on March 6th.

High Court Issues Injunction Against Construction & Sale of Homes in Shvut Rachel “Neighborhood”

On February 18th, the High Court of Justice issued an injunction freezing the construction and sale of new homes in the Shvut Rachel “neighborhood” of the Shiloh settlement. Importantly, Shvut Rachel is not actually a neighborhood of Shiloh: it is located outside of Shiloh’s boundaries and is correctly termed an illegal outpost. The injunction follows a petition launched by Peace Now against the illegal construction, filed at the end of January 2018. This is not the first time Peace Now has challenged illegal/unauthorized construction in this area. The first such petition was filed in 2010, but the illegal construction was nonetheless allowed to advance in fits and starts, with the government of Israel fully aware of the crime. Now, the project is nearly complete and ready for sale. And once again, the actions of the Israeli government in allowing the illegal construction to reach this point demonstrate that settler law-breaking not only goes unpunished but pays off.

Israel Evacuates Outpost, Again

The Israeli army removed settlers from an encampment set up near the Tapuah settlement in the northern West Bank, just south of Nablus, as they have done several times over the past 5 years. Settlers reacted violently – throwing stones, burning tires, and pouring oil on roads – in order to deter the Israeli army’s dismantlement of the mobile home camp. Two Israeli youths were arrested in the incident.

After the army left, the settlers marched towards the nearby Tapuah settlement, encountering and attacking two Palestinian vehicles and a Rabbi for Human Rights activist along the way.

Jordan Valley Annexation?

The settler-aligned Arutz Sheva media outlet is reporting that the Ministerial Committee for Legislation (a committee of Cabinet members who decide if the government will support legislative proposals) will consider endorsing a bill to annex the Jordan Valley at its weekly meeting.

The bill was introduced by Likud MK Sharren Haskel, who recently said:

“The support we are receiving in the international arena from our friend the United States proves that there has not been and will not be a better time…With the support of the Likud members who demand the necessary change, with the support of the government where we have the majority needed to pass the bill, together with my friends Motti Yogev and Miki Zohar, I am proud to lead the bill to apply Israeli law in the Jordan Valley”

The Arutz Sheva report suggests the Netanyahu might block the bill from coming up for a vote (a suggestion that is likely part of the effort to pressure Netanyahu not to block it). The same report notes that the Likud-inspired annexation bill will be postponed for cabinet consideration for another week.

U.S. Ambassador: “Settlers Are Here to Stay”; Settler leader: “thank God” for Trump

Veteran Haaretz columnist Barak Ravid reported remarks made by U.S. Ambassador David Friedman during a meeting with the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations earlier this week. Friedman reportedly said that Israeli settlements will not need to evacuated under a U.S. peace plan, noting specifically, “the settlers aren’t going anywhere.” Given the public record of Friedman’s policy positions, this is not a surprising statement or U.S. policy manifestation.

Notably, the Trump Administration (White House and State Department) offered no substantive correction.

At the same time, the Associated Press ran a story this week (which got picked up by several major outlets including the Washington Post, TIME, ABC News, and Voice of America) quoting the braggadocious remarks of settler leader, Yaakov Katz. Katz has ties to a prominent settler organization, “Bet El Institutions,” which, as noted by Haaretz, has ties to U.S. negotiators (as in, David Friedman was the longtime leader of the U.S. fundraising arm of Bet El, and both he and the Kushner family have donated to Bet El). Hailing the “success” of the settlement enterprise in 2017, Katz quipped:

“This is the first time, after years, that we are surrounded by people who really like us, love us, and they are not trying to be objective…We have to thank God he sent Trump to be president of the United States.”

Katz also said (among other things):

“We are changing the map. The idea of the two-state solution is over. It is irreversible.”

Katz’s excitement is a marked contrast from the January reaction of the Yesha Council (the umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements) to 2017 population growth data. The Yesha Council lamented declining growth in settlements and blamed it on what a purported “quiet freeze” on settlement construction in 2017, despite the fact that Peace Now chronicled an alarming acceleration of settlement activity in 2017.

As FMEP explained in January, 2017 Israeli government data (covering 150 West Bank settlements and outposts, but not East Jerusalem) shows that the settler growth rate has decreased for the sixth consecutive year, from 3.9% in 2016 to 3.4% in 2017 (the growth rate hit a high in 2008, at 5.8%). Even with this decline, the 3.4% settler population growth rate still outpaces Israel’s national average, which comes in at 2%. Moreover, the data show that settler population is far younger than the population inside the Green Line, with 47% of settlers being below the age of 18, compared to 27% of Israelis inside the Green Line.

Bonus Must-Reads

1. “Israel’s Latest Attempts to Alter Geopolitical Realities in Jerusalem” (Al-Shabaka) *This is a short policy memo drawing from a brief which will be published in March 2018.
2. “The End of Israel’s ‘Enlightened Occupation’ “ (+972 Mag)
3. “Netanyahu’s Real Crime: Plundering Land from Palestinians” (Al-Monitor)
4. “Netanyahu’s West Bank Annexation Talk Was No Gaffe” (American Conservative)

 

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FMEP has long been a trusted resource on settlement-related issues, reflecting both the excellent work of our grantees on the ground and our own in-house expertise. FMEP’s focus on settlements derives from our commitment to achieving lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and our recognition of the fact that Israeli settlements – established for the explicit purpose of dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of land and resources, and depriving them of the very possibility of self-determination in their own state with borders based on the 1967 lines – are antithetical to that goal.

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

September 20, 2017

1. Israel Moves to Forcibly Transfer West Bank Community [A War Crime]
2. Normalizing Settlements in the Name of Peace – The WINEP Approach
3. NEW REPORT: Yesh Din on Systematic Land Theft by Israeli Quarries in the West Bank
4. NEW REPORT: Human Rights Watch on Israeli Banks’ Financing of Settlement Expansion
5. Updates: Al-Walajah, Ras al-Amud, Halamish, Hebron
6. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israel Moves to Forcibly Transfer West Bank Community [A War Crime]

B’Tselem reports that the Civil Administration is set to soon forcibly relocate the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar in the West Bank, a war crime under international law. Haaretz confirmed the Israeli government’s intention to carry out the plan. Khan al Ahmar is located in an area that is considered key for Israel’s desired expansion of the Maale Adumim settlement and construction of the new “E-1” settlement.

Last week Israeli officials went to Khan al-Ahmar to tell the residents that their only option was to relocate to a site in the nearby Palestinian city of Abu Dis, next to the Abu Dis garbage dump. The village’s lawyer was not present at the time of the officials’ visit, despite Israeli authorities previously committing to not meet with the residents without their lawyer present.

Khan al-Ahmar’s residents settled in their current West Bank location in the 1950s, by Israel – after having been forced off their lands in the Negev (i.e., inside Israel proper). Israel subsequently declared the land of Khan al-Ahmar to be “state land” and over the years have repeatedly threatened the total demolition of the community. For years, international pressure – which importantly included a strong stance by the Obama Administration specifically regarding the E-1 area – has prevented Israel from going ahead with the demolitions and relocation. The Trump Administration has not commented on this specific matter to date.

Btselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad has penned an urgent letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu articulating why the forcible transfer of Khan al-Ahmar would constitute a war crime under international law. The accompanying press release notes:

Demolition of an entire community in the Occupied Territories is virtually unprecedented since 1967. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel is obliged to respect in all its actions in the West Bank, this amounts to forcible transfer of protected persons, which constitutes a war crime.

B’Tselem has long documented Israel’s routine harassment of the Khan al-Ahmar community. The harassment has included: In 2015, the Israeli Civil Administration confiscated 12 solar panels donated by an international humanitarian group and that served as the sole power source for the community. In 2016, Israel demolished 12 homes, leaving 60 people homeless. In February 2017, Israel issued demolition orders for every structure in the village and that same month, Israel demolished a mobile home, leaving an elderly woman homeless. Settlers from the Maale Adumim settlement have filed petitions (starting in 2011) demanding that the Khan al-Ahmar school – a school that serves not just the Khan al-Ahmar community but others nearby – demolished.

The Israeli High Court of Justice (the equivalent of the Supreme Court) is set to hear petitions and decide on the community’s future on September 25th. Settlers have petitioned to expedite the demolitions, and Khan al-Ahmar community members have petitioned against the demolition orders.

Normalizing Settlements in the Name of Peace – The WINEP Approach

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) is set to launch a new portal with “up-to-date, granular information” about settlements in the West Bank. [Editor’s note: If you are looking for up-to-date, granular information about Israeli settlements, Peace Now, Terrestrial Jerusalem, Ir Amim, Yesh Din, and many other Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations host it their websites currently. Contact FMEP for additional resources.]

The yet-to-be-revealed portal and its architect, David Makovsky, were given an early endorsement by the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl, in a piece this week entitled “How Trump could save Palestinian statehood.” The article, quoting Makovsky extensively, promotes the notion that Trump can save the hope for peace by adopting a policy according to which, “Netanyahu stops building in areas beyond the West Bank fence, and Abbas stops paying off militants and their families.”

For people who follow the work of Makovsky and his WINEP colleague Dennis Ross, this logic should sound familiar; it is nearly identical to what Ross has been proposing, over and over, since 2013 (see also, for example: March 2015, Feb 2016, Nov 2016,  Jan 2017). At the core of this logic is the notion that Israel getting U.S. backing to, in effect, unilaterally annex around 10% of the West Bank – including areas that obstruct the contiguity of a future Palestinian state and that will prevent the possibility of any viable Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem – should be seen as a generous Israeli concession to the Palestinians and a down-payment on a peace agreement.

FMEP’s Lara Friedman deconstructed these arguments back in 2013 – that analysis has not changed. As she noted back in 2013, this approach:

“…is a recipe not for strengthening the two-state solution, but for imposing a unilateral Israeli vision of a Greater Israel extending beyond the Green Line, adjacent to a balkanized Palestinian entity. Such an outcome may be appealing to Benjamin Netanyahu and his U.S. apologists. It will never be acceptable to the Palestinians and the international community, and it certainly shouldn’t be mistaken for a “solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

NEW REPORT: Yesh Din on Systematic Land Theft by Israeli Quarries in the West Bank

In its new report, “The Great Drain: Israeli quarries in the West Bank: High Court Sanctioned Institutionalized Theft,” the Israeli non-governmental organization Yesh Din documents how Israel’s mining and quarry activities in the West Bank constitute economic exploitation of the occupied West Bank for Israel’s exclusive profit, in violation of international law. In 2008, Yesh Din petitioned the High Court to stop all such activities; that petition was rejected.

Key findings in the new report include:

• Since the High Court of Justice ruled against Yesh Din’s 2008 petition, Israel has dramatically expanded its mining and quarrying activities in the West Bank.
• Over 20%  of the State of Israel’s general consumption of gravel now comes from the quarries in the Occupied Territories.
• Official documents indicate that the Israeli authorities have a long-term plan to rely on the mining potential in the West Bank for at least the next 30 years.

Yesh Din concludes: “Decades of Israeli looting of natural resources in the West Bank are the embodiment of colonialism. In practice, the High Court ruling has rendered meaningless the acceptable interpretation of international humanitarian law, leaving in place the continued, irreversible exploitation of the occupied territory for the Israel’s economic purposes.”

NEW REPORT: Human Rights Watch on Israeli Banks’ Financing of Settlement Expansion

In its new report, “Israeli Law and Banking in the West Bank,” Human Rights Watch document how Israeli banks are failing to respect international humanitarian law by providing services to and in settlements. In doing so, the banks contribute to the expansion and entrenchment of settlements, at the expense of Palestinians.

Key findings of the report include:

• All five of Israel’s largest banks, as well as the Bank of Israel (Israel’s central bank) are operating in settlements. These five largest banks are: Bank Leumi, Hapoalim, Bank Discount, Mizrahi Tfahot, and First International Bank of Israel.
• The Israeli Association of Banks claimed to be legally obliged to offer financial services in and to settlements under Israel’s Anti-Discrimination Law (5761-2000), but the Association did not explain how refusing to provide services to settlements would constitute discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, religion, or political views. (Israel’s Anti-Discrimination Act was recently amended to require businesses, including banks, to notify customers if they decline to provide services to settlements. However, the amended version of the law does not require businesses to provide services to settlements.)
• Israel’s domestic “Banking Law” is applied to settlements via military order, which violates international humanitarian law.
• The Banking Law only prohibits banks for unreasonably refusing to provide three services: receiving deposits, opening and managing a checking account, and issuing bankers’ checks. No other services are required/obligated under the Banking Law.

The report concludes, “Human Rights Watch does not believe it is possible for businesses to operate in the settlements in compliance with their international responsibilities, due to the inherent international humanitarian law and human rights violations that characterize settlements. Human Rights Watch is calling for banks, like other businesses, to comply with their own human rights responsibilities by ceasing settlement-related activities.”

Updates: Al-Walajah, Ras al-Amud, Halamish, Hebron

• In Al-Walajah, Israelis and Palestinians marched together in protest of a wave of pending home demolitions and the imminent completion of the separation barrier which will completely encircle the village. Israel resumed construction of the wall in April and has issued dozens of demolition notices to the residents since then. In early August, al-Walaja residents formed a human barrier to prevent Israeli bulldozers from demolishing one of the threatened homes. Since then, Israel has not attempted to execute another demolition.
• Israel demolished a two-story apartment building in the Ras al-Amud, a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem. B’Tselem reports that Israel has demolished 45 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem in 2017.
• In the area near the settlement of Halamish (where several members of an Israeli family were brutally murdered earlier this year), Kerem Navot has updated reporting on how road closures and plans for a new bypass road are leading to the settlement’s expansion and takeover of the Umm Saffa forest, a nature reserve.
• In Hebron, the Israeli settlers who broke into and illegally set up residence in the disputed “Machpela House” continue to remain in the house, under the protection of the Israeli army. They even received a visit from the Israeli Interior Minister, Aryeh Deri (Shas), this week. The High Court of Justice has not made a decision on the ownership of the house, and has granted the settlers’ wish to delay their evacuation from the house, going against an order from the Israeli Attorney General.

Bonus Reads

1. “Law But Not Justice in Sheikh Jarrah” (Times of Israel)
2. “WATCH: Settler attacks left-wing activist” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Have Amona ‘refugees’ found recipe for post-evacuation success?”  (Times of Israel)
4. “Drowning in the Waste of Israeli Settlers” (Al Jazeera)

 

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FMEP has long been a trusted resource on settlement-related issues, reflecting both the excellent work of our grantees on the ground and our own in-house expertise. FMEP’s focus on settlements derives from our commitment to achieving lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and our recognition of the fact that Israeli settlements – established for the explicit purpose of dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of land and resources, and depriving them of the very possibility of self-determination in their own state with borders based on the 1967 lines – are antithetical to that goal.

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

August 24, 2017

1. Israel Mounts Legal Defense After High Court Puts 2-Month Hold on Regulation Law
2. Government Data Shows Regulation Law Could Legalize 3,455 Settlement Structures
3. Israeli AG Demands Better Enforcement of Settlement Construction Laws
4. Yitzhar Settlers Attack IDF During Outpost Demolition
5. Settler-Led Petition Seeks to “Test”High Court’s Consistency on Palestinian Land Ownership Rights
6. Updates: Amichai Funds, Sheikh Jarrah Eviction, Jordan Valley Race Track, E-1 Demolitions
7. Bonus Reads

For comments and questions, please email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org).

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Israel Mounts Legal Defense After High Court Puts 2-Month Hold on Regulation Law

On August 17th, the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered a two month hold on the use of the controversial Regulation Law, which was set to take effect this week. The Regulation Law (also called the “Expropriation Law,” the “Regularization Law,” the “Legalization Law,” or the “Settlements Law”) was passed earlier this year by the Israeli Knesset to pave the way for the government to retroactively legalize outposts and other construction of Israeli settler homes on privately owned Palestinian land, among other things. The High Court ordered the two-month freeze following a direct request from Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit, who has called the law unconstitutional.

The court is currently weighing two petitions challenging the legality of the law filed this past March; one petition by the Israeli civil society organizations Yesh Din, Peace Now, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI); the second petition was filed by Palestinian civil society groups Adalah, Al-Mezan, and the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center.

In response to the petitions, the Israeli government’s private attorney Harel Arnon provided the court with a 156-page defense arguing that, “the Regulation Law balances the obligation of the government towards thousands of citizens who have relied in good faith on government action and a minor infringement of property rights, with increased compensation to the [Palestinian] landowners.” Prominent Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard explained why this is “legal fantasy.”  Israel was forced to hire a private lawyer to represent them before the High Court after Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit announced his refusal to defend the measure as soon as it was passed into law. 

The trio of Israeli petitioners released a blistering statement following the government’s response. Peace Now, Yesh Din, and ACRI wrote,

“The State of Israel, in its response today, is trying to present the land expropriation law as addressing a national problem, when in practice it involves continued government support for a criminal enterprise that has continued for decades. The government is minimizing the continuing harm to the rights of the Palestinian landowners, and at the same time is trying to present the Israeli citizens who are taking part in the looting of West Bank Palestinians as people who have been harmed and who require ‘compensation’ for their part in the looting,” they added. “We hope the court rejects the state’s arguments out of hand, strikes down this unconstitutional and immoral law, and sends a loud and clear message: No more.”

Peace Now goes further to say, “In its response the government attempts to present Israeli citizens, who are directly involved in land theft of Palestinians, as deserving a reward for their participation in the thievery.”

Adalah also issued a sharp response, saying “The state’s position amounts to a de facto annexation of the West Bank.”

Haaretz put out a searing editorial demolishing the government’s claim that settlers are owed a solution to the “distress” they live in as a result of their land theft. Haaretz editors wrote in “The ‘distress” of the Israeli settlers,”

The government broke a record for cynicism when it made its arguments against the petitions. In a perfect reversal of occupier and occupied, it explained that the expropriation law constitutes “a humane, proportionate and reasonable response to the real distress” of all those “Israeli residents” who live under “a cloud of uncertainty” that is “disrupting their lives.” It’s hard to believe, but this is not a description of the situation of millions of Palestinians living under occupation whose lands are being seized, but of the distress of the settlers, who chose to live outside the state’s official borders and whose very presence there is illegitimate.

The High Court of Justice is months away from issuing its ruling on the Regulation Law’s constitutionality. The Knesset’s legal experts are expected to present their case in support of the law in September, and Attorney General Mandleblit is expected to argue against his own government’s law in October.

Government Data Shows Regulation Law Could Legalize 3,455 Settlement Structures

According to the Israeli government’s own data, there are 3,455 illegally built Israeli structures in the West Bank that can be legalized if the Regulation Law (see above) goes into effect. Haaretz has an explanation of the three categories of land where these structures were illegally built and how the Regulation Law seeks to absolve the government and its settlers of their illegality.

The Haaretz reporting confirms and compounds documentation published by Peace Now earlier this year which estimated that the Regulation Law could legalize 3,850 structures and 53 outposts, adding up to a total land grab of 8,000 dunams of privately owned Palestinian land (1 sq. km = 1,000 dunams | 1 acre = 4 dunams).

Israeli AG Demands Better Enforcement of Settlement Construction Laws

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit held a series of meetings over the past month in an attempt to force the government to rein in illegal construction happening inside of settlements. Haaretz reports that Mandleblit met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon several times to demand the creation of a special unit in the Defense Ministry tasked with policing planning and construction laws inside of settlements.

Haaretz relays from sources in the meetings, “He [Mandleblit] said, in the presence of officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, the treasury and the Defense Ministry, that the present situation, in which there is no group enforcing the planning laws in the settlements except for the committees acting on behalf the settlements’ regional councils themselves, is ‘clearly illogical,’ and creates a situation in which there are illegal structures over which nobody has authority.”

The recent discussions followed Mandleblit’s request last month for the High Court to issue an order demanding the Defense Ministry to create the unit. The Defense Ministry has refused to establish the unit, citing a lack of funding. Mandleblit’s request to the High Court was meant to force Defense Minister Liberman to create the unit by making it mandatory.

Yitzhar Settlers Attack IDF During Outpost Demolition

For the second time this year, the Israeli army clashed with radical Yitzhar settlers as the army executed orders against homes the settlers built without the proper permissions. This time, in contrast to the incident in June where houses were razed inside the settlement, the IDF removed six caravans that were set up outside of the settlement’s municipal border in an outpost known as Kumi Ori.

Settler-Led Petition Seeks to “Test” High Court’s Consistency on Palestinian Land Ownership

Ynet News reports that the right-wing settler organization Regavim has launched a petition against the construction of a road in the West Bank, which they claim – with undisguised irony – is being built on privately owned Palestinian land. The road is an access road to the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, a $1.4 billion dollar investment project to provide a state-of-the-art planned city for Palestinians in the West Bank (and the first new Palestinian city Israel has permitted since 1967).

For Ragavim, the case is a win-win. If the court rules in Regavim’s favor, it will be a blow to efforts to develop Rawabi. If the court rules against Regavim (i.e., in favor of the construction and against the rights of Palestinian landowners), it will set a legal precedent that Regavim and others can exploit for the benefit of settlers. Regavim is clearly hoping for the latter result: Regavim’s lawyer said, “In the last few years, the High Court of Justice has taken a very strict line and ordered the demolition of buildings and roads built by Jews on private Palestinian land. That is why in this case, it is unacceptable that the High Court of Justice is nonchalant about the rights of private landowners.”

Updates: Amichai Funds, Sheikh Jarrah Eviction, E-1 Demolitions, Jordan Valley Race Track

• Haaretz has spoken to four government officials who report that the office of the Prime Minister has requested to nearly triple the amount of government funds allocated towards the construction of the first new settlement in 25 years, Amichai. The Prime Minister’s office denied the Haaretz report.
• In Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem court rejected a petition to delay (again) the eviction of the Shamasneh family from their longtime home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood. Eviction is rumored to proceed on September 9th.
• In E-1, the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration has threatened to move forward with demolitions against Bedouin structures they say were illegally built in the area of E-1 despite an order from the High Court of Justice delaying the demolitions. Back in February, the High Court ruled that the structures should not be demolished and that the Bedouin and Civil Administration must work together to see if the structures can be legalized.
• In the Jordan Valley, Israeli settlers are continuing to build a recreational race track despite a stop-work order issued against the project in February 2017. The large race track complex is partially on land that the Israeli army has declared a closed firing zone, a designation which resulted in the forcible displacement of Palestinians who lived there
• For background on all of these stories, see past editions [link] of FMEP’s Settlement Report.

Bonus Reads

1. “U.S. Trying to Prevent UN ‘Blacklist’ of Companies Working in Israeli Settlements” (Washington Post)
2. “Netanyahu to attend West Bank event celebrating 50 years of settlements” (August 21, 2017, Jerusalem Post)
3. “In Walajeh, Palestinians residents mobilize against Israeli demolitions” (August 21, 2017, +972 Mag/Active Stills)
4. “From jail cells, settler youth call for defiance of administrative orders” (August 23, 2017, Times of Israel)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

August 16, 2017

1. Israel Demolishes Buildings in Key East Jerusalem Areas
2. Bedouin are Powerless in E-1 Area as Settlement Plans Loom
3. Jewish National Fund Resumes Targeting Land in the Occupied West Bank
4. Settlers in Israeli Government Turn Blind Eye to Settlers Breaking Israeli Law
5. Former Israeli AG Says Sheikh Jarrah Property Should be Given to Palestinians
6. Three New Outposts Near Nablus
7. Updates: Al-Walajah, Sheikh Jarrah, Amichai Settlement
8. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israel Demolishes Buildings in Key East Jerusalem Areas

The Israeli government demolished eight Palestinian structures in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan, Beit Hanina, Jabal Mukaber, and Isawiyyah. According to Ir Amim, the two apartments demolished in the al-Bustan area of Silwan are the first demolitions to be carried out there since 2008. Looking at East Jerusalem as a whole, Ir Amim writes, “[these] demolitions bring the 2017 total to 128, including 84 residential units and 44 non-residential units. These numbers are on well on target to meet or surpass the total number of 203 demolitions executed in East Jerusalem last year.”

Bedouin are Powerless in E-1 Area as Settlement Plans Loom

According to B’Tselem, last week Israeli officials confiscated solar panels that were providing electricity to a Bedouin community’s school in the controversial area adjacent to Jerusalem known as “E-1.” The confiscation happened despite a temporary court-ordered injunction against it. The Israeli government has long refused to connect the Bedouin to a power grid; the solar panels confiscated this week were donated only a month ago by a humanitarian organization.

The E-1 area has long been slated for Israeli settlement construction, but plans have been continuously delayed by the Israeli political echelon – due in large part to pressure from U.S. administrations and others in the international community. If E-1 is developed it will seal Palestinian East Jerusalem off from the West Bank to its east, and create a land bridge from Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement. The settlement will render the two-state solution impossible because it would preclude the ability to draw contiguous borders for a future Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

East Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann has issued several warnings this year that E-1 – a “doomsday settlement” – might be slated for advancement under the current settlement policy of the Netanyahu government and with no discernable counter-pressure from the Trump Administration. Seidemann warned in January, “The main obstacle preventing a green light for E-1 has, until now, been wall-to-wall opposition from the international community, led by the United States (dating back to the era of President Clinton).”

The Bedouin community living in the E-1 area has long been threatened with forcible relocation (which would amount to population transfer). The 18 Bedouin tribes that live in the vicinity of Maale Adumim and E-1, totaling approximately 3,000 people, have already endured numerous emolitions this year alone.

Jewish National Fund Resumes Targeting Land in the Occupied West Bank

According to Peace Now, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) is set to resume its practice of purchasing land in the West Bank for use by Israeli settlers, after abandoning the effort many years ago. In the past, many of the JNF’s land purchases reportedly involved fraud, extortion, and/or forgery on the part of middlemen.

Peace Now writes, “Through purchasing lands in the occupied territories, JNF serves the settlers, hurts the possibility to arrive at a two state solution, and jeopardizes the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The JNF – which collects donations internationally, including in the United States – currently owns land (through its Israeli subsidiary) in numerous settlements, including Itamar, Alfei Menashe, Enav, Kedumim, Givat Ze’ev, Metzadot Yehuda, and Otniel. 

Settlers in Israeli Government Turn Blind Eye to Settlers Breaking Israeli Law

There have been several recent reports about structures inside of settlements that were built (or are being built) without the legally-necessary permissions, as Israeli officials turn a blind eye.

Notably, one report identifies dozens of unauthorized homes being built in the outpost of Hayovel (which is effectively an extension of the settlement of Eli), despite a stop-work order issued by Civil Administration (the arm of the Ministry of Defense that is sovereign in the West Bank). The construction is taking place virtually across the street from the home of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s own adviser on settlement affairs, who is himself a resident of the illegal outpost (Liberman is also a settler, residing in the settlement of Nokdim). The illegal construction will double the size of the outpost.

Another report reveals that Shlomo Ne’eman, the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council – which promotes the expansion of settlements in the Etzion bloc – lives in an illegal outpost. The Regional Council insists that the outpost is a “neighborhood” of the Karmei Tzur settlement, but aerial images show it is outside of the settlement’s municipal border. The Israeli Civil Administration has ordered the structures there to be demolished but has not carried out those orders. Settlement watchdog Kerem Naboth says, “Ne’eman has joined the list of elected officials and politicos among the settlers who are not only assisting others in stealing land, but are also doing it themselves.”

Haaretz notes that these two are part of a longer list of elected officials and senior civil servants living in illegal outposts, Also on that list far right-wing Knesset Member Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi), who lives in an illegally-built home in Kedumim (not coincidentally, Smotrich was one of the key backers of a law passed earlier this year to “legalize” such settlement illegalities). Likewise, a January report revealed that the head of the Finance Ministry’s department of building regulations enforcement, Avi Cohen, lives in an illegal outpost of the Eli settlement. At the time of the report in January, Rabbis for Human Rights said, “A situation in which the system responsible for enforcing building laws is headed by someone living in an outpost demonstrates contempt for the system and Israel’s values.”

Another report documents how in the Efrat settlement (in the Etzion settlement bloc) a school was recently expanded, illegally, on private Palestinian land located land outside of the settlement’s border. Funding for the project was raised by an organization, called the Ohr Torah Stone, which operates a branch in the United States and is eligible to receive tax-deductible donations from U.S. donors. According to settlement watchdog Kerem Naboth, the Efrat settlement itself was built on land that the Palestinian village of al-Khadr had long cultivated. Kerem Naboth reports, “aerial photographs from the 1980s indicate that in the past there was a vineyard on site.”

Former Israeli AG Says Sheikh Jarrah Property Should be Given to Palestinians

Speaking in Sheikh Jarrah, former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair called on the Israeli government to intervene to stop the eviction of the Shamasneh family from their longtime family home. Ben- Yair served as the AG from 1993-1997, under prime ministers Rabin and Netanyahu.

Ben-Yair, whose family lived in Sheikh Jarrah until 1948, suggested he would be ready to reclaim his family’s property and then transfer it to the Palestinians currently living there – and called on the government to adopt a policy to do exactly that, across the board. He said, ”If the Israeli government would have acted decently toward all its residents, including you [the Arab residents], it would have appropriated the properties in the neighborhood [from their Jewish owners who lived there before the War of Independence] and given these properties to the Palestinians who live there today.”

The former AG also noted that Jews who lost property in the 1948 war were already compensated – at the expense of Palestinians. Ben-Yair said, “My family and the family of my cousin who were forced to leave the neighborhood in January 1948 got properties of Palestinians refugees on Jaffa Road and in the Katamon neighborhood in west Jerusalem. They were worth much more than the properties that we left in Sheikh Jarrah.

Since we covered the Shamasneh family’s story last week, a temporary injunction against the eviction expired on Sunday, August 13th. The family’s lawyer requested a second injunction, but the petition is still pending. As of this writing the family is still living in the home.

Three New Outposts Near Nablus

The Palestinian Authority is reporting that settlers from the radical Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus, have moved 11 mobile homes to an area outside of the settlement, a move which would expand the settlement’s footprint. In addition, nine mobile homes were reportedly placed near the Palestinian village of Qusin, which is a few miles east of Nablus, and another nine were placed near the border of the Einav settlement, a few miles east of Qusin.

Updates: Al-Walajah, Sheikh Jarrah, Amichai Settlement

Updates from last week’s Settlement Report:

• Residents of the village of Al-Walajah were able to stop the demolition of one home last week by forming a human barrier around it, blocking a bulldozer from tearing it down. Approximately one third of the village is inside of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary. In this area specifically, Ir Amim estimates that 50% of the homes are under threat of demolition. Al-Walajah residents say the Israeli government has recently increased the rate of home demolitions significantly and has also resumed construction of the separation barrier around the village.
• UNRWA has weighed in on the pending eviction of the Shamasneh family from their home in Sheikh Jarrah. UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness states, “The members of the Shamasneh family are long-standing Palestine refugee residents in East Jerusalem, which is occupied territory and affected by continued settlement expansion contrary to international law. It is a matter of deep concern that Palestine refugees who have already endured multiple displacements should be subject to the humiliation of the kind inflicted by forced evictions.” The statement calls on the Israeli government to reconsider the eviction ruling.
• Construction on the first new settlement in 25 years, Amichai, remains stalled due to lack of government funding. After nearly three weeks of inactivity on the construction site, the families who the settlement is being built for are preparing to move to the area with semi-permanent structures and take up residence. On plans to move to the site while construction is stalled, one settler told Ynet News, “It is clear that when we do go there [to the site of Amichai], thousands of youths will join us. When we do, it will be to stay for good.”

Bonus Reads

• “Adalah opposes mandate of Israeli Interior Ministry borders cmte. weighing annexation of West Bank land to settlements” (August 13, 2017)

 

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FMEP has long been a trusted resource on settlement-related issues, reflecting both the excellent work of our grantees on the ground and our own in-house expertise. FMEP’s focus on settlements derives from our commitment to achieving lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and our recognition of the fact that Israeli settlements – established for the explicit purpose of dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of land and resources, and depriving them of the very possibility of self-determination in their own state with borders based on the 1967 lines – are antithetical to that goal.

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

August 9, 2017

1. Israel Moves Forward with Inflammatory Evictions & Home Demolitions in Jerusalem
2. Netanyahu Celebrates Expansion of Beitar Illit Settlement
3. Attorney General Requests Temporary Injunction Against “Regulation Law”
4. Palestinian Leaders Criticize U.S. Peace Efforts & Point to Silence on Settlements
5. New Poll Reveals Settlers Prefer the Status Quo to Annexation or Peace
6. Updates: Machpelah House; New “Amichai” Settlement; Netiv Ha’avot Outpost
7. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israel Moves Forward with Evictions & Home Demolitions in Jerusalem

Last week we covered three devastating bills moving in the Knesset that seeking to remove Palestinians and include far flung settlements in the borders of Jerusalem. Now, several seemingly small but incredibly significant developments in Jerusalem show how Palestinians are already being forced out of the city:

• 

  Map by Peace Now

  In Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian family is fighting against imminent eviction from their family home of 50 years, an eviction ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court. This is the first eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem since 2009 and comes on the heels of several inflammatory settlement announcements which will bring more Israeli settlers into the neighborhood that sits just north of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Court’s decision to evict the Shamasneh family relies on an Israeli law which allows Jews to regain East Jerusalem property owned before Jordan’s 1948 capture of that part of the city. Daily solidarity protests are reportedly being staged in an effort to prevent the family’s eviction.

• 

  Map by Emek Shaveh

  In Silwan, the settler group Elad is bidding to become the majority-owner of an apartment building that Palestinians are in a bidding war to keep. The Siyam family originally owned the entire building but over time lost control of one-half of it to the settlers another one-fourth of it to Israel’s Custodian of Absentee Property. The owners of the remaining one-fourth – Silwan non-violent opposition leader Jawad Siyam and his sister – currently reside. Now the Custodian is auctioning off its one-fourth share and if the settlers have the winning bid, it is a near certainty that Jawad and his sister will be evicted from the house by Israeli courts. This ownership battle could have a decisive impact on the character of this critically-located East Jerusalem neighborhood, which sits in the shadow of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Elad has long been active in Silwan, taking over properties and, working hand-in-hand with the Israeli government and Jerusalem Municipality, gaining control over the public domain via tourism and park projects at the expense of the Palestinian residents. Elad recently won the rights to build a state of the art visitor center that will also be a stop on the new cable car line running to the Mount of Olives. Elad’s efforts to take over Palestinian property in East Jerusalem rely in large part on Israel’s “Absentee Property Law” (1950), according to which Palestinians who were not present at their property immediately following the 1967 war are considered “absentee,” and consequently forfeit ownership rights to the Israeli government. The government can then dispose of the property as it sees fit. In Jerusalem, Elad’s multi-million dollar annual budget puts Palestinians at a potentially insurmountable disadvantage. When Israel used the “Absentee Property Law” in 2004 to seize Palestinian property in East Jerusalem, then-President George W. Bush called on Israel to reconsider the decision.

• In al-Walajah, a wave of home demolitions combined with the nearly completed construction of the separation barrier threatens to completely sever and displace al-Walajah’s residents from the West Bank (who hold West Bank IDs, rather than Jerusalem residency, despite the fact that in 1967 most of the village’s land was made part of Jerusalem). Just this week the Israeli government issued demolition orders against 14 Palestinian homes built without the proper permits (these permits are nearly impossible for obtain).
  

  Map by Ir Amim

  The 14 homes are in addition to 28 other homes already slated for demolition in the village. On the same day, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to temporarily delay the implementation of 7 of those previous orders in light of a petition brought to the court by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Residents of al-Walajah have fought the growing encroachment the nearby Etzion settlement bloc and the Israeli government’s attempt to de facto annex the bloc as part of “Greater Jerusalem.” Ir Amim explains several prongs of this effort, including a particularly unbelievably section of the separation barrier planned to almost completely encircle the village, to turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.

• In Jabal al-Mukaber, a neighborhood south of the Old City in East Jerusalem, Israel demolished four Palestinian homes without prior notice to the residents. Ma’an News reports, “Israeli authorities have stepped up issuing demolition warrants for Palestinians in East Jerusalem in recent months, particularly after Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat threatened that the demolition of the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank would be met with the mass demolition of Palestinian homes lacking the nearly impossible to obtain Israeli-issued building permits.”

Netanyahu Celebrates Expansion of Beitar Illit Settlement

Prime Minister Netanyahu attended a cornerstone-laying ceremony for hundreds of new homes set to be built in the Beitar Illit settlement, a massive, fast-growing, ultra-Orthodox settlement in the Etzion bloc. At the ceremony, Netanyahu proudly repeated his assertion that, “There is no government that does more for the settlement [movement] in Israel than the one under my leadership.” The project will annex a third strategic hilltop to the Beitar Illit, which like much of the Etzion bloc is located on the Israeli side of the separation barrier.

The same day Netanyahu visited Beitar Illit, several right-wing Knesset members traveled to the northern part of the West Bank to call on the Prime Minister to re-establish four Israeli settlements located near the West Bank city of Jenin, that were dismantled in 2005 of part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza. A bill has been introduced in the Knesset that would rescind the 2005 disengagement memo which led to the evacuation of the four settlements.

Attorney General Requests Temporary Injunction Against “Regulation Law”

On August 7th, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit weighed in on a petition filed with the Israeli Supreme Court challenging the legality of the “Regulation Law,” which was passed this year and provides a legal basis for retroactive legalization of outposts and other settlement activity in the West Bank on land owned by Palestinians. Mandelblit – who argued against passage of the Regulation Law late last year and after the law’s passage and said he would not defend it in court – asked the High Court to put a temporary injunction against the law until the Court issues its ruling. The injunction would prevent the Civil Administration (the arm of the IDF that rules over the West Bank) from using the law, and possibly from even taking the preliminary steps towards using the law, in order to retroactively legalize outposts and unauthorized settlement activity.

The petition against the Regulation Law (also called the “Expropriation Law,” the “Regularization Law,” the “Legalization Law,” or the “Settlements Law”) was filed in March by three leading Israeli settlement watchdogs: Yesh Din, Peace Now, and ACRI.

Palestinian Leaders Criticize U.S. Peace Efforts & Point to Silence on Settlements

The Palestinian outlook on President Trump’s negotiation efforts has grown outright grim this week. Any initial optimism has been replaced with a sense of abandonment on the part of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and the topic of unfettered settlement growth has been a recurring talking point. On August 7th in Ramallah, Jordan’s King Abdullah and the Palestinian Authority jointly called for the U.S. to unequivocally state its support for a two-state solution and reiterated that a complete settlement freeze remains a precondition for the resumption of negotiations, including in East Jerusalem. That statement should dispel any lingering questions regarding reports in June that the PA was willing to drop a settlement freeze as a precondition to peace talks.

The new statement comes after a week of terse, unscripted criticism by the Palestinians aimed at President Trump. A top Abbas advisor, Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, told Haaretz that that Palestinians no longer look to the U.S. to be helpful on the issue. Sha’ath said, “Palestinian efforts in the near term will be focused on the international arena in an effort to prevent accelerated settlement construction or the passing of laws that have direct consequences for the peace process.”

In an interview with Jewish Insider last week, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat did not mince words about his disappointment with the Trump administration’s earlier attempts to get the ball moving on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Of note, Erekat laments, “Israel announces thousands of new settlement units that make it almost impossible to achieve the two-state solution, and it’s merely met with silence from U.S. officials.” Erekat is not entirely correct about the U.S.’s silence. The U.S. Department of State has repeatedly issued the same ambiguous statement regarding Israeli settlement policy, that “unrestrained settlement activity is not helpful to the peace process.” The statement echoes President Trump’s remarks in February calling for Israel to “hold back a little” on settlements.

In a third report, an anonymous Palestinian official took aim at Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s senior-most envoys dealing with Israel and the Palestinians. The source said, “It’s not a nice thing to say, but they are both ardent supporters of the settlements.They are completely unfamiliar with the other side, they don’t understand the region and they don’t understand the material. You can’t learn about what is happening here in a seminar lasting just a few weeks.” The remarks came one day before the release of a recording of Jared Kushner revealed his thinking on the topic of Israeli-Palestinian issues during which he expressed a lack of interest in history lessons on the topic.

New Poll Reveals Settler Prefer the Status Quo to Annexation or Peace

A new poll reveals remarkable differences between Israeli Jews living within the borders of sovereign Israel and those living in settlements. It sheds light on who in Israel is benefitting from the current “status quo” (which was undefined in the poll’s questions to respondents):

Of Israeli settlers:

• 35% called for the continuation of the status quo
• 24% want Israel to annex the West Bank
• 15% want to see a peace agreement
• 10% back a decisive war against the Palestinians

Of Israeli Jews living in Israel:

• 18% called for the continuation of the status quo
• 9% want Israel to annex the West Bank
• 45% support a peace agreement
• 12% back a decisive war against the Palestinians

The poll also examined the views of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Updates: Machpelah House; New “Amichai” Settlement; Netiv Ha’avot Outpost

Several important updates to last week’s settlement report:

• In Hebron, settlers continue to illegally occupy the Machpelah House under the protection of the Israeli army, despite a new petition seeking their evacuation filed this week by Palestinians who claim to own the house. Last week, the head of the “Samaria Regional Council” Yossi Dagan, moved into the house along with his wife and three children. Approximately 120 Israeli settlers were already living there, having illegally broken into into the house last week in a bid to circumvent legal proceedings regarding rightful ownership. The IDF quickly declared the house a closed military zone, but the order has not been enforced, which is the only reason why Dagan and his family were able to enter the building. Yossi Dagan was elected head of the Samaria Regional Council in 2015. He opened a campaign office for Donald Trump during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and published an open letter to Steve Bannon expressing his admiration and support for the newly elected U.S. administration.
• Netanyahu’s cabinet gave a major boost to the stalled construction of a new settlement called Amichai by reportedly doubling the size of the government’s financial contribution to the project. Last week, after it was reported that construction has been halted due to lack of funds, Netanyahu quickly issued assurances that the problem will be fixed. The new Amichai settlement – the first to be approved by the government since 1991 – is being built in the Shilo Valley, deep inside of the West Bank, as the payoff for families who built the illegal Amona outpost and were evacuated earlier this year. Immediately next to the Amichai construction site, at the site of the future Shvut Rachel East settlement (which was the original plan to pay-off the Amona evacuees but was rejected because it wasn’t the preferred hilltop — but was nonetheless approved for construction by the Israeli government as a neighborhood of the Shilo settlement) several caravans have been moved onto the recently leveled land in preparation for further construction.
• In two separate meetings last week, settler leaders met with PM Netanyahu and his chief of staff in their bid to cajole the Prime Minister into intervening against a demolition order threatening 15 homes in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost near Bethlehem. Commenting on the issue while at a ceremony in the Beitar Illit settlement, Netanyahu committed to helping the affected families “within the framework of the law that would minimize the damage.” It’s not clear if the Prime Minister was referring to the past damage caused to the Palestinians who own the land upon which settlers built illegally, or the future damage it will cause to relocate the families who live in illegally built homes.

Bonus Reads

1. Who Profits Flash Report: “Tracking Annexation: The Jerusalem Light Rail and the Israeli Occupation” (July 2017)
2. “The Young Palestinian Men of East Jerusalem Have Nothing to Lose” (August 3, 2017 | Haaretz+)
3. Human Rights Watch: “Jerusalem Palestinians Stripped of Status” (August 8, 2017)
4. “Demographic hysteria leaves Jerusalemites by the wayside” (August 7, 2017 | +972 Mag)

 

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FMEP has long been a trusted resource on settlement-related issues, reflecting both the excellent work of our grantees on the ground and our own in-house expertise. FMEP’s focus on settlements derives from our commitment to achieving lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and our recognition of the fact that Israeli settlements – established for the explicit purpose of dispossessing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem of land and resources, and depriving them of the very possibility of self-determination in their own state with borders based on the 1967 lines – are antithetical to that goal.