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.

November 22, 2017

1. Israeli AG Support for Land-Grab Paves Way for Legalization of [at least] 13 Outposts
2. Israeli AG Approves Retroactive Legalization of “Mistaken” Land Theft
3. Israeli AG to Present Argument on the “Regulation Law” This Week
4. Threatened Eviction of Another Palestinian Bedouin Community in E-1
5. Israel Fast-Tracks Jerusalem Cable Car Project Despite Political Concerns
6. Settlers Fight for the “Right of Return” to Illegal, Inaccessible West Bank Settlements
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Israeli AG Support for Land-Grab Paves Way for Legalization of [at least] 13 Outposts

The far-reaching implications of the legal opinion issued last week by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit, in the context of a case dealing with the Harsha outpost, are becoming alarmingly clear. Haaretz reports that the opinion will pave the way for Israel to retroactively legalize 13 unauthorized outposts, many of which are deep inside of the West Bank. The 13 outposts (and many others) were all built without Israel’s permission on pockets of state land, surrounded by privately owned Palestinian land. Roads leading to these outpost – without which the outposts cannot be fully planned and legalized – were (or will be), by necessity, built on land owned by Palestinians. This opinion paves the way (pun intended) for that to happen.

Dror Etkes, founder of the anti-settlement group Kerem Navot, notes that the impact of the decision is actually far greater than reported by Haaretz: “The real number of [affected] outposts is over 60.” Etkes adds,

The story [is] that the settlers are striving to resolve, with Mandleblit’s help, involves hundreds (yes hundreds!) of roads that have been illegally paved for decades around settlements and outposts, on land that even Israel recognizes as privately-owned. Now, with a little creativity and a lot of nerve, a legal mechanism has been invented to enable settlers to retroactively authorize the road system, without which the national land grab enterprise championed by Israel in the West Bank, can’t function.

Notably, several outposts that spun off from the Itamar settlement are among those that could benefit from this new legal precedent. Near Nablus, Itamar’s hilltop outposts form a contiguous land bridge – with roads connecting them – from Itamar to the Jordan Valley. Itamar’s residents are notorious for their ultra-nationalism.

Israeli AG Approves Retroactive Legalization of “Mistaken” Land Theft

Attorney General Mandleblit has endorsed an argument, made for the first time since 1967, in a legal brief submitted this week in Court by the Israeli government, that paves the way for Israel to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land inside the Ofra settlement, and potentially in other places as well. The land in question was “mistakenly” included as part of the settlement. The State filed the brief this week in response to a legal challenge to the Ofra settlement’s Master Plan. 

The case centers on a “mistake” which happened when the Ofra settlement master plan was approved; Israel argues that at the time it did not know that some of the land in the area had not been declared “state land” (suggesting, at best, extraordinarily faulty due diligence in the planning process, and at worst, a policy of treating Palestinian land ownership claims as irrelevant). In 2016, the State acknowledged Palestinian claims to the land and announced its intention to rectify the problem by re-drawing the settlement’s master plan.

With this new argument, the State, backed by the Attorney General, has reversed the 2016 commitment and is instead moving to formally expropriate the Palestinian plots, arguing that the Ofra settlers acted in good faith based on the government’s approval of the Master Plan (i.e. that settlers should not be punished for the State’s mistake). Earlier this year, AG Mandleblit suggested this exact argument (that land stolen by mistake, in good faith, could be legalized as long as the Palestinian owners were compensated) as an alternative law for the Knesset to pass instead of the Regulation Law, which he opposed.

Commenting on the AG’s opinion, Tawfiq Jabareen, the lawyer representing the Palestinian petitioners, told Haaretz:

Attorney General Mandelblit is continuing to destroy the status of the rule of law and severely undermine Palestinian property rights in the occupied territories.

Israeli AG to Present Argument on the “Regulation Law” This Week

On Nov. 23rd, Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit is expected to present his argument on the “Regulation Law” to the Supreme Court. As we reported previously, Mandleblit was staunchly opposed to the Regulation Law, arguing that the law is unconstitutional and refusing to defend the law against legal challenges mounted by several civil society groups earlier this year. At the time the law was being considered, Mandleblit proposed an alternative legal strategy to accomplish the same goal: the retroactive legalization of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. 

Mandleblit has been expected to argue forcefully against the law, which provides a new legal basis for the retroactive legalization of outposts and agricultural land seizures, with Palestinian owners provided “compensation” (but no choice in the matter). Following the opinion Mandleblit issued last week regarding the Harsha outpost case (implications of which we detail above), and given his recent support for the retroactive legalization of land theft for the benefit of the Ofra settlement (detailed above), it is quite possible that his opposition to the retroactive legalization of land seizures has softened.

If upheld, the Regulation Law can be used to retroactively legalize 55 outposts and 4,000 unauthorized settlement structures by expropriating over 8,000 dunks of privately owned Palestinian land.

Threatened Eviction of Another Palestinian Bedouin Community

The wave of IDF-ordered evictions continued this week, with the Jabal al-Baba bedouin community only the latest to be affected. The approximately 300 residents were ordered to leave their encampment near the Maale Adumim/E-1 settlement area east of Jerusalem within 8 days. The Jabal al-Baba community has been living in the area since 1948, after it was expelled from the Negev.

The Jabal al-Baba community is the second bedouin community in the Maale Adumim/E-1 area to be faced with eviction this year. In August, Israel escalated its longstanding threat to forcibly relocate the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin community to a site near the Abu Dis garbage dump – a move that B’Tselem warns will constitute a war crime. FMEP has covered the story in detail, including as it relates to the prospects for the construction of the doomsday E-1 settlement.

Israeli actions to remove Palestinian bedouin communities from Area C are not confined to the Jerusalem area. On November 1st, the Israeli army ordered the eviction of an entire bedouin community in the northern Jordan Valley.

Israel Fast-Tracks Jerusalem Cable Car Project Despite Political Concerns

Haaretz reports that Israeli planning authorities are moving ahead with plans to build a controversial cable car line in East Jerusalem, despite growing opposition. As FMEP reported in July, the planned cable car line is designed to facilitate tourism to Jewish sites in East Jerusalem while preventing tourists from encountering Palestinians. It features a stop at the settler-run Kedem Center, which was built in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann explained

There are four worrisome aspects to this project. Without reference to political matters or religious sensitivities, this is a crime against Jerusalem. Disrespect for the unique value of the city and another example of the ‘disneyfication’ of Jerusalem under [Mayor Nir] Barkat. Someone who loves Jerusalem could not conceive of such a project. [The idea that] someone can send a cable car 150 meters away from the Al Aqsa Mosque is smoking the wrong thing….[the project] is another example of how the public interest and the interests of Jerusalemites are being subverted for the good of the settlers of Silwan, with the final station shamelessly at the Kedem Center, serving the narrow ideological interests of the settlers….[the project is] a clumsy attempt to unify the divided city by means of engineering gimmicks.

Settlers Fight for the “Right of Return” to Illegal, Inaccessible West Bank Settlements

Israeli settlers are angling to return to four settlements – Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur and Homesh – that were dismantled in 2005, as part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. Settlers have long insisted they will “return” to the sites.

In this latest effort, they are focusing on the argument that the land has not been used since they abandoned it. Falling in Area C, and therefore under the full authority of Israel’s Civil Administration, the former settlements remain vacant despite Palestinian desire to develop it. The Jenin Municipality, which has nominal jurisdiction over the location, reportedly wants to develop the areas but has not yet applied for the necessary Israeli permits; applying to do so, in any case, would almost certainly be futile, given that Israel issues virtually no permits for Palestinian construction in Area C. In the meantime, the sites have become a garbage dumpsites.

Two or the sites – Ganim and Kadim – can only be accessed by driving through the Palestinian city of Jenin, raising security issues that make their redevelopment into settlements a remote possibility. Sa-Nur and Homesh, in contrast, are easily accessible by settlers. Earlier this year settlers and supporters, including right-wing Israeli lawmakers, gathered at the site of Sa-Nur demanding that the government let them return. At the site of Homesh, radical settler youth are already squatting, have established a yeshiva (religious school) and actively prevent Palestinian access.

Bonus Reads

1. “How Israeli settlers turn archeological sites into political tools” (Al-Monitor)
2. “Ombudsman: Settlement council doctored tenders to reward right-wing NGOs” (Times of Israel)

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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.

October 26, 2017

1. Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 1: Cabinet to vote Sunday on “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill,”  with Netanyahu’s Backing
2. Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 2: East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave in Jabal Mukaber Set to Triple in Size
3. Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 3: First New East Jerusalem Settlement in Decades, Atarot, Is Inching Closer Towards Construction
4. The New U.S. Settlement Policy: Expand at Will, but Don’t Surprise Us
5. Israeli Justice Minister Personally Involved in Drafting State Responses to Settlement Petitions before the High Court of Justice
6. Updates: Netiv Ha’avot and the “Settler Security Package”
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 1: The “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill” is Set for a Vote on Sunday with Netanyahu’s Backing

The Israeli Knesset reconvened on Monday for it finals session of the year; in addition to a litany of anti-democratic bills [Americans Peace Now published an excellent explainer of those bills here], Netanyahu has reportedly signalled the Knesset to pass the “Greater Jerusalem Bill” [text here]. With Netanyahu’s approval, the bill is expected to be come up for a vote in the Cabinet on Sunday, October 29th, and after that to be sent to the Knesset.

If passed into law, the “Greater Jerusalem Bill” will:

1. 

   Map by Peace Now

   Effectively annex a an enormous area of the West Bank into Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, including not only the settlements but huge areas of adjacent land designated by Israel as belonging to the settlements. Peace Now has a map of the settlements/land  that will annexed [click for greater detail].

2. Include as part of Jerusalem settlements/lands located far from the current borders of Jerusalem, extending deep into the West Bank nearly to Jericho (the Palestinian city located on the border with Jordan) and including settlement located closer to Hebron than to Jerusalem.
3. Effectively annex the area of the planned E-1 settlement, the same area where the Khan al-Ahmar community continues to await the fate of Israel’s plan to forcibly relocate them (a war crime) out of the area.
4. Redraw the borders of the Jerusalem Municipality to cut out several Palestinian neighborhoods that are legally part of  the Municipality but that Israel elected to leave on the West Bank side of its separation barrier (these neighborhoods would have new “sub-municipalities” created for them).

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi stated bluntly “such efforts represent the end of the two-state solution.”

The anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now writes,

The bill states that its implementation would allow to maintain a “demographic balance” between Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem, and will allow for the expansion of construction of housing units and industry in the area. It is clear that the idea is to allow rapid settlement construction in settlements near Jerusalem and create facts on the ground which will prevent the chance for a two state solution, and at the same time excise Palestinian neighborhood by the formation of “sub-municipalities” or if you will, Bantustans, devoid of resources which will allow them to be self-sufficient.

J Street writes that passage of the bill,

would be a major step in Israel’s ongoing, de facto annexation of territory throughout the West Bank – and pose a massive threat to the possibility of ever achieving a two-state solution. If carried out, Israel would be crossing a major red line by unilaterally imposing its own solution to a vital final status issue.

In addition to the “Greater Jerusalem Bill,” a second bill regarding Jerusalem is also on the Knesset’s winter docket. If passed, this bill would amend Israel’s Basic Law to require a supermajority – 80 out of 120 votes – in the Knesset to approve any deal that transfers sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem to a foreign entity. This gives the Knesset veto power over any future peace deal reasonably assuming that the Palestinians will not agree to cede all of Jerusalem (it’s historic capital and home to sacred religious and national sites) to Israel.

Americans for Peace Now explains,

If passed into law, this measure would be unmatched in the Israeli legal code. No other Israeli government executive decision requires a two-thirds majority. This legislation would tie the hands of future governments in negotiating peace and will grant a de facto veto to representatives of the Israeli public’s anti-peace minority. The bill passed an initial vote and will need to pass three additional readings to become law. The absurdity is that the law, if passed, will surely garner significantly fewer than the 80 votes it demands for a future decision on Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, when these two bills were first unveiled, Terrestrial Jerusalem’s founder Danny Seidemann warned:

Cumulatively, these … initiatives constitute an effort to implement the most radical changes in the status of East Jerusalem since the Israeli annexation in June 1967, and threaten to profoundly detrimental impacts on the prospects of a future political agreement. Indeed, it is difficult to overestimate their significance. Together they would create a radically new geopolitical reality in Jerusalem and its environs.

Ir Amim also cautions:

The bills have not surfaced in a vacuum; they complement a series of recent initiatives calculated to impose crucial territorial-political facts on the ground under the guise of “municipal moves.” They would preempt chances of a political resolution to the conflict, weaken the urban fabric, and ratchet up tensions in Jerusalem.

Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 2: East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave in Jabal al-Mukaber Set to Triple in Size

In addition to the wave of settlement approvals by the Israeli High Planning Council last week [read last week’s Settlement Report here], on Oct. 25th, the Jerusalem Municipality issued conditional building permits for 176 new units in the Nof Zion settlement enclave. The permits are pending until the settlers submit proof of ownership papers; the missing paperwork has delayed the issuance of the permits since the plan was first leaked in early September (it’s not clear what has changed to allow for them to be issued now).

Nof Zion is inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel al-Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem. The new units will nearly triple the size of the enclave, making it the largest of its kind in East Jerusalem.

When reports of the building permits for Nof Zion surfaced earlier this year, it sparked outrage and concern over unrestrained settlement growth in East Jerusalem and its impacts on the future of Jerusalem. The same concerns are now more urgent and alarming, as it appears there are no settlement plans too controversial for the Netanyahu government to greenlight.

Ir Amim writes,

The primary objective of the settlers’ infiltration into the Palestinian neighborhoods in and around the Old City is to undermine the possibility of dividing Jerusalem, thereby foiling the possibility of a political resolution on the city and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The building permits will issue a clear statement that the Israeli government sanctions and supports the establishment of new facts on the ground designed for this purpose.

Assault on Jerusalem [And a Negotiated Solution], Part 3: First New, Government-Backed East Jerusalem Settlement in Decades, Atarot, Inches Closer Towards Construction

In a move described by city  planning experts as “nothing less than fantasty,” the Israeli government has set aside millions of shekels to build 10,000+ units in a new settlement planned at the site known as Atarot, in the northern part of East Jerusalem. If implemented, Atarot would be the first new government-backed settlement established in East Jerusalem since the construction of Har Homa in the 1990s [unless plans to move ahead with the new settlement of Givat Hamatos come to fruition first – in that case, Givat Hamatos would be the first new government-backed settlement established in East Jerusalem since the early 1990s; Atarot would be the second].

The planned Atarot settlement would be located in the northern part of the East Jerusalem, extending to the southern edge of the West Bank city of Ramallah. It would include 10,000+ units for ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis. The location for construction is site of the disused Atarot airport. The airport site is an important commodity, reportedly promised to the Palestinians for their state’s future international gateway. Developing the site into a Jewish Israeli settlement would deprive a future Palestinian state of the only airport in the West Bank, dismember Palestinian neighborhoods in the norther part of the city, and sever East Jerusalem from a Palestinian state on this northern flank of the city (acting like E-1 on Jerusalem’s northeast flank, and like Givat Hamatos on Jerusalem’s southern flank).

FMEP first reported on Atarot in April 2017 when the settlement plan was rumored to be  included on the master blueprint of settlements for which  Netanyahu intended to seek U.S. approval. It was expected to be announced in May on the occasion of the Jerusalem Day celebration, but until now, the plan has not advanced.

The plan dates back to 2007; it was pursued by the Israeli government in 2012 but shelved under pressure from the Obama administration. At that time, Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran observed:

Not only that this plan might severely harm the future Palestinian State, destroying the only airport in the West Bank, but it will also cut between East Jerusalem and Ramallah at the heart of many Palestinian neighborhoods: Shu’afat and Beit Hanina in the South, Bir Nabala, Al Judeira, Al Jib, Rafat and Qalandia in the West, Ar-Ram, Dahiyat al Bareed and Jaba’ from the East, and Qalandia Refugee Camp, Kafr ‘Aqab and Ramallah from the North. It seems that what the Givat Hamatos plan is meant to do in the South of Jerusalem (to cut between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem), this plan will, god forbid, do at the North of it. The goal of this plan is clear: to prevent the possibility of a Palestinian State in the West Bank, and thus to kill the two states solution.

This week, Peace Now commented:

This is a crazy plan, both politically and in terms of planning. It is an attempt to drive a wedge into the heart of an urban area of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Since the neighborhood of Har Homa was established in the 1990s, no new Israeli neighborhood has been built beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem.

Reported New U.S. Settlement Policy: Expand at Will, but Don’t Surprise Us

According to a report posted on Al-Monitor, two months of secret negotiations between the U.S. and Israel have resulted in an unofficial framework for how Israel, with U.S. approval, will advance and expand settlements. The agreement reportedly entails the following:

1. The U.S. will see all settlement plans Israel has decided to approve before they are advanced bureaucratically (i.e., before moves that allow them to become public).
2. Israel can approve plans for new settlement units anywhere that is adjacent to an existing unit (read: in any/all/every settlement or outpost).
3. With respect to the West Bank, there is an unspecified limit on the quantity of new units that each new settlement project is allowed.
4. With respect to East Jerusalem, there is no limit on the number of units allowed to advance as long as rules 1 & 2 are respected.

It should be noted that the only plan that appears to violate the letter of this leaked deal is the plan for the Atarot settlement in East Jerusalem, which is not adjacent to any existing units (rule #2).

Israeli Justice Minister Personally Involved in Drafting State Responses to Settlement Petitions before the High Court of Justice

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is coming under fire for her intervention in every case before the High Court related to Israeli settlements and unauthorized outposts. Haaretz reported this week that since being appointed, Shaked has retained the services of a private lawyer to review and redraft each and every state response related to settlements and outposts before that response is submitted to the High Court of Justice. Moreover, the lawyer Shaked selected for this task comes from the notorious far-right, pro-settler group Regavim — a group that devotes its efforts to systematically mapping out and expelling Palestinians from strategic areas in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Negev.
Further Haaretz reporting revealed the Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit and the State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan (whose office ostensibly produces the first draft of state responses that Shaked then edits) have defended Shaked against criticism for this heavy handed political interference in legal matters.

Updates: Netiv Ha’avot and the “Settler Security Package”

• 

  Map by Peace Now

  The Israeli High Court dismissed a state-backed petition by settlers challenging the planned demolition of  17 structures built wholly or partly on privately-owned Palestinian land in the unauthorized outpost of Netiv Ha’avot. The settlers asked that 15 of the structures only be partially demolished, leaving intact the portions of them that are not on Palestinian land. The Court rejected the request and ordered the structures to be demolished. The entire outpost of Netiv Ha’avot is slated to be razed by March 2018 following a High Court ruling. Just last week, the High Planning Council approved a plan (a plan it called “improper” but approved anyway) to build 17 temporary new homes for Netiv Ha’avot residents on lands between the Elazar and Alon Shvut settlements. This land parcel is outside of either of the settlements’ jurisdictions – in effect, it is another case of rewarding settlers for breaking the law by “compensating” them with the establishment of a brand-new settlement. However, to avoid the appearance that this is the case, the High Planning Council ordered the borders of Alon Shvut to be formally expanded before the structures are built to include the parcel (which would mean that the plan would not, retroactively, violate the new U.S.-Israeli policy understanding reported previously). 

• Settlers continued to protest Netanyahu even after news last week that the government plans to dispense $939 million in 2019 for the “settler security package” they are demanding. In an attempt to placate the settlers’ demands, Netanyahu met with the settler leaders to speed up his government’s timeline for beginning the West Bank settlement infrastructure projects, outlining a plan to invest $228 million beginning in next year. According to the unwritten plan, the 2018 projects will include paving five new settler-only highways to bypass Palestinian villages.

Bonus Reads

1. “Dangerously ‘imprecise’ on Israeli settlements” (Americans for Peace Now)
2. “Unprotected: Detention of Palestinian Teenagers in East Jerusalem” (B’Tselem & HaMoked)
3. “Settler Leaders Appeal to High Court Over Bypass Road” (Jerusalem Post)

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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 27, 2017

1. Netanyahu Delays Settlement Approvals at U.S. Request
2. High Court Hears Arguments on the Demolition & Forced Relocation of anan al-Ahmar
3. Another West Bank Community – Susiya – Faces Imminent Demolition (Again)
4. Israeli Military Sets Up New Guard Post in Area A
5. Defending their “Regulation Law,” Knesset Asks Court to Reject Palestinian Petitions
6. Palestinian Laborer Kills Three Israelis in Settlement Attack
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Netanyahu Delays Settlement Approvals at U.S. Request

Reportedly at the Trump Administration’s request, PM Netanyahu has put a two-week delay on a highly consequential meeting of the Civil Administration’s Planning Committee, which was set to consider advancing plans for the construction of as many as 2,000 new settlement units. The meeting had already been delayed at least once, out of concern for international blowback around the United Nations General Assembly confab last week. The delay comes as President Trump’s special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, arrives in the region to continue talks ostensibly aimed at restarting peace negotiations.

The decision angered Israel settlers and their allies, many of whom are already frustrated by Netanyahu’s failure to fulfill his promise to market tenders (a final step in the planning process) for 300 new units in the Beit El settlement earlier this month. Once the tenders are marketed, there will be a 60-day bidding period, after which the tenders will be awarded. Beit El is the settlement for which U.S. Ambassador David Friedman served as a longtime fundraiser, until his diplomatic appointment earlier this year. The settlement is deep in the West Bank, near Ramallah.

High Court Hears Arguments on the Demolition & Forced Relocation of Khan al-Ahmar

On September 25th, Israel’s High Court of Justice heard arguments [CORRECTED: The hearing scheduled for September 25th was delayed, and a new date for the hearing before the High Court has not yet been set. Read on for information about the State’s response to the petitions, submitted to the High Court this week.]  on two competing petitions regarding the future of the residents of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar. One petition, submitted by settlers living near Khan al-Ahmar, seeks to expedite the demolition of the village school. Another petition, submitted by Khan al-Ahmar’s residents (Palestinian Bedouins), seeks to delay the demolition of the village’s structures, all of which have been issued demolition orders.

We covered the background of the community – and Israel’s plan to forcibly relocate its residents [a war crime] to a site near a garbage dump, in order to expand the Maale Adumim settlement – in last week’s Settlement Report, which you can read here.

The Israeli government submitted its response to the petitions on Monday, saying it intends to carry out the demolition of the village and the relocation of its residents by mid-2018. The State asked the High Court to reject both petitions and allow the plan to advance. B’Tselem’s Executive Director Hagai El-Ad issued a blistering response to the State’s argument saying:

No sanctimonious language about a ‘planning, proprietary and realistic’ alternate, or ‘time to prepare’ can erase the disgrace or hide the facts: the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar means the forcible transfer of protected persons, and forcible transfer is a war crime. Those responsible for it will bear personal criminal liability – exactly as B’Tselem stated two weeks ago, in a letter addressed to the prime minister, defense minister, justice minister, chief of staff and the head of the Civil Administration.

Peace Now also issued a statement on the State’s response:

While the government argues that the residents of Khan al-Ahmar will received alternative housing, they will in fact be evacuated against their will for the benefit of settlers, and placed above the garbage dump in Abu Dis. This type of forceful evacuation of protected persons constitutes a severe violation of international humanitarian law.

It appears that the forceful displacement of the residents of Khan al-Ahmar is a form of “compensation” for his right wing supporters for the upcoming evacuation of the Illegal outpost of Derech Ha’Avot, following a High Court ruling.

It is shameful that settlers from Kfar Adumim, who received their lands for free from the government, are fighting for the evacuation of their Palestinian neighbors, who resided in the area long before them.

Ahead of the hearing, the Haaretz editorial board penned a plea to the Court against the forced relocation and replacement of West Bank Bedouin with Jewish settlements, stating:

This political project – the forced uprooting of Bedouin communities, replacing them with new Jewish settlements – is against international law. It has reached the doorstep of the High Court justices, who are under constant pressure to “respect the will of the people” – that is, the will of the settlers who control the government – even though this will is neither legal nor moral. It must be hoped the justices will be able to stand in the breach.

Another West Bank Community – Susiya – Faces Imminent Demolition (Again)

The Israeli Defense Ministry is “no longer willing to postpone” the demolition of the Palestinian community of Susiya, according to Haaretz reporting. A senior security official told Haaretz that the demolition will happen within a few months. 

Like the Khan al-Ahmar community, the Palestinian residents of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills are the target of Israeli demolition orders and relocation plans. The community that makes up Susiya has a long history, as reported by Haaretz:

Susiya has long been a symbol of both Palestinian steadfastness and Israeli policies. In 1986, Israel expelled the residents from their original ancient village, whose lands were declared a national park. In 2001, they were thrown off their agricultural lands, where they had settled after the earlier expulsion. The High Court of Justice allowed them to return, but didn’t order the authorities to allow them to rebuild. As a result, all the structures in the village were built without permits and are at risk of demolition. The Civil Administration never prepared a master plan for Susiya and rejected the plan the residents had submitted, demanding instead that the residents move to an area near the city of Yatta. The residents refused, but agreed to meet with Civil Administration officials to try to come to some understanding.

The plight of Susiya’s residents continues to inspire a vibrant civil society campaign in both the U.S. and in Israel. Notably, the Obama Administration intervened in the case of Susiya as recently as last year. Back in November 2016, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) a statement praising PM Netanyahu’s decision to delay the demolition (the link includes links to Feinstein’s long engagement on this issue). In 2015, 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry raising the village’s plight. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN are a few major U.S. outlets that have featured the Susiya’s story sympathetically.

Israeli Military Sets Up New Guard Post in Area A

Peace Now this week published a report documenting the fact that the Israeli army recently established a new guard post in the West Hebron Hills, in a part of the West Bank that is designated as “Area A.” Under the 1995 Interim Agreement, the Palestinian Authority has full civil and security control in the 18% of the West Bank designated as “Area A.” Israeli forces are not allowed to operate in – or even enter – Area A; however, for years Israel has insisted on its right to “hot pursuit” in Area A, carrying out operations at it pleases.

The establishment by the IDF of a static post in Area A (dispensing with even the pretense that the operation is related to “hot pursuit”) represents a new and significant escalation in Israel’s violation of the 1995 Interim Agreement. According to Peace Now, the new “pill box” guard post was built “in the heart of the Palestinian village of Khursa in the West Hebron Hills….in order to protect vehicles of the Negohot settlers, who drive through Area A in order to shorten the way between Jerusalem and the South Hebron Hills.” The Negohot settlement was established in 1999 without official Israeli authorization. A jurisdiction was approved to retroactively legalize the settlement in 2013.

Peace Now said:

The placing of a guard post in area A is a blatant violation of the Oslo Accords and shows the length the Israeli government is willing to go in order to help a handful of settlers take a shortcut on their way home. The new IDF guard post illustrates, yet again, that the settlements do not contribute to Israel’s security, but rather pose a national security burden.

Defending their “Regulation Law,” Knesset Asks Court to Reject Palestinian Petitions

This week the Israeli Knesset submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice its response to petitions challenging the constitutionality of the “Regulation Law,” which was passed by the Knesset in February 2017. The law provides a legal basis to retroactively legalize Israeli outposts, settlement structures, and agricultural lands that were built illegally (i.e., without permission and/or on land recognized by Israel as privately owned by Palestinians).

The Knesset’s legal advisor argued that Israel is able to selectively write laws for the West Bank. The Knesset asserts it must do so in this case because no other means exist to legalize the settlement homes and outposts [Note: no other means exist because, according to rule of law, the law applies, regardless of whether politicians like the results].The Knesset’s response asks the Court to reject petitions against the Regulation Law.

Last month, a private lawyer hired by the government submitted the State’s response to the petitions, after the Israeli Attorney General declared the law illegal and refused to defend it. The State’s response claimed that the law is legal because Israel can legislate in the West Bank and because the law provides an avenue to compensate the dispossessed Palestinian landowners.

Peace Now and Yesh Din are among the 13 civil society groups leading a legal challenge to the law on behalf of Palestinians. According to data collected by Peace Now, the law will lead to the expropriation of over 8,000 dunam (nearly 2,000 acres) of private land upon which structures have been built illegally – and tens of thousands of dunams of land on which agricultural crops have been planted. The land designated for expropriation is owned by thousands of Palestinians, among them many of the residents of the villages represented in the petition.

Palestinian Laborer Kills Three Israelis in Settlement Attack

On September 26,, a Palestinian man opened fire at the gate of the Har Adar settlement, near Jerusalem. He killed three Israelis – two civilian security guards (one of them a Palestinian citizen of Israel)and one border policeman – and injured another guard. The assailant, who was killed at the scene, was identified as 37-year-old Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal from the neighboring Palestinian village Beit Surik. He reportedly had an Israeli-issued work permit (which requires security screenings) to enter the settlement, where he was employed as a cleaner. Jamal reportedly had no security record and was married with four children (meaning he did not fit any profile for someone who might commit such an attack). He was reportedly having serious personal and family problems.

Shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a range of Israelis responses targeting not the assailant (who died in the attack) but his family, his immediate community, and potentially Palestinians beyond that: the assailant’s house will be demolished and any work permits issued to his relatives (extended family) will be revoked. The attacker’s hometown, Beit Surik, was sealed-off by the Israeli army, and his brothers was arrested. Additional Israeli troops were sent into the area around Har Adar, which sits in what Israel calls the “seam zone,” i.e., the area of the West Bank that runs along, and sometimes on the  Israeli side of, the separation barrier. Netanyahu also blamed President Abbas and Palestinian official “incitement” for the attack, despite Israel media reporting widely on the personal problems of the attacker.

FMEP President Lara Friedman has written about how Israel’s response to terror, many elements of which have already unfolded around this attack, amounts to collective punishment.

Bonus Reads

• “Israeli settler sics dog on border police” (Times of Israel)
• “Israeli settler torch olive trees in revenge attack” (The New Arab)

 

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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.

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