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.

January 20, 2023

1. Postponed: Plan to Massively Expand East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave
2. Coalition Deal Enables Massive Hebron Settlement Plan to Advance
3. Settlers to Petition Government to Annex Jordan Valley 
4. Bonus Reads

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Postponed: Plan to Massively Expand East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave 

Just hours before the Jerusalem Planning Committee was scheduled to advance a new plan to massively expand the Nof Tzion settlement enclave (located inside the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber), consideration of the plan was removed from the agenda. Consideration of this plan has been postponed several times in recent months, with this latest deferral coming just before U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel.

The plan – called “Nof Zahav” – would allow for 100 new residential units and 275 hotel rooms in the settlement enclave, which currently consists of 95 units, plus another  200 under construction. In order to provide sufficient land for this expansion, the Jerusalem Planning Committee is simultaneously advancing another plan to relocate an Israeli police station [the Oz station], currently located on the border of Jabal Mukaber, to a new site across the street. This will leave its original location free for the planned expansion of Nof Zion, while the new site will become a massive new Israeli security headquarters. Ir Amim filed a petition against the police station plan, arguing that it is an affront to the planning needs of the local community and that it represents a continuation of Israel’s systematic, city-wide discrimination against the housing, educational, and service-based needs of Palestinian neighborhoods. A decision on the police station relocation plan is expected soon. 

Ir Amim further explains the impact of these plans:

“Expanding the settlement towards the main entrance of Jabal Mukabber will infringe on the residents’ freedom of movement and further disrupt the fabric of life in the neighborhood. Prior experience show that during clashes and periods of tension and instability, Israel rushes to impose collective restrictions under the pretext of protecting Israeli settlers.”

Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tartarsky told Haaretz:

“In Jabel Mukaber, the state is handing over Palestinian homes to settlers just as in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan… [A new settlement] that controls the entrance to Jabel Mukaber, will deepen the presence of the police, the border guard and armed security guards, which will harm the sense of security and disrupt daily life for the tens of thousands of neighborhood residents.”

Coalition Deal Enables Massive Hebron Settlement Plan to Advance

Haaretz reports that the coalition deal between the Likud and Religious Zionism parties includes an agreement to hand control of West Bank lands/properties owned by Jews before 1948 (and lost in the 1948 War)  back to their original owners (or their descendants). These assets have been held by the Israeli army since 1967, when Israel established its occupation of the West Bank, and since the 1990s Israeli government policy has viewed the disposition of these assets as a matter for final status talks with Palestinians. 

Peace Now and Bimkom estimate that 13,000 dunams (3,250 acres) of land in the West Bank are implicated in this policy, including about 70 buildings in central Hebron, the handover of which will enable  the realization of an Israeli plan to convert the old wholesale market into a new settlement compound.

In addition to buildings in Hebron, the move will affect land located for the most part in the areas surrounding Bethlehem as well as plots in the area of the Palestinian villages of Nabi Samwil, Batir, and Beit Furik – including plots in Area B of the West Bank, as defined by the Oslo Accords. 

As a reminder, while Israel implements this Jewish right to reclaim properties lost in the 1948 War (as it has done systematically in East Jerusalem for years), Israeli law systematically denies Palestinians any rights to claim properties they lost in that same war.

Settlers to Petition Government to Annex Jordan Valley 

The Sovereignty Youth Movement – a group of young settlers – has been gathering signatures for a letter calling on the Israeli government to annex the Jordan Valley. The group reportedly plans to send the letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu in the coming days. 

Meanwhile, six settlers in the Jordan Valley were caught on film violently attacking a group of tourists and Palestinians who were on a hike near Jericho. Settlers are seen striking the group with clubs and using pepper spray. The Israeli army arrived in time to escort the hikers out of danger, but no arrests were made (or have been since). Three hikers went to the hospital for their injuries.

One Israeli activist familiar with the area identified the attackers seen on video as residents of a nearby outpost, one of whom is known to be violent towards Palestinian shepherds.

Bonus Reads

1. “On Flimsy Grounds:  Israel’s Pervasive Night Arrests of Palestinian Children” (HaMoked)
2. “Protection of Civilians Report | 20 December 2022 – 9 January 2023” (OCHA)
3. “Israel’s new army chief Herzi Halevi forced to navigate multiple bosses, far-right whims” (Al-Monitor)
4. “Opinion | The Cost of De Facto Annexation Will Be Paid in Blood” (Haaretz)
5. “Israel to open ‘there is no occupation’ campaign, new minister says” (Jerusalem Post)
6. “Israeli army survey number of residents of two Masafer Yatta hamlets” (WAFA News)
7. “Give up your right to live in the West Bank, or never see your children in Gaza again” (+972 Magazine)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 23, 2022

1. Smotrich Asks for Finance Ministry & Extensive Powers Over the Settlements in Exchange for Forgoing Defense Ministry Post 
2. Settlers Attack Palestinians (and an Israeli Soldier) in Hebron
3. New Report on Silwan/”City of David” & Elad
4. New Report on the Ben Hinnom Valley
5. “Insuring Dispossession”: New Report Examines Role of 5 Israeli Insurance Companies in Enabling Occupation

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Smotrich Asks for Finance Ministry & Extensive Powers Over the Settlements in Exchange for Forgoing Defense Ministry Post 

Israeli press is widely reporting that Bezalel Smotrich has agreed to back down from his demand to be appointed the next Defense Minister on the condition that he is named as Finance Minister and also that he will be given the authority to name a key official in the Defense Ministry who oversees policies related to the settlements. Settler media further reports that Smotrich has asked for the entire issue of settlements to be transferred from the Defense Ministry to the Finance Ministry – a move that would put the settlements under direct Israeli law (in effect, annexing them, even without any formal declaration of annexation). It is not clear at the time of reporting if Netanyahu has agreed to Smotrich’s demands.

Settlers Attack Palestinians (and an Israeli Soldier) in Hebron

What started ostensibly as a religious gathering of settlers in Hebron turned into a frenzied, violent mob composed of an estimated 32,000 settlers and their supporters. The mob marched through Hebron, attacking Palestinians, their homes, and their shops in the Old Market of Hebron. In anticipation of clashes, the IDF forced Palestinian shop owners to close their stores  Prior to the march, and then provided protection and security assistance to the marchers. According to one account (and as documented in multiple videos), IDF soldiers little or nothing to protect Palestinians who were being chased, beaten, and harrassed by the Israeli crowd, or to hold the attackers responsible.

As a reminder, Hebron is the clearest example of Israeli apartheid in action. In the city where 99.6% of the population is Palestinian, the Israeli army and settlers together strangle Palestinian life through severe restrictions on freedom of movement, access to education, commercial opportunities, and basically every facet of life — all for the purposes of supporting the existence and constant expansion of settler enclaves in the city, and the freedom of movement and impunity for the settler residents. 

The Haaretz Editorial Board published an incisive response to the events in Hebron:

“The police announced that they had prepared for the event in advance. But in a place where Jewish supremacy is anchored militarily (under “full Israeli security control”), preparations by the security forces mean only one thing – clearing swaths of the city of Palestinians to enable the Jewish masters to march through its streets…the incoming government not only isn’t interested in stopping this dangerous energy. It’s even riding it. The incidents in Hebron are emblematic of the spirit of the time. And from that standpoint, one can and should view these events as a preview of what is likely to happen in Israel and the West Bank under the rule of Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.”

The clashes received media attention in Israel largely because those injured by the maruading settlers included a female IDF soldier (who was attacked by a settler with a stick – she was injured and briefly hospitalized) and an Israeli bodyguard of MK Itamar Ben Gvir. The injured soldier has pressed charges against the attacker, who turned out to be a 17-year-old. Additionally, an off-duty sareli soldier who participated in the mob was arrested in connection with the riot.

New Report on Silwan/”City of David” & Elad

Al-Haq – the preeminent Palestinian human rights group that has been targeted by the Israeli government – has published a lengthy report (and a short video) on settler initiatives in Silwan, entitled “Finding David: Unlawful Settlement Tourism in Jerusalem’s so-called City of David.” The report provides legal analysis on how the ‘City of David’ – a Palestinian-populated area of Silwan that Israel has for years been actively working to transform into an archeological-tourist site, and management of which, in the service of this goal, has been given over to the Elad settler group –  serves to “forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes, lands and properties in the context of Israel’s plan to organise a demographic change in Jerusalem.” 

On Elad, Al-Haq writes incisively:

“Elad’s objective is to use the archaeological remains in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan to support Israel’s political claim over Jerusalem, Judaise the space and forge links with Jewish tourists through education and tourism programmes at the ‘City of David’ settlement. Presenting a Zionist Jewish tourism narrative operates in parallel with the State goals of inviting Jews to move to Israel and colonise unlawfully appropriated Palestinian lands.50 Elad concurrently operates a settlement programme deep into the heart of the picturesque Palestinian hilltop neighbourhood of Silwan and forcing the removal of Palestinian families. In doing so, the systematic erasure of the Palestinian past (through archaeology) and Palestinian present (through tourism) is an integral part of the colonisation and Judaisation of Silwan.”

In conclusion, Al-Haq writes:

“The ‘City of David’ is a political tool in Israel’s strategy to maintain and entrench its apartheid and settler-colonial regime over Jerusalem. The settlement exemplifies the importance of narratives in Israel’s settler-colonial enterprise, where the search for purported historical legitimacy becomes a national goal. At the illegal ‘City of David’ settlement, the Israeli state, archaeologists (both local and international) and settler organisations work to erase Palestinian presence; historically through the destruction and designation of the Palestinian artefacts and contemporaneously through the forced removal of Palestinians from their archaeologically rich lands. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of tourists stroll through the settlement each year, failing to see what happens around them.”

New Report on the Ben Hinnom Valley

Emek Shaveh has published a new report surveying the myriad of settlement projects in and around the Ben Hinnom Valley of East Jerusalem, including their history and current legal status, which are controlled by the Elad settler group (in parallel to Elad’s control over projects in Silwan/”City of David”). 

In previewing the report, Emek Shaveh writes:

“The developments described in this report underscore Elad’s control over a highly strategic area that links West Jerusalem to important sites in Silwan/City of David adjacent to the Old City walls. The new route provides access to the northeastern Sambuski Jewish Cemetery, where it descends toward the City of David site, the Elad Foundation’s flagship project in Silwan. At its eastern tip, the valley borders the al-Bustan neighborhood which, according to a municipal plan, will lead into a garden that simulates that of the biblical King David.

Activities in the Hinnom Valley are integral to the efforts to transform the Historic Basin of Jerusalem and force Palestinians out of the area. Together with the appropriation of Palestinian homes and lands,  the creation of archaeological touristic attractions that tell an exclusive Judeo-centric story of the city serves to legitimize the settlement enterprise in the eyes of the Israeli and international publics. Needless to say, this process is highly detrimental to the prospect of a negotiated political resolution for the conflict.

This report will detail developments in the valley as documented by Emek Shaveh, and outline the mechanisms used to accomplish the Elad Foundation’s objectives including: Exploitation of legal and administrative mechanisms to promote Elad’s interests; Selective enforcement; Influence over planning institutions to promote plans that fundamentally change the character and demographics of the valley; Direct influence over State authorities – the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), along with links to the Ministry of Education, IDF, and other authorities – which serve to promote plans and activities that alter the Hinnom Valley’s landscape and undermine its heritage.”

“Insuring Dispossession”: New Report Examines Role of 5 Israeli Insurance Companies in Enabling Occupation

In a new report, Who Profits — and an independent research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international corporations in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands — examines the complicity of five key Israeli insurance companies in enabling the occupation by financing the construction of settlements, settlement infrastructure, Israeli military, and activities that exploit natural resources in the West Bank. Who Profits concludes that the five companies are among the “prime financiers of Israel’s economic and political agendas,” noting that the companies “are involved in widespread activities that work to entrench Israel’s prolonged military occupation and processes of colonial dispossession and control.”

You can read the report here.

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 4, 2022

1. Apartheid in action: Israel proceeds with plan to cut off Al Walajah from lands & water source 
2. In Response to Settler Violence in Hebron, IDF punishes Palestinians — Declares Issa Amro’s Home and surrounding area a “Closed Military Zone”
3. Israel Seizes More Land to Expand Eli Settlement
4. Settler Terrorism Visualized in New Infographic
5. Bonus Reads

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Apartheid in action: Israel proceeds with plan to cut off Al Walajah from lands & water source 

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem Municipality allocated NIS 3 million to implement its plan to relocate a key IDF checkpoint leading to the Palestinian village of Al-Walajah, a village which is located on (and partially within) the southern perimeter of Jerusalem’s expanded municipal borders. The effort to move the checkpoint closer to the built-up area of Al-Walajah is part of the Israeli government’s long running effort to take control over an increasing amount of land – and importantly, the Ein Haniya spring – that historically belongs to Al-Walajah. Israel’s plan to relocate the checkpoint has been frozen for the past four years, after a petition against the plan filed by residents of Al-Waljah was rejected by the Israeli courts. Now it appears to be proceeding. Ir Amim explains what is happening behind the scenes:

“According to Ir Amim’s initial inquiries, no building permit necessary for the relocation and construction of the new checkpoint appears to currently exist. The Finance Committee’s agenda cited that the checkpoint’s relocation is being carried out at the request of the Jerusalem Municipality, Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, and the Israel Police. However, the checkpoint constitutes a military facility–the location of which should be determined by the Israeli army. Yet, the army is not among the Israeli bodies requesting its relocation; therefore, claims stating that such a measure is necessary for “security reasons” can be interpreted as unsubstantiated.  If the checkpoint is relocated, it will have dire consequences on the residents of al-Walaja, their agricultural lands, and their livelihoods.”

By relocating the checkpoint to a point closer to Al-Walajah, Palestinians from the village will no longer have unfettered access to approximately 1200 dunams of agricultural land, including the site of the Ein Haniya springs. The Ein Al-Hanya spring, which the Jerusalem Municipality declared a national park in 2013 and then spent years and millions of dollars renovating into a tourist destination, is located on land historically part of Al-Walajah and it long served as a main source of water for households, farms, and recreational purposes for the village’s residents. Ir Amim explains this model of land seizure, writing: 

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

Since 1967, Al-Walajah has suffered due to its location and its complicated status (much of the village’s lands, including areas with homes, were annexed by Israel in 1967, but Israel never gave the villagers Jerusalem legal residency by Israel – meaning that under Israeli law, their mere presence in their homes is illegal). Today it is acutely suffering from a multi-prong effort by the Israeli government and settlers to grab more land for settlement expansion in pursuit of the “Greater Jerusalem” agenda. This land grab campaign includes home demolitions (four homes in Al-Walajah were demolished by Israel on November 2, 2022, for example), the construction of the separation barrier and bypass roads in a way that seals off the village on three sides, and the systematic denial of planning permits.

In Response to Settler Violence in Hebron, IDF punishes Palestinians — Declares Issa Amro’s Home and surrounding area a “Closed Military Zone”

On October 31st, the IDF has declared the immediate area around the home of prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro to be a “closed military zone” – an order which prevents the operations of Amro’s community organization, Youth Against Settlements, which operates partially out of Amro’s home. Under the order, Amro is the only person permitted to enter the house.

The order was issued after Amro made three attempts to file a complaint with Israeli police in Hebron regarding one particularly violent attack by settlers, parts of which were caught on video. Police turned Amro away. In a video message explaining the situation, Amro says that the closure order follows years of settlers trying to take over his home, which is located in the heart of downtown Hebron, sandwiched between settlement enclaves.

Michael Sfard, a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer representing Amro, wrote a letter to the Israeli army requesting a criminal investigation into the officer who issued the closure order, saying the order is:

“so arbitrary that there is no doubt that [it was not the product of] good faith or a mistake in judgment but rather signed with the knowledge that it was not directed at the person who has been disturbing the peace and was meant to satisfy the thugs who had initiated the attacks and ‘friction.’”

Israel Seizes More Land to Expand Eli Settlement

On October 31st, Wafa News reports that the Israeli army issued a military order seizing 152 acres of land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Qaryout and al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya (near Nablus) in order to expand the Eli settlement. No further details were reported.

Settler Terrorism Visualized in New Infographic

Visualizing Palestine published a superb new graphic that communicates the severity and totality of escalating settler terrorism targeting Palestinians and their property. 

Bonus Reads

1. “Britain Scraps Plan to Move Embassy to Jerusalem” (Haaretz)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

October 13, 2022

1. Settlers Continue Attacks on Palestinians Around Nablus, also Target Israeli Soldiers
2. Ben Gvir Joins, Escalates Settler Attacks in Sheikh Jarrah
3. Settlers Attack Palestinian Olive Harvest, Seize Control of Silwan Grove
4. Hebron-Area Town Emptied for Israeli Military, Settler Event
5. Bonus Reads

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Settlers Continue Attacks on Palestinians Around Nablus, also Target Israeli Soldiers

It has been another week of settlers and their allies rampaging across the northern West Bank while Palestinians in Nablus continue to be held hostage by the Israeli army, which continues to severely restrict traffic into and out of the city. 

On October 19th, settlers once again attacked Palestinians in Huwara, but this time also turned their violent anger against IDF soldiers attempting to intervene. Two soldiers were injured by the settlers attack, resulting in condemnation from Israeli politicians (even Kahanist MK Ben Gvir), and the IDF arrested an IDF soldier who allegedly joined the settler attack. The Israeli army later released a statement that seemingly condemned the settler attacks on soldiers without actually condemning them (this is the distinction between someone saying “I condemn racism” and “everyone has an obligation to condemn racism” – the first is an actual condemnation; the second, not so much). Notably, that statement also avoids the harsh language routinely used by the IDF with respect to Palestinian stone-throwers, and also, notably, the statement doesn’t even mention settler attacks on Palestinians as something the army condemns or thinks even should be condemned:

“Harm against IDF soldiers by settlers, who are protected by them, is wrongful behavior which we have an obligation to denounce and to work against vociferously.”

IDF chief Aviv Kohavi echoed the same sentiments the following morning: 

“This is a very serious incident, embodying shameful and disgraceful criminal behavior, which requires swift and strict justice. I support the important activity of IDF soldiers, who work around the clock to protect the residents of Israel. It is unacceptable that IDF soldiers who defend diligently and devotedly will be violently attacked by settlers.

Ben Gvir Joins, Escalates Settler Attacks in Sheikh Jarrah

On October 13th settlers led a rampage through the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, during which settlers and their supporters threw stones at Palestinian houses and destroyed Palestinian property in a show of power and impunity. The settlers were joined by Kahanist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who pulled out a handgun while urging Israeli police to shoot any Palestinian seen throwing stones (caught on video).

The resulting clashes left more than two dozen Palestinians injured – including one seriously injured man who was struck on the head by a young settler wielding a metal bar. Two settlers were also injured.

Settlers Attack Palestinian Olive Harvest, Seize Control of Silwan Grove

The olive harvest season started this month, marking an annual period of intensive settler attacks against Palestinians olive trees and harvesters. Attacks this week took place across the West Bank, including in Nablus, Tulkarem, and in Bethlehem where settlers severely beat Israelis assisting in the harvest.

In Silwan, settlers and soldiers have colluded to seize control of a historic olive grove. The grove and surrounding area was registered as “absentee property” by the Israeli government in 2021, despite the fact that Palestinian farmers have long worked the land and have documents showing their ownership of the plots dating back decades. Once the land was seized by the government, Israeli authorities turned it over to the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) to manage. 

In July 2022, +972 Magazine revealed that the NPA signed a contract with the Elad settler group to manage the olive grove —  a contract which was connected to the wishes of an American donor who promised to donate the grove to Elad. At the time, a staff member of Elad reportedly promised the Palestinian farmers who had tended to the olive grove for decades that they would be permitted to continue harvesting the trees. 

Lo and behold, a few months later Palestinian farmers are now being denied access to their trees. Adding insult to injury, soldiers and settlers were seen picking olives from the trees days before the Palestinians were turned away. +972 Magazine reports:

“The establishment of the “agricultural farm” was intended to “restore biblical agriculture with a modern approach,” the Elad farm manager told Local Call during a visit to the area about two months ago. The manager said that although the farm area is fenced off, the Palestinian landowners are still allowed to enter to take care of the trees and harvest them when the season comes. He also said that the organization does not bring visitors to the olive plots nor allow them to harvest there, and that they only carry out development work in these plots. A few weeks later, when the manager was asked by activists what changes had occurred that allowed the soldiers to enter and harvest the trees earlier this month, he replied that he had received new directives from the Nature and Parks Authority permitting them to pick the olives there. According to him, he did not have this permission a month and a half ago.”

Uri Ehrlich, the media coordinator of Emek Shaveh – an NGO that combats the exploitation of archeological and heritage sites as political tools for dispossession – told +972 Magazine: 

“For hundreds of years, the Palestinian residents of Wadi Rababa/ Ben Hinnom planted and tended to the olive trees. The attempt by the police to prevent the harvest is part of an effort to negate the Palestinian history of the valley — which itself is a part of the Judaization of East Jerusalem led by the state, the Nature and Parks Authority, and Elad. It is destined to fail. The olive trees and the traditional agriculture of the Palestinians will continue to exist.”

Hebron-Area Town Emptied for Israeli Military, Settler Event

Haaretz reports that the IDF and settlers held a celebratory conference in the heart of the Palestinian town of Khirbat al-Karmil in the South Hebron Hills, and ordered Palestinians to vacate the area – which includes a water reservoir that services the town.

The town, located in Area A where the Oslo Accords afforded Israel civil and security control, is the site of an ancient pool that settlers have frequently invaded an with army escort during Jewish holidays, in a blatant attempt to takeover the area. The military’s event this week undoubtedly encourages and aids the settlers in their efforts.

Bonus Reads

1. “Jaffa may become the next Sheikh Jarrah as Palestinians are pushed out” (Mondoweiss)
2. “Israeli Settler Violence Surges as Palestinians Turn to Armed Resistance” (Jewish Currents)
3. “How my family came face to face with settler violence on the road to Nablus” (+972 Magazine)
4. “Brutal settler attacks on Huwwara find allies in Israeli soldiers” (Middle East Eye)
5. “’24 hours of hell’: Israeli settler gangs terrorize Palestinian town under army protection” (Mondoweiss)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 4, 2022

1. Encircling Jerusalem: Israel Advances Settlement Plans Across the City, While Settler Projects Tighten the Noose
2. Dumping Any Pretense of Respect for Rule of Law, Israeli High Court Reverses Course, Allows Mitzpe Kramim Outpost to be “Legalized”
3. Settlers Acquire Another Home in Downtown Hebron
4. Elad Closes Palestinian Access Road Near Sambuski Cemetary in Silwan
5. This Week in Area C, Part 1: JNF Approves Purchase of Palestinian Land In Jordan Valley While High Court Weighs Petition
6. This Week in Area C, Part 2: Regavim Files Petition Pushing for Immediate Demolition of Palestinian Construction in Area C
7. This Week in Area C, Part 3: Settlers Continue to Occupy Six Sites After Recent Attempt to Establish New Outposts En Masse
8. Groups Petition to Cancel New Israeli-Led Archeological Dig in the West Bank Citing Legal Questions
9. Bonus Reads

 

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Encircling Jerusalem: Israel Advances Settlement Plans Across the City, While Settler Projects Tighten the Noose

It must be stressed that events over the past several months (while the Settlement Report has taken an abbreviated form) have rapidly accelerated the encirclement of Jerusalem by settlements and settler-backed projects — developments which come at the direct expense of Palestinians — their presence in Jerusalem, their rights as land owners, and their quality of life. This encirclement continues to progress, unabated and almost entirely unchallenged, each day.

Last week, on July 25th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee advanced plans for two brand new settlements in East Jerusalem – “Givat HaShaked” and the “Lower Aqueduct” plan. These two settlements that would nearly complete the encirclement of Jerusalem to the south. Details of those plans are: 

• The Lower Aqueduct plan (1,465 new units) was approved for deposit for public comment. This plan would see a new settlement – called the Lower Aqueduct Plan – built on a small sliver of land between the controversial settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa – and is intended to connect them. In so doing, it will establish an uninterrupted continuum of Israeli settlements on the southern rim of Jerusalem, and destroy the contiguity of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 
• The Givat HaShaked settlement was also discussed, and the Committee opted to increase the total number of units that the plan outlines for construction, from ~400 to 700 housing units, plus schools and synagogues. Ir Amim and Terrestrial Jerusalem both report that, after a few technical requirements are met, the plan to build Givat HaShaked is expected to receive final approval when the Committee reconvenes in the coming weeks. The plan for Givat HaShaked is unprecedented, according to Terrestrial Jerusalem, in that it is the first settlement of this size that that Israeli government will establish inside of a Palestinian neighborhood – Beit Safafa, which will be completely encircled by Israeli construction if Givat HaShaked is built.

For more background on the Lower Aqueduct plan, see resources by: Terrestrial Jerusalem and Ir Amim.

These plans are significant developments in the effort to establish settler hegemony over East Jerusalem, but are only part of the story of how the encirclement of East Jerusalem has rapidly advanced over the past months. In addition to the construction of new settlements and growth of existing ones, settlers are succeeding in advancing new projects under the guise of tourism (like: the Cable Car, a new visitors center in Batan Al Hawa, and more) and the State is undertaking systematic efforts to take over more and more land. Those methods include the revival of a politicized land registration process in East Jerusalem and the expansion of “national park” lands onto the Mount of Olives. Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan also continue to face the looming threat of dispossession through Court proceedings. In a rare piece of good news — on July 21st the Israeli Supreme Court partially accepted a petition filed by the Duweik family, which has led to the (temporary) freezing of their eviction.

Another facet is the looming threat is the seemingly growing inevitability of the construction of the E-1 settlement to Jerusalem’s east. Prior to the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden in Jerusalem on July 13th, the Israeli government intervened to postpone a critical hearing on the E-1 settlement, rescheduling it for September 12th. The rescheduled hearing, if it is not postponed yet again, could result in granting final approval to the highly contentious plan (and barring intensive outside pressure such additional postponement seems highly improbable, given the Israeli domestic politics and the upcoming national election). See Terrestrial Jerusalem for a recap of President Biden’s visit.

Dumping Any Pretense of Respect for Rule of Law, Israeli High Court Reverses Course, Allows Mitzpe Kramim Outpost to be “Legalized”

Nearly two years after ruling there is no possible legal basis by which the Mitzpe Kramim outpost can be retroactively “legalized” under Israeli law, the Israeli Supreme Court has now reversed course and will allow the State to formally legalize the settlement using the so-called Market Regulation principle.

In its original ruling, issued in September 2020, the High Court held that construction of the Mitzpe Kramim outpost was not undertaken in “good faith” because there were “multiple warning signs” that the land was privately owned by Palestinians. The outpost was ordered to be dismantled at that time. Now, with apparently no new evidence, the Court decided to accept the settlers’ claim of “good faith.”

The “good faith” condition for retroactive legalization of illegal settler construction on privately-owned Palestinian land is a central element of the “market regulation” legal principle which was devised by former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in December 2018 as an alternative to the (now overturned) Settlement Regulation Law. The principle offers a path to grant retroactive legalization to the settlers for what this principle treats as “unintentional” land theft – throwing the principles of both rule of law and private property rights out the window. Peace Now has a comprehensive breakdown of the legal opinion, including the specific criteria outlining which outposts can qualify under the new scheme. It is estimated that 2,000 illegal settlement structures qualify for retroactive legalization using this principle.

Yesh Din writes on the significance of this ruling:

“This ruling overtly indicates Israel’s intentions to continue to pursue retroactive legalization of illegal Israeli construction in blatant disregard of the rights of the local Palestinian population of the West Bank. The State of Israel continues to ignore the duties bestowed upon it by IHL, as the occupying power, to protect the occupied population. Additionally, as the occupying power, Israel is prohibited from transferring the occupier’s population into occupied territory. The interpretation of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion will, in practice, undoubtedly serve to fulfill the intentions of the repealed Regularization Bill from 2017. It will enable settlers, backed by the Civil Administration and other State authorities, to take over thousands of dunams of Palestinian land, leading to human rights violations on a massive scale all over the West Bank and serving as the basis for future negligent and illegal policies, which are now more likely to be given the go-ahead by the Supreme Court. This ruling symbolizes a turning point of Israel’s Supreme Court, which, for the first time, has endorsed the forced confiscation of privately owned land, which is not required for military needs, for the sole purpose of use by Israeli civilians for the establishment of a new settlement.”

In +972 Magazine, Orly Noy writes:

“The court’s ruling could potentially pave the way for the retroactive legalization of thousands more homes in outposts built on privately-owned Palestinian land…The legalization of Mitzpe Kramim is only a footnote in Israel’s policies of dispossession and land theft on both sides of the Green Line, carried out through what the Israeli regime deems completely “legal” expropriations…And one more word regarding the concept of “good faith,” which was sufficient reasoning for the High Court to retroactively legalize the theft of private Palestinian land. This same line of argumentation did not protect the residents of Umm al-Hiran, a Bedouin village in the Negev/Naqab, from being threatened with destruction and expulsion, even though they were physically placed where the village exists today in the 1950s by the military government after it expelled them from their original land, on which Kibbutz Shoval now sits. Although the state itself was the one to move them to their new location, the residents of Umm al-Hiran have lived for decades without basic infrastructure such as water and electricity — that is, until the state decided to destroy the village in order to build Hiran, a town for Jews alone, on its ruins. Unlike the settlers of Mitzpe Kramim, the residents of Umm al-Hiran did not take over land that did not belong to them, nor did they settle on private land that belonged to others. And yet, the state did not hesitate to brutally deport them — even killing a local resident, Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an, in the process. The same court that will allow the residents of Mitzpe Kramim to remain on land it itself admits does not belong to them did not hesitate to legalize the cleansing of Umm al-Hiran. Because, after all, in the apartheid regime, even the concept of “good faith” applies solely to Jewish citizens.”

Settlers Acquire Another Home in Downtown Hebron

On July 28th, a settler group called Harchvi announced it has purchased a three-story house in central Hebron, very close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque and on the Palestinian side of a key IDF checkpoint (the “Pharmacy” checkpoint), which Israeli Jews are supposed to be prohibited from crossing. The group was granted a purchase agreement by the Israeli Defense Ministry this week, which seemingly legitimizes the settlers claim to have purchased the property – but it is not a final determination of the legality of the transaction. This is the second such house in Hebron that settlers have claimed to have purchased from Palestinians owners this year. 

Providing more detail on the status of the house, Peace Now writes:

“Peace Now has no information regarding the alleged deal in this case. We know from many other cases in Hebron and in the West Bank that these are dubious purchases, which are sometimes based on forgery or the purchase of only small parts of the property. It almost always turns out that the settlers may have managed to acquire the rights from one person, but the rest of the rights holders did not agree and the issue gets to courts for lengthy hearings. When settlers entered the Za’atari house in March 2018, the case got to the courts and the legal argument is still pending, but the settlers are still in the house. Every purchase of land in the territories requires the approval of the Minister of Defense – according to the law in the Occupied Territories, in order to make a transaction and register it in the land registry, a transaction permit from the Civil Administration is required. Any such transaction-permit requires the prior approval of the Minister of Defense. In this case, it is hard to believe that the settlers have a transaction permit from the Minister of Defense. In all previous cases the settlers hurry to establish a fact on the ground, enter the house and only then submit applications for registration of purchase, and only then does it come to the Defense Minister’s approval. The defense minister can refuse and prevent the execution of the deal.”

In addition to the settlement activity in Hebron that the state of Israel has formally (and publicly) sanctioned, +972 Magazine reports this week that over the past month settlers have been bulldozing Palestinian stores that have been inaccessible to their owners for more than 20 years under Israel closure orders. Though the Israeli Civil Administration has denied authorizing the settlers’ destruction of the stores over the past month, one of the Palestinian shop owners, Tareq Al-Kiyal, raises the point that “Nothing moves in the Old City — and certainly no bulldozers come in and destroy buildings — without a green light from the army.” Palestinians have filed a police report regarding the damage to the stores, which they believe were demolished by settlers in order to expand the nearby settlement enclave, Avraham Avinu.

The shops are in an area referred to as the Kiyal Market, which was “temporarily” shuttered by the Israeli army in 2001 during the Second Intifada. Since then, Palestinians have been forbidden from reopening the shops and cannot even enter their shops to remove valuable equipment. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have systematically looted the stores, and have been using the buildings for warehouses, recreational spaces, and even as housing. 

Elad Closes Palestinian Access Road Near Sambuski Cemetary in Silwan 

Emek Shaveh reports that the Elad settler group has blocked an access road near the Sambuski cemetery in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a move which blocks car traffic to the Wadi Rababa area of Silwan where some 150 Palestinian families live. Palestinian residents, in partnership with Emek Shaveh, have appealed to several Israeli authoritative bodies (including the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the Israeli police) to remove the boulders blocking the road, but Elad has failed to cooperate with efforts to negotiate a solution and has instead continued their work at the site. Emek Shaveh reports that the ongoing blockage of the road has led to daily friction between Palestinians and Elad employees.

The Sambuski cemetery is deeply integrated into Elad’s overarching, comprehensive plan to control the Silwan neighborhood. However, the cemetery was a relatively unknown, neglected site until recent years. In 2020, the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan identified the Sambuski cemetery as a place of prime historical and religious importance to Israel, elevating the status of the cemetery. The Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – which has a special expertise on archaeology and the way archeology has been weaponized to serve the political agenda of the settlers and the state – wrote a report on exactly how the Trump “Vision” supports settler efforts to use Jerusalem’s history and antiquities to promote Israeli-Jewish hegemony and control over the city.

Emek Shaveh explains how the cemetery is connected to other settler endeavors in Silwan:

“For the Elad Foundation the cemetery is a strategic site as it links together two important focal points of its enterprise – the neighborhood of Silwan, home to the City of David archaeological park and specifically to the Pool of Siloam at the southern tip of the site, and the Hinnom Valley an area which Elad has been developing for the past two years (more below).”

This Week in Area C, Part 1: JNF Approves Purchase of Palestinian Land In Jordan Valley While High Court Weighs Petition

At the urging of the Israeli government, the Board of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) approved the allocation of $18 million for the purchase of 250 acres (1,000 dunams) of Palestinian-owned land in the Jordan Valley, land that is the subject of a petition with the High Court of Justice. 

Israel has controlled the land in question since issuing a military closure order in 1969. In the 1980s, the World Zionist Organization then allocated the land (which is privately owned by Palestinians) to settlers without any documentation of either having received control of the land from the government, or documentation allocating the land to the settlers. Since then, settlers have developed the land into profitable date farms. In 2018, several Palestinian landowners have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to have the settlers removed from the area and the land returned to their control. In a contentious court hearing in June 2022, in which the State conceded that it does not know how or why the settlers were allocated the land in the first place, High Court Justice Esther Hayut told the State lawyer: “Given that you cannot explain how the land was given to those to whom it was given, does that give them the right to remain there forever?” 

The JNF – via its subsidiary group Himnuta, which handles West Bank transactions –  allegedly secured a deal with a Palestinian landowner to purchase the land in phases, starting with a smaller plot in 2018. Further phases of the the transaction were canceled due to criticism of the JNF’s involvement in land purchases in the occupied West Bank at the time. The deal is now back in process at the request of the Isareli Defense Ministry in order to finalize the transaction before the High Court.

This Week in Area C, Part 2: Regavim Files Petition Pushing for Immediate Demolition of Palestinian Construction in Area C

The settler group Regavim filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice seeking to change operational procedures within the Civil Administration so that Palestinian construction in Area C can be immediately demolished – eliminating any chance for Palestinian landowners to challenge the demolition of their property – if it is believed to be illegal. Regavim calls it “absurd” that the Civil Administration would allow Palestinians a chance to assert their legal rights to build on land in Area C before demolition is carried out.

While settlers push for faster demolition of illegal (under Israeli law) Palestinian construction in Area C, a new piece by +972 Magazine reveals that an Israeli official who is in charge of handing out demolition orders against Palestinian buildings  in the Massaffer Yatta region, himself lives in an illegally built home in an illegally built outpost. This only furthers the clear message that settler groups are not interested in ensuring the faithful enforcement of Israeli law, but are rather interested in wielding Israeli law as a weapon to displace and replace Palestinians.

This Week in Area C, Part 3: Settlers Continue to Occupy Six Sites After Recent Attempt to Establish New Outposts En Masse

According to an op-ed by Arlene Kushner, settlers continue to ”maintain a presence” at six sites located in Area C where they are planning to establish new outposts. These are the same sites that were part of a large-scale effort two weeks ago, led by the Nahala settler movement, to establish six new outposts all at once. That effort was thwarted by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who ordered Israeli security forces to prevent and remove settlers from the sites.

The determination of settlers to violate the law is unsurprising, in the ensuing hours after the failed operation a leader of the Nahala Movement, Daniela Weiss, told Haaretz:

“We’ll be back, of course. We’ll try to come back in a day or two. If it’s this Shabbat, I can’t say. We’re taking it one step at a time.”

Groups Petition to Cancel New Israeli-Led Archeological Dig in the West Bank Citing Legal Questions

The Israeli NGOs Haqel and Emek Shaveh report that on July 25th, an Israeli archaeologist launched a new excavation of the “Tel Tibnah” site in the Ramallah district, with sponsorship from the Israeli Bar-Ilan University. The NGOs jointly raised concerns about the political motivation behind the excavation, given “several fundamental legal and ethical issues” with the dig. The groups have called for the immediate cancellation of the excavation.

Haqel and Emek Shaveh further explain:

To the best of our knowledge, the site is situated on private and public lands of three Palestinian villages: Deir-Nisham, Beit Rima and Nebi Salah, and lies in proximity to the village of Abud. These lands are used by the local Palestinian population for agriculture and herding. In addition, within the site there is a spring that serves for drinking and irrigation. Initiating archaeological projects on privately owned land, even if these are declared as archaeological sites, demands that notification be given to the owners of these lands and their approval is required in advance. Entering private property without the permission of the owner is defined as a criminal act of incursion, even more so when conducting actions that might damage property and prevent access to the property, as is a frequent occurrence throughout the West Bank. The local residents unambiguously submitted their objection to the proposed excavations which will have a dramatic effect on their lives, impact their freedom of movement and violate their property rights. So far, this objection has not been taken into consideration.

The main question at stake is the State of Israel’s range of legitimate courses of action and that of Israeli academia. Initiation of an academic archaeological excavation serves, by nature, a scientific-academic motivation. This project does not serve an immediate necessity or mitigate against a pending danger, and does not meet the criteria as a “salvage excavation”, nor does it serve the local population living around the site. Any attempt to “govern” archaeological sites that are not within the sovereign borders of Israel is a political act and not a scientific one.

In addition, the claims of “antiquity robbery” should not justify state actions, and the political act should not be concealed as an archaeological one. The erosion of the distinction between heritage protection on the one hand and settlement and annexation on the other, threatens the future of archaeology.”

 

As FMEP has chronicled, settlers and their allies are intent on taking control of archaeological sites in the West Bank, and and seizing artifacts that are currently under Palestinian control. Settlers claim the sites are neglected and/or damaged. To that end, the settler groups known as “the Shilo Forum” and the “Shomrim al HaNetzach” (“Preservers of the Eternal”) — see background on these groups here — issued a report surveying 365 sites in the West Bank and arguing that the Palestinian Authority is moving to “erase all traces of Israel’s ancient Jewish heritage.” The accusations were in addition to allegations of neglect, mismanagement, and intentional damage. The report is part of the organizations’ campaign to push the Israeli government to assert control over these sites.

Bonus Reads

1. “Saving Masafer Yatta: The Fight Against Expulsion” (Mondoweiss)
2. “Military Rule: Testimonies of soldiers from the Civil Administration, Gaza DCL and COGAT (2011-2021)” (Breaking the Silence)
3. “Palestinian family encircled by Israeli settlement” (Al-Monitor)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 4, 2022

1. Israeli High Court Temporarily Freezes Evictions of Four Sheikh Jarrah Families, Will Revisit Land Ownership Claims
2. Plan to Expand National Park onto Church-Owned Land in Jerusalem Back on Agenda
3. Israel to Advance Plan to Expand Mount Scopus Slopes National Park in Jerusalem
4. High Court Says Settlements are a Significant Part of (and Benefit to) Israel’s “Security Doctrine” & Refuses to Return Land to Palestinians
5. Israel Advances Plan to Build Tourist Promenade Over Muslim Cemetery Along Jerusalem’s Old City Walls
6. New Report on Israel’s Collective Punishment of Beita As Palestinian Protests Against Evyatar Outpost Continue
7. Further Reading

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Israeli High Court Temporarily Freezes Evictions of Four Sheikh Jarrah Families, Will Revisit Land Ownership Claims

On March 1st, a three-judge panel of the Israeli High Court issued an order to temporarily freeze the eviction of four Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. With this new decision, the High Court granted the Al-Qasim, El-Kurd, Iskafi, and Jaouni families the right to appeal decades worth of previous decisions by lower courts that recognized settler ownership of the land on which they live. The High Court ruled that final ownership of the land has not been determined and must be revisited, and that until that determination is made (via the settlement of title and registration processes), the families are permitted to remain in their homes as legally “protected tenants,” paying rent into an escrow account managed by lawyers involved in the case – funds that won’t go to the settlers who claim ownership unless and until the title and registration processes conclude that the land does, in fact, belong to the settlers.

Haaretz reports that the Court’s decision in these four cases has the potential to affect the proceedings of 13 other cases of settler-led expulsion in Sheikh Jarrah, and comes just one week after a decision by a lower Israeli Court to temporarily delay the eviction of the Palestinian Salem family from their Sheikh Jarrah home in favor of settlers, fearing renewed violence. Taken together, the Courts may be attempting to calm tensions in Sheikh Jarrah and across East Jerusalem. — tensions that have been mounting in anticipation of the Salem family eviction, with the deliberate provocation of a Kahanist Member of Knesset who established his “office” in Sheikh Jarrah; and with the upcoming convergence of major religious holidays (Ramadan, Easter, and Passover). As a reminder, the four cases revisited this week provided a significant spark for the Palestinian Unity Intifada that unfolded in 2021 and ultimately led to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

In response to the Court’s decision, a group representing Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah issued the following statement:

“The battle to solidify our rights in our lands and our homes is far from over – rather, it has started anew. The Occupation authorities weaponize ‘land settlement and registration’ as a tool to control land in occupied Jerusalem. We reaffirm: our cause is righteous and we will continue our fight. We know we will not receive justice from Israeli Occupation courts. Rather, we count on the population and global movements that have accomplished the unprecedented feat of forcing the court to cancel the imminent expulsion. Yet, the threat of dispossession is still looming over our community. Through this decision, the Occupation’s Supreme Court imposed on the four families the status of ‘protected tenant,’ a special legal status in which families deposit an annual amount to a trust account held by the lawyers until the ‘title settlement and registration’ procedures are complete. However, such procedures can take anywhere between months to years. Therefore, we must rely on continual and persistent grassroots efforts until this battle is officially over and our families – and all Palestinian families – can live in their homes without fear of exulsion.”

As a reminder: With its annexation of  East Jerusalem following the 1967 war, Israel suspended the process of land registration and settlement of title in East Jerusalem. Israeli lawmakers have pointedly stated over the past two years their intentions to reinitiate these processes, and reports have suggested that Israel has begun to do so – secretively – in Sheikh Jarrah. The launching of an Israel-run process of registering ownership of land in East Jerusalem land will have far-reaching consequences for Palestinians, who have not had a formal, legal avenue for registering land ownership with the Israeli government since East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in 1967 – meaning, for example, that if a property owner has died, his/her heirs have had no legal way to register as the current owners. As a consequence, such a process is liable to be used against Palestinians by settlers.

Plan to Expand National Park onto Church-Owned Land in Jerusalem Back on Agenda

Despite reports last week that Israel has abandoned a highly controversial and sensitive plan to expand the boundaries of the Jerusalem Walls National Park to include privately owned Palestinian land as well as land owned by major Christian churches on which sits prominent holy sites, Israeli planning authorities are (once again) scheduled to take up a discussion of the plan at two meetings scheduled for August 24th and 31st . The discussion of this plan proceeded despite reports last week that consideration of the plan was being tabled following widespread outcry by the heads of major Christian denominations, who linked the plan to ongoing efforts by Israeli settlement organizations to “minimize…any non-Jewish characteristics of the Holy City.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

“This plan is part of a process of transforming the symbolic, religious, and political import of the Old City Basin by augmenting the Jewish religious and national significance of this area while eroding the multi-religious and multi-cultural nature of the space and blurring the Palestinian presence in its bounds. This plan is not justified from a planning perspective and is of no value to the protection of historical assets. Its sole purpose (alongside other discriminatory laws and policies) is to serve a religious right-wing agenda for the Old City Basin. It is a cynical misuse of heritage and environment protection discourse as a tool for justifying settlement expansion, restricting Palestinian development, and further entrenching Israeli sovereignty. The current plan should be canceled and in its place the Israeli government should promote a plan to reduce the size of the National Park Surrounding the Old City Walls in a way that does not include Wadi Hilweh and al-Hizbe in the National Park’s boundaries, hereby allowing them to develop into equitable urban neighborhoods. Such development can be done in a way that will not harm the landscape and the visibility of the Old City Walls. This should be done while simultaneously promoting implementable and adequate urban plans for these areas.”

Israel to Advance Plan to Expand Mount Scopus Slopes National Park in Jerusalem

On March 1st the Jerusalem District Planning & Construction Committee met to hear objections to a plan that, if approved, would significantly expand the borders of the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park to include land that is currently open space between the Palestinian neighborhoods of al-Isawiyyah and A-Tur. This move would isolate those neighborhoods and restrict their growth. Notably, the designation of  this land as an  Israeli national park would extend Israeli control  from the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus ever more solidly towards the area designated for the construction of the E-1 settlement.

As a result of the hearing, the Jerusalem District Planning & Construction Committee said it will convene another hearing on the matter, but did not set a date and noted that it will be a closed meeting, not open to the public. This plan is in the final  stages of the approval process

Ir Amim explains the history and significance of this plan:

“The National Park plan was initiated over a decade ago, however, essentially frozen since 2014. From the outset, the plan was intended to block any expansion of the adjacent Palestinian neighborhoods who already suffer from acute housing shortages, overcrowding and an ongoing planning stranglehold. In addition to its severe implications on Palestinian housing and development rights, this National Park would enable Israel to create further territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and the E1/Maaleh Adumim area, while increasing fragmentation of the Palestinian space. Together, these measures further erode conditions for any agreed political resolution in the future. The Mount Scopus Slopes plan must be seen within the context of the INPA’s recent attempts to advance an extension of the National Park around the Old City Walls. While the plans are technically separate, if the dots are connected, it essentially extends the emerging ring of Israeli control around the Old City Basin, marked with a constellation of national parks, settler enclaves, and touristic settlement sites.”

High Court Says Settlements are a Significant Part of (and Benefit to) Israel’s “Security Doctrine” & Refuses to Return Land to Palestinians

In a ruling issued February 28, 2022, the Israeli High Court rejected an appeal filed by the Palestinian Muncipality of Hebron challenging the Israeli military’s 1980 seizure of land for “security purposes.” The land in question previously served as Hebron’s central bus station, and is located in the heart of the Old City of Hebron on Shuhada Street – the main road leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs that in the wake of the 1994 massacre of Palestinians at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque, by an American-Israeli settler, has been completely or mostly off-limits to Palestinians.

In making this ruling, the author of the Court’s opinion, Justice Alex Stein, dismissed legal objections against the questionable process by which Israel made parts of the land – originally seized for “security purposes” – available for settlement construction. In doing so, he overturned High Court precedent (dating back to 1979) to assert that, in the view of the High Court today, building and maintaining civilian settlements in the West Bank is part and parcel of Israel’s security doctrine, saying:

“A Jewish civilian presence constitutes part of the regional security doctrine of the Israel Defense Forces in the area. This is because the presence of citizens of the country who hold the seized property makes a significant contribution to the security situation in that same area, and makes it easier for the army to carry out its mission.”

According to Haaretz, the legal argument that settlements are a valid security mechanism has not been tested in the Courts since it was rejected in the Elon Moreh settlement case. The Haaretz Editorial Board bluntly wrote: 

“Stein is turning back the legal clock and claiming that a settlement is a security asset.”

Background: 

• The land in question is located in the Israeli-controlled H-2 area of Hebron (where approximately 500 Israeli settlers live amongst around 40,000 Palestinians). Israel seized this land in the 1980s, from the Hebron Municipality, for “military purposes.” 
• In 2007, the Civil Administration’s Legal Advisor issued an opinion stating that once Israel is done using the land for military purposes, it must be returned to the Hebron Municipality, which has protected tenancy rights to the land. 
• Nonetheless, in 2015, the Israeli Civil Administration, with the consent of the Minister of Defense, quietly authorized the Housing Ministry to plan the area for Israeli settlement use, paving the way for that same ministry to subsequently present a plan for the 31 settlement units. 
• In October 2018, with legal challenges to Israel’s using the land for settlements still pending, the Israeli Cabinet voted to expedite the planning of the new settlement and allocated approximately $6.1 million (NIS 22 million) for the project, which will require Israel to significantly renovate the bus station/military base in order to build the 31 new settlement housing units, as well as a kindergarten, and “public areas” for the new settler residents. This is a new settler enclave in the city and is, in effect, a new urban settlement, disconnected from already existing settlements in the city. It will be the first new settlement construction approved in downtown Hebron – where Palestinians already live under apartheid conditions – since 2002.
• Notwithstanding the ongoing legal battle over the land, Israel went ahead and began construction on the new settlement at the site back in October 2021.
• The Palestinians’ appeal – rejected on 2/28/22 by the High Court – argued that the State’s actions in recent years prove that the land was not seized for security purposes at all, but rather for the political purpose of expanding settlements in Hebron. The High Court rejected this argument, affirming that this Court – in effect – views the building settlements as, ipso facto, a security purpose for the State of Israel. 

Peace Now explained the significance of the States actions to build a settlement on this land, a move that the Court has now approved: 

“The approval of the building permit in the heart of Hebron is an extraordinary move not only because it is a new settlement in Hebron for the first time since 2001, but because it indicates a significant change in Israeli legal interpretation of what is allowed and forbidden in occupied territory. The area in question was owned by Jews before 1948, and it was leased by the Jordanian government in protected tenancy to the Hebron municipality for the purpose of establishing the central bus station. Since 1967, the Israeli authorities managed the land and continued the lease to the Hebron municipality, until in the 1980s when the area was seized for military purposes, the bus station was closed and a military base was established there. A legal opinion of the Judea and Samaria Attorney General on the issue in 2007 emphatically stated that by law the municipality’s protected lease must not be revoked.”

Israel Advances Plan to Build Tourist Promenade Over Muslim Cemetery Along Jerusalem’s Old City Walls

Haaretz reports that the Jerusalem District and Planning Committee – with the support of the Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) – has rejected appeals by the Muslim Waqf to stop plans to build a new promenade for tourists on land which is owned by the Waqf and that is part of a Muslim cemetery, located just outside the northeast corner of Old City Walls of Jerusalem. In October 2021, human remains were found in this area.

According to Sami Arshid, a lawyer representing the Waqf, the land in question has been leased by the Waqf for more than a century to successive regimes controlling Jerusalem (Turkish, British, Jordanian, Israeli). But in 2018, Arshid reports that Israel stopped paying rent and instead began advancing plans to build on the area. Though the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said in a statement that Israel does not plan to formally expropriate the land (it will merely build upon it without the consent of its owners), the planning committee said that it was important to advance the plan “without reference to those who hold rights within it.” 

Arshid told Haaretz:

“This plan was born in sin. It deprives the owners of the land of their rights and infringes on people’s basic rights as well as harming the delicate balance in the fabric around the Old City. The planned project also harms the Old City walls and the world heritage of the place.”

New Report on Israel’s Collective Punishment of Beita As Palestinian Protests Against Evyatar Outpost Continue

B’Tselem has published a new report documenting the death and violence surrounding the ongoing saga of the Evyatar outpost, which was built illegally by Israeli settlers on land known to Palestinians and Mount Sabih – just south of Nablus. The outpost has sparked sustained protests led by Palestinians demanding the outpost be removed and the land returned, protests which have been violently suppressed by the Israeli military. Seven Palestinians have died and many dozens have been injured as a result.

B’Tselem writes on the other means by which the Israeli military is punishing Palestinian resistance:

“In addition to implementing a lethal open-fire policy, Israeli security forces have arrested dozens of town residents since the protests began. To wear down the protesters, the military closed off the main entrance to the town for a month and a half, and military bulldozers blocked and dug up agricultural roads leading to the demonstration flashpoints, damaging about a kilometer of agricultural terraces and some 2,000 trees about a kilometer away from the outpost. The deputy council head of Beita told B’Tselem that Israel revoked the work permits of about 150 residents. Soldiers also used severe violence against Israeli protesters who came to the demonstrations to show solidarity with the Palestinian protesters, and arrested them on false pretenses. Evyatar was established on Palestinian land – not on the private initiative of several settlers, but as part of Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, with the full cooperation of all the relevant Israeli authorities. However, the state is not content with appropriating the land and building a settlement there. It also insists on forbidding the Palestinian residents from protesting these acts and forcibly prevents any attempt at resistance — including with lethal force. Let us reiterate: the establishment of settlements is illegal under international law, and the International Criminal Court in the Hague is currently investigating Israel’s policy on the matter. Israel’s choice to prevent area residents from protesting the establishment of Evyatar, to implement a lethal open-fire policy in circumstances that do not endanger soldiers’ lives, and to uphold this policy even after its fatal outcomes have become clear – adds insult to injury.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Eight Settlers Arrested for Attacking Soldiers, Palestinians Near Illegal West Bank Outpost” (Haaretz)
2. “Israeli army blocking activists from calling ‘hotlines’ to report settler violence” (+972 Magazine)
3. “Israel Surpasses 1,000 Demolitions in the Occupied West Bank Since Joe Biden Took Office” (The Intercept)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

January 14, 2022

1. Israeli Attorney General Supports Settler-Led Dispossession of the Sumreen Family in Silwan
2. Tender Published for 300 New Units in East Jerusalem Settlement of East Talpiyot
3. Israel to Advance Expansion of East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo
4. Israel Advances Plan that Will Pave Way for Expansion of East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave of Nof Zion
5. IDF Evacuates Oz Zion Outpost (Again)
6. Fight Over Homesh Outpost & Yeshiva Continues (Both Physically and Politically)
7. Settlers Seek Outpost Gains from Divided & Fragile Government (With Some Success)
8. Construction Begins on Key Stretch of the “Tunnels Road” for Settlements South of Jerusalem
9. Israel Gives U.S. Army Officers Tour of Hebron Led by Settlement Spokesman
10. Further Reading

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Israeli Attorney General Supports Settler-Led Dispossession of the Sumreen Family in Silwan

On January 9th, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit submitted a legal opinion to the Supreme Court arguing in support of the immediate eviction of the Sumreen family from their home of 60+ years in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The Supreme Court is expected to announce its next steps on the case in the coming days, which might include setting a new hearing date to again consider legal arguments from both sides (now that the Attorney General has weighed in).

The case to evict the Sumreen family, spearheaded by the JNF, with the secret funding/backing of the Elad settler group, is a key test of the State’s use of the Absentee Property Law to seize Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. If dispossessed of their home, the Sumreen family case sets a broader precedent for many other ongoing eviction cases in Silwan that could result in the mass displacement of Palestinians in favor of settlers. 

In his opinion, the Attorney General did not address the broader political context of widespread dispossession of Palestinians in Silwan, or legally dubious actions on the part of the Elad settler group and the Jewish National Fund in having the property declared to be absentee (see a detailed history of that scandal here) in order to take control over it. Instead, the Attorney General decided simply that there is no new basis on which to overturn the 1999 ruling that legitimized the JNF’s ownership of the home, and that the Sumreen family does not have a legal right to reside there.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Instead of intervening and doing justice, the Israeli government, through the Attorney General, becomes a direct partner in crime and unforgivable injustice. The Attorney General chooses to ignore the context and the injustice behind the eviction suit  and dives into quasi-legal questions to help settlers take over another property in Silwan. The Government’s fingerprints are smeared all over the Sumerin case. This is a political move in which government mechanisms such as the Custodian of Absentee Property and the Israel Land Administration and the JNF have been utilized in order to dispossess Palestinians of their property in East Jerusalem and replace them with settlers.”

It’s worth noting that the Sumreen house is located only a very short distance from the Al-Aqsa Mosque (approximately 10 meters) at the entrance to the Silwan neighborhood, and is adjacent to the “City of David” visitors center built and operated by the Elad settlers. The home is also located in the middle of what today has been designed by Israel as “the City of David National Park.” The entire area is managed by the radical Elad settler organization, which for years has also been pursuing the eviction of Palestinians from the homes in Silwan. For nearly three decades, the Sumreen family has been forced to battle for legal ownership of their home, after the state of Israel, prompted repeatedly by the JNF, declared the Sumreen’s home to be “absentee” property, despite the fact that this was manifestly not the case. Under that designation – which was not communicated to the Sumreen family – Israeli law permitted the State to take over the rights to the building. The State then sold the rights to the home to the JNF in 1991. The JNF has pursued the eviction of the Sumreen family ever since. Israeli courts ruled in favor of the Sumreen family’s ownership claims to the home for years, until a September 2019 ruling by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court granted ownership of the family’s home to the JNF, a decision the family immediately appealed to the Jerusalem District Court. 

A full history of the saga involving the Sumreen family – which is similar to dozens of other Palestinian homes in Silwan that were declared Absentee Property in the 1990s – can be found on the Peace Now website here.

Tender Published for 300 New Units in East Jerusalem Settlement of East Talpiyot

On January 5th the Israel Lands Authority published a tender for the construction of 300 settlement units in the East Talpiyot settlement, located in East Jerusalem. Ir Amim reports the tender is scheduled to be opened for bids on February 14th.

The new units will expand the built-up footprint of East Talpiyot in the direction of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Baher, a neighborhood that is facing multiple new settlement plans that encroach on its historic land (including the Givat HaMatos, Har Homa, and Lower Aqueduct plans). Sur Baher has also been targeted by the Israeli Custodian General in its efforts to gain control over more land that was owned by Jews previous to 1948.

Israel to Advance Expansion of East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo

On January 10th the Jerusalem District Planning Committee convened to discuss two plans that would add 1,538 settlement units to the Gilo settlement in East Jerusalem. The plans are being advanced under the banner of “urban renewal” and will involve demolishing existing settlement units and replacing 470 existing settlement units with 2,008 new units (representing a net expansion of the settlement by 1,538 units). Ir Amim notes that, “while the plans will not necessarily enlarge Gilo territorially, it will increase the Israeli population in the settlement and hence the number of Israelis living in East Jerusalem.”

Israel Advances Plan that Will Pave Way for Expansion of East Jerusalem Settlement Enclave of Nof Zion

On January 11th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee held a meeting to discuss public objections to a plan connected to the expansion of Nof Zion, a settlement enclave located inside the Palestinian East Jerualem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber. One such objection was filed by Palestinian residents of Jabal Mukaber with assistance from Ir Amim. That objection argues that the plan is an affront to the planning needs of the local community and continues Israel’s systematic, city-wide discrimination against the housing, educational, and service-based needs of Palestinian neighborhoods. The Committee closed the meeting without reaching a decision, and has scheduled further private (closed to the public) continuation of its discussion of the plan.

The plan under consideration provides for the construction of a large, new Israeli police station on the border of Jabal Mukhaber neighborhood, on a plot of land that is across the street from the existing police station. The new station, according to Ir Amim, will “constitute a massive security headquarters and border police base, replete with detention facilities and laboratories.” Under the plan, after the new station is built the site of the current station will be designated for public buildings; however, Ir Amim warns that the land is currently allocated for the construction of hotels directly connected to plans to expand the Nof Zion settlement enclave. The relocation of the police station is a step towards the construction of those two hotels, which is part of the larger plan to expand Nof Zion to include the construction of commercial centers, educational institutions, and a sports field.

Ir Amim comments:

“In light of the dearth of public buildings and/or public spaces in the neighborhood, the objection [to the police facility plan] underscores the complete planning error and misuse of the respective plot of land. Rather than allocating the space to meet the dire public needs of the community, the authorities see it fit to utilize the land for a massive security base on the edge of the neighborhood. According to the objection [filed by Ir Amim and Palestinian residents], a plan of such magnitude implies that members of the community are seen as constituting a ‘threat’ rather than actual residents of Jerusalem entitled to equal socioeconomic rights and equitable access to municipal services. The depletion and appropriation of public spaces in East Jerusalem to serve Israeli interests and the expansion of setter enclaves in Palestinian neighborhoods not only erode the fabric of these communities, but severely impinge on Palestinian individual and collective rights and further entrench Israeli control of East Jerusalem.”

Israel has been working consistently to expand and entrench Nof Zion — which it should be underscored is an enclave located wholly inside a Palestinian neighborhood. On July 8, 2021 settlers and their allies held a cornerstone-laying ceremony to mark the beginning of construction on hundreds of new units in Nof Zion. The new construction is just preliminary work on a project that will triple the settlement in size and make it the largest settlement enclave in East Jerusalem. 

As a reminder: In 2017, the Israeli government approved a plan to build a new synagogue and mikveh in Nof Zion on private Palestinian land that was expropriated from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in 2016. Then, in September 2017, rumors emerged that the government was set to issue 176 building permits for the already-approved project. According to Ir Amim, those permits were ultimately issued in April 2019.

IDF Evacuates Oz Zion Outpost (Again)

On January 10th, settlers sought to obstruct Israeli forces that were dismantling structures at the unauthorized outpost site called Oz Zion, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Settlers reportedly chained themselves to structures at the scene, and clashed with Israeli forces when they arrived to remove them.

Oz Zion has been dismantled by the IDF several times in the past (most recently in June 2021). Yet, the settlers – who have violently resisted Israeli forces carrying out the demolition – have repeatedly been allowed to reestablish it. It is one of the outposts for which a standing demolition order was recently re-issued by the IDF. 

Fight Over Homesh Outpost & Yeshiva Continues (Both Physically and Politically)

On January 10th, settlers clashed with Israeli forces attempting to confiscate property from the illegal yeshiva settlers have established at the site of the evacuated settlement of Homesh — a yeshiva that the IDF continues to permit settlers to visit and operate. It’s worth recalling the great lengths to which the IDF has gone to offer protection for the settlers to access the yeshiva, at the cost of the freedom of movement and obstruction of normal life to entire nearby Palestinian villages.

In the wake of the killing last month of a settler connected to the illegal yeshiva, national furor – spearheaded by settlers protesting in front of the Prime Minister’s residence – has kept the heat on the government over the fate of the Homesh outpost and yeshiva. Key settler leaders are threatening to bring down the current coalition if the yeshiva is dismantled. While the government has not clearly signaled what it intends to do with the yeshiva, settlers and their political allies outside of the governing coalition are now aggressively pushing the government to undertake hugely consequential efforts on behalf of the settlements — including but not limited to re-establishing the settlement of Homesh and normalizing the status of the illegal yeshiva at the site — in order to prove it allegiance. See below for more details.

Settlers Seek Outpost Gains from Divided & Fragile Government (With Some Success)

As part of their campaign to push the government to authorize the Homesh yeshiva and reestablish the Homesh settlement, key settler leaders are raising at least two additional major initiatives in their aggressive push on the government to compensate the settlers in response to the recent death of settler Yehuda Dimentan.

Those two additional demands by the settlers – a contingent of whom are encamped in front of Prime Minister Bennett’s residence – are:

1. To pass a bill – or act unilaterally – to connect unauthorized outposts to the Israeli electric and water grids. To that end, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked reportedly held a meeting on this topic on January 9th. The settler-run news outlet Artuz Sheva optimistically reports that dozens of outposts might meet Israeli criteria for being connected to Israeli infrastructure, and that Gantz would support the move if the Defense Ministry Legal Advisor gives it an OK. This has been a longtime demand of settlers, and has typically included the demand to connect outposts to Israeli water, sewer, power, garbage collection, and other municipal services. Doing so would further entrench the permanence of these outposts and furthers the de facto annexation of Palestinian land. It would also continue and expand on Israel’s long practice of copiously rewarding settlers for breaking Israeli law (by illegally building outposts), and directly incentivizing further settler lawbreaking.
2. To more aggressively police Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank (some 60% of the land). This demand is grounded in an Orwellian twisting of reality to treat Palestinian construction on Palestinian private land in Area C without permits required by Israel (permits Israel consistently refuses to issue) as theft of Israeli land. For more on this long running, and particularly pernicious, tactic of the settlement movement, see FMEP’s previous reporting.

Construction Begins on Key Stretch of the “Tunnels Road” for Settlements South of Jerusalem

Arutz Sheva reports (gleefully) that ground has been broken on a final stretch of the new tunnel road that will connect settlements to the south of Jerusalem (the Etzion settlement bloc) more seamlessly to the heart of the city. The tunnel is part of Highway 60, which Israel has already begun work to widen, which runs from Jerusalem all the way to the Kiryat Arba in Hebron.

In a deeply researched report on how infrastructure like roads is a means for settlement expansion and annexation, Breaking the Silence explains:

 

“While Israeli authorities justify many of the projects described in this document by claiming that they serve both the settler and the Palestinian populations in the West Bank, it is important to note that these roads are designed with Israeli, not Palestinian, interests in mind. Many of the roads that are technically open to Palestinian traffic are not intended to lead to locations that are useful to Palestinians.16 Instead, these roads are primarily designed to connect settlements to Israel proper (and thus employment and other services) via lateral roads, rather than to connect Palestinian communities to one another. Further, roads intended to connect Israeli settlements to Jerusalem (many of which are currently under construction) do not serve West Bank Palestinians outside of Jerusalem, as they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem without a permit. In addition, an extensive system of checkpoints and roadblocks allows Israel to control access to bypass roads and the main West Bank highways, and it can restrict Palestinian access when it so chooses. 

This prejudice against Palestinian development is even starker when one considers that, according to an official Israeli projection, the expected Palestinian population in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) in 2040 is 4,600,000 individuals. Even if the vision of settler leaders to arrive at 1,000,000 settlers is realized by 2040, the Palestinian population would still be four times the size of the settler one. Despite this discrepancy, priority is still given to settler infrastructure development.

West Bank road and transportation development creates facts on the ground that constitute a significant entrenchment of the de facto annexation already taking place in the West Bank and will enable massive settlement growth in the years to come. By strengthening Israel’s hold on West Bank territory, aiding settlement growth, and fragmenting Palestinian land, this infrastructure growth poses a significant barrier to ending the occupation and achieving an equitable and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

 

Israel Gives U.S. Army Officers Tour of Hebron Led by Settlement Spokesman

Raising many eyebrows, the secretariat of the Israeli Central Command reportedly arranged a settler-led tour of Hebron for a delegation of U.S. army officers. The full-day tour designed by the settlers included a visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs/al-Ibrahimi Mosque and a visit to the settler-run museum (in the Beit Hadassah enclave). The visit empowered settlers to present their version of the religious, historic, geo-political, and security significance of Hebron (including with respect both to settlers/settlements, and presenting Palestinians through the settler lens). The U.S. delegation did not engage any Palestinians while in Hebron, creating an obvious and problematic imbalance in perspective on all matters.

Haaretz reports that the Israeli army has refrained from engaging the settlers for diplomatic tours of Hebron in recent years. In a statement to Haaretz about the tour, the IDF issued a bland statement saying:

“Last week, a few U.S. army officers came for a tour of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Beit Hadassah led by the commander of the Central Command, for the purpose of learning about the history of the site. As part of the ongoing tours that are held regularly, the American delegation meets with various people in the State of Israel as well as in the Palestinian Authority. This is in order to learn about the area in the best way possible. Dr. Noam Arnon [a far-right-wing settler activist and spokesman for the Hebron settlements] was chosen to guide this tour. The tour was held according to the established regulations in the IDF.”

Further Reading

1. “Who Do Israeli Settlement ‘Sheriffs’ Report To? Even They’re Not Sure” (Haaretz)
2. “West Bank settlements are annexing land in Israel, too”  (+972 Magazine)
3. “Fresh Sheikh Jarrah eviction threatens to roil capital anew” (The Times of Israel)
4. “From Iron Dome to supply chains, US Christian group quietly shaping US-Israel ties” (The Times of Israel)
5. “Editorial | As Israel Bends Over Backwards for Homesh, Palestinians Pay the Price” (Haaretz)
6. “The International Community and Israel: Giving Permission to a Permanent Occupation” (Michael Lynk in Just Security)
7. “Congress launches bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus” (Jewish Insider)

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.

December 10, 2021

1. Israel Advances Plan for New East Jerusalem Settlement, “Givat HaShaked”
2. Israel Decides on a Last Minute (& Temporary) Delay of Atarot Settlement
3. Shaked Funds, Elevates Settler Municipal Council in Hebron
4. Demolition of Palestinian Property in Area C Hit a Five Year High in 2020
5. Israel Escalates Intimidation of Activists Working in the South Hebron Hills
6. Bonus Reads

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Israel Advances Plan for New East Jerusalem Settlement, “Givat HaShaked”

On Wednesday December 8th, the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee advanced a plan to build a new settlement, called “Givat HaShaked,” to be located on the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem – on the northwestern part of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. The plan would see construction of 473 settlement units, as well as schools. The plan also includes plots designated for two synagogues, the latter fact casting doubt on the Jerusalem Municipality’s assertion that “the Givat HaShaked plan is not necessarily designed for a specific demographic.”

Ir Amim reports that a portion of the land on which Givat HaShaked would be constructed is privately owned by Palestinian residents of Sharafat, which is a section of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa on the southern end of Jerusalem. It should be recalled that Beit Safafa – which is suffering from an acute housing crisis that Israeli authorities have refused to address – is in the process of being completely surrounded by Israeli development (for Jewish Israelis) — most notably with final approval of the Givat Hamatos settlement plan, for which tenders were issued in January 2021. 

Other parts of the land proposed to be used for the Givat HaShaked settlement plan are managed by the Israeli General Custodian – a fact Ir Amim calls “highly unusual and seemingly marks a new phenomenon.” The Israeli General Custodian is empowered by the State to  act as a caretaker of land that has unknown ownership until the heirs are located. In an attempt to explain why the General Custodian has the authority to approve a plan for construction on land that the State does not own, the Israeli Justice Ministry told Haaretz that the plan for Givat HaShaked increased the value of the land and that “by law, the administrator general is obligated to care for the assets under his management in a way that will benefit their private owners.”  [An answer that implies, bizarrely, that if and when Palestinian heirs are located, they will be somehow better off with their land having been used to build a settlement].

It must be remembered that in late 2020 the Israeli government initiated a registration process for land in East Jerusalem, including in the Sharafat area. At this time, it is unknown whether the land managed by the General Custodian in Sharafat (and designated for the new settlement) has been – or is in the process of being – registered. On that uncertainty, Ir Amim writes:

“…in the event that it is the same location [where formal land registration has taken place], this move would constitute yet another brazen example of how the settlement of title procedures are repeatedly being used to aid state authorities and settler groups in taking over more land in East Jerusalem…Although portrayed as a measure to ostensibly benefit Palestinian residents, there has been grave alarm that these [land registration and settlement of title] procedures would in fact be exploited to confiscate Palestinian land for political purposes, leading to the expansion of Jewish settlement and widespread Palestinian dispossession in the city.”

It should also be recalled that Israeli authorities undertook the secret registration of land for the benefit of settlers in Sheikh Jarrah. For further information on the highly sensitive and consequential land registration process in East Jerusalem, please see FMEP’s reporting here and Ir Amim’s reporting here.

Ir Amim said in a statement on the Givat HaShaked plan:

“As 2021 comes to a close, it has become more evident that although the current Israeli government is comprised of a broad coalition, it is unequivocally advancing a hardline rightwing agenda propelled by far rightwing politicians in strategic positions. Since the theoretical “government of change” came to power half a year ago, it has successfully undertaken systematic measures, which sabotage any remaining viability of a negotiated political resolution and carry severe ramifications on Palestinian human rights. Settlement advancements in the most sensitive locations in and around East Jerusalem have accelerated unimpeded, while heightened threats of mass Palestinian displacement from the city have soared to an unprecedented level.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem founder Daniel Seidemann tweeted:

“Atatrot, E-1, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and now Givat Hashaked reveal the Bennett Doctrine:  ‘Leave no eye un-poked’.”

Israel Decides on a Last Minute (& Temporary) Delay of Atarot Settlement

At a hearing on December 6th, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee ordered an environmental study be completed before it advances a plan for the construction of the new Atarot settlement on the northern border of Jerusalem. The court-ordered study is expected to take about one year. Notably, in ordering the study, the Court made it clear that the environmental study is “standard practice” and expressed support for the underlying plan, saying it believes the plan represents a proper use of unutilized land reserves.

The decision to delay the advancement of the Atarot settlement plan came as a bit of a surprise, as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had assured settlers only last week that the plan would indeed be advanced at the meeting. However, Bennett has come under sustained scrutiny and pressure from the U.S. – most pointedly in a call on December 2nd with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In the call, as reported by The Times of Israel, Blinken made it clear to Bennett that the U.S. would be unhappy if the plan was advanced, even if Israel committed that the construction would not move forward (as reports suggested was the preferred Israeli solution — one that the Israeli government likely thought would appease both settlers and the U.S.). Blinken is reported to have made it clear that any advancement of the project would be unacceptable. Notably, U.S. diplomats were in attendance at the December 6th hearing, which came one day after Thomas Nides presented his credentials to the Israeli government to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Nides’ ceremony was originally scheduled for December 6th (the day of the hearing) but was reportedly rescheduled to not coincide with the Atarot hearing.

Meanwhile, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej (Meretz) is considering how to advance his own plan to build a new airport at the Atarot site, a plan which has the support of Israeli Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli (Labor).

As a reminder, the Atarot plan calls for a huge new settlement on the site of the defunct Qalandiya Airport, located on a sliver of land between Ramallah and Jerusalem. In its current form, the plan provides for up to 9,000 residential units for ultra-Orthodox Jews (assuming, conservatively, an average family size of 6, this means housing for 54,000 people), as well as synagogues, ritual baths (mikvehs), commercial properties, offices and work spaces, a hotel, and a water reservoir. If built, the Atarot settlement will effectively be an Israeli city surrounded by Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods on three sides and Ramallah to its north. Geopolitically, it will have a similar impact to E-1 in terms of dismembering the West Bank and cutting it off from Jerusalem. For more on the Atarot settlement plan, please see here.

Shaked Funds, Elevates Settler Municipal Council in Hebron

On December 1st, an Israeli news station reported that Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked allocated $158,000 to the settlers in Hebron for the “development of municipal services.” Al-Monitor reports that this is the first such allocation of funds for Hebron’s nascent settler municipal body, which Shaked was part of establishing in 2017, when she served as Justice Minister.

Prior to receiving permission to form a municipal body in 2017, the loose cluster of settlements located in Hebron’s city center (home to around 1,000 settlers) had technically fallen under the municipal jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, while for all practical purposes operating as an enclave under full Israeli control and authority.

Hebron Mayor Taysir Abu Sneineh warned that Israel has repeatedly stoked tensions in Hebron – citing Israel President Isaac Herzog’s recent Hanukkah celebration at the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque. The Mayor believers that Israel is trying to replace the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality with a settler organization, telling Al-Monitor:

“This is not to mention the daily attacks [by settlers] in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood and al-Shuhada Street. The city is sitting on a volcano, and things might explode at any moment.”

Karim Jubran, director of field research at the Jerusalem-based nonprofit organization B’Tselem, told Al-Monitor: 

“Settlers are tightening the noose around the lives of half a million Palestinians in Hebron, especially those who live in the H2 area, as hostages of settlers and the Israeli army.”

Demolition of Palestinian Property in Area C Hit a Five Year High in 2020

According to data from the Israeli Civil Administration, Israel demolished 797 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C of the West Bank – marking a five year high. The data was obtained via a freedom of information request filed by the Israeli NGO Bimkom.

The soaring number of demolitions is congruent with the escalating, government-funded and government-equipped campaign run by settlers to more aggressively wield building laws against Palestinians in Area C, even as settlers continue building unauthorized outposts in violation of the same building laws, and rarely facing consequences. Just last month, settlers formed a new task force coordinating settler advocacy on the topic. In October 2020, the Israeli government allocated nearly $2650,000 to 14 settler councils in order to buy drones and hire policeman to patrol Palestinian construction in Area C. The government also set up a hotline for settlers to report illegal construction.

As a reminder, under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into 3 “areas” – Area A, B, and C – pending a permanent status Israeli-Palestinian agreement that would determine final control over all the land (an agreement that was supposed to have been reached by by May 1999). Area C –  which accounts for around 60% of the West Bank – was to be (temporarily, until an agreement was concluded) under full Israeli control over Area C. However, throughout the 28 years since the Oslo Accords were signed (and with no peace agreement achieved or in sight), Israel has systematically expanded settlements and its control over lands in Area C, including by denying Palestinians in Area C permits to build “legally” (under Israeli law) on their own land. As a result, Palestinians have been forced to build without Israeli permits (i.e., “illegally” in the eyes of Israeli authorities), and Israel has responded by issuing wide-scale demolition orders and carrying out frequent demolitions. 

In recent years, Israel has increasingly treated Area C as indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory, extending its laws and regulations to the area and its Israeli settler inhabitants. In parallel, settler groups – most notably the notorious “Regavim” – have lobbied Israeli authorities to crack down on “illegal” Palestinian construction, claiming that Palestinians are trying to “take over Israeli land”.

As part of these ongoing efforts — by settlers and the Israeli government — to entrench and expand Israel’s control over/de facto annexation of the entirety of Area C, in September 2020 the Israeli government allocated 20 million NIS ($6 million USD) for the newly created “Settlement Affairs Ministry.” That ministry was given the mission of surveying and mapping “unauthorized” (by Israel) Palestinian construction in Area C (the same construction which Israel has been aggressively demolishing). This funding further empowers a domestic Israeli body to exert extraterritorial sovereignty over Area C – in effect, treating the area as land already annexed by Israel. 

The Knesset has also repeatedly hosted forums to discuss the alleged (by settlers and their allies/advocates) “Palestinian takeover of Area C.” This framing is predicated on the assertion that Area C belongs to Israel (an assertion that is not supported by the Oslo Accords) and must be defended against Palestinian efforts to “steal” it. Consistent with this framing, and under pressure from various outside groups, many members of the Knesset have criticized the Israeli government’s alleged failure to robustly “defend” Israel’s rights and interests in Area C (e.g., failure to prevent/destroy “illegal” Palestinian construction, failure to block foreign government-funded humanitarian projects that support Palestinians’ presence in the area; failure to clear out Palestinians from the area, expand settlements, and consolidate state-built settlement infrastructure; etc.).

Israel Escalates Intimidation of Activists Working in the South Hebron Hills

In two separate – but by all indications connected – actions over the past week, Israeli authorities detained and interrogated several Jewish Israeli activists (some of whom are American citizens) involved in Palestinian solidarity and anti-occupation efforts related to raising awareness around settler violence, land seizures, and firing zones in the South Hebron Hills. 

In Jerusalem, police twice raided the home of several Jewish activists on allegations that some of the residents were involved in spraying graffiti on public property as part of an anti-occupation action. In the course of those two raids, police ransacked the house and photographed all the residents, later summoning them for interrogation about the allegations of graffiti and opening cases against some of them.

Later the same day, there was an incident in A-Tuwani, a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills. A settler jogging through A-Tuwani – a bizarre action by a settler given that A-Tuwani has been the target of intense settler attacks – was confronted by Palestinians. The incident was eventually resolved in the presence of Israeli police and Israeli activists staying in the village in solidarity with Palestinians. Subsequently, the IDF summoned three of the Israeli activists for questioning about the incident. Those three activists (plus another two) were then detained, interrogated, and charged — with charges ranging from obstructing justice, assault, and failure to prevent a crime. The charge of assault was later dropped; the charge of failing to prevent a crime is a novel charge, generally reserved for cases of murder. The activists were later conditionally released, some after accepting a 15-day ban on entering the South Hebron Hills. In parallel, Israeli Police raided two homes in A-Tuwani – one of the homes houses Israeli activists, the other is the home of a Palestinian family prominently involved in activism and documentation of settler violence in the area. The Israeli police confiscated (without a warrant) equipment owned by the activists and the Palestinian Al-Adra family, including cameras, computers, and a jeep – all of which are vital tools in documenting the ongoing settler terrorism.

Attorney Riham Nasra, who is representing the three activists who were charged, told +972 Magazine:

“It is clear that this arrest is an attempt to inflate accusations in order to intimidate and deter activists, to prevent them from continuing their important activities. They were turned into suspects only because they did not cooperate with the investigators’ attempts to indict them. From the hearing it is clear that the activists were never suspected of involvement in the attack. Their arrest is part of the attempts to keep the activists out of the South Hebron Hills, where they expose the atrocities of occupation and human rights violations.”

The actions come at a time when settler terrorism in the South Hebron Hills is a matter of growing international scrutiny, and come only a few short weeks after U.S. members of Congress visited Palestinians in the area. One of the members of Congress, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), followed up his visit by tweeting, “Today ⁦@JamaalBowmanNY & I visited w/ Nasser of Susia in Palestine today to discuss Israeli settler violence to his village. We will be watching to make sure no violence occurs this weekend or anytime.”

For more insight and details on these arrests and the background of the South Hebron Hills, check out FMEP’s latest podcast featuring Oriel Eisner and Maya Eshel – two of the Israelis arrested in Jerusalem and the South Hebron Hills, respectively – entitled, “Israeli Government Escalates Pressure on Israelis Who Stand in Solidarity with Palestinians.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel, sans West Bank, officially joins EU’s huge flagship R&D program” (The Times of Israel)
2. “New Israeli Government’s Scorecard for Peace: Poor.” (Dahlia Scheindlin for The Century Foundation)
3. “How settler violence is fuelling West Bank tension” (The Guardian)
4. “The Temple Mount movement is soaring under Israel’s new government” (+972 Magazine)
5. “Israeli settlers have a new target, and it’s not in the West Bank” (+972 Magazine)
6. “Why Settlers Are Quietly Happy With Israel’s post-Netanyahu Government” (Anshell Pfeffer in Haaretz)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 3, 2021

1. Israel to Advance Atarot Settlement Plan
2. New Israeli President Kicks Off Hanukkah with Settlers in Hebron, Sparking Clashes and Raising Ire
3. Court OKs Demolition of Palestinian Homes in Wadi Yasul (Silwan)
4. “Day of Destruction” –  Israel Demolitions in East Jerusalem & West Bank
5. Government Contradictions Delay Final Decision on Jerusalem Cable Car Project
6. Knesset Holds Hearing on Settler Terrorism
7. Bonus Reads

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Israel to Advance Atarot Settlement Plan

At its upcoming meeting scheduled for December 6th, the Israeli Interior Ministry District Planning Committee is set to approve the Atarot settlement plan for public deposit. 

As a reminder, the Atarot plan calls for a huge new settlement on the site of the defunct Qalandiya Airport, located on a sliver of land between Ramallah and Jerusalem. In its current form, the plan provides for up to 9,000 residential units for ultra-Orthodox Jews (assuming, conservatively, an average family size of 6, this means housing for 54,000 people), as well as synagogues, ritual baths (mikvehs), commercial properties, offices and work spaces, a hotel, and a water reservoir. If built, the Atarot settlement will effectively be an Israeli city surrounded by Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods on three sides and Ramallah to its north. Geopolitically, it will have a similar impact to E-1 in terms of dismembering the West Bank and cutting it off from Jerusalem. For more on the Atarot settlement plan, please see here.

The Jerusalem District Planning Committee previously signaled its intent to advance the Atarot settlement plan, most notably by placing it on the December 6th agenda. After apparent pushback from the Biden Administration, on November 25th the plan was suddenly removed from the December 6th agenda, reportedly in fulfillment of a promise to the U.S. to freeze the project. That removal, however, proved short-lived. On November 28th, the Atarot plan reappeared on the agenda, confirming earlier comments Bennett made to the settler-run news outlet Arutz Sheva saying that the plan will indeed be discussed on December 6th. Apparently settling the matter, an Israeli diplomatic source said that the government will act on the plan by approving it for deposit for public review, while at the same time offering the U.S. a rhetorical commitment (but nothing more) that there will be no further advancement in the planning process for at least a year. 

Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran cautions:

“‘…please, don’t buy any ‘promise’ that ‘we will not build’ (anyway the planning process takes a while, and  even if they work hard and fast they can’t start to build Atarot in less than 3-4 years), what we need is clear: Don’t promote the plan; Shelve it.’ Ofran separately told The Los Angeles Times, ‘As soon as [the committee] approve[s] it, it’s like a snowball.’”

Ir Amim also warns:

“While the Israeli authorities may attempt to relegate the upcoming discussion as a prosaic, bureaucratic step in a lengthy approval process, it is a necessary stage in the plan’s final approval and indeed advances the plan one step closer to full validation.”

For further information about the Atarot plan – and what has transpired over the past week – please see the following two podcasts:

• “The Settlement That Wasn’t But Now Is” ft. Daniel Seidemann & Evan Gottesman (Terrestrial Jerusalem Podcast – 11/30/2021)
• “Scorched Earth & Settlements in Jerusalem” ft. Daniel Seidemann and Kristin McCarthy (FMEP podcast – 12/2/2021) 

New Israeli President Kicks Off Hanukkah with Settlers in Hebron, Sparking Clashes and Raising Ire

Isaac Herzog – the former head of the Jewish Agency who was sworn in as the new Israeli President in July 2021 – opted to make a highly political statement by attending a celebration of the first night of Hanukkah in Hebron, at the Tomb of the Patriarchs/al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Herzog’s choice is correctly understood to be an intentional embrace and legitimization of settlers in Hebron, and of the apartheid reality Palestinians experience everyday. In his speech at the event, Herzog emphasized recognition of “the historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the Patriarchs,” and spoke about the 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron. He said nothing about Palestinian links to the city, the 1993 Hebron Massacre, or anything else related to Palestinian equities in the city.

Palestinian and Israeli activists protested the event, which led to clashes with the IDF.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry responded:

“The Israeli government bears full and direct responsibility for this event…[this is] a defiant move aimed at embracing the settlement enterprise and a blatant violation of international law and the international effort to curb unilateral measures.”

MK Ayman Odeh (Joint List) tweeted:

“Herzog did not go to light the first candle, he went to light Hebron…Whoever celebrates with fans of the killer Goldstein cannot be the president of all the citizens of the country.”

Peace Now, commenting on Herzog’s activities, said:

“[Hebron is] the ugliest face of Israeli control over the territories..It is inconceivable that the president, who is supposed to be a unifying figure, would choose, of all places, to light a candle in a place that has become a stronghold of oppression and violence.”

Commenting on the IDF’s preventing protests of Herzog’s appearance, Peace Now also said:

“While the president lights a candle with Baruch Marzel and the Kahanists, security forces are preventing law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to protest”.

In speculating that Herzog’s appearance in Hebron is indicative of his higher political ambitions [to become Prime Minister], Israeli analyst Anshel Pfeffer writes:

“Herzog’s decision to light the first candle of Hanukkah on Sunday night with the settlers of Hebron, [Kahanist MK] Ben-Gvir’s core constituency, should come as no surprise to anyone. These were the kind of people he courted before being elected president and he’s not about to shun them now, or anytime… The visit to Hebron is not an afterthought or a symbolic gesture of ‘unity.’ This was the very first Hanukkah-lighting of Herzog’s presidency, and his choice of venue signals how he intends to build his political brand throughout his term and beyond.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board – in an editorial entitled “Herzog Decided He Wants to Be the President of the Settlements. It’s Not Too Late to Change It” – pleaded with Herzog to cancel his plan, writing:

“Of all the places in Israel, the president chose Hebron, the ultimate symbol of the ugliness and brutality of the occupation and the violence and domineering of the settlers. 

“The visit by Israel’s No. 1 citizen to that place – most of whose Palestinian inhabitants have been forced to flee in fear of the settlers and abandon their homes and stores, turning the heart of Hebron into a ghost town – is tantamount to granting official legitimacy to the appalling injustices perpetrated there every day, both before and after Dr. Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Arab worshipers in the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

“In no other place in the West Bank is Israeli apartheid so horrifyingly flagrant: segregated streets on which Palestinians are prohibited from walking; vehicle entry barred to the Palestinians still living there; checkpoints at every turn –  only for Palestinians, of course. Violence and humiliation are the daily fare of every Palestinian resident at the hands of the settlers and their children, as well as the army and Border Patrol personnel who are stationed on every corner.

“That is where Herzog believes he must go. His planned visit to Hebron is a gesture of recognition of and solidarity with the most violent settlers and additional proof that occupied Hebron has been annexed to Israel, at least de facto. Otherwise, the president has no reason to go there.”

Court OKs Demolition of Palestinian Homes in Wadi Yasul (Silwan)

On November 28th the Jerusalem District Court cleared the way for the immediate demolition of 58 Palestinian homes in the Wadi Yasul section of the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem – adjacent to an area known as the “Peace Forest”. The basis for the order is the Israeli claim that the homes lack Israel-issued building permits. The Court rejected an appeal to continue freezing demolition orders, filed by Palestinian homeowners, ruling that demolition orders can no longer be justifiably suspended because there appeared to be no prospect of Israel legalizing the homes, despite a 15-year effort on the part of Wadi Yasul’s residents to advance planning schemes that could have enabled Israel to rezone the land and legalize the homes.

An attorney representing the Palestinian homeowners told Haaretz:

“The residents have spent millions of shekels on these plans, but in the end, [city officials] broke their promises, posed insurmountable obstacles and insist on implementing the demolition orders and throwing the families out onto the street with no alternative.”

The brutal outcome Israel is meting out to the Palestinian residents of Wadi Yasul stands in stark contrast to the Israeli State and judicial system’s treatment of illegal settler construction in the same area — a reality that underscores the systematic discrimination that characterizes Israeli planning policies and enforcement facing Palestinians in Jerusalem. While pursuing the demolition of Palestinian construction and refusing efforts to address the issue, FMEP reported in 2019 how the Israeli government is working hand-in-hand with Israeli settlers to pursue every avenue to secure the retroactive legalization of the Elad settler group’s illegal construction. Even more brazenly, Israeli officials have been working to rezone the “Peace Forest” [something it refuses to do for Palestinians] in order to allow the Elad settler group to build more infrastructure in the area, including a tourist zipline and a promenade meant to connect settlement enclaves in the area.

Haaretz previously explained how Jerusalem authorities have repeatedly assisted Elad in its illegal activities:

“At first the NGO simply trespassed and built illegal structures there [the “Peace Forest”]. But things changed and gradually various local and national bodies – including the Jerusalem Municipality, the Israel Land Authority, the Tourism Ministry and the JNF – began to grant Elad assistance. This assistance has included granting building permits retroactively, allocating land to the group without a proper bidding process, and generous funding to the tune of tens of millions of shekels… It has been sponsoring activities in the Peace Forest since 2005, despite the fact that it has no ownership rights there or permits from the ILA (the legal owner of the land, which was expropriated from private Palestinian owners).”

Ir Amim explains:

“The scope of settlement projects in the vicinity of Wadi Yasul – and the breadth and depth of state support awarded to Elad, including authorities’ overt efforts to retroactively legalize their own unpermitted buildings – illuminate the stark discrimination in planning that empowers the expansion of radical settlement inside Palestinian neighborhoods while putting their native residents at risk of displacement.”

In a 2019 report on Wadi Yasul, B’Tselem told the story of what’s transpiring there:

“The residents of Wadi Yasul built [their homes] adjacent to a forest, also located on privately owned land that was expropriated from its Palestinian owners in 1970. In 1977, the Jerusalem Municipality zoned the forest and the area where Wadi Yasul was later established as a green space, where construction is prohibited.

“In 2004, the neighborhood’s residents submitted a detailed plan to the District Planning and Building Committee for retroactive authorization of their homes. The committee rejected the plan in 2008, citing incompatibility with the Jerusalem 2000 Outline Plan, which states that the area where the neighborhood was built must remain a green space.

“At the same time, the municipality and the JNF (Jewish National Fund) – the body in charge of managing the forest – gave their approval to settler organization El-Ad to move forward with plans for group campgrounds, including building the longest recreational zipline in Israel. Some of the facilities have already been built in the forest, without building permits. While the city did issue demolition orders against them, it has refrained from following through.

“In contrast, over the last decade, the city has filed indictments with the Court of Local Affairs against all Wadi Yasul homeowners. The court then issued demolition orders for all of the homes and imposed heavy fines, fining each family tens of thousands of shekels. Three of the families appealed these decisions with the District Court. The appeals were dismissed in April on the grounds that “there are no clear and near planning prospects” for the approval of a plan that would see the appellants’ homes, or other homes in the neighborhood, approved. An appeal the families filed with the Supreme Court was also rejected. In late April, 47 other families filed a motion with the District Court seeking an interim injunction staying execution of the demolition orders. The court’s decision is still pending. Consequently, all of the homes in the neighborhood are still under immediate threat of demolition.

“Ever since 1967, planning policy in Jerusalem has been geared toward establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic majority in the city. Under this policy, it is nearly impossible to obtain a building permit in Palestinian neighborhoods. The outline plans the city has prepared for these neighborhoods are largely aimed at restricting and limiting building opportunities in Palestinian neighborhoods. One way the plans do so is by designating vast areas as open green spaces, thereby barring Palestinians from building there. The resulting housing shortage forces Palestinian residents to build without permits.”

“Day of Destruction” –  Israel Demolitions in East Jerusalem & West Bank

On November 23rd, Israeli forces carried out a demolition campaign targeting Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, under the pretense that these homes lack Israeli-required Israeli-issued building permits (permits Israel systematically refuses to issue to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in Area C). As a result of these demolitions,  22 people, including 15 children, were rendered homeless in a single day. 

The demolitions included:

• 3 homes in the Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood of East Jerusalem.  One of the buildings was a multi-unit apartment buildings;
• 1 home and a burial building (perhaps a funeral home) in villages in the South Hebron Hills;
• 1 tent and 3 livestock structures belonging to bedouin families living east of Ramallah;
• An agricultural road near Nablus. The road was used by the residents of ‘Asirah al-Shamaliyah to reach their farmland and also connects the town to Nablus.

B’Tselem writes:

“The wave of demolitions expresses the perception of the Israeli regime, which holds that land is a resource intended primarily to serve the Jewish population. This regime uses a variety of administrative, planning and bureaucratic tools to implement this concept. Governments come and go, but the apartheid regime remains untouched.”

Government Contradictions Delay Final Decision on Jerusalem Cable Car Project

On November 28th, the Israeli High Court of Justice held what was scheduled to be the final hearing to determine the fate of the Jerusalem cable car project — a project which has been promoted by the government and the Elad settler organization until this point.  But instead of reaching a decision, the Court ended up giving the Israeli government a 21-day extension, by the end of which the government must explain its position on the project. 

The proximate cause of the Court’s action was Israeli Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli’s (Labor) statement, delivered two days before the Court hearing, saying that “the cable car has no significant transportation role, and the harm will exceed the benefits.” That statement contradicts and completely undermines the rationale for the project that the government has put forward until this point — i.e., that the cable car will provide a legitimate transportation benefit. Given Michaeli’s statement, the Court issued its order for the State to clarify where it stands.

Commenting on the Court’s action, the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – which specializes in archaeology – said: 

“We are pleased that after three years, the transport minister has said what we have been saying all along: that the Jerusalem cable car project is not a transportation project and is not an answer to the traffic issues near the Old City. We believe that its value for tourism has also been greatly misrepresented and although the plan is being advanced by the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Tourism Ministry it will primarily benefit a powerful interest group (the Elad Foundation) by transporting thousands of tourists to its hub at the City of David to the detriment of the historic city and its residents. We hope that the judges will rule that the approval process for the cable car plan severely undermined principles of good governance and on those grounds decide to put a stop to the plan.”

As a reminder, the Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative backed by the powerful, state-backed Elad settler group and advanced by the Israeli Tourism Ministry. The State of Israel – which has pushed the project forward in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and despite commitments by the government to focus on public health matters only – was previously forced to publicly admit that the implementation of the cable car project will require the confiscation of privately owned Palestinian land in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. 

While public efforts to “sell” the cable car plan have focused on its purported role in helping to grow Jerusalem’s tourism industry or in serving supposedly vital transportation needs, in reality the purpose of the project is to further entrench settler control in Silwan, via archeology and tourism sites, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. Notably, the cable car line is slated to terminate at the settler-run Kedem Center compound (Elad’s large tourism center, currently under construction at the entrance of the Silwan neighborhood, in the shadows of the Old City’s walls and Al-Aqsa Mosque).

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

Knesset Holds Hearing on Settler Terrorism

On November 22nd a group of Knesset members – all hailing from political parties considered to be part of the Israeli Left – convened a hearing on settler violence against Palestinians. 

As part of the hearing, several experts were asked to testify, including Ali Awad, a journalist and anti-settlement activist in the South Hebron Hills. Awad testified regarding his experience growing up in Tuba (read about that here), saying:

“I grew up in Tuba in the South Hebron Hills, under the threat of settlers my whole life. The military and settlers are working to steal our resources, rob us of our freedom, and take our land. There is full cooperation between the settlers and the army” [paraphrased by Breaking the Silence]

Peace Now Executive Director Shaqued Morag also testified, and emphasized that unauthorized outposts radiate settler terrorism and violence, serving as a tool for settlers (and the state) to take over more and more land.

A group of retired Israeli commanders – called Commanders for Israeli Security – delivered a written testimony for the hearing, writing:

“Groups of settlers have been perpetrating deadly acts of violence against Palestinians — for the most part helpless villagers — in areas under our control…This is completely unacceptable from an ethical and humanitarian perspective, and it stands in contradiction to Israel’s Jewish values.”

The hearing was not without controversy, as it was held the one day after a Palestinian killed one Jewish Israeli and injured four others in a shooting attack in the Old City of Jerusalem. Right-wing members of the Knesset, including Kahanist MK Ben Gvir, asked for the hearing on settler violence to be cancelled altogether. When it was allowed to proceed, Ben Gvir used the podium to shout his criticism of the Knesset members who organized the hearing, eventually resulting in his removal from the hearing room. 

Decrying the lack of participation of many MKs, Meretz Party Chairman Nitzan Horowitz said:

“Their silence and lack of interest is tantamount to the endorsement and encouragement of continued violence.”

Horowitz also said:

“Some people in the Knesset minimize its existence or even deny it entirely. I invite them to visit the area, to meet with the victims of this violence, and to see the photos and video clips they produce.’’

Bonus Reads

1. “Highway of hope and heartbreak” (Washington Post)
2. “The Gaza Bantustan – Israeli Apartheid in the Gaza Strip” (Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights)
3. “‘Hate crime’ attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians spike in the West Bank” (Washington Post)
4. “Democratic Lawmakers Warn Against ‘Doomsday’ Israeli Settlement Plan” (Haaretz)
5. “‘The occupation is trying to uproot us. Art can bring us back’” (+972 Magazine)
6. “Israelis attacked, car set on fire after entering Ramallah” (i24 News)
7. “The Long Reach of Restraint: For Israel’s Supreme Court, to exercise power might be to lose it.” (Jewish Currents // Elisheva Goldberg)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 12, 2021

1. Settlers Secure Deal for Eventual Eviction of Another Sheikh Jarrah Family
2. Increasing Pressure on the Government, Settlers to Operationalize Plan to Increase Control Over Area C
3. JNF Stops Funding 18-Year Legal Battle Over Beit Bakri in Hebron
   
4. Demolitions in East Jerusalem Continue, Including in Al-Walaja
5. Settler Violence & Expansionism Continue to Escalate in the South Hebron Hills
6. Bennett Pledges Evyatar Outpost will be Legalized, Sparking Palestinian Ire & More Coalition Threats
7. Government Punts on Outpost Legalization Bill, Knesset Might Move Forward Anyway
8. Bonus Reads

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Settlers Secure Deal for Eventual Eviction of Another Sheikh Jarrah Family

Israel Hayom reports that a Palestinian family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood has reached a Court-approved “deal” with settlers to recognize settler ownership of their home (where they have lived since 1956), in exchange for being allowed to stay as paying tenants for a period of at least ten years.  The “deal” follows the broad outline of a Court-authored compromise that was rejected last week by four other Palestinian families (the cases are separate, but not unrelated).

Israel Hayom additionally speculates:

“The compromise, which was given the force of a legal ruling in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court a few days ago, could serve as a precedent for other local Arab families and is seen as a blow to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which are both pressuring Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik to refuse any proposed deals to vacate the properties.”

Increasing Pressure on the Government, Settlers to Operationalize Plan to Increase Control Over Area C

In a closed meeting on November 10th, the heads of settler regional councils met to discuss their ongoing effort to get the Israeli government to annex Area C of the West Bank. According to Arutz Sheva (the settler media outlet), the meeting resulted in significant decisions that create a more unified settler operation on the matter, including the formation of a “joint command center” through which all of the councils will act together, and a commitment by all the regional leaders to form a unified front to pressure the government.

Following the meeting, the participants released a statement saying:

“This struggle is over whether we continue to exist or to fold. This is an existential battle involving the entire Nation of Israel. We are all committed towards working together in order to stop the hostile takeover of our lands and in order to preserve the future of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria.”

An op-ed published in Israel Hayom on November 11th – entitled “In Area C, the time has come to get off the fence” – seemingly making the case for such an effort, the settlement activist Sara Haetzni-Cohen writes: 

“Efrat’s dedicated residents have established their own war room. They track every brick and every bit of cement that is spilled and report it to the authorities. They know every demolition order that is issued but not enforced, and they do not give up. But the state quite simply does not exist. The Civil Administration is failing at its task and by choice…We’ve reached a stage where there is no state on which to rely on major issues. Real leadership from leaders who will get off the fence is needed. Local leadership in Judea and Samaria, whether elected or civilian organizations, must get off the fence and protect state lands, settlement lands, our homeland. It should be done intelligently, responsibly, and in a law-abiding manner. We should not resort to violence or vandalism against the Arab population, but rather go about this in a positive way, by planting trees and working the land, by showing our presence on the ground. If we will not be for ourselves, who will be for us? There simply isn’t any choice. We must get off the psychological and physical fence and defend our land.”

As a reminder, under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into 3 “areas” – Area A, B, and C – pending a permanent status Israeli-Palestinian agreement that would determine final control over all the land (an agreement that was supposed to have been reached by by May 1999). The Oslo Accords gave Israel complete control over Area C, which accounts for around 60% of the West Bank.  Throughout the 28 years since the Oslo Accords were signed (and with no peace agreement achieved or in sight), Israel has systematically denied Palestinians in Area C permits that would enable them to build “legally” (under Israeli law) on their own land. As a result, Palestinians have been forced to build without Israeli permits (i.e., “illegally” in the eyes of Israeli authorities), and Israel has responded by issuing wide-scale demolition orders and carrying out frequent demolitions. In recent years, Israel has increasingly treated Area C as indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory, effectively extending its laws and regulations to the area and its Israeli settler inhabitants. In parallel, settler groups – most notably the notorious “Regavim” – have lobbied Israeli authorities to crack down on “illegal” Palestinian construction, claiming that Palestinians are trying to “take over Israeli land”.

As part of these ongoing efforts — by settlers and the Israeli government — to entrench and expand Israel’s control over/de facto annexation of the entirety of Area C, in September 2020 the Israeli government allocated 20 million NIS ($6 million USD) for the newly created Settlement Affairs Ministry. That ministry was given the mission of surveying and mapping “unauthorized” (by Israel) Palestinian construction in Area C (the same construction which Israel has been aggressively demolishing). This funding further empowers a domestic Israeli body to exert extraterritorial sovereignty over Area C – in effect, treating the area as land already annexed by Israel. 

The Knesset has also repeatedly hosted forums to discuss the alleged (by settlers and their allies/advocates) “Palestinian takeover of Area C” — framing predicated on the assertion that Area C belongs to Israel (an assertion that is not supported by the Oslo Accords) and must be defended against Palestinian efforts to “steal” it. Consistent with this framing, and under pressure from various outside groups, many members of the Knesset have criticized the Israeli government’s alleged failure to robustly “defend” Israel’s rights/ interests in Area C (e.g., failure to prevent/destroy “illegal” Palestinian construction, failure to block foreign government-funded humanitarian projects that support Palestinians’ presence in the area; failure to clear out Palestinians from the area, expand settlements, and consolidate state-built settlement infrastructure; etc.).

JNF Stops Funding 18-Year Legal Battle Over Beit Bakri in Hebron

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Board of the Jewish National Fund in Israel has decided to stop funding the legal costs of a group of settlers battling to win control over a contested home in Tel Rumeida, in the heart of downtown Hebron (and to that end, forging documents). Israeli Courts have ruled against the settlers’ claim to the home twice, most recently in December 2019, in a ruling which affirmed that the Palestinian Bakri family is the rightful owner (the house is known as “Beit Bakri”).

At the request of the settlers, the JNF has agreed to pay installments on a legal guarantee to Israeli courts in order to allow the settlers to avoid eviction while pursuing an appeal against the December 2019 ruling against them. Since 2019, the JNF has paid some $35,000 (110,000 NIS) towards the case. 

The Palestinian homeowners – the Bakri family – temporarily fled their home under constant settler harassment during the Second Intifada, a time when Tel Rumeida could have been accurately described as an “urban battlefield.” While the family was gone, settlers broke into the house, damaged it, destroyed the Bakri’s property, and ultimately took up residence there.

The Bakri family has spent the past 18 years petitioning Israeli police and the courts to remove the settlers — cases the Bakri family repeatedly won. The settlers have managed to repeatedly delay their eviction by essentially exploiting every possible legal defense, no matter how absurd or contradictory. For example: At different points over the past 18 years, settlers argued in court that they had a rental agreement; that they purchased the home; that the plot of land was owned by a Jewish trust prior to 1948 and they are “reclaiming” the property; and that because they had invested so much money in improving the land since taking it over, under Ottoman Law it now legally belongs to them, regardless of the means by which they acquired it. When at one point some years ago the courts ruled that the settlers had to evacuate, the settler occupants of the Bakri home did, indeed, leave, only to be immediately replaced by other settlers — at which point the Israeli Attorney General told the Bakri family that they had to start eviction proceedings anew. For a detailed timeline of the Bakri family’s saga, see this report from Peace Now.

Throughout the course of this saga, the settlers’ effort to hold on to the Bakri home was aided by the State’s unwillingness to implement court orders against the settlers. Peace Now said in a statement:

“This is not only a matter of cruelty, deceit and theft of settlers who are not loathe to take control of assets that are not theirs, but also a matter of the lack of government accountability. For 18 years the government did not enforce the law against the invading settlers, and even assisted them and allowed them to continue to steal the house and terrorize their Palestinian neighbors in Tel Rumeida. Furthermore, it should be remembered that Hebron is under Israeli occupation and the Palestinian residents cannot remove the settlers from their homes by appealing to the Palestinian Authority. The power lies in the hands of the Israeli government, which does nothing to fulfill its responsibilities to protect abandoned Palestinian property.”

Demolitions in East Jerusalem Continue, Including in Al-Walaja

Over the past week the Israeli government has moved forward with demolitions in Palestinian neighborhoods across East Jerusalem, including:

• The demolition of three Palestinian homes in the village of Al-Walajah on November 9th. For more on Israel’s systematic campaign to demolish homes in Al-Walajah – including its refusal to approve building plans initiated by Palestinians – see FMEP’s September 9, 2021 settlement report;
• Israeli authorities delivered demolition notices to 10 Palestinian families (70 individuals) living in an apartment building in the al-Tur neighborhood. The notice ordered the families to self-demolish the four-story building within one week, or have Israeli forces demolish the building, with the cost of the demolition billed to the residents. The families reportedly began removing their belongings from the building on November 5th in anticipation of demolition;
• Under coercive Israeli policies, a Palestinian family opted to self-demolish an apartment building in the Beit Hanina neighborhood; 
• Under coercive Israeli policies, a Palestinian family opted to self-demolish its house in the Jabel al-Mukaber neighborhood.

As is always the Israeli position, the State asserts that the homes being demolished and under threat of demolition have been built by Palestinians without the required Israeli permits (often on land that even Israel recognizes they privately own). Such permits are generally all but impossible for Palestinians to obtain; in the case of al-Walajah, they are literally impossible to obtain, since the area lacks the required Israeli-approved “outline plan,” without which permits are an impossibility. Facing the reality of having Israel demolish their homes and being required to pay excessive costs and fees associated with such demolitions, Palestinians sometimes choose to self-demolish their homes.

Settler Violence & Expansionism Continues to Escalate in the South Hebron Hills

On Wednesday, November 10th a group of settlers attempting to install a campsite and graze their flocks on land near the Palestinian village of Khilet al-Daba clashed with local Palestinians, who worried that the settlers were making an attempt to take over the land – an understandable concern giving the growing phenomenal of farming outposts as a means for settlement expansion. The clashes – which took place at night after a full day of building tensions – took a violent turn when settlers set a Palestinian agricultural structure on fire. The evening ended with two Palestinians being shot by settlers with live rounds, three Palestinians wounded by settlers throwing rocks, and damage to several cars owned by Palestinians.

The land on which the settlers were grazing their flocks and attempting to install a campsite was declared to be a firing zone by the Israeli government, making it illegal for Palestinians to build there or even enter. According to Haaretz, the Israeli state has plans to evict Palestinians who live in this area (who have ostensibly lived in the area prior to it being declared by Israel to be a firing zone).

The IDF, which had been at the scene intermittently during the day, eventually sought to separate the groups by declaring the area a closed military zone. South Hebron Hills activist Basil Al-Adraa explained how this practice works to allow settlers to accomplish their goals, saying:

“The army arrived, declared it a closed military zone and kicked us out. But they didn’t kick out the settlers or take down the tent they put up today.”

The South Hebron Hills is a hotbed for settler violence, and was the scene of a settler attack – a Jewish pogrom – in September. Earlier this week, settlers from a nearby outpost – aided by the IDF –  temporarily blocked Palestinian access to a playground in the village of Susiya. In addition to settler violence, the Israeli government is also acting to significantly expand settlements and retroactively legalize outposts in the South Hebron Hills.

Notably, two U.S members of Congress – Mark Pocan (D, WI-2) and Jamaal Bowman (D, NY-16) – visited the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills on November 10th (prior to the outbreak of violence that night). They pair met with local Paelstinian activist where they were told of the violence settlers inflict on the local population. 

In an interview with Jewish Currents in  October 2021, Basil Al-Adraa explained how violence and land takeovers are two sides of the same coin in the South Hebron Hills,

“Settlers have long been attacking the communities here. The [Israeli] Civil Administration gives them land stolen from the Palestinians: They declared it state land so they can take it by force, for settlers to build settlements and outposts and farms. This year, the settlers have started these new sheep farms around the West Bank, where they bring volunteers to work on these farms. But the settlers aren’t content with the tens of thousands of dunams [one dunam equals 1,000 square meters] they’ve been granted: They bring their animals to our private fields, which the state can’t take from us. They bring them to our orange trees, to drink from our water systems—like the well where we collect rainwater—and to graze on our grass. And what’s been happening recently, especially since May, is they’ve been organizing big attacks on Shabbat and holidays because settlers don’t have much work to do on those days. Dozens of settlers will come masked, with hammers, machine guns, sticks, and stones. The army escorts them two or three kilometers from their settlements to our villages. They burn houses, cut down olive trees. If the army sees some Palestinian trying to defend themselves, then they will shoot at [that Palestinian] with live stun grenades, or tear gas, or rubber bullets. They use all the force. We are under army law as Palestinians in Area C, but the settlers are under civilian law, so the soldiers in the area can’t deal with the settlers, who are under the jurisdiction of the police. But the police take three or four hours to come, only after the attacks have finished. In my community, al-Tuwani, there have been at least seven organized attacks. A lot of people look at these as [isolated] incidents, and this time, there was more media attention to the issue because there was a three-year-old child who was wounded. But it’s part of a policy, in which settlers and the Israeli army don’t want us to feel safe where we live. Like the home demolitions, the blocking of roads, the cutting water and electricity networks, it’s all leading to one goal: They want to kick us out of this land, out of Area C toward Area A [areas under Palestinian administrative and police control, like Ramallah]. But our land is here, our life is here.”

Bennett Pledges Evyatar Outpost will be Legalized, Sparking Palestinian Ire & More Coalition Threats

In a press conference on November 7th, Prime Minister Bennet affirmed his commitment to granting retroactive legalization to the unauthorized outpost of Evyatar – which was built on a strategic hilltop named Mount Sabih, located just south of Nablus on land historically belonging to nearby Palestinian villages Beita, Yatma, and Qablan. Even before Bennett’s most recent statement, several members of his fragile coalition have spoken out to insist that the reestablishment of Evyatar is a redline that, if crossed, could bring down the coalition (FMEP covered a few such statements two weeks ago). In the wake of Bennett’s press conference, more continued to do so, which only adds to the growing public fracture in the coalition over outposts and settlement building more broadly.

Public Security Minister Bar Lev (Labor) pledged to block the legalization of Evyatar, said this week:

“There are enough ways to dissolve this agreement. The Evyatar community [outpost] was illegal and illegal communities should be evacuated.”

The Mayor of Beita predicts that Bennett’s pledge to legalize the outpost (coupled with the end of the olive harvest season, which consumed protestors’ time elsewhere) will spark renewed energy in Palestinian-led protests in the town of Beita. Since settlers struck a deal with the government to temporarily vacate the outpost back in July 2021, Palestinians have staged regular protests against Evyatar outpost, and against the continue denial of access to the land on which the outposts continues to exist (the area is a closed military zone, where Palestinians are denied the ability to access). The protests over the summer were particularly violent, resulting in the killing of at least five Palestinian protestors by Israeli soldiers.

An organizer of the protests, Amal Bani Shamseh, told The New Arab:

“the people in Beita can not stand the idea of a single settler moving back to Mount Sabih and are willing to intensify protests, and women are the first to affirm it.”

As a reminder, the fate of the Evyatar outpost was the first controversy that threatened to divide the fragile Bennett-led government when it was sworn in. Bennet’s partners were bitterly divided on whether to evacuate the outpost or let it be, while the government sought to grant it retroactive legalization. In the end, the government reached a “deal” which saw the settlers (temporarily) vacate the outpost on Friday, July 2nd. In return, the government left the settlers’ illegal construction at the site in place (i.e., did not demolish it) — including buildings and roads —  while it “examines” the status of the land to see if it can be declared “state land” and therefore “legally” turned into a settlement (opening the door for the settlers to return). Under the agreement, the outpost is being used as a military base in the interim. 

The fact that the “compromise” left in place the settlers’ structures and allowed Israel to maintain complete control over the site during the “survey” process signalled from the start that the government is not concerned with enforcing Israeli law, but rather is focused on finding a political solution that works for the settlers. It was further clear from the terms of the “compromise” that the Bennet government believed it will be succeed in finding a pretext to assert that the land on which the outpost stands is “state land” which can be used by the state as it sees fit (i.e., give it to the settlers). If the state decides, pursuant to the investigation, that it has a basis on which to declare the site to be “state land,” the settlers will be allowed to return and resume the establishment of what would from that point no longer be an illegal outpost, but a new “legal” settlement. 

Government Punts on Outpost Legalization Bill, Knesset Might Move Forward Anyway

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Ministerial Committee on Legislation has decided to delay by four months its decision on whether to grant government backing to a bill that would grant retroactive authorization (i.e., legalize) nearly 70 West Bank settlement outposts that Israel has failed to find any other way to legalize (because they are built on land even Israel recognizes is privately owned by Palestinians). As a reminder, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation is composed of government Ministers, and decides whether or not the governing coalition will throw its support behind a bill in the Knesset – ensuring either its passage or defeat.

In response to this news, MK Orit Struck (Religious Zionist Party) — who is also a longtime Hebron settlement leader — said that she intends to bring the bill to the Knesset for an initial reading despite lacking government-backing. Struck believes a strong majority of Knesset Members, regardless of the government’s position, will support the bill. Members of the Knesset attempted to fast-track the passage of this same bill in May 2021, while Bennett and Lapid were in negotiations to form the current governing coalition. 

The bill introduced in May 2021 included an explanatory text claiming that the proposed law is in line with a decision the Security Cabinet took in 2017, when it tasked a new committee – headed by notorious settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein – to prepare individualized plans for each outpost to gain retroactive legalization based on the passage of the Regulation Law and the recommendations in the Zandberg Report. Bills similar to this have been filed several times in the past, and the Israeli government has debated granting retroactive authorization to the outposts via a government decision – and came close to doing so in the waning days of the Trump Administration.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israeli Settlers Escalate Violence in West Bank” (Foreign Policy)
2. “Nearly 20 years on, Israeli barrier shapes Palestinian lives” (AP)
3. “Far-right protestors clash with cops in Jerusalem over settler teen’s death” (The Times of Israel)
4. “They should have been lawyers. Instead they’re at Israeli construction sites” (Basil al-Adraa in +972 Magazine)
5. “How the Occupation Harms Not Only the Palestinians, but the Planet Too” (Haaretz)
6. “Palestinians say no to work in settlements” (Al-Monitor)