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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

July 19, 2018

1. It’s the Settlements, Stupid: Documents Reveal Israel Planned Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin Removal for 40+ Years
2. New Law Puts West Bank Legal Matters under Domestic Israeli Jurisdiction
3. Since 1967, Israel Gave 99.76% of “State Land” in the West Bank to Settlers (But Blames Palestinians)
4. Birthright & the Settlers
5. Jordan Valley Settlement Council Confirms Participation in (Illegal) Outpost Activity, Refuses to Release Any Details
6. Huge Expansion Approved for Pisgat Ze’ev; Jerusalem Expert: this is “Natural Response” to Trump’s Jerusalem Policy
7. Bonus Reads

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

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It’s the Settlements, Stupid: Documents Reveal Israel Planned Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin Removal for 40+ Years

A recently discovered document from the 1970s confirms that the removal of Bedouin communities from the Maale Adumim/E-1 area east of Jerusalem (like Khan al-Ahmar) has been planned for decades and is directly connected to plans to expand Israeli settlements and annex West Bank territory.

The document, entitled “A proposal to plan the Ma’aleh Adumim region and establish the community settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim B,” was written by settler activist Uri Ariel (who is currently serving as Israel’s Agricultural Minister). It lays out a plan to create a “Jewish corridor” of settlements connecting the coast to the Jordan River, recommending that Bedouin be evacuated from the area east of Jerusalem in order to build a new settlement: “Maale Adumim B.”

Haaretz reports that “a large part of the plan has been executed, except for the eviction of all the area’s Bedouin,” adding “Today, under a government in which [Agricultural Minister Uri] Ariel’s Habayit Hayehudi party is so powerful, the open expulsion of Bedouin is possible.”

Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann adds:

“the story of Khan Al-Ahmar is not only about the tragedy for the village and its inhabitants, or about Israel’s readiness to carry out an ostensible war crime in the face of the world. It is also about Israel’s determination to clear the entire area of the West Bank east of Jerusalem, and located within the line of the built and planned barrier, of any Palestinian presence. This clearing will prepare the ground for the future construction of E1 and de facto annexation of this so-called bloc, which extends well beyond the built-up area of Maale Adumim.”

New Law Puts West Bank Legal Matters under Domestic Israeli Jurisdiction

On July 16th, the Knesset voted 56-48 to pass a law that, in effect, further extends Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank, suspends even the pretense that Israel’s justice system is interested in protecting the rights of Palestinians living under occupation, and strengthens the hand of settlers and their supporters.

Specifically, since 1967, the court of first jurisdiction for cases related to Palestinians living in the West Bank — where Palestinians can legally challenge State actions (and inactions) regarding planning and construction, travel permits, freedom of information, and freedom of movement — has been the Israeli High Court of Justice, reflecting the extraordinariness of Israeli judges issuing, in effect, extra-territorial legal rulings.

The new law strips Palestinians of this direct avenue to the High Court of Justice. It compels Palestinians living in the West Bank to file petitions with the Jerusalem District Court (located within Israel’s sovereign borders). The High Court of Justice will only hear Palestinians’ cases on appeal from the district court, adding more time and higher costs to any potential appellant. The bill has been championed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), whose three-fold rationale for the bill explicitly states its purpose: to help settlers take more Palestinian land and shut-down Palestinian challenges to such thefts.

Shaked celebrated the passage of the bill, saying:

“The High Court petition party of Palestinians and extreme left organization against the settlements in Judea and Samaria is over today. From now on they will have to go through the judicial hurdle like any other Israeli citizen [note: Palestinians living in the West Bank are not Israeli citizens and as such do not enjoy the same rights or privileges as settlers in an Israeli court].”

Reiterating her call for annexation of the settlements, Shaked added that:

“Hebron, Ra’anana, Elon Moreh and Kiryat Arba [all but Ra’anana being places located deep inside the West Bank] are all inseparable parts of the Land of Israel.”

With the passage of the bill, the Israeli Knesset has further revealed – with startling honesty – its intention to treat the occupied territories as if they are sovereign Israeli territory. The bill is part of the legislative body’s broader effort to erase all remaining distinctions (legal, judicial, economic, and otherwise) between sovereign Israel and the occupied territories, distinctions which allowed Israel to preserve the guise of respect for rule of law, and good intentions, for the last 50 years. Lara Friedman points out:

“…this [the passage of the new law] is good news, further removing the pretense that Israel’s justice system protects Palestinian rights. For 50yrs the High Court’s rulings have at BEST dealt Palestinians pyrrhic victories that have systemically legitimized occupation & rule by law.”

FMEP tracks the application of domestic Israeli law over the occupied West Bank (the de facto annexation of the West Bank) on its Annexation Policy Tables, which are regularly updated.

Since 1967, Israel Gave 99.76% of “State Land” in the West Bank to Settlers (But Blames Palestinians)

On July 17, Israel’s Peace Now published a new report (covered in the New York Times) showing that Israel has allocated 99.76% of “State Land” in the West Bank to Israeli settlers, and just .24% to the local Palestinian population living under Israeli occupation. Israel has declared a total of 16% of land in the West Bank – including nearly half of all land in Area C – as “state land,” a method of land confiscation Israel has exploited to take control of West Bank land. This works out to around 260 square miles (674,459 dunams) of West Bank land granted to the settlers, and less than 1 square mile (1625 dunams) granted to the Palestinians.

Adding insult to injury, the 1 square mile of land granted for Palestinians was mostly for the purpose of establishing Israeli settlements and for the forced transfer of Bedouin communities off other land coveted by Israel (as in the case of Khan al-Ahmar).

The data upon which the report is based was furnished to Peace Now and the Movement for Freedom of Information in response to a two-year old freedom of information request to the Israeli Civil Administration (which is the sovereign governing power over the West Bank and is obligated under international law to protect the rights of the occupied people). In its response to the request, the Civil Administration suggested that Palestinians are to blame for the stark inequality, since they have refrained from applying to use the land. A statement from the Civil Administration reads:

“Applications for the allocation of state land are routinely submitted by all the population, both Palestinian and Israeli. It should be emphasized that the number of requests submitted by Palestinian residents is generally very low.”

With this argument, the Civil Administration has constructed a classic “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” argument. If Palestinians apply to use the land, they would legitimize Israel’s authority to  declare West Bank land “State Land” in the first place as well as Israel’s authority to grant or deny its use, whether to Palestinians or settlers. If Palestinians don’t apply, they are blamed for Israel’s decisions on allocating virtually all of the land to settlers. This argument also ignores the fact that the the pattern of allocation of “State Land” revealed in this report is not an exception to, but an illustration of, the rules according to which the Civil Administration has run the West Bank for the past 51 years – rules that overwhelmingly favor the settlers over the Palestinians, most blatantly when it comes to land and construction.

More fundamentally, setting aside the question of whether Israel has abused its authority in declaring so much of the West Bank to be “State Land,” the Civil Administration’s response completely ignores the fact that Israel has a legal responsibility under international law regarding stewardship of “state land” held under its occupation. As the Association for Civil Rights in Israel explains:

“Israel holds state land in an occupied territory as a trustee, and must do everything possible to preserve and develop it for the benefit of the local Palestinian population. The very use of state land for the purpose of building settlements and/or developing infrastructure and industrial zones not in favor of the Palestinian population constitutes a violation of international law. ”

The New York Times observes, correctly:

“The lopsided allocation is hardly surprising. Israeli legal experts say the whole point of seeking out state lands, the bulk of which were designated in the 1980s, was to aid the growing settlement enterprise, which most of the world considers a violation of international law. But the paucity of land allocated to the Palestinians shows the extent of competition over territory, and the effort Israel puts toward building the settlements.”

Peace Now said:

“The significance of the data is that the State of Israel, which has been in control of the West Bank for more than 50 years, allocates the land exclusively to Israelis, while allocating virtually no land for the unqualified benefit of the Palestinian population. Land is one of the most important public resources. Allocation of land for the use of only one population at the expense of another is one of the defining characteristics of apartheid. This is further proof that Israel’s continued control of the occupied territories over millions of Palestinian residents without rights and the establishment of hundreds of settlements on hundreds of thousands of dunams has no moral basis.”

The Peace Now report shines a harsh spotlight on a key facet of Israel’s decades long effort to confiscate land and transfer it to the settlers, particularly in Area C, and it comes at a time when Israeli lawmakers are loudly and clearly calling for the unilateral annexation of Area C – all of which FMEP documents in its Annexation Policy Tables.

Birthright & the Settlers

Adding to the swirling coverage of participants leaving Birthright trips to learn about Palestinians and realities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Birthright (an organization which organizes free trips to Israel for young Jews around the world) has come under the spotlight this week for two settlement-related reasons: the harassment of Birthright participants who left the trip to tour Hebron, and Birthright’s partnership with the radical settler group Elad.

First, cameras caught settlers harassing a group of Birthright participants who left the trip to tour Hebron with Breaking the Silence. The tour guide, a former IDF soldier, was attacked by the settlers. Breaking the Silence regularly takes groups to Hebron to observe the apartheid-like reality that exists there, “sterile streets” (an Israeli military term for streets which Palestinians are forbidden to access) and all. Part of that reality is daily settler violence, as Breaking the Silence explains:

“Near daily occurrences of abuse of the Palestinian population by settlers, including humiliation and physical attacks, are part and parcel of the lives of those Palestinians who still live in H2. Even worse, twisted norms of law enforcement in which two different populations are subject to two different sets of laws – one military and one civilian – creates a situation of selective law enforcement at best, and complete lack of law enforcement over the residents of the Jewish settlement at worst.”

Second, Birthright’s partnership with the radical Elad settler organization was exposed when a second group of youth left a Birthright trip during a tour of Silwan (aka the City of David) with Elad, which manages the City of David National Park (which was declared on Silwan land). Elad is engaged in a range of activities to enact their extremist political agenda, at the expense of Palestinians. The group left the Birthright tour to join a Peace Now visit with the Palestinian Sumreen family, who are under threat of eviction from their Silwan home because of the actions of the Elad and the JNF.  Birthright responded by accusing the participants who left the trip of seeking to advance a “political agenda,” and defending itself as an “apolitical” organization. Birthright’s response is especially ironic given Birthright’s own choice to ally itself with Elad — an organization that explicitly exists to promote an extremist political and ideological agenda (for further irony, see this proud announcement by a former Birthright participant noting that it was her experience with Birthright that inspired her to become a settler).

Peace Now later said in an email:

“Peace Now has no fight with Birthright. What we oppose are government (or any other) efforts to insert political programming into trips like Birthright’s that intentionally conceal the occupation, such as Elad tours. Elad’s far-right, one-state agenda is well-known, and it is involved in the legal acrobatics underway to evict Palestinian families from their homes.”

Jordan Valley Settlement Council Confirms Participation in (Illegal) Outpost Activity, Refuses to Release Any Details

The Jordan Valley Settlement Council, which represents the majority of Israeli settlements located in the West Bank section of the Jordan Valley, has admitted that it supports illegal outposts in the area, but declined to provide information on its activities. The admission came in response to a freedom of information request made by an Israeli lawyer representing the anti-occupation group Machsom Watch and the coexistence group Combatants for Peace.

In the written refusal to divulge information about the Jordan Valley Settlement Council’s involvement with outposts, staff member Oshra Yihye said that its refusal is based on the fact that the parties requesting the information are critical  of settlers living in the Council’s jurisdiction. Yihye also claimed that revealing the information will interfere with Council’s operations. Some Jordan Valley settlers are known to violently attack Palestinian farmers and their property, and settlers have been repeatedly caught on video attacking Israeli activists trying to assist the Palestinians.

Israel has effectively annexed 85% of land in the Jordan Valley, through ongoing settlement building and the declaration of “closed military zones” on vast swaths of farmland. A recent report by B’Tselem documents how Israeli settlers were allowed to establish two new outposts in the Jordan Valley last year. In recent months, Israel has delivered eviction notices to entire Palestinian communities near Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. Simultaneously, settlers have been allowed to continue construction on a tourist project  – a car race track built in a closed military zone (land expropriated from Palestinians ostensibly for security purposes), despite a court ordered stop-work order.

Huge Expansion Approved for Pisgat Ze’ev; Jerusalem Expert: this is “Natural Response” to Trump’s Jerusalem Policy

On July 2nd, the Israeli Housing Ministry deposited for public review plans for 1,064 units in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem expert and founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, Danny Seidemann, recently punctuated the significance of the move, explaining:

“Politically speaking, this approval signals a clear statement by Israeli authorities. These plans received initial approval from the Planning Board in July 2017, as [Terrestrial Jerusalem] reported in detailed here. While the approval of these plans at this time, after a year’s delay, is indeed in large part the normal course of events in the  bureaucratic decision, the publication could not have taken place without the advance knowledge and blessing of Netanyahu. As such, this is yet another component in Netanyahu’s systematic effort to tighten Israel’s grip on East Jerusalem, his natural response to Jerusalem having been ‘taken off the table’ by President Trump.”

While pointing out that the Pisgat Ze’ev plans are the first East Jerusalem settlement plans to be deposited for public review this year, Seidemann says:

“This should by no means lead to the conclusion that until now there has been a de facto settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. Before the Pisgat Ze’ev approvals, other settlement activities were proceeding apace, including ground being broken for the expansion East Talpiyot and deliberations on a major new plan in Southeastern Gilo (Master Plan 125195).”

For more analysis from Terrestrial Jerusalem on the Pisgat Ze’ev plans, see here.

Bonus Reads

1. “How a West Bank Highway’s Road Sign Captures the Israeli Psyche” (Haaretz)
2. “Bulldozers In The West Bank: How recent Israeli Settlement Expansion Jeopardizes the Peace Process” (Forbes)
3. “Israel Accelerates ‘Greater Jerusalem’ Plan” (Ahram Online)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

July 12, 2018

1. Continuing New Legal Strategy, Israel Argues “Market Regulation” Principle In Bid to Legalize Outpost
2. Cabinet to Consider New Bill to Legalize 70 Outposts
3. Cabinet to Consider Three Bills that Advance Annexation of Area C Settlements
4. New Proof that the Israeli Government is Driving Unauthorized Settlement Activity
5. High Court Freezes Plan for Settlement Committee in Hebron; IDF Seizes Private Land Near Kiryat Arba
6. High Court Allows the Israel Land Authority to Remain Under the Influence of the Jewish National Fund
7. New Bill Would Allow Settlers to Build on National Park Grounds in East Jerusalem
8. Civil Administration Strike Will Delay Settlement Construction
9. Amichai Settlement’s Makeshift Sewage Pit is Contaminating Nearby Palestinian Fields
10. Israeli President Cautions Against Shaked’s Bill to Politicize Key Legal Appointments
11. United Nations Envoy: Israel is Moving Towards Formal Annexation
12. Bonus Reads

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

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Continuing New Legal Strategy, Israel Argues “Market Regulation” Principle In Bid to Legalize Outpost

On July 3rd the Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office told the Jerusalem District Court that it has the right to retroactively legalize the Mitzpe Kramim outpost based on the “market regulation” principle. This is the recently-invented legal principle according to which the government can seize privately owned Palestinian land to give to settlers if settlers can demonstrate (to the satisfaction of an Israeli government that is doing everything possible to help them) that they built on the land “in good faith,” based on government assurances, and if the rightful landowners are offered compensation. This is just the second time the government has used the “market regulation” principle to defend the seizure of privately owned Palestinian land in court, the first being in November 2017 when the State informed the High Court of Justice that it intended to expropriate private land near the Ofra settlement. Neither court ruled on either case. 

The government’s deployment of the “market regulation” principle in the Mitzpe Kramim case completely reverses the position the government has taken for the last 7 years on this specific outpost case. Since 2011, the Israeli government admitted that the land was privately owned, that it had been mistakenly given to the World Zionist Organization in the 1980s (the Mitzpe Kramim outpost was built without Israeli authorization in 1999), and that the situation should be corrected. In its argument on July 3, 2018, the government is expressing its newfound power to seize the land, asserting that the settlers built there “in good faith” and should not be punished for the government’s mistake, under the powers of the “market regulation.”

Peace Now said:

“The state’s announcement to the District Court is a new low in the moral and political deterioration led by the Netanyahu government. As the body that has assumed responsibility for the Occupied Territories for the last 51 years, the state should have protected the property rights of Palestinians, who have no civil rights nor the ability to defend their own land. The fact that the state failed to protect their land cannot be an excuse to steal the land and grant it to the settlers.”

As Peace Now also notes, in order to satisfy the 1967 Government Property Order (which is the law underlying the “market regulation” principle) all of the land owners must be invited to participate in the court case. However, the settlers who filed the petition regarding Mitzpe Kramim failed to include all of the registered land owners, meaning there is a long course of legal action ahead before the case. Should the Court decide the case in the settlers’ favor, it would set a potentially far-reaching precedent for implementing and upholding the “market regulation” principle.

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit originally argued for the “market regulation” principle in late 2016 as an alternative legal basis to the Regulation Law, which he believes to be “a sweeping and injurious arrangement that does not meet the test of proportionality.” That law,  passed by the Knesset in February 2017, is now in serious legal jeopardy. While the Israeli government continues to staunchly defend the broader legal basis for expropriating privately owned Palestinian land established under the “Regulation law,” its increased use of the “market regulation” principle makes clear that come what may, the Israeli government has the intention to do whatever it takes to “legally” seize Palestinian private land in order to legalize outposts (offering a stark illustration of the difference between “rule of law” and “rule by law.”)

For extensive reporting on and analysis of the “market regulation” principle and the “Regulation Law,” see FMEP’s tables documenting Israeli annexation policies.

Cabinet to Consider New Bill to Legalize 70 Outposts

MKs Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) and Yoav Kisch (Likud) have submitted a bill for consideration by the Israeli Cabinet that seeks to retroactively legalize 70 unauthorized outposts across the West Bank. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation (a group of Cabinet members that decides whether or not to lend government backing to Knesset legislation before it is introduced) could vote on the July 15th, during its last weekly meeting before the Knesset recesses for its summer break. According to a Defense Ministry spokesperson, 50 of the 70 outposts can become part of existing official settlements — meaning that if passed into law, the bill would (a) significantly expand the borders/footprint of some 50 existing settlements (to include the outposts and land separately the outposts from the new parent settlement), and (b) create as many as 20 new settlements.

In addition, the bill would direct the government to treat the 70 unauthorized outposts as if they were legal settlements, which would include providing municipal services like water and electricity infrastructure at the expense of the relevant regional council (funded by Israeli tax-payers). The bill would also stop the potential of enforcement of the government’s own laws against the specified 70 outposts (reminder: the Israeli government rarely enforces building laws against Israeli settlers, actively funds outposts despite their illegality, and continues to invent new ways to legalize them). According to the bill, enforcement of building laws against the unauthorized outposts could only happen at the direction of the Defense Minister or the Prime Minister, with the backing of the Cabinet.

FMEP has repeatedly covered news regarding the government’s efforts to legalize outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land. The passage of the settlement “Regulation Law”  gave the government new, sweeping authority to legalize outposts which it had been unable to address under existing Israeli law (because of the fact that they were built on privately owned Palestinian land, in effect turning these into cases of incontestable theft of private property. The 2005 Sasson Report admitted that there was no possible way to legalize outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land, and concluded that all such outposts should be evacuated). With the new law in place permitting Israel to launder this land theft, the Cabinet created a Defense Ministry task force – and appointed veteran settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein as its head – empowered to examine the individual legal situation of each outpost and devise plans to retroactively legalize as many outposts as possible. In January 2018, a leaked recording revealed that the task force had been working for six months to prescribe courses of action for the outposts. Despite this, settlers and Knesset members have complained that the task force has done nothing and has not been funded, using these as talking points in their push for the new Smotrich bill.  

Developments related to these efforts are tracked in FMEP’s annexation policy tables.

Cabinet to Consider Three Bills that Advance Annexation of Area C Settlements

In addition to the outpost legalization bill (covered above), the Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislation is slated at its next weekly meeting on July 15th to discuss three bills that seek to advance Israeli de facto annexation of Area C, after refraining from discussing them last week. Those bills are:

1. A bill to recognize settlements in the South Hebron Hills as well as the Kiryat Arba settlement (which is, in effect, part of Hebron) as part of the Negev regional economy. Economically, the change would enable these settlements to benefit from government grants and programs for the Negev; politically, and far more importantly, the change would erase the Green Line, legally treating these settlements as part of sovereign Israeli territory (the Negev is an area located inside sovereign Israel).
2. A bill to change a 1953 Jordanian law in order to allow Israelis to directly purchase property in the West Bank. Under the current law, private, non-Arab individuals cannot purchase land in the West Bank. In 1971, the law was amended to add a loophole allowing companies registered to operate in the West Bank (like the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund) to purchase property, and often do so only to give it to Israeli settlers. This additional change would open the door for private purchases across the West Bank by settlers and their backers, including in the heart of Palestinian cities. Notably, Israeli security officials have in the past objected to changing this law, based on their recognition of the fact that settlers implanting themselves wherever they want in the West Bank – including in acts intended to be deliberately provocative – will be a security nightmare for the IDF and will enable settlers and their financial patrons to further hijack the national security agenda of the state of Israel.
3. A bill to rescind the 2005 Disengagement Law in order to allow four settlements in the northern West Bank to be rebuilt. The settlements – Sa-Nur, Homesh, Kadim and Ganim – were evacuated following the passage of the Disengagement Law. Notably, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, is one of the settlers that was evacuated from Sa-Nur in 2005 and has championed the bill, which was submitted for Cabinet consideration by Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi).

New Proof that the Israeli Government is Driving Unauthorized Settlement Activity

The Israeli State Comptroller published a report that exposes how Israel government bodies have colluded with the Binyamin Regional Council (one of the main governing bodies over West Bank settlements) to bankroll the construction and ongoing support of unauthorized outposts, even as the Israeli Civil Administration acts to try to stop the illegal construction the government is funding.

The report reads:

“The [Binyamin Regional] council has been the driving force in the construction of unauthorized communities [outposts] and has financed them…In so doing, the council has dictated a negative standard of behavior, that has allowed for illegal construction in the Judea and Samaria and has even advanced such activity…Government offices were involved in financing the planning and construction of the unauthorized outposts.”

In one of several examples of how the collusion has worked, the Comptroller explained that the Esh Kodesh outpost – which is actually located outside of the Binyamin Regional Council’s jurisdiction – was built in 2000 without government permission. In 2014, the Interior Ministry financed the renovation of roads in the outpost. Meanwhile, the Civil Administration issued demolition orders against structures in the outpost in 2003, 2012, and 2013.

Sensing opportunity to promote their new bill to retroactively authorize outposts (see above), MKs Yoav Kisch (Likud) and MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) argued that the Comptroller’s report, by proving the the state has participated in building outposts, underlines the necessity of authorizing those outposts for the sake of the settlers who moved to the outposts at the encouragement of the state.

Adding to the Comptroller’s report (and echoing several of its key points), a freedom of information act filed by Peace Now revealed that the Binyamin Regional Council has been concealing massive and illegal annual contributions to the Amana organization, which leads wide scale illegal settlement construction. Amana received NIS 37 million over three years from the Council, which is 57% of the funds doled out to non-governmental groups over that period. The Comptroller’s report criticized the Council’s support for private organizations, which violates Israeli law restricting regional councils to supporting apolitical, public groups. The report said “the council serves as a conduit for transferring funds from the state to a private association.”

Peace Now writes:

“this data now reveals the depth of this robbing of public funds to finance political campaigns and illegal activity. It is time for the Interior Ministry to put an end to this abuse of Israelis’ taxpayer money and to demand that the authorities in the West Bank cease this illegal funding and give the money back.”

High Court Freezes Plan for Settlement Committee in Hebron; IDF Seizes Private Land Near Kiryat Arba

The Israel High Court has ordered a temporary freeze on a military order creating a new, autonomous settler committee to represent and service a cluster of Israeli settlement enclaves in Hebron’s city center, a plan announced by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in August 2017. The military order, if allowed to be implemented, would transfer responsibility for the settlers’ municipal services (roads, sewage, electricity, etc.) from the Hebron Municipality to the new settler committee, a plan which contradicts the 1997 Hebron Protocol.

The High Court gave the Israeli government 120 days to explain the legality of the plan, which was challenged on multiple fronts by the Hebron Municipality. The petition argued that the military order was intentionally vague in defining the legal and geographical jurisdiction of the proposed settler body, and pointed out that the new committee would be able to override decisions by the Hebron Municipality thereby stripping Palestinians of autonomy and representation in matters that directly affect them.

While the Court considers the matter, events on the ground continue to underscore the volatility of the situation in Hebron. Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier who was caught on camera executing an incapacitated Palestinian on the streets of Hebron, victoriously returned to the city on July 3rd after serving only 9 months in jail. The festivities welcoming Azaria were planned by a group that included the extremist settler and politician, Baruch Marzel. Only two days after the Azaria lovefest, Marzel pitched a two-person tent on the sidewalk next to a Palestinian home in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in the Old City of Hebron. According to the Palestinian news outlet Ma’an, Marzel was involved in attacks on Palestinians in Tel Rumeida the same day, in an incident that resulted in the arrest of one Palestinian. Israeli police removed Marzel’s encampment from the street.

Also in Hebron, Palestinian media reports that Israeli forces have confiscated a plot of privately owned Palestinian land near the Kiryat Arba settlement and the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs. A Hebron activist reports that the Israeli Army set up a new camp across the street from the seized land about one month ago, and is now moving the camp to the new site with the intention of declaring it a “closed military zone” to prevent Palestinians from entering the area.

High Court Allows the Israel Land Authority to Remain Under the Influence of the Jewish National Fund

The High Court of Justice dismissed a petition filed by Adalah which alleged that the Jewish National Fund’s representation on the Israel Land Authority council infringes on the rights of Palestinian to equality and dignity. Under Israeli law, 6 of the 14 members on the Land Authority council are to be appointed by the Jewish National Fund, an organization the petitioners say (with good cause) “openly discriminates against non-Jews and sees itself as an entity that serves only one population.” The Israel Land Authority is responsible for deciding how (and to whom) to allocate or sell land in Israel, including the land owned by the Jewish National Fund (13% of all land in Israel).

Following the High Court’s dismissal of the petition, the Haaretz Editorial Board wrote:

“In a properly run country, people who declare that they’re committed to acting in a discriminatory way are immediately disqualified from a public role. One can only imagine what Israelis’ response would be if in a country where Jews were a minority, half of a group’s members stated their intention to discriminate against Jews.”

New Bill Would Allow Settlers to Build on National Park Grounds in East Jerusalem

The radical settler group Elad is lobbying for a bill that will allow the group to build settlement units on the grounds of one specific national park located in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where Elad is engaged in a variety of activities to displace Palestinians and replace them with Israeli settlers (as FMEP has reported on extensively). On July 10th, the bill was approved by the Knesset’s Interior and Environment Committee, despite objections submitted to the committee by the Justice Ministry and the Attorney General. The bill was sent to the Knesset plenum for its first of three votes.

The bill will allow Elad to build more homes for Israeli settlers on the grounds of the City of David national park, which is located immediately south of the Temple Mount, adjacent to the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. Since 2001, Elad has managed the park grounds on behalf of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, a scheme which gives the settler group authority over (but no legal responsibility towards) thousands of Palestinian homes and hundreds of settler homes – a demographic balance Elad is working hard to flip.  

Ir Amim’s researcher Aviv Tatarsky told Haaretz:

“This isn’t the first time a monkey is being made of the law and common sense to advance the agenda of the Elad settlers. But even this law can’t change the fact that Silwan, like East Jerusalem, is entirely a Palestinian city. Israeli attempts to deny that simple truth impair the basic rights of 350,000 people in East Jerusalem. The residents of the Israeli city also pay a price for it.”

For more information on the role on national parks around Jerusalem in advancing the Israeli settlement agenda in Palestinian neighborhoods, see Ir Amim’s reporting here, and a key survey and analysis of national parks in Jerusalem/East Jerusalem by Bimkom here.

Civil Administration Strike Will Delay Settlement Construction

A recently released list of Civil Administration functions that will be brought to a halt during the impending union strike includes the High Planning Council’s work to advance settlement construction plans, though a Civil Administration spokesperson said that construction can be expected to climb next quarter.

Hananel Dorani, Chairman of the Yesha Council, the umbrella group representing settlements,wrote a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Lieberman, and Finance Minister Kahlon. Dorani, highlighting the green light from the political echelon to promote settlements, criticized the Civil Administration while pushing for a resolution:

“Especially now, at a time when political approval was given to promote construction, it’s not only commonplace that the Civil Administration doesn’t meet the task properly, but the workers’ strike will exacerbate the situation and create a bottleneck that’ll be difficult to free from for years. Civil Administration employees’ demand to add additional positions and their requests to improve salary conditions so they can fill existing positions hasn’t been answered for a long time, leading to renewed sanctions. As is well known, this is not the first time Civil Administration employees have initiated sanctions, but this hasn’t yet been dealt with…this organization is routinely substandard, and for a long time important headquarters work wasn’t promoted, plans approved by the political echelon are halted and piled up on the table in the Civil Administration, budgets earmarked for infrastructure projects (transportation, cellular, etc.) aren’t realized, no work permits are issued, and more…We ask that you get involved with all relevant parties and act immediately and personally to restore the Civil Administration to full functioning.”

Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan complained:

“As if it is not enough that every house in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) needs four different permits from the political echelon, now the residents have also become hostages in a conflict between Civil Administration employees and the Finance Ministry.”

The Civil Administration will also suspend the following operations: the flow of commercial goods between the West Bank (both settlements and Palestinian areas) and sovereign Israel; changes to the land and population registries, issuance of import licenses and business permits; and, significantly, all actions – including demolitions – against illegal construction, which might delay the demolition of the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin community.

Amichai Settlement’s Makeshift Sewage Pit is Contaminating Nearby Palestinian Fields

Raw sewage from the Amichai settlement (the first new government-backed settlement in 20 years, established in the Shiloh Valley as pay-off to the evacuees of the illegal Amona outpost) has been flowing into the agricultural lands of the nearby Palestinian village Turmus Ayya.

The settlers dug a temporary sewage site (a pit in the ground that is now overflowing) only a few meters from Palestinian farm lands. Settlers have been living in mobile homes on the site of the settlement (which has not been built yet) for less than four months, and Palestinians say the the sewage began overflowing two months ago. A permanent sewage site for the settlement has not yet been built, in part because the settlement plans were approved at a “dizzying speed,” as Haaretz explains it.

Israeli President Cautions Against Shaked’s Bill to Politicize Key Legal Appointments

At a swearing in ceremony for new judges, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin took the opportunity to pointedly criticize a bill promoted by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked which would, by design, politicize the appointment of ministerial legal advisors (a bill FMEP reported on here).

Rivlin said:

“we need independent legal advisors whose commitment to the law and being gatekeepers flows in their veins and constitutes the essence of their professional ethic. I understand elected officials. I too served in one or two roles before I reached this house, and I didn’t always agree with the legal advisor’s position. However, I believe we must be careful not to weaken one of the important pillars of the executive branch in Israeli democracy. We all want a legal advisor who’ll serve all elected officials from anywhere in the political spectrum in exactly the same way. Faithfully, devotedly, professionally, committed to government policy and primarily responsibility to uphold the law.”

United Nations Envoy: Israel is Moving Towards Formal Annexation

Ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, legal expert Michael Lynk told press that:

“After years of creeping Israeli de facto annexation of the large swathes of the West Bank through settlement expansion, the creation of closed military zones and other measures, Israel appears to be getting closer to enacting legislation that will formally annex parts of the West Bank. This would amount to a profound violation of international law, and the impact of ongoing settlement expansion on human rights must not be ignored.”

The statement was later posted on the Human Rights Council’s website.

Bonus Reads

1. “US administration silent on Israel’s occupation policy” (Al Monitor)
2. “A Tango of Violence: Building Outposts on Palestinian Land” (Haaretz)
3. “The Maps of Israeli Settlements that Shocked Barack Obama” (The New Yorker)
4. “Israel slams ‘immoral’ Irish bill banning trade with settlements” (Times of Israel)
5. “The demolition of Khan al-Ahmar is more than just a war crime” (+972 Mag)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

April 20, 2018

1. Israeli Police Assist Settlers in Taking Over Three Palestinian Apartments in East Jerusalem
2. Palestinians Petition Civil Administration to Evacuate Squatting Settlers from Hebron Compound
3. Bibi Govt Proceeds with Effort to Strip High Court of its Powers
4. IDF Aids Settlers in Closing Off Key Road to Palestinians
5. $120 Million Investment into Jordan Valley Communities, Including Settlements
6. Settlers Assault IDF & Terrorize Palestinians in Nablus Area
7. Americans for Peace Now: “From Creeping to Leaping: Annexation in the Trump-Netanyahu Era”
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Israeli Police Assist Settlers in Taking Over Three Palestinian Apartments in East Jerusalem

On April 9, 2018, Israeli police officers assisted settlers in evicting three Palestinian families from apartments in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, making way for the settlers to move in. The take-over seemed to have happened prematurely, since the family that owns the apartment units – the Ruweidi family – filed an appeal with the Court that had not yet been heard. The High Court ordered a temporary delay on the eviction order, but the delay was issued too late and the settlers had already emptied out the apartments. According to Haaretz, the apartments will remain empty until further notice from the Court.

In February 2018, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the property rightfully belongs to the radical settler group Elad, which claims to have bought it from one member of the Ruweidi family, Raziq Ruweidi. The Ruweidi family disputes the court’s decision, saying that the properties were jointly owned by six other family members and therefore could not have been lawfully sold. The matter wound up in court after Raziq Ruweidi was murdered three years ago, leaving debts that the Israeli courts had to settle.

As documented in previous editions of the FMEP settlement report – here, here, here, and here – the Elad settler group frequently works with the Israeli government and the courts to accomplish its goal of erasing the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem in favor of Israeli Jews, including cooperation on major projects like the touristic Kedem Center in Silwan and the cable car line that will service it.

Palestinians Petition Civil Administration to Evacuate Squatting Settlers from Hebron Compound

Three weeks after settlers broke into and took up residence in the “Zaatari Compound” in Hebron, the Palestinian al-Zaatari family filed an appeal this week with the Israeli Civil Administration to have the law-breaking squatters evacuated. The settlers – who were reportedly given permission to enter the property by the IDF and Defense Minister Lieberman – claim to have legally purchased the properties. A lawyer representing the al-Zaatari family wrote in the petition that claim “has no basis in reality, since my clients and/or their representatives never sold their ownership rights in their homes.” The court has

Like hundreds of Hebronites, the al-Zaatari family was forced to leave the home during the Second Intifada due to the IDF’s suffocating restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians in and around the Old City of Hebron, conditions which persist today.

Peace Now released a statement saying:

“The ink has not yet dried in the High Court of Justice’s decision to evacuate the Abu Rajab House, where settlers also broke into and squatted, yet the settlers dare to break into another house without the same approval they lacked in that case. The government must evict the trespassers immediately; the settlers have not proven any ownership. The behavior of the government and recent statements by the defense minister raise the suspicion that this home invasion was carried out in coordination with the defense ministry, and that the government lent a hand to breaking the law and stealing. Instead of protecting the landowner’s rights, the government is helping robbers seeking to take possession of the property without allowing the current owners their rightful legal avenue to prove ownership. The establishment of a new settlement house in the heart of Hebron is a severe blow to the fragile situation in Hebron and is liable to cause new restrictions on the movement of Palestinians.”

Bibi Govt Proceeds with Effort to Strip High Court of its Powers

It was decided by the the Israeli government’s ruling coalition this week that the next Knesset – which opens on April 29 – will vote on legislation aimed at stripping the High Court of its power to strike down laws passed by the Knesset. At the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon agreed to form a “small ministerial committee” to try to bridge various proposals to restrict the High Court’s power to overturn laws – a move that could impact the fate of (among other things) the Regulation Law. 

Notably, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was permitted to attend the cabinet meeting to present his opposition to most serious of the proposed versions — the Netanyahu-backed model, according to which laws could be overturned only by a unanimous vote in the High Court;  Kahlon’s issue-specific formulation, seeking to allow the Knesset to overturn the High Court decision vis-a-vus a single piece of legislation, related to African asylum seekers; and a version, backed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennet, allowing the High Court to be overruled by a simple majority vote in the Knesset. Mandelblit recommended his own version — one that would require a super-majority vote by the High Court (7 of 9) to strike down a law, and would allow the Knesset to overturn such a decision by the High Court by a super-majority of 70 votes. 

Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Levin (Likud) rejected Mandelblit’s proposal, and said that the High Court should only be able to strike down laws by a unanimous vote (meaning that it would be highly unlikely that the Court would ever succeed in striking down any law). Following the cabinet meeting, Levin also specifically took issue with Khalon’s version of the bill (which seeks to create a unique exception for the Knesset to overturn the High Court’s ruling against a law related to the detention and deportation of African asylum seekers). Making clear his real objectives and concerns (and making explicit the connection to settlements), Levin told reporters that this version is:

“significantly erroneous and will lead to striking down laws, including the Regulation Law (legalizing Israeli outposts in the West Bank).”

You can follow the key events regarding the progression of this legislation via FMEP’s recently published resource, “Israel’s Creeping Annexation Policies.”

See this Haaretz overview for more even more detail.

IDF Aids Settlers in Closing Off Key Road to Palestinians

Haaretz reports that the IDF is contributing to the efforts of settlers from Halamish, a settlement located north of Ramallah, to restrict Palestinian access to a critical highway along which the settlers recently established a new unauthorized outpost.

According to testimonies collected by Haaretz, IDF soldiers at two military roadblocks near the settlement and the new outpost have been conducting prolonged searches of Palestinian vehicles and buses headed for Ramallah via road 450. The vehicles and their passengers are regularly delayed and harrassed. One Palestinian recounts a soldier reportedly admitting that the actions are meant to incentivize Palestinians to take a detour around the area of the settlement and outpost (which is a longer route). In addition, settlers have repeatedly posted – and the IDF has repeatedly removed – a sign on the road that reads:

“The area where you are now is under the control of the Jews. Entry by Arabs to this area is completely prohibited, danger of death!”

Months ago, Halamish settlers started a Saturday morning prayer event in the middle of the road (between the settlement and the outpost on the other side). In cooperation with the settlers, IDF soldiers have been shutting down all Palestinian traffic and guarding the settlers during the prayer event.

The settlers intent has long been clear. By sealing off Palestinian access to the road, it will become an interior road between the settlement and the new outpost, effectively expanding the boundaries of Halamish at the cost of Palestinians.

The Halamish settlers established the outpost – which they call “Yad Ahi” or “My Brother’s Hand” – in July 2017, following the brutal murder of four of the settlement’s residents by a Palestinian attacker. Since then, the settlers have worked determinedly to fortify and expand the settlement to include the outpost and more, as extensively documented by the Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.

$120 Million Investment into Jordan Valley Communities, Including Settlements

The office of the Prime Minister announced a $120 million grant program for infrastructure projects in Israeli communities in the Jordan Valley. According to The Times of Israel, the budget earmarks $7 million to “help local farmers acquire more agricultural land and locate additional water sources and to build affordable homes for first-time buyers through the Housing Ministry Program.” One Israeli business news outlet reports that this is an “aid program for settlements in the Dead Sea area coping with the problem of sinkholes.”

Some 11,000 settlers and 65,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley – the latter facing severe restrictions on land use and freedom of movement, and lack of access to municipal services like water and electricity.The current Israeli government has publicly and repeatedly demanded complete Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley in the context of any peace agreement (meaning that any future Palestinian state would be entirely encircled by Israel, having no international border with any other nation). One Likud MK, Sharren Haskel, recently unveiled a bill to annex the Jordan Valley. Haskel is seeking government backing for the bill before formally introducing it in the Knesset.

A recent report by B’Tselem documents how Israeli settlers were allowed to establish two new outposts in the Jordan Valley last year. In recent months, Israel has delivered eviction notices to entire Palestinian communities near Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. Simultaneously, settlers have been allowed to continue construction on a tourist project  – a car race track built in a closed military zone (land expropriated from Palestinians ostensibly for security purposes), despite a court ordered stop-work order.

Settlers Assault IDF & Terrorize Palestinians in Nablus Area

Three settlers were arrested for throwing stones at IDF soldiers engaged in the evacuation of an unauthorized outpost near the Itamar settlement, south of Nablus. The outpost – called “Rosh Yosef” by the settlers – has been evacuated several times before, but settlers have repeatedly re-occupied the hilltop site. The settlers, one of whom is a minor, were released a day later and put under house arrest.

The evacuation comes against the backdrop of frequent attacks perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the Nablus area recently. Last week, settlers allegedly set the entrance to a mosque on fire and spray painted the building with anti-Arab, anti-Muslim threats. On April 18th, settlers destroyed at least two dozen olive trees and spray painted hateful words on houses in the village of Urif. The Ynet news outlet reports that the radical and violent “Hilltop Youth” settler group is responsible for most of these crimes, noting that its members are increasingly outraged by outpost demolitions, fixated on calls for “revenge” against Palestinians following terrorist attacks, and resentful of recent criminal punishments levied against their members as a result of the Shin Bet’s crackdown on the group’s criminal activities.

Americans for Peace Now: “From Creeping to Leaping: Annexation in the Trump-Netanyahu Era”

Americans for Peace Now published a new policy paper analyzing how “the Israeli right has launched an unprecedented drive to annex the West Bank, piecemeal or in its entirety” since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The paper “lays out the recent developments that present a quantum leap in Israeli annexation efforts, analyzes these moves against the historical backdrop of Israel’s 50-year occupation of the West Bank, examines the ramifications of the transition from ‘creeping’ to ‘leaping’ annexation, and considers why this transformation is happening now.”

FMEP’s recently published resource, “Israel’s Creeping Annexation Policies” is being updated to include several items from APN’s excellent work.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel and Annexation by Lawfare” (Michael Sfard, The New York Review of Books)
2. “How Israel’s Government is Aiming to Outweigh the Supreme Court” (Haaretz)
3. “Attempts to ‘bypass’ Israel’s High Court will create a ‘tyranny of the majority’ ” (+972 Mag)
4. “As Israeli pushes for West Bank railway, Palestinians brace for more land grabs” (Middle East Eye)

 

 

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

March 30, 2018

1. 2017 – A Record Year in Settlement Expansion
2. Hebron Settlers Leave One Disputed Property, Only to Enter Two More
3. Settlers Celebrate Moving to Amichai, the First New Government-Backed Settlement in 25 Years
4. Housing Minister on Annexation: Settlements are a Non-Negotiable Security Asset, Israel Must Keep Building
5. Ambassador Friedman: U.S. Will Not Intervene To Stop Israeli Annexation
6. After Annexing Settlement Universities, Israeli Education Ministry Moves to Censor Campus Criticism of Settlements/Occupation
7. Terrestrial Jerusalem Report: “The Creation of a Settler Realm in and Around Jerusalem’s Old City”
8. Al-Shabaka Policy Brief: Israel’s Annexation Crusade in Jerusalem
9. Yesh Din/Emek Shaveh Report: “Appropriating the Past: Israel’s Archaeological Practices in the West Bank”
10. Emek Shaveh Report: The Jerusalem Cable Car Undermines the History & Multiculturalism of the Historic Basin
11. You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Settler Lands Helicopter at Qalandiya Checkpoint (in Attempt to Seize It)
12. Bonus Reads

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

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2017 – A Record Year in Settlement Expansion

In its annual report on settlement activity, the settlement watchdog group Peace Now documents two significant facts about settlement growth in 2017 – the first year in the era of the Trump Administration era. Peace Now figures show that there was a large spike in new settlement starts compared to previous years; and second, most of these new construction starts are located in areas that are beyond the area that Israel can realistically expect to retain under any negotiated two-state agreement.  

Specifically, Peace Now reports that in 2017, construction began on 2,783 new settler housing units, an increase of around 17% over the yearly average rate since 2009. In terms of location of these new starts, Peace Now found that:

• More than three-quarters of the new housing starts are in settlements located deep inside the West Bank, beyond what would be a realistic border for a negotiated two-state agreement.
• Fewer than one-fifth of the new construction starts are located in areas west of the security barrier, as currently constructed (i.e., in settlements already de facto annexed to Israel by the barrier).
• At least one out of every ten of the new settlement starts is illegal according to Israeli laws (all settlements are illegal under international law), with most located in illegal outposts. 

Director of the Peace Now Settlement Watch project, Shabtay Benet told i24News,

“If in the past, the government had focused on construction and housing within the blocs, it appears that the government is [today] openly working toward a reality of annexation.”

In addition, Peace Now documents in detail other major 2017 settlement-related developments, including:

• the establishment of  three new illegal outposts in 2017: “Neve Achi” (near Ramallah ), “Kedem Arava” (near Jericho), and “Shabtai’s Farm” (south of Hebron).
• the establishment of the new “legal” settlement of “Amichai,” which is the first new settlement built with government approval in 25 years.
• Construction of a major new bypass road to link settlers more seamlessly to Jerusalem,
• The seizure by Israel of nearly 1,000 dunams of Palestinian land near Nablus in order to begin legalizing outposts in the area.
• The approval by the Israeli government of 31 new units for settlers in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron.

The report also provides a timeline of data showing the fluctuation of Israeli government policy regarding outposts from 1996-2017. The data indicate that a 2006 pledge by Netanyahu to cease funding the construction of new outposts (a pledge that followed the publication of the government-mandated report on outposts known as the Sasson Report) expired in 2012, at which time the government began allowing (if not supporting) the construction of new outposts. Since 2012, 16 new outposts have been built and allowed to remain, some of which are now in the process of being retroactively legalized by the government. 

The full report is available online here.

Hebron Settlers Leave One Disputed Property, Only to Enter Two More

After nearly eight months of illegally occupying a disputed property in Hebron, more than 100 settlers left the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building. The High Court has ruled that the settlers must leave the residence while the Justices’ consider a case regarding rightful ownership of the property – a case that is not expected to wrap up in the near term.

In tandem with the departure of the settlers, the new head of the Israeli Army’s Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan, signed an order declaring the area around the property – which is across the street from the the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque – as a “closed military zone,” where civilian access is forbidden. Ostensibly intended to prevent the settlers from re-entering the property, the order will inevitably further restrict freedom of movement for Palestinians, who already face acute limitations resulting from segregated and closed-off streets, a maze of checkpoints, harassment by settlers living in the middle of the city, and the heavy IDF presence guarding a few hundred Israeli settlers living amidst ~150,000 Palestinians in Hebron.

Undeterred (or emboldened) by their experience with the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building,  Hebron settlers subsequently broke into and occupied two additional properties in downtown Hebron (which settlers are calling “Beit Leah” and “Beit Rachel,” and which Palestinians call the “Zaatari Compound,” after the Palestinian family who owns the buildings). Like in the case of the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building, ownership of these two properties is disputed, with settlers claiming to have purchased the properties lawfully from Palestinian owners, and the Palestinians denying having sold them. And like the past nearly eight months in the case of the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building, the settlers are for now being allowed to stay in the two disputed properties, under the protection of the IDF, in violation of Israeli law. 

Breaking the Silence – an Israeli NGO recently barred from giving tours in Hebron – told The Times of Israel that the removal of the settlers from the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building was “appropriate” but:

“Still, this is just only a drop of water in the sea of illegal invasions that we guarded as soldiers… For 50 years, settlers have been establishing facts on the ground and we are being sent to guard them at the expense of the Palestinians.”

With respect to the two new properties occupied by the settlers, Peace Now said:

“The settlers’ recent break-in into the Zaatari compound constitutes just the latest in a slew of such unauthorized incidents in Hebron. Their strategy is clear. Since they have failed thus far to obtain the ownership rights legally, instead they must resort to illegal means to establish facts on the ground by squatting, knowing that the right-wing government will be reluctant to attract negative publicity from its base by evicting settlers, and will in turn attempt to delay the eviction or perhaps find a way to legalize the take-over. Fellow Israeli citizens must not give in to this emotional blackmail, and the authorities must evict these squatters without delay.”

Settlers Celebrate Moving to Amichai, the First New Government-Backed Settlement in 25 Years

Settlers who were removed from the unauthorized Amona outpost last year held a ceremony March 26, 2018, marking the day that they moved into Amichai, the new settlement that was promised to them as compensation. Amichai is the first new settlement built with government approval in 25 years. The leader of the law-breaking Amona settlers, Avichai Boaran, said at the ceremony:

“After a long wait and a stubborn struggle – tomorrow it happens. Amichai residents enter their new community! We are looking forward to entering our new homes, which we were able to establish with the blood of our hearts, with determination and faith, love for the land and for Zionism.”

The settlers will be housed in temporary mobile homes while construction continues in the settlement. The Master Plan approved for Amichai permits 102 units on a hilltop in the Shiloh Valley, a third of which face additional legal proceedings as a result of petitions filed by Palestinian landowners.

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

Housing Minister on Annexation: Settlements are a Non-Negotiable Security Asset, Israel Must Keep Building

Minister of Housing and Construction, Yoav Galant (Kulanu), told settler leaders that he believes Israel must bolster the settlements, calling them “non-negotiable [security] assets” that Israel must always maintain “full control” over. Galant’s remarks were made during a meeting with leaders of the Yesha Council (a settlement umbrella group) during which he also bragged about doubling the budget for settlement construction. He said:

“The Ministry of Construction and Housing, headed by me, has invested twice the budgets of the previous government in planning and development in Yehuda and Shomron.” [Note: “Yehuda and Shomron” means Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for the area in the West Bank]

Yesha Council Chairman Chananel Dorani thanked Minister Galant for his support, saying:

“Minister Galant leads the Housing Ministry to important goals and objectives for the development of the State of Israel, the area of Yehuda, Shomron and the Jordan Valley is a suitable space for massive construction and dispersal of the population of the country. I am thankful for your consistent support for the settlement, for the ideal, but also for the actions.”

Ambassador Friedman: U.S. Will Not Intervene To Stop Israeli Annexation

In an interview with an Israeli Orthodox newspaper this week, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman was quoted as suggesting that the U.S. was ready to replace President Abbas if he refused to play ball with U.S. efforts. Friedman subsequently claimed he was misquoted. He did not, however, suggest that he was misquoted on another subject that came up in that interview: possible annexation of part of the West Bank. Friedman was asked in the interview if the U.S. would support partial annexation of the West Bank. Friedman reportedly answered:

“On these issues, Israel ought to decide for itself, we will not intervene with the government in Jerusalem regarding its way of handling the conflict. We will definitely express our opinion when asked, but we’ll avoid unnecessary involvement in decision making.”

Friedman’s remark come amidst a growing wave of legislation and legal opinions pushing Israeli annexation schemes forward, none of which the U.S. has publically intervened to stop, or even criticize. To date, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has held at bay the most forthright  annexation legislation – like a bill to annex Ma’ale Adumim/E-1, the “Greater Jerusalem Bill,” a Jordan Valley annexation bill, and the Likud-inspired the “Annexation/Sovereignty Bill” – always citing concerns about coordinating with the United States. Friedman’s comments, which were neither clarified nor contradicted by anyone in Washington, suggest that the Trump Administration would not object to legislation of this kind moving forward.

Simultaneously, Netanyahu has allowed annexation to proceed on several more subtle fronts, including: giving government support to the “Ariel Bill” (now law) which effectively annexed settlement universities and colleges; giving government support to a bill that would transfer jurisdiction over West Bank land disputes from the High Court to the Jerusalem District Court (where a pro-settlement judge was recently installed by Justice Minister Shaked); defending the “Regulation Law” and, at least seemingly, beginning to implement it against the dictates of a court-ordered injunction; finding additional legal bases (1 and 2) to retroactively legalize outposts; installing radical settlers in government posts tasked with handling land disputes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and much more. These annexation policies are, of course, in addition to the day-to-day settlement construction on the ground that is gobbling up more and more West Bank land (documented in detail in Peace Now’s comprehensive report on settlement activity in 2017, discussed above).

Americans for Peace Now responded to Friedman’s latest pro-settlement, pro-annexation remarks, saying:

“Friedman is a loose cannon, whose statements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict routinely upend longstanding US foreign policy. Given Friedman’s advocacy on their behalf, it is not difficult to see why settler leaders see President Trump and his Middle East team as sent by God.”

After Annexing Settlement Universities, Israeli Education Ministry Moves to Censor Campus Criticism of Settlements/Occupation

A month after bringing settlement universities under Israeli sovereign control (affectively annexing them), the Israeli Council of Higher Education advanced a new code of ethics that seeks to ban professors in all Israeli universities from criticising settlements or the occupation.

The new code has five principles, most having to do with preventing discrimination based on political views and affiliation. The principles include clauses prohibiting lecturers from calling for or engaging in activity that promotes an academic boycott of Israel or its academic institutions (some of which are now in the settlements), and another clause that prohibits faculty from promoting the idea of boycotting Israel.

Israel’s Association of University Heads (VERA) slammed the move as an attempt to politically censor academia, saying they will not “serve as political thought police for the government.” The statement from VERA, representing the heads of Israeli universities, goes on to say:

“We are already seeing a dangerous deterioration on the edge of the abyss with regards to freedom of expression and academic freedom, as is customary in dark countries and not in a country that claims to be a democracy. [We] do not accept the dictation from ‘the top’ and do not intend to serve as a tool for narrow political interests. We will continue to fight for academic freedom, free speech and freedom of expression in the democratic State of Israel.”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who requested the new code, called the statement from VERA “puzzling” and turned logic on its head to defend the new code from criticism, saying:

“We must keep the world of academic free of politics and foreign interests. Complete academic freedom – yes. Promoting political agendas and calling for a boycott – no. We are in fact limiting the freedom of condemnation and increasing the freedom of expression, so the academic discourse in Israel remains free of politics and discrimination. At the gates of academia, leave politics outside.”

Now that the new code has been adopted, the Council for Higher Education is seeking input from universities. After the input is collected, the Council will review and amend the code before bringing it up for a final vote. The Council said it aims to have the code adopted by universities by 2019, with required reporting on efforts to implement its provision due to the Council in 2020.

Terrestrial Jerusalem Report: “The Creation of a Settler Realm in and Around Jerusalem’s Old City”

Terrestrial Jerusalem published a comprehensive look at how Israel is creating a “settler realm” in Jerusalem. The report opens,

“taken as a whole, the array of ongoing projects and plans centered on the Old City and its immediate hinterlands represents an unprecedented move to fundamentally change the character and fabric of life in these areas, turning them into – as we’ve termed it in the past – a Disneyland-style area in which one historical and religious narrative, the Jewish one, predominates and marginalizes/erases all others.”

The report focuses on 12 recent and ongoing projects that are taking place largely in the context of a 2005 decision of the Sharon government – following its withdrawal from Gaza – to pursue, “a thinly veiled scheme to consolidate the settlers’ control over the public domain in the Old City and its environs.” At that point, an ad hoc, what had been an incremental settler campaign to establish Jewish hegemony over East Jerusalem became a multi-million-shekel per year government-backed endeavor to fortify a Jewish Israeli settler control over all areas of East Jerusalem and the Old City.

Commenting on the settler regime, Terrestrial Jerusalem founder Daniel Seidemann writes:

“While these are all recent developments, they reflect the culmination of a process that has been going on for many years. The data … further illustrate the predominant role played by Elad and the JDA [the Jerusalem Development Authority] in advancing settlers’ control over East Jerusalem, and the complicity of the State in doing so, as detailed in the Comptroller Report published on November 2016 (see our analysis here). Indeed, the settler “DNA” has been injected into virtually all of the governmental organs with any relevant authority in and around the Old City: the Israel Lands Authority, the Custodian General, the Absentee Property Custodian, the Israel Police, the Planning Committees, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Ministry of Finance and many more. Similarly, many of the authorities of these governmental agencies have been outsourced to the settlers. The governmental adoption of the settler ideology and the outsourcing of governmental authority create a situation in which the public interest and the settler interest have become virtually indistinguishable. No new master plan has been created, and none is necessary – the brakes that slowed these schemes have merely been removed. Israel remains a feisty, albeit increasingly challenged democracy: when it comes to the Old City and its visual basin, it morphs into something highly reminiscent of a regime.”

Al-Shabaka Policy Brief: Israel’s Annexation Crusade in Jerusalem

A new report from Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, titled “Israel’s Annexation Crusade in Jerusalem: The Role of Ma’ale Adumim and the E1 Corridor,” paints a picture of Israeli policies building towards the eventual annexation of the settlements bordering Jerusalem, paying particular attention to the history and centrality of the Ma’ale Adumim and E1 settlement areas. Though Netanyahu has delayed the outright annexation of these settlements by blocking the passage of the “Greater Jerusalem Bill,” Al-Shabaka’s brief examines several other bills, projects, resolutions, and regulations that effectively advance the annexation more subtly.

The report’s author, Zena Agha, concludes with key recommendations emphasizing the need to more stridently highlight and oppose the Israeli settlement enterprise and the creeping annexation inherent in recent policies. Agha writes,

“Since it is evident that the Trump administration will not be the restraining force on the right-wing coalition in the Knesset, nations other than the US as well as international bodies must apply pressure on the Israeli government to ensure any annexation bill is costly. Palestinian civil society and the Palestine solidarity movement must go further in raising awareness of how close the Israeli settlement project is to the point of no return in their current and planned campaigns with policymakers.”

Yesh Din/Emek Shaveh Report: “Appropriating the Past: Israel’s Archaeological Practices in the West Bank”

In a new joint report documenting a 4-year project, Emek Shaveh and Yesh Din reveal how Israeli organizations used a guise of archaeological preservation to dispossess Palestinians of privately owned land across the West Bank since 1967. The report, titled “Appropriating the Past: Israel’s Archaeological Practices in the West Bank,” introduces the topic by explaining:

“Israel continues to use its position as the administrator of archaeological sites in the West Bank as a means to deepen its control over West Bank land, to expand the settlement enterprise, and extend the policy of dispossession of Palestinians from their lands and cultural assets. Although the takeover of land through archaeology is not the main method of achieving Israeli control over land, it is significant because of its symbolic aspects and impact on public awareness.”

The report goes on to document several examples of how archaeology is used to advance settlements. Those include:

• Gerrymandering the jurisdiction of settlements to include antiquity sites, as in the case of the Anatot-Almon settlement and the Tel-Alamit antiquity site;
• Illegally invading of antiquity sites, as in the case of the Ain al Qaws spring near Nabi Saleh; and,
• Using archaeological excavations to retroactively justify the establishment of new settlements, as in the case of the Shiloh settlement and the now evacuated Amona outpost.

The report concludes:

“By controlling all aspects of archaeology – the excavations, management of the sites, the interpretation of the nds, and which knowledge is disclosed to (or concealed from) the public – Israel appropriates the archaeological treasures uncovered in the West Bank and exploits them in order to sustain a narrative of continued Israeli control over the OPT.”

The report is available online here.

Emek Shaveh Report: The Jerusalem Cable Car Undermines the History & Multiculturalism of the Historic Basin

In a recent paper, the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh analyzes the detrimental impacts of the new Israeli cable car project, including the dispossession and tangible economic consequences facing Palestinian Jerusalemites.

The paper concludes:

“The cable car is an experimental project driven by political interests in the most important and sensitive site in our region – the Old City of Jerusalem. Although this project is presented to the public as a response to transportation and tourism needs, its goal is political – strengthening Israel’s hold on East Jerusalem with a national-religious narrative and by “establishing facts on the ground” that will erase the chances of a historic compromise in the Holy Basin and the rich cultural diversity of the city. The cable car will also seriously damage the historical nature of the Old City and corrupt its famous beauty, which attracts visitors from all over the world.”

FMEP has tracked the planning process for the cable car, a project promoted by the settler group Elad. Elad aggressively pursues the eviction of Palestinians and the growing presence of Jewish Israelis across East Jerusalem, but particularly in the Silwan neighborhood where the Kedem Center is being built to serve as the final stop of the cable car line. The project has been harshly critiqued by the international community.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Settler Lands Helicopter at Qalandiya Checkpoint (in Attempt to Seize It)

This week, Yedidya Meshulami – a settler living in an illegal outpost near Nablus – attempted to usurp the Israeli Army and take control of the Qalandiya checkpoint by landing his personal helicopter nearby, declaring “I don’t care what they do to me, I’ll take it [the checkpoint] over.” Israeli security forces arrested Meshulami and seized his helicopter (shortly thereafter he was released to house arrest;  it goes without saying that had he been a Palestinian seeking to take over the checkpoint by any means whatsoever, he would still be in custody). The Qalandiya checkpoint is the most heavily trafficked checkpoint in the West Bank, through which 26,000 Palestinians (who are lucky enough to have permits to enter Israel) pass en route to Jerusalem on a daily basis.

Meshulami landed his helicopter at the site of the defunct Atarot airport, situated on a strategic strip of land between Jerusalem and Ramallah near the Qalandiya checkpoint he hoped to take control over. Rumors concerning plans to build a settlement at the Atarot site have been rumbling for over a year, fed by the Knesset’s decision to allocate millions of shekels to the project last October. Developing the airport into an Israeli settlement would deprive a future Palestinian state of the only airport in the West Bank, would cut through many Palestinian neighborhoods, and would further sever East Jerusalem from a Palestinian state (acting like E-1 on Jerusalem’s northeast flank, and like Givat Hamatos on Jerusalem’s southern flank).

Meshulami, lives in an unauthorized outpost called “Alumot” near the settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus. Meshulami helped establish the outpost in 1996 after serving in the Israeli Air Force and, despite lacking permits, he personally built an airstrip in the outpost in 2013. According to reports this week, Israeli security forces had previously revoked Meshulami’s pilot license for flying over the West Bank without a permit. Two days after his arrest, the IDF raided the illegal airstip and seized a second helicopter. They also found an ultralight plane that will reportedly be seized in the coming days.

Bonus Reads

1. VIDEO: Times of Israel Settlements Correspondent Jacob Magid discusses internal settler dynamis w/ Ron Kampeas (FMEP)
2. “Settler Violence Against Palestinians Is on the Rise, but Goes Regularly Unpunished” (Haaretz)
3. “Israel’s government and the settlers want terror.” (Haaretz+)
4. “Israel’s Separation Barrier: Legitimate in theory, malicious in practice” (Times of Israel)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

March 15, 2018

1. Settler Put in Charge of Office Dedicated to Seizing Palestinian Property in East Jerusalem
2. 7 Months After Illegally Breaking In/Occupying Hebron Property, High Court Orders IDF to Evacuate Settlers
3. Israel Moves to Confiscate More Palestinian Land Near Nablus
4. B’Tselem Report: “Life Under the Shadow of the Beit El Settlement”
5. “Settlements Are A War Crime”: UN High Commissioner Weighs in on 2017 Settlement Activities
6. Bonus Reads

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

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 Settler Put in Charge of Office Dedicated to Seizing Palestinian Property in East Jerusalem

A recent Haaretz report revealed that, more than a year ago, the Israeli Justice Ministry transferred authority over East Jerusalem absentee property cases to a division within the Justice Ministry headed by radical Israeli settler leader Hananel Gurfinkel. According to the report, over the course of the time Gurfinkel has been responsible for the East Jerusalem portfolio, the Justice Ministry has significantly increased its cooperation with nonprofit settler organizations to evict Palestinians and transfer the property to Israeli Jews – particularly in the Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods. The responsibility was transferred from the “Unit for the Location and Restitution of Unclaimed Property” in the Administrator General’s Office, to the economic unit, which Gurfinkel has lead for many years.

Gurfinkel lives in the Nof Zion settlement enclave, located in the Jabal al-Mukaber neighborhood of East Jerusalem (Nof Zion is set to triple in size, btw), and has a history of leading efforts to evict Palestinians from East Jerusalem and to replace them with Israeli Jews. Back in 2016, while serving in the Administrator General’s office he reportedly founded ”Building Jerusalem,” a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the “Arab conquest” of Jerusalem. In that time he has also been elected to the central committee of the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi political party.

With Gurfinkel in charge of the Administrator General’s East Jerusalem property cases, the office has drawn much criticism, particularly around its decision to hire attorney Moshe Segal to represent the government in property disputes against Palestinians. Segal was reportedly hired without going through a competitive bidding process, as required for government contracts. Even more alarming, Segal provides legal representation to two of the most aggressive settler groups active in East Jerusalem – Elad and Ateret Cohanim – which regularly petition the Administrator General to evict Palestinians and award property rights to Israeli Jews. Segal representation of these clients appears to pose a blatant conflict of interest.

After initially – and bizarrely – denying that Segal works for the government, the Justice Ministry defended Segal’s hiring and dismissed the idea that there might be a conflict of interest, saying “the administrator general and attorney Segal do not represent opposing positions” (suggesting with remarkable honestly, that it is the official view of the Ministry that the positions of the settler organizations and the government are indistinguishable). The Justice Ministry further defended its operations, saying in part:

“The handling of assets managed by the administrator general division were transferred to the economic unit … as part of a structural change and based on the giving of additional tasks to the Unit for the Location and Restitution of Unclaimed Property…The administrator general division manages the property of private owners all over the country and is obligated to act for their benefit, including handling suits against trespassers. The division has no separate policy concerning management of property located in one region or another.”

The Haaretz Editorial Board issued a blistering response to their paper’s breaking news, saying that assigning such authorities to Gurfinkel is “crooked, improper, and possibly illegal.”

7 Months After Illegally Breaking In/Occupying Hebron Property, High Court Orders IDF to Evacuate Settlers

On March 12, the Israeli High Court of Justice finally issued a ruling to evict nearly 100 Israeli settlers who have been squatting in a disputed property in Hebron, after having broken into the building nearly seven months ago. Since first ordering them to leave the site in October 2017, the High Court has repeatedly agreed to delay the evacuation, pending various appeals. Since then, the settlers have repeatedly petitioned the Court for delays and comprises, all of which the High Court has rejected.

Peace Now told The Times of Israel that the government should “show zero tolerance for any further attempts to postpone the evacuation” and that hopefully “this time the invaders will honor the court and evacuate without violence and without unnecessary dramas.”

The property, which the settlers have named “Beit Machpelah” (Palestinians call it the “Abu Rajab House”) sits across the street from the historic religious site known as the Tomb of the Patriarch to Jews and the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims. Palestinians claim it is owned by the Abu Rajab family, while settlers claim the property was legally purchased. When the settlers broke into the property, the Israeli army protected their presence there (allowing them to freely enter and exit the property) and declared the area a closed military zone to keep Palestinians away from the settlers. The army also failed to protect Palestinians from the settlers, some of whom are violent, squatting there. In a recently published report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights addresses the case of the disputed property (page 4 and 6), documenting several incidents of settler-violence resulting in hospitalization and slamming the IDF for not intervening, and in once case arresting Palestinians who were the victims of the settlers’ stone-throwing.

Israel Moves to Confiscate More Palestinian Land Near Nablus

According to a report by Al Jazeera, the Israeli army entered the Palestinian town of Burin in an effort to inform its leaders that Israel intends to confiscate a parcel of land in the city that is currently the site of a local secondary school. IDF soldiers reportedly said that the land is being confiscated for “security reasons.” According to Yahia Kadous, who is the head of Burin, Israel has already seized much of the land around the school, and the latest decision is a continuation of Israel’s incremental annexation of land on the village’s periphery.

Burin is a Palestinian town just south of Nablus, near the notoriously violent Israeli settlement of Yitzhar. Settlers, mainly from Yitzhar, have launched a string of attacks on the Burin and other surrounding villages over the past year. The Israeli NGO Yesh Din has documented 20 incidents of settlers throwing stones at Burin residents and houses over the past six months alone. As is often the case across the West Bank, the IDF stands idly by as settlers attack, and in some cases the IDF enters Burin to disperse counter-protests – deploying tear gas canisters and stun grenades. In early March, a Yesh Din video showed Israeli soldiers invading Burin and firing a tear gas canister at a Palestinian couple and their infant who were fleeing their home as the soldiers approached.

In response to the constant violence and the IDF’s abdication of responsibility, Yesh Din has launched a campaign seeking to compel the IDF to do more to stop the attacks on Burin. Yesh Din unveiled the campaign, writing:

“The residents of Burin and surrounding villages are thus repeatedly impacted not only by the violence of settlers, but also by the violence of the Israeli security forces, whose task it is to provide protection for the Palestinians. This reality must and can be prevented. Yesh Din has launched a public campaign calling for an immediate end to settler harassment in the Yitzhar area including settler trespass into the village and fields of Burin. The campaign calls upon the Head of the Central Command in the Israeli army to fulfil his duty to protect Palestinians and prevent offences from being committed against them by Israeli civilians. We demand that the Israeli authorities investigate and bring the Israeli perpetrators to justice.”

B’Tselem Report: “Life Under the Shadow of the Beit El Settlement”

In a new publication, B’Tselem documents the detrimental impact that the Beit El settlement has had on 14,000 Palestinians living in the nearby al-Jalazun refugee camp. As a reminder, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman served as President of American Friends of Beit El, and on his watch the organization raised major funding to support the settlement.

The Israeli army frequently denies al-Jalazun residents the right to use roads near Beit El, which severely restricts their ability to commute to jobs or seek medical treatment, or to simply go about their lives unmolested. Additionally, the Beit El settlement successfully lobbied the Israeli government to build a massive separation wall between the settlement and the refugee camp, a wall which has cut-off one Palestinian family from the camp. 

B’Tselem compiled numerous testimonies from residents of al-Jalazun refugee camp that shed light on how such severe infringements on freedom of movement have impacted their daily lives. On resident, Muhammad Safi, said:

“Life here has become unbearable. If it happened once a year, or even once a month, I might have been able to live with it, but for months it happened here every day and it was unbearable. The humiliation, the anxiety, the fear I and other taxi drivers working this route feel all the time can make a person sick. I’m thinking about looking for other work, but there aren’t too many alternatives. I pray to God to make it better for us.”

“Settlements Are A War Crime”: UN High Commissioner Weighs in on 2017 Settlement Activities

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently submitted the annual report tracking the expansion of Israel settlements, documenting activities from November 2016 through October 2017. The report covers a lot of ground — documenting and condemning Israeli activities in Area C of the West Bank, legislative initiatives concerning Jerusalem, discriminatory planning and zoning practices, home demolitions and evictions, the role of Israeli security forces, an increase in settler violence, and instances of collective punishment. It also reiterates that all Israeli settlements in occupied territories are a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In a key section describing how many of these policies create what the report calls a “coercive environment” that amounts to a population transfer, the report says:

“Forcible transfer does not necessarily require the use of physical force by authorities; it may be triggered by specific factors that give individuals or communities no choice but to leave, amounting to what is known as a ‘coercive environment’. Any transfer without the genuine and fully informed consent of those affected is considered forcible. Genuine consent to a transfer cannot, however, be presumed in an environment marked by the use or threat of physical force, coercion, fear of violence, or duress (A/HRC/34/38, para. 28; A/HRC/34/39 para. 41). Human rights, such as the rights to freedom of movement, privacy and family life, in addition to economic, social and cultural rights (A/HRC/16/71, para. 24), are usually violated within the context of forcible transfer.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Do Israeli Settlers Have Any Power in America?” (The Forward)
2. “Israeli Settlers Hold Country Hostage to their Ideology”(Al-Monitor)
3. “West Bank demolitions and displacement continue at similar pace to 2017” (OCHA)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

March 9, 2018

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

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

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New Settlement in Hebron

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

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

Peace Now said:

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

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

Palestinians Protest Rumored Plan to Unite & Expand Settlements Near Qalqilya

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ben Meir told the Times of Israel:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Documents Reveal: Government Funds Are Going to Unauthorized Outposts

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

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

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

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

Peace Now Settlement Watch Director Shabtay Bendet responded:

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

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

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

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

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

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

EU Report Shows Major Acceleration in Settlement Planning

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

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

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

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

Settlement-Related AIPAC Conference Happenings

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

A few events/happenings pertinent to settlement observers include:

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

Bonus Reads

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

 

***The Settlement Report is taking a two-week break for the Holidays, and will return again after the New Year.***

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

December 14, 2017

1. Israel Announces 6,000 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
2. A Special Israeli Committee Fast-Tracks the Controversial Jerusalem Cable Car Project
3. Hebron Squatters Issue Set Conditions for Complying with the Law
4. Knesset Expedites Funding for Armored Vehicles for Settlers
5. Government Supports Bill to de facto Annex Settlement Universities
6. Knesset Suspends Benefits to Non-Profit Operating in Illegal Outpost
7. Bonus Reads

 

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

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Israel Announces 6,000 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem

Shortly after President Trump’s proclamation recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directing the U.S. Department of State to begin the process of relocating the U.S. Embassy there, Israel was rumored to be planning 6,000 new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel’s Minister of Housing and Construction, Yoav Galant, was quoted saying, “Following President Trump’s historic declaration, I intend to advance and strengthen building in Jerusalem.”

According to reports the plans include:

• Introduction of a new plan for 5,000 settlement units at the site of the disused Atarot airport at the northern tip of East Jerusalem. Construction at the site has not yet begun, but Israel has made significant moves since Trump took office – in April leaking news of the of the plans and suggesting they were working to come to an understanding with Trump on settlements including Atarot, and in October allocating funds for building the Atarot settlement. If implemented, Atarot will be the first new government-backed settlement in East Jerusalem since the 1995 construction of Har Homa. Settlement construction at Atarot will cut off Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the West Bank. [image]
• A new plan for 1,000 units in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in East Jerusalem.

A Special Israeli Committee Fast-Tracks the Controversial Jerusalem Cable Car Project

Exactly one week after President Trump’s proclamation recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directing the U.S. Department of State to begin relocating the U.S. Embassy there, a special committee held a hearing to consider plans for a cable car project. The controversial project is deeply connected to a settler-run tourist organization, Elad, which is responsible for building a huge new tourist center in the heart of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

As Ir Amim explains:

The [Israeli] State will invest 200 million shekels in a system designed to seamlessly connect the western part of the city with a constellation of Elad settler group managed tourism enterprises in Silwan. If, as intended, the cable car becomes a primary means of transportation to the Old City, it will route masses of visitors to the compound Elad intends to establish as the headquarters of its decades long campaign to settle the neighborhood of Silwan…

The cable car project is another compelling example of state sponsored private settlement under the guise of tourism. Officials have circumvented the local and district planning committees to fast track the plan, transferring authority to the National Infrastructure Committee (NIC), The NIC was established to expedite approval of significant infrastructure projects and limit the role of the public to block problematic schemes. Until recently, tourism related projects were not discussed under its purview. About a year ago, the Planning and Building Law was amended to enable its new function.

Hebron Squatters Issue Set Conditions for Complying with the Law

The 100 Israeli settlers who since July have been illegally squatting in a contested Hebron house, which they have dubbed the Machpelah house, are attempting to dictate the terms under which they will comply with a court ruling compelling them to leave. After delaying their evacuation for months through a series of Court petitions, the settlers said this week that they will voluntarily vacate the property if the High Court orders the demolition of a storage shed near the house, which they claim Palestinians recently built. They also demanded the right to station their own private security guards to “supervise” the house while the Court decides on its legal ownership, which has been in dispute since 2012.

In response, Peace Now called the settlers’ demands “another dubious exercise,” noting that the “guards” settlers want to station at the house are themselves settlers. In this way, the conditions the settlers are setting demonstrate that the squatters have no intention of leaving, despite the Court’s ruling.

Knesset Expedites Funding for Armored Vehicles for Settlers

Under unrelenting pressure from settler leaders, the Knesset Finance Committee voted to expedite the first transfer of money to finance projects that are a part of the much-promised “Settler Security Package,” slated to total USD $228 million in 2018. This initial allocation, made this week, totals USD $12.8 million to finance the purchase of bullet-proof buses to transport settlers throughout the West Bank.

Government Supports Bill to de facto Annex Settlement Universities

The Israeli government threw its support behind a Knesset bill that would bring universities and colleges located in Israeli settlements under domestic Israeli law. The bill has already cleared the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, and is now set to be voted on three times, after which it will become law.

Settlement universities and colleges have been governed and accredited through the Council of Higher Education in the West Bank, but the bill would disband this council and the settlement schools would fall under the authority of the Council of Higher Education in Israel – further blurring the legal distinction between Israel and the occupied territories.

Knesset Suspends Tax Benefits to Non-Profit Operating in Illegal Outpost

According to Arutz Sheva (a settler-aligned news outlet), the Knesset Finance Committee has removed an organization called “Hebrew Shepherd” from a list of Israeli organizations eligible to receive tax breaks, saying that Hebrew Shepherd requires additional study by the Israeli Tax Authority.

In November, Haaretz published a report revealing that the Israeli Education Ministry established and continues to fund the operations of Hebrew Shepherd, which operates in an illegal settlement outpost. Hebrew Shepherd has launched a petition to have the outpost retroactively legalized in order to void the demolition orders that have been issued against all of the outpost’s structures and its access road.

Ironically, the organization’s mission is to rehabilitate radical Israeli youth, known as the “Hilltop Youth,” who violently establish and defend unauthorized outposts.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel’s Settlement Regularization Law: The Attorney General’s Extraordinary Brief and What it Means for Israel’s Legal Stance on Illegal Settlements” (Lawfare)
2. “At East Jerusalem enclave, some Jews happier with Trump than with Netanyahu” (Times of Israel)
3. [Opinion] “Should Israelis also Boycot the Haredim and Settlers? Or Just Get Over Their Fear of Arabs?” (Haaretz+)

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

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

October 20, 2017

1. Israel Advances 2,646 Settlement Units
2. Construction of the Givat Hamatos Settlement  in East Jerusalem is Underway
3. Israel to Invest in $939 Million “Settler Security Package” for Settlements Across the West Bank
4. Court Orders Evacuation of Settlers from “Machpelah House” in Hebron
5. As Olive Harvest Begins, Settlers Steal and Destroy the Palestinian Crop
6. Labor Chairman Shocks Israeli Left with Defense of Settlements
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Israel Advances 2,646 Settlement Units

This week the Netanyahu government advanced plans for a total of 2,646 settlements units across the West Bank. According to Israel’s veteran settlement watch organization, Peace Now, the Israeli government has advanced plans for 6,742 new settlement units so far in 2017, a steep escalation from previous years.

As we reported last week, these advancements include several provocative plans that will “compensate” settlers who had built illegally in the West Bank (296 units in Beit El, 102 units in the brand-new settlement of Amichai, and 86 units in Kochav Yaakov), move towards retroactively legalizing an illegal outpost (the Netiv Ha’avot plan, which the High Planning Council called “improper” but approved anyway), enlarge settlement enclaves in Palestinian neighborhoods (31 units on Shuhada Street in Hebron – the first new settlement construction approved inside Hebron in more than a decade. Btselem’s short video documentary on Shuhada Street is here).

The anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now said:

The Israeli government has lost all its inhibitions, while promoting settlement expansion in a record pace for recent years and distancing us daily from the possibility of a two state solution. The government is sending a clear message to settlers – build illegally and anywhere and we will find a solution for you. It is clear that Netanyahu is prioritizing his settler constituency over the rule of law and the possibility for peace.

The Palestinian Authority reacted with anger, calling on the international community and the Trump administration to intervene, saying “This settlement assault comes at a time when the administration of US President Donald Trump is exerting effort and creating the conditions that will pave the way for making a real peace.” The EU and key European nations strongly condemned the settlement approvals. Germany noted, “…each new housing unit cements a one-state reality…”

The White House issued the same talking points on settlement announcements it has since President Trump took office, expressing concern that unrestrained settlement activities does not advance the prospects for peace but saying past demands for a settlement freeze have not been helpful to negotiations.

Construction of the Givat Hamatos Settlement  in East Jerusalem is Underway

In addition to the massive wave of settlement advancements this week, infrastructure work has started at the site of the long awaited (and much feared) Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem. Construction workers and machinery were spotted clearing the ground as the Israeli government prepares to issue the first tender for the settlement, which will green-light the construction of some 1,600 units. [image]

The construction of Givat Hamatos will be especially devastating to the two-state solution. It will complete a barrier of Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem; it will complete the encirclement and isolation of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa; and, it will be the first new Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem in 20 years.

Ir Amim writes,

Construction of Givat Hamatos – prospectively, the first new [government-backed] settlement in East Jerusalem in two decades – would cap off a wave of simultaneous developments along the southern flank of East Jerusalem to complete consolidation of Israeli control of the southern perimeter and render the two state solution nonviable.

Peace Now writes:

The preparation for a tender in Givat Hamatos, together with Netanyahu’s statements last week regarding the construction of thousands of housing units in Ma’ale Adumim with heavy hints towards E1, are all a part of the government’s effort to create a de-facto annexation and prevent the possibility for two states on the ground. Netanyahu is taking far-reaching steps, which he has thus far avoided, and by doing so he risks the two state solution and the future of Israel.

The Givat Hamatos plan received final approval two years ago, but construction was delayed in light of international pressure including interventions by the Obama administration. As FMEP reported earlier this year, at the onset of the Trump administration, reports suggested a huge slate of Jerusalem area projects would now move forward – those rumored plans included Givat Hamatos, Atarot, Ramat Shlomo, and more (including E-1). Though an official announcement of advancement of those plans has not yet been made, the movement on Givat Hamatos piques concerns of additional major new settlement developments in the Jerusalem area.

Israel to Invest in $939 Million “Settler Security Package” for Settlements Across the West Bank

The Times of Israel reports that Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is planning to allocate $939 million for projects for settlers and settlements across the West Bank. Liberman’s plan addresses the complaints of settlers who staged a protest in front of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s private residence earlier this week demanding enhanced security measures. Settlers complained that Netanyahu had promised the infrastructure but had not yet allocated funds to effectuate the projects. According to the Times of Israel, the  $939 million package will fund:

the installation of security cameras along roads throughout the West Bank; the installation of cell phone towers to improve reception for settlers who may need to call for help; the paving of bypass roads around Palestinian towns and settlements to allow the populations to avoid each other; the bolstering of armored buses that travel through the West Bank; and broad security improvements for each settlement that will include security cameras, “smart fences” and sensors to warn of attempts to sneak into settlements.

Court Orders Evacuation of Settlers from “Machpelah House” in Hebron

The Israeli High Court has ordered the evacuation of settlers from a disputed home in Hebron. Settlers broke into the “Machpelah House” nearly 3 months ago, despite an ongoing legal battle to determine ownership of the home. The evacuation of the squatters had been repeatedly delayed by the political echelons and by attempts by the settlers to delay their evacuation until the Court makes a final ruling on ownership of the Machpela House, as we have previously reported. It remains to be seen if this court order will be carried out or if further delaying tactics will be brought into play.

As the Olive Harvest Begins, Settlers Steal and Destroy the Palestinian Crop

Yesh Din has documented 10 cases of settlers destroying or stealing olives from Palestinian groves across the West Bank this week, in what has become a common occurrence this time each year. Rabbis for Human Rights has documented an additional four cases this week, calling it a “severe wave of olive theft.”

Israeli police routinely arrest, release, and forget the settlers who commit harvest-time crimes, as documented thoroughly by Yesh Din. In one incident this week, settlers were filmed stealing olives, arrested by the Israeli police, and released on the same day. Yesh Din writes:

Since 2005, we have documented around 280 investigation files dealing with damage to olive trees. Only in 6 cases were indictments served (2.2% of cases for which an investigation has been concluded). More than 93% of these cases were closed due to police failure to locate the perpetrators or to gather enough evidence to prosecute suspects.

Rabbis for Human Rights says:

These are ideologically driven hate crimes. Due to the fact that most of the thefts took place on Palestinian lands which the farmers are restricted by the Israeli army from entering, the army has an increased responsibility to protect these groves.

Labor Chairman Shocks Israeli Left with Defense of Settlements

Avi Gabbay, the relatively unknown political outsider who was elected to be Chairman of the Israeli Labor Party earlier this year, has set off a debate within the center-left party following a series of  shocking comments on settlements this week. Most pertinently, Gabbay stated that he does not believe Israel should have to evacuate settlements as part of a peace agreement – a position that is at odds with members of his own party and of the position of the Zionist Union, of which the Labor Party is a major part. He later praised Israeli settlers, saying “The settlement [project] was and remains the beautiful and devoted face of Zionism….[the settlers are] the pioneers of our generations, people who act in the face of adversity, who cause the wilderness to bloom, who realize the impossible.”

Any initial hesitancy of MKs to disagree with the party leader eventually gave way to an onslaught of Labor officials publicly discrediting the chairman’s position on the evacuation of settlements. Tzipi Livni, a member of the Hatnua party and leader of the Zionist Union that unites Labor with other left and center-left political parties, took a simple and strong line saying, “The opposition to evacuating settlements is not the position of the Zionist Union.”

Gabbay’s hardline comments on settlements were not the only remarks that landed him in hot water over the last week. He also stated that he would not agree to form a (hypothetical) government with the Arab-Israeli Joint List because, as he said, “I do not see anything that connects us to them or allows us to be in the same government with them,”  and, “I don’t deal with rights of Palestinians.”

The Times of Israel recounts the contextual history of the Labor Party on the issue of settlements and the Party’s important role in previous peace negotiations:

The center-left Labor party has long been the Israeli political standard bearer for reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians — involving the relinquishing of most of the West Bank and many of the settlements — with former Labor prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak all investing considerable efforts to negotiate an accord.

Bonus Reads

• “In Jerusalem, Municipal Issues Have Political Overtones” (NPR)
• “In unprecedented move, eight European countries to demand compensation from Israel for West Bank demolitions” (Haaretz)

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

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

October 12, 2017

1. Bibi Approves Major Expansion of Settlements
2. DETAILS: Thousands of Settlement Units to Advance Next Week with Netanyahu’s Permission
3. U.S.: No Comment, No Change in Talking Points
4. Bonus Reads

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

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Bibi Approves Major Expansion of Settlements

This week, the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced imminent approval of major new settlement construction across the West Bank, including in some especially sensitive/controversial areas.

How major? There has been debate and disagreement in the Israeli press about the number and what they exactly mean. Haaretz reports that, while Netanyahu listed plans totalling 3,736 settlement units, only 600 of those units will actually be approved for immediate construction (the rest are part of plans that are in earlier stages of the approval process). However, the Times of Israel counts 1,941 units being advanced, of which 1,197 units will receive final approval. The Peace Now Settlement Watch Project counts 3,400 units up for advancement, and tenders (the final step before construction) expected for 296 units.

This debate over the numbers should not obfuscate the fact that Netanyahu is orchestrating an acceleration of settlement growth, the totality of which we will have definitive knowledge of only after the High Planning Council meets next week.

Please note, there is no benign stage in the settlement planning process. No matter the stages of the planning process involved, Netanyahu’s announcement this week represents a huge wave of forthcoming settlement construction.

As Terrestrial Jerusalem’s founder Daniel Seidemann wrote in 2015,

There is no such thing as a “window of opportunity” in stopping settlement planning/approvals. When the world objects to settlement approvals, the answer from Israeli officials, invariably, is either, “It’s too early, it’s just a plan – what are you objecting to?” or “It’s too late, this was approved long ago – why are you bothering us now?” In truth, settlement plans can be stopped at almost any point on the road to implementation, and the earlier a plan is stopped, the lower the political costs.

With that in mind, we cover the plans expected to be advanced in detail below.

DETAILS: Thousands of Settlement Units to Advance Next Week with Netanyahu’s Permission

Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly announced his permission for the High Planning Council to advance 3,736 of settlement units during the Council’s meeting next week (Oct. 17-18). If all of the reported plans are approved, the total number of settlement units promoted so far in 2017 will reach 6,500 by the end of the month, a significant increase compared to 2,629 for all of 2016, and 1,982 for all of 2015, according to Peace Now data. One Israeli official has promised the settlement numbers will reach 12,000 by the year’s end, bragging that the amount is four times the total promoted in 2016.

Of the thousands of units slated for advancement, several plans are at the final stage of planning and will likely receive the green light to start construction. These plans fulfill specific promises to settlers Netanyahu has made over the years (and address some of his most acute domestic political pressure points). The following plans – all of which are in settlements located deep inside the West Bank and beyond the separation barrier – are expected to receive building permits, as reported by Haaretz:

• 31 units for the settlement enclave on Shuhada Street, in the heart of downtown Hebron. This is the first plan for new settlement units in downtown Hebron in the last 12 years; the Hebron Municipality is expected to mount a legal challenge against the plan’s implementation. Peace Now explains, “alongside additional developments in Hebron, including the creation of an independent administration and the entry to the Abu Rajab House, this can be seen as another effort by the government to strengthen the radical settlement in the heart of Hebron.”
• 296 units in the Beit El settlement, which are part of Netanyahu’s promise to compensate for the settlers evacuated from the Ulpana outpost in 2012.
• 86 units in the Kochav Yaakov settlement which are part of Netanyahu’s promise to compensate for the settlers evacuated from the Migron outpost also in 2012. The evacuation of the Migron outpost has lead to the construction of not one but two new settlements as compensation.
• 146 units in the Nokdim settlement, where Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman lives.
• 9 units in the Psagot settlement.

The Times of Israel reports additional units expected receive final approval:

• 459 units in Ma’ale Adumim.
• 102 units in the new settlement of Amichai, which was approved earlier this year as payoff for settlers evacuated from the unauthorized outpost of Amona. Haaretz suggests that construction of these units will remain stalled as the State responds to a petition filed against the Amichai settlement by the Israeli NGO Yesh Din, arguing that the settlement’s borders annex land that is privately owned by Palestinians. As reported in detail in past editions of the FMEP Settlement Report, Amichai is the first new settlement to receive government authorization in the past 25 years. It is to be located deep inside the Shilo Valley in an area that cannot, under any conceivable two state arrangement, be included inside the borders of an Israeli state in a way that preserves the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state.

The High Planning Council will also consider depositing for public review (a last step before final approval) plans for 30 units in the Elon Shvut settlement that will expand the settlement borders to build the homes in order to compensate residents in the unauthorized outpost of Netiv Ha’avot, an outpost where the government is appealing to the High Court to save settlement homes that were partially constructed on land that is proven to be privately owned by Palestinians. The Court has ordered that the outpost be razed by March 2018.

To see all of the plans expected to be addressed next week, see Peace Now’s data table (link near the middle of this page). Peace Now issued an accompanying statement saying,

The government has gone wild with settlement plans deep in the West Bank for thousands of new settlers, whom Israel will have to evacuate in a two state solution agreement. Faced with the growing pressures and investigations, Netanyahu goes out of his way to prove how radical he is, without considering the consequences of massive settlement expansion on the future of the two state solution. The plans for Hebron and Nativ Ha’avot are particularly enraging, as they indicate to settlers that the rule of law does not apply to them and illustrate the government’s deteriorating legal standards when it comes to settlement expansion.

U.S.: No Comment, No Change in Talking Points

The Trump Administration has issued no statement regarding Netanyahu’s brazen settlement advancements. Instead, unnamed White House officials repeated the same talking points that have defined the Trump Administration’s settlement stance, saying,

President Trump has publicly and privately expressed his concerns regarding settlements, and the administration has made clear that unrestrained settlement activity does not advance the prospect for peace. At the same time, the administration recognizes that past demands for a settlement freeze have not helped advance peace talks.

Hagit Ofran, Director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Program, told the Washington Post, “This year is looking to maybe even be a record year… It’s without a doubt due to the fact that there have been changes in the White House.”

Bonus Reads

1. “By Backing ‘Greater Jerusalem’ Bill, is PM leaning towards annexing settlements?” (Times of Israel)
2. “The Transformation of Jerusalem” (Arab American Institute)
3. “The Bedouin village where compassion ends” (+972 Magazine)

 

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

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

September 20, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Normalizing Settlements in the Name of Peace – The WINEP Approach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key findings in the new report include:

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

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

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

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

Key findings of the report include:

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

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

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

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

Bonus Reads

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

 

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