Settlement & Annexation Report: January 27, 2023

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

January 27, 2023

    1. De Facto Annexation in action: Bibi Confirms that Smotrich Now Runs the West Bank
    2. With Top U.S. Official In Country, Netanyahu Delays New Settlement Plan
    3. Coalition Deal Includes Unilateral Annexation of West Bank Archaeological Sites
    4. Concern Grows that New Gov Will Proceed with Mount of Olives “Park” Plan
    5. Palestinians Protest Settler Cultivating Land Near Ramallah
    6. Bonus Reads

De Facto Annexation in action: Bibi Confirms that Smotrich Now Runs the West Bank 

The battle over a newly-established illegal outpost has provided the first concrete look at the extent to which the new Israeli government has handed authority over the West Bank to radical, pro-annexationist Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism party).

The outpost was established January 19th, ostensibly to honor the recently deceased Rabbi Chaim Druckman, a longtime leader of the settler movement and a defender of violent Jewish extremists. It was established near the Migdalim settlement in the northern West Bank, to the east of the Ariel settlement.

On January 20th the outpost was dismantled by the IDF at the direction of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) with the approval of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Notably, that same day Netanyahu was hosting U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. That dismantling took place in defiance of an order from Bezalel Smotrich, acting in his capacity as a key official in the Defense Ministry with vast powers over the Civil Administration specifically over civilian matters such as illegal construction (in addition to his role as Finance Minister). Smotrich’s order, which was overruled by Gallant, sought to leave the outpost untouched while the situation was debated by government officials.

In response to the outpost being dismantled not once but twice (hundreds of settlers reestablished the outpost within 2 days of the first demolition), Smotrich and his allies boycotted the weekly Cabinet meeting, forcing Netanyahu to convene at least two separate meetings (on January 23 and 24) to resolve the clash between Gallant and Smotrich. 

With the visit of a top U.S. official over, reports on January 26th suggest that Netanyahu is now siding with Smotrich. In so doing, Netanyu is confirming his support for a new status quo in the Defense Ministry in which authority in the West Bank is divided between Smotrich and Gallant. Smotrich will be in charge of “civilian” matters — including the fate of illegal outposts, issues related to settlements, and, of course, all aspects of the lives of Palestinians; Gallant’s authority in the West Bank will be over “security” matters. Minister Gallant has made it clear that he opposes this new division of authority within his ministry, and Defense Ministry legal advisors have cautioned Netanyahu that transferring powers to Smotrich could be seen by the international community as annexation. In response, Netanyahu has ordered a legal opinion on the proposed division.

Smotrich has been clear regarding his intention to use the powers he appears to now enjoy within the Defense Ministry to reduce Israeli enforcement against illegal settler construction, and to increase Israeli enforcement against “illegal” Palestinian construction [as a reminder: Israel only rarely gives Palestinians permission to build on their own private land in Area C, meaning that in the eyes of Israeli authorities, virtually all Palestinian construction in Area C is illegal and can/should be demolished]. 

In addition to laying bare a fight over authority in the new government, the battle over this whole ordeal also re-affirmed the consensus – and enthusiasm – in Israel’s ruling class, both those in and those in opposition – in support of demolishing Palestinian construction in Area C. Indeed, in a revealing Twitter exchange, Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz literally fought for credit for demolishing the more Palestinian structures.

With Top U.S. Official In Country, Netanyahu Delays New Settlement Plan

On January 19th – while U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was in Israel for talks with Netanyahu – the Israeli government removed an item from its weekly agenda consideration of the approval of a new settlement on the periphery of Jerusalem. The new settlement is to be created by splitting off an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of the Kochav Yaakov settlement, and turning it into its own settlement, to be called “Tel Zion.” The creation of the “Tel Zion” settlement is part of Netanyahu’s coalition deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party. The Times of Israel suggests the plan – which in addition to being agreed to by Netanyahu is also supported by Defense Minister Gantz  – was removed from last week’s agenda apparently to avoid friction with the U.S., meaning that with Sullivan gone, the plan is likely to be brought forward for approval imminently.

Coalition Deal Includes Unilateral Annexation of West Bank Archaeological Sites

Emek Shaveh reports new details on the coalition deal between the Likud and Jewish Power parties, including the allocation of over $40 million (NIS 150 million) to fund a “National Emergency Plan” under which Israel must take control of heritage sites across the totality of the West Bank, without regard to the Oslo-defined Areas A, B, and C. 

Settler groups, including the “Guardians of the Eternity” and the “Shiloh Forum”, have been pushing the government to proceed with taking control of heritage sites, which the groups claim are being vandalized and destroyed by Palestinians.

Emek Shaveh said in a statement

“Netanyahu’s government, with the aid of the Shiloh Forum (and Kohelet), continues to confuse science with messianism, heritage with rightful ownership, and cultural affinity with ethnic supremacy. The destruction of sites, whether genuine or imagined, must not be used as rationale for political action, and political action must not be disguised as heritage conservation. We will make clear that blurring the boundaries between research and protection (of sites) and settlement and annexation, constitutes a gross violation of the prevailing ethics in the field heritage and the stipulations in international law regarding cultural property in occupied territories. Such violations not only endanger the future of heritage sites, but also expose Israel to professional and political isolation.”

As FMEP has chronicled, settlers and their allies are intent upon using claims of Palestinian damage/neglect as a pretext for Israel taking control of archaeological sites and artifacts across the West Bank. For example, in February 2021 settlers used a construction mishap to raise claims to the Mt. Ebal site

And as a reminder: in January 2021, the Israeli government committed funding to a new settler initiative to surveil archeological sites under Palestinian control. While the objective of protecting antiquities might appear uncontroversial and apolitical, the true (and transparently self-evident) objectives behind this effort are: to support yet another pretext to surveil and police Palestinians; to establish and exploit yet another means to dispossess Palestinians of their properties; to expand/deepen Israeli control across the West Bank; and to further entrench Israeli technical, bureaucratic and legal paradigms that treat the West Bank as sovereign Israeli territory. It is the result of a campaign that has taken place over the past year in which settlers have escalated their calls for the Israeli government to seize antiquities and “heritage sites” located in Palestinian communities across the West Bank, especially in Area C, which Israel today treats as functionally (and legally) indistinguishable from sovereign Israeli territory. Funding committed by Israel for West Bank “heritage sites” should be understood in this context.

Previous victories for the settlers in this same arena include the Israeli Civil Administration’s issuance in 2020 of expropriation orders – the first of their kind in 35 years – for two archaeological sites located on privately owned Palestinian property northwest of Ramallah. The settlers’ pressure is also credited as the impetus behind the government’s clandestine raid of a Palestinian village in July 2020 to seize an ancient font. 

In June 2020, the “Guardians of Eternity” group began surveying areas in the West Bank that Israel has designated as archaeological sites, looking for Palestinian construction (barred by Israel in such areas) that they could then use as a pretext to demand that Israeli authorities demolish it. The group communicates its findings to the Archaeology Unit of the Israeli Civil Administration (reminder: the Civil Administration is the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry which since 1967 has functioned as the de facto sovereign over the West Bank). The Archaeology Unit, playing its part, then delivers eviction and demolition orders against Palestinians, claiming that the structures damage antiquities in the area. 

And one more reminder: in 2017, Israel designated 1,000 new archaeological sites in Area C of the West Bank. The “Guardians of Eternity” group, not coincidentally, is an offshoot of the radical Regavim organization, which among other things works to push Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction (on Palestinians’ own land) that lacks Israeli permits (permits that Israel virtually never grants).

Concern Grows that New Gov Will Proceed with Mount of Olives “Park” Plan

+972 Magazine reports that activists and experts are increasingly concerned that the new Israeli government will resurrect a plan to declare vast areas of East Jerusalem – including prized religious sites on the Mount of Olives and entire Palestinian neighborhoods – as part of an Israeli national park, with huge consequences for churches and Palestinians. Activists fear that, in addition to the immediate consequences for residents and property owners, the government intends to subcontract management of the new national park to the radical settler group Elad. This is precisely what the government of Israel did with so-called City of David National Park, which, under Elad’s stewardship, has had devastating impacts on Silwan residents.

Sari Kronish, and urban planning expert with the NGO Bimkom explained:

“Of course a national park is not a bad thing in principle, but in East Jerusalem the designation is used as a tool to prevent development of Palestinian neighborhoods”

The plan to create the Mount of Olives National Park was first revealed in February 2022, but postponed by the government at the time, with a promise that the plan will not proceed until the Churches with equities in the area have been consulted. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority told +972 Magazine that these consultations have begun but are not complete. The agenda item has not been totally shelved, but instead repeatedly delayed, landing the item on the August 2023 agenda (barring further delay).

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann told +972:

“There is no innocent interpretation as to why to put a national park [on the Mount of Olives], except for the fact that the settlers in general, and the settler movement Elad in particular, covet the properties and areas in the visual basin around the Old City. This all comes within a context … [of] an attempt by the government of Israel, together with the settlement movement … to create an Israeli land bridge from the [state-protected] ‘green area’ on Mt. Scopus through Sheikh Jarrah, with biblically-motivated settlements and settlement activities.  We have already seen that on the north flanks with the encirclement of the Sheikh Jarrah area.”

Palestinians Protest Settler Cultivating Land Near Ramallah

Haaretz reports that a settler from the Ofra settlement has recently begun illegally cultivating a large plot of land (130 dunams/32 acres) near Ramallah, on the West Bank side of the Israeli separation barrier. In a statement to Haaretz, the Civil Administration said that it had not permitted any activity on the land and would investigate.

The settler’s actions have sparked a significant response from the local Palestinian community because, in order to reach the land, the settler and the heavy equipment being used to work the land must travel through Palestinian villages. Palestinians have begun staging weekly protests at the site, and the village council of the Palestinian village of Qalandiya issued a warning that it would report the names of Palestinians found working at the site to the Palestinian Authority. 

The plot of land in question is land that pre-1948 had a Jewish owner. It was taken over by the Israeli government in 1967; the Israeli government gave it to the World Zionist Organization in 1997; the WZO then gave it to the Ofra settlement, which never used or cultivated the land, but in 2019 purportedly gave the land to one of its residents, Assaf Shapira. Notwithstanding that action by the settlement, in July  2022 the Civil Administration notified Ofra that the allocation of the land to the settlement had been canceled. 

Dror Etkes – the founder of the settlement watchdog group Kerem Navot – told Haaretz: 

“Ofra’s settlers waited four decades before taking control of these lands. The timing isn’t a coincidence and reflects the spirit of the sixth Netanyahu government. It’s an apartheid government that will continue to act in full force in this enterprise which seeks to make the West Bank and its residents work for the benefit of a violent minority of settlers.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “Israel’s Knesset Extends West Bank Emergency Orders by Another Five Years” (Haaretz)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 3, 2021

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

Israel to Advance Atarot Settlement Plan

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

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

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

Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran cautions:

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

Ir Amim also warns:

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

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

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

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

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

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry responded:

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

MK Ayman Odeh (Joint List) tweeted:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Map by Ir Amim

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

An attorney representing the Palestinian homeowners told Haaretz:

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

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

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

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

Ir Amim explains:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The demolitions included:

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

B’Tselem writes:

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

Government Contradictions Delay Final Decision on Jerusalem Cable Car Project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knesset Holds Hearing on Settler Terrorism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Horowitz also said:

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

Bonus Reads

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

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 19, 2021

  1. Israeli Government Advances A New Settlement Under Guise of Ariel “Expansion”
  2. In Order to Advance Construction of Givat Hamatos, Israel Court Rules For the First Time that Palestinians Can Apply to Live There Too
  3. IDF Evacuates Two Illegal Settler Outposts in the Shiloh Valley
  4. As Settler Terrorism Continues, Gantz Takes a Look at the Data
  5. Settler Participation in Israel’s Mass Surveillance of Palestinians
  6. Terrestrial Jerusalem Warnings & Predictions on Key East Jerusalem Settlement Crises
  7. New B’Tselem Report: Settler Violence Accomplishes State’s Goals
  8. Ir Amim: Israel’s 2040 Plan for Jerusalem Will Displace More Palestinians
  9. Bonus Reads

Israeli Government Advances A New Settlement Under Guise of Ariel “Expansion” 

On November 15, Peace Now reported details on the Israeli Ministry of Construction’s issuance of tenders for a new settlement, called “Ariel West,” in the heart of the West Bank — under the guise of a plan to “expand” the Ariel settlement. Under the plan, 731 new settlement units will be built on a hilltop located 1.2 miles away from Ariel, in an area that is non-contiguous with the built up area of the current Ariel settlement. These tenders were issued on October 24th by the Construction Ministry, without public debate.

The scope and impact of the new project is only now coming into focus, and is just the latest illustration of how Israel systematically rewards unauthorized/illegal construction undertaken by settlers. In this case, settlers established an unauthorized outpost (i.e., illegal even under Israeli law) called “Nof Avi”on the hilltop where the new settlement is slated for construction. The Israeli government has allowed that outpost to remain, and restrict Palestinians’ access to agricultural lands they rightfully own, for the past year.

The hilltop and the Nof Avi outpost is located on land declared by Israel to be “state land” inside of the jurisdictional boundaries of the Ariel settlement, as authorized by the Israeli government. The jurisdictional boundaries of Ariel include several non-contiguous land areas — due to the fact that the area is dotted with land that even Israel recognizes to be legally owned by Palestinians (leaving Palestinian land in some places nearly completely surrounded by land given to the settlement).

The new settlement will further exacerbate the limitations that the settlements inflict on Palestinian agricultural workers in addition to the future development of the nearby Palestinian town of Salfit, as illustrated in this video by Peace Now.  Even before the “expansion” plan, Ariel’s jurisdictional area was identified as a direct hindrance on the future development of Salfit. 

With news of the new settlement, the Mayor of Salfit – Abdullah Kamil – explained to Haaretz:

​​“Salfit is slated for expansion. It has a university and there are plans to add 10,000 students over the next few years. The city’s master plan will have to be enlarged, and the site where the new settlement is planned is exactly the direction toward which we wanted to expand. This situation will explode. We also told the Israelis this; it will open a new front and it will harm Israeli security. It’s clear that part of the plan’s purpose is to eliminate any chance of a political solution.”

Peace Now said in a statement

“It is hard to believe that this tender would have been published if it had been brought for government approval or to any public discussion. The Ministry of Housing took advantage of a plan approved 30 years ago to dramatically change the heart of the West Bank. The “Ariel West” plan is not just a plan for thousands of housing units, but it is a new settlement designed to block the town of Salfit and prevent the development of Palestinian space in the area. This is not only a severe damage to the lives of thousands of Palestinians in the area, but also to the chance of reaching peace and two states in the future.”

In Order to Advance Construction of Givat Hamatos, Israel Court Rules For the First Time that Palestinians Can Apply to Live There Too

In response to a petition filed by the Israel anti-settlement watchdog Ir Amim, the Israeli government updated key eligibility requirements related to future residents of the Givat Hamatos settlement in East Jerusalem. With this petition threatening to slow the project, the government elected to eliminate a discriminatory requirement and thereby make Palestinian permanent residents of East Jerusalem eligible, for the first time ever, to participate in a lottery for government subsidized housing in the new settlement, slated for imminent construction on the southern perimeter of East Jerusalem. 

Until this point, all such housing lotteries were open only to Israeli citizens, in effect prevent the 90+% of Palestinian Jerusalemites – who Israel classifies as “permanent residents” – from eligibility. Some 40% of the 1,257+ settlement units awaiting construction in Givat Hamatos are designated as part of the relevant government-subsidized housing program.

Following the government’s offer to change the eligibility criteria for the subsidized housing program, the Jerusalem District Court dismissed Ir Amim’s petition. In dismissing the petition, the judge failed to require the government to acquiesce to two key demands of the Ir Amim petition: that the government reserve some of the new housing units in Givat Hamatos specifically for Paelstinian residents of Beit Safafa (a neighborhood which the new settlement will complete the encirclement of), and that the government be required to publish an Arabic language announcement regarding the change in policy. The judge on the case did, however, require the Jerusalem municipality to pay Ir Amim $1,600 in expenses.

IDF Evacuates Two Illegal Settler Outposts in the Shiloh Valley

On November 17th, the Israeli army removed two settler families from the illegal (even under Israeli law) outpost called “Guelat Zion,” located in the Shiloh Valley, demolishing the four structures standing there. Predictably, settlers reacted violently, resulting in the arrest of three settlers. This is not the first time the IDF demolished Geulat Zion, the last time being in 2018. Established in 2011, the outpost is adjacent to the new “Amichai” settlement, which Israel built as a pay-off to settlers it was forced by the courts to remove from the illegal Amona outpost.

Following the evacuation of the Geulat Zion outpost on November 17th, the IDF also razed the nearby Ramat Migron outpost. Five additional settlers were arrested for throwing stones and assaulting Israel troops.

As Settler Terrorism Continues, Gantz Takes a Look at the Data

On November 18th, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz – the man who recently designated six Palesitnian human rights groups to be “terrorist organizations” – held a meeting at the Defense Ministry to hear data on the rise of settler violence against Palestinians. Gantz – who referred to settler violence as “hate crimes” and “a grave phenomenon” – appointed Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster as the point person in a new Israeli effort to “address locations in the West Bank that are flash points of friction or that have been in the past” which can include the deployment of “special units to address the issue.” Haaretz reports that Gantz also called for the “forces on the ground to be provided with the necessary legal resources,” though it is unclear what that entails.

As a reminder, settler violence against Palestinians has been well documented for years, and continues on a weekly or even daily basis. Gantz’s plan to reduce friction does not address the core mechanism by which settlers are permitted to terrorize Palestinians – as detailed by the recent B’Tselem report entitled  “State Business: Israel’s misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence,” which is summarized below.

Incidents of settler terrorism in the past week alone include: 

  • On November 15th, Palestinians were attacked by settlers while attempting to access their land near the dismantled settlement of Homesh in the northern West Bank. Though the vacant site of the Homesh settlement is a closed military zone, settlers have continued to visit the site and maintain an outpost with a yeshiva there (though the IDF has intermittently intervened to clear them out). A group of 15 masked settlers launched a brutal attack on the Palestinians. As a reminder: Homesh is one of four settlements in the northern West Bank that Israel dismantled in 2005 under the Disengagement Law, which primarily removed all Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. After Israel removed settlers from these four sites, the IDF issued military orders barring Palestinians from entering the areas, let alone building in them. At the same time, settlers have regularly entered the areas and even repeatedly built a yeshiva at the Homesh site. Settlers have been openly obsessed with the desire to re-establish Homesh, hosting religious events and protests at the site of Homesh, some of which have been attended by Israeli MKs and politicians. 
  • On November 12th, a group of 12 settlers launched an attack on Palestinian olive harvesters and Israeli activitists near the settlement of Bat Ayn, located south west of Bethlehem. According to one of the Israeli solidarity activists, Gil Marshall, the Israeli IDF was present on the scene earlier in the day, but suddenly left which allowed the settlers an opportunity to attack. Afterwards, the IDF declared the area — a Palestinian olive farm — to be a closed military zone for one months time, which will require Palestinians (and, theoretically, the settlers) to request permission from the IDF in order to access the land – resulting in more land loss for Palestinian olive farmers. The attack resulted in injuries to three Israeli activists – including the prominent solidarity activists Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who wrote about the experience here. The Israeli military reportedly arrested three settlers in connection to the attack.

Basil al-Adraa, a Palestinian journalist for +972 Magazine and community youth organizer in the South Hebron Hills, wrote a new account of the settler terrorism he experienced on November 10th. In a piece entitled, “The soldiers got into their jeeps — and left us with a settler militia,” al-Adraa writes:

Until that moment there were no casualties, and the army was still present in the area. In the darkness of the desert, I could count dozens of settlers. They were holding rifles, batons, and slingshots. They waved their rifles from behind the soldiers’ backs, as if to scare the Palestinians.

Then, suddenly, the soldiers got into their jeeps and left — leaving behind a militia of armed settlers. With the soldiers gone, the settlers advanced in our direction.

From that moment on, everything became blurry. I heard screaming and saw young people trying to block the settlers from advancing to the village with their bodies. Then the gunshots started. It took me several seconds to even realize they were directly firing live rounds in our direction…On the phone, Quamar Mashraqi-Assad, a Palestinian Jerusalem-based lawyer who helps the residents of the area, told me that she was in contact with the army, who were telling her that the soldiers were at Khallet a-Daba’. But it was a lie. A minute later, another young man was hit by settler gunfire. We were completely alone. Only after about 40 minutes of carnage did the army return to the scene. The settlers retreated and continued throwing stones, while the soldiers pushed and cursed the Palestinians…

The attack on Khallet a-Daba’ is only the tip of the iceberg. Residents, activists, and human rights groups have witnessed an alarming increase in settler violence in the West Bank in recent months. Most of these events are either not documented or filmed from a distance for safety reasons. In contrast to the settler pogrom that took place in the village of Mufagara in broad daylight in late September, this time in Khallet a-Daba’, the darkness prevented Palestinians from filming what took place. In the South Hebron Hills, the backing these attacks receive from the army is part of a concerted effort to create a sense of friction in the run-up to the High Court’s decision on the legality of the firing zone, in order to create a “justification” for military presence in the area.”

Settler Participation in Israel’s Mass Surveillance of Palestinians

According to new reporting by the Washington Post, based on testimonies compiled by Breaking the Silence, settlers have been helping the IDF build a facial photo database of West Bank Palestinians. The database serves to buttress the facial recognition capabilities of the Israeli army, as part of its pervasive surveillance arsenal, including a growing network of cameras and smartphones.

As reported by the Washington Post, settlers use a smartphone app called “White Wolf” to scan the identification cards of Palestinians, and the data is then uploaded to the army’s surveillance system. The photos and information gleaned by White Wolf are then added to the IDF’s larger system, called “Blue Wolf,” which “captures photos of Palestinians’ faces and matches them to a database of images so extensive that one former soldier described it as the army’s secret ‘Facebook for Palestinians.’ The phone app flashes in different colors to alert soldiers if a person is to be detained, arrested or left alone.” 

The “Blue Wolf” system is itself a mobile-friendly version of Israel’s even larger database of Palestinian faces and identities, called “Wolf Pack.” Former soliders told The Post that “Wolf Pack…contains profiles of virtually every Palestinian in the West Bank, including photographs of the individuals, their family histories, education and a security rating for each person.”

Breaking the Silence Executive Director Avner Gvaryahu said:

“Whilst surveillance and privacy are at the forefront of the global public discourse, we see here another disgraceful assumption by the Israeli government and military that when it comes to Palestinians, basic human rights are simply irrelevant.”

Roni Pelli of ACRI told The Post:

“While developed countries around the world impose restrictions on photography, facial recognition and surveillance, the situation described [in Hebron] constitutes a severe violation of basic rights, such as the right to privacy, as soldiers are incentivized to collect as many photos of Palestinian men, women and children as possible in a sort of competition… [the Israeli] military must immediately desist.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem Warnings & Predictions on Key East Jerusalem Settlement Crises

In a new report, Terrestrial Jerusalem (TJ)  reviews and analyzes the state-of-play regarding four key settlement issues that are quickly approaching decision points. Those issues and relevant insights from Terrestrial Jerusalem (TJ) are:

  1. Evictions in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan: Though not able to predict the outcome of the Court’s final judgement regarding the Dweik family case, TJ says the judgment can be handed down at any time.
  2. Construction of the Atarot Settlement: In anticipation of a key hearing on December 6th to discuss depositing the plan for public review, Terrestrial Jerusalem warns: “The deposit of the plan for public review marks the beginning of the serious stages of the planning process, turning what has been until now a distant concept into a an operational plan being seriously pursued. There is no room for complacency, and the earlier the Israeli authorities are engaged on this the greater the chances that such a dangerous plan can be stopped.”
  3. Construction of the E-1 Settlement: Ahead of the last and final hearing on E-1 scheduled for December 13th, TJ cautions: “After the hearings, we will be only one decision away from the final approval of the plan, which will basically rest on the Defense Minister’s decision to convene the Higher Planning Council.”
  4. Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah: Following the Palestinians’ choice to reject a Court-authored “compromise,” TJ writes: “Given the court’s pace in hearing the case until now, we believe a verdict is likely to be handed down before year’s end. While anticipating the content of future court rulings is fraught with dangers and uncertainty, it appears more rather than less likely that the Supreme Court will not overrule the rulings of the lower courts, and the eviction orders will stand. There is no further appeal.” 

In conclusion, Terrestrial Jerusalem warns:

“If our analysis and projections are correct, by year’s end or shortly thereafter there will likely be a Supreme Court verdict against the Palestinian families in Silwan, and the sub-Committee of the Higher Planning Board will approve E-1. Thereafter, the evictions can take place at any time, and the only step required for the final statutory approval of E-1 is its ratification by means of the signatures of the Minister of Defense, both technicalities which can be performed within a matter of hours. In the weeks to come, we will likely hear from the senior members of the Bennett government: “don’t worry, we will not evict anyone in Sheikh Jarrah, nor will we build in E-1”. They will be very convincing, because they will likely be sincere. Yet, all it will take is a coalition crisis, a new election, or a terror attack with numerous casualties and the evictions will happen, and E-1 will be approved. The evictions in Sheikh Jarrah can be greenlighted at any time, and all it will take is one or two strokes of the pen – signatures on a dotted line by Defense Minister Benny Gantz – and E-1 will be approved. There will be no trip wire, no advanced warning.”

In a separate – and equally excellent – article dealing with these developments, in addition to several other key political elements (including the pending fate of reopening a U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem), Terrestrial Jerusalem founder Daniel Seidemann writes:

“In the weeks to come, we will likely hear senior members of the Bennett-Lapid government deliver lines such as: “Fear not, we will not evict anyone in Sheikh Jarrah, nor will we build in E-1.” They will be very convincing, but dead wrong. It is enough to have a coalition crisis, a new election, or a terror attack for the government to move forward with its plans. All it will take is two strokes of the pen — signatures on a dotted line by Defense Minister Benny Gantz — and E-1 would be approved, and the expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah can commence. There will be no trip wire, no advanced warning.”

New B’Tselem Report: Settler Violence Accomplishes State’s Goals

In a new report entitled “State Business: Israel’s misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence”, B’Tselem details how systematic and ongoing settler violence is in effect a policy of the State of Israel, and a tool that the State uses to take over more and more land in the West Bank. The report presents five cases of settler violence – of lands in/near the Jordan Valley, the South Hebron Hills, Ramallah, and Nablus –  and land takeover, drawing an alarming picture of how the State of Israel aids and abets settlers in their targeted violence, and then rewards those settlers with control over more land.

In a striking passage, B’Tselem writes:

“From the beginning of 2020 to the end of September 2021, B’Tselem documented 451 settler attacks on Palestinians and on their property – 245 were directed at Palestinian farmers. This figure excludes the Jordan Valley, where violence takes place on a daily basis. Of the 451 attacks recorded, in 27 cases settlers fired live ammunition, 180 included physical assault, 145 included damage to private property, 77 included attacks on homes, and 35 attacks on passing vehicles. 123 cases included damage to trees and crops, and in 59 settlers damaged farming equipment. The presence of Israeli security forces was recorded in 183 of these incidents: In 66 forces were present and did nothing, in 104 they participated in the attack, usually using rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades. In 22 incidents, security forces arrested Palestinians who had been attacked by settlers. In addition, five Palestinians were killed during joint attacks by settlers and soldiers.19 Rather than preventing violent actions against Palestinian farmers, the military has developed a “coordination” system that treats settler violence as a given. This system ostensibly enables Palestinian farmers to access their land, but in fact denies them almost any possibility to do so by limiting their access to a handful of days a year. Even on these days, if settlers violently prevent the farmers from cultivating their land, the military will remove the latter. Settlers, meanwhile, have unfettered access to Palestinian land all year round. Under this system, Palestinian farmers are consigned to partial cultivation of their land that keeps them from maximizing its potential, if they are able to extract anything from the land at all.”

And in conclusion, B’Tselem writes:

“Settler attacks against Palestinians are a strategy employed by the Israeli apartheid regime, which seeks to advance and complete its misappropriation of more and more Palestinian land. As such, settler violence is a form of government policy, permitted and aided by official state authorities with their active participation. The state legitimizes this reality in two complementary ways. It allows settlers to live, farm and graze livestock on land from which Palestinians have been violently ejected, and to that end pays for security, paves roads, provides infrastructure and supports financial enterprises in these outposts through various government ministries. At the same time, it gives settlers free rein to commit violent acts against Palestinians. The military does not confront violent settlers. It does not prevent the attacks, and in some cases, soldiers even participate in them. The Israeli law enforcement system does not take action against settlers who harm Palestinians after the fact and whitewashes the few cases it is called upon to address. “

Ir Amim: Israel’s 2040 Plan for Jerusalem Will Displace More Palestinians

In a new report, entitled “Planned Negligence: How Palestinian Neighborhoods Disappeared from Jerusalem’s Current and Future Urban Planning Policies,” Ir Amim  analyzes how Israel’s “Jerusalem 2040 Strategic Plan” projects the continuation of decades-old policies of deliberate under-development and suppression of urban planning in Palestinian neighborhoods, in favor of the expansion and prosperity of Jewish Israeli neighborhoods. The report looks in detail at three planning policies adopted by Israel – for the benefit of Israeli Jews – in Jerusalem:

  1. The framework agreement between the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Land Authority, which provides funding for 23,000 housing units in Israeli neighborhoods, yet does not include construction in a single Palestinian neighborhood;
  2. The plan’s urban renewal project that outlines a potential for 30,000 more housing units, designated exclusively for Jewish Israeli neighborhoods; and
  3. The light rail densification project, which is estimated to provide an additional 25,000 housing units which by definition will be limited almost entirely to Jewish Israeli neighborhoods (because the current and planned routes of the light rail are either located in or pass almost exclusively through Israeli neighborhoods).

The report concludes that the implementation of the “Jerusalem 2040 Strategic Plan” will result in further displacement of Palestinians from the homes in East Jerusalem. In Ir Amim’s words, Israel’s plan has 

“…essentially sentenced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to the ever-worsening planning chokehold. The Israel 2040 Strategic Plan will drastically exacerbate the crisis beyond the already-astronomical cost that planning discrimination currently exacts from East Jerusalem’s residents.”

In conclusion, Ir Amim writes:

“Ongoing planning discrimination is creating a crippling housing crisis that is violating East Jerusalem residents’ basic right to a home, and is displacing them from the city. Those who are forced to relocate away from Jerusalem will face growing environmental problems, remain plagued by housing shortages and issues of inadequate infrastructure that continue to worsen. The government’s new planning policy is transforming the existing planning discrimination against East Jerusalem residents into a pre-determined, quasi-professional policy quagmire which will shape the planning landscape for decades to come. There is an essential and urgent need to act imminently to amend these government decisions to include tailored solutions for Palestinian neighborhoods and to provide for the housing needs of East Jerusalem residents.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “Israeli Defense Minister’s New Settlement Aide Isn’t a Settler, in First Since 2015” (Haaretz)
  2. “Sheikh Jarrah families ‘determined’ despite lingering uncertainty” (Al Jazeera)
  3. “EU-funded Palestinian school faces Israeli demolition” (Al Jazeera)
  4. “We don’t just live through one home demolition — we live through them all” (+972 Magazine)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

May 22, 2020

  1. New Israeli Government Sworn In: Gantz & Netanyahu Continue to Back Annexation & the Trump Plan
  2. New Israeli Government Sworn In: The Cast of Ministers Relevant to Settlements/Annexation
  3. Settler Groups in Public Disagreement Over Trump Plan
  4. ICYMI: Sec. State Pompeo Went to Israel Last Week
  5. Israel Expropriates Land, Green Lights Building Permits for “Humanitarian Access” to Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque
  6. Israeli Demolitions in al-Walajah, Displacing Palestinians to Make Way for New Israeli Park
  7. High Court Rejects Regulation Incentivizing Artists Performing in Settlements
  8. Violence on the Rise
  9. Breaking the Silence Breaks Down What Annexation Will Mean on the Ground
  10. Al-Haq Report: Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem Since 1948
  11. B’Tselem Report: Jewish Supremacy on Display in Issawiya
  12. Human Rights Watch Report: Israeli Land Policies Strangle Palestinian Communities in Israel
  13. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)


New Israeli Government Sworn In: Gantz & Netanyahu Continue to Back Annexation & the Trump Plan

The new Israeli government was sworn in on Sunday, May 17th. The message from the government’s leaders – Netanyahu and Gantz – remains that they are firmly and unequivocally behind the plan to advance annexation, in accordance with the Trump Plan.

In his inaugural address, Prime Minister Netanyahu said:

“The time has come to apply sovereignty to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. This won’t distance peace, it will bring it closer. The truth is — and everybody knows it — that the hundreds of thousands of settlers living in Judea and Samaria will remain there, no matter what arrangement is reached. The only reason the whole issue of sovereignty is on the agenda is because I promoted it personally for the last three years, both overtly and covertly.”

In his inaugural address, Alternate (and, theoretically, future) Prime Minister Benny Gantz said:

“Alongside this and for its sake, we will maintain our strength, to seize regional opportunities in general, and to advance the US government and US President Trump’s peace plan and everything it contains.”

New Israeli Government Sworn In: The Cast of Ministers Relevant to Settlements/Annexation

In addition to Netanyahu and Gantz, key figures in the new government’s drive for annexation will likely be:

  • Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who is Israel’s “Settlements Minister.” This is a new cabinet position invented by Netanyahu and Gantz. Hotovely will serve in this role for the first nine months of the government and then be replaced by Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) for the second nine months (of course, if Israel annexes all the settlements, this role either won’t need to exist anymore or its mandate will have to change). It is unclear if this ministry will take power away from the Defense Ministry (and its Civil Administration), which has typically been the central address for managing most issues related to the settlements.
  • Gilad Erdan (Likud), who is Israel’s new Ambassador to both the United Nations and the United States. Erdan will hold both offices simultaneously for the first nine months of the government. Shortly following his swearing in, Erdan reiterated his well-established support for annexation, saying he believes Israel has a “biblical right” to the land. 
  • Avi Nissenkorn (Blue & White) who is Israel’s new Justice Minister. Israel’s Justice Minister has historically played an important role in issuing legal opinions which provide Israel a domestic legal rationale for land seizures and settlement activities. The Justice Ministry is also a key because it has been (at least in recent years) increasingly oppositional to the role of the Israeli Supreme Court. Netanyahu has directly confronted the Supreme Court, and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked accused the Court of (among other things) being “overly concerned” with Palestinian rights.
  • Gabi Ashkenazi (Blue & White), who is Israel’s new Foreign Minister, and who will theoretically take over the job of Defense Minister during the second nine months of the government (assuming Gantz rotates over to become Prime Minister). Ashkenazi has made clear his support for annexation, even while giving lip service to concerns about relations with allies and in the region. On May 18th he, said: “We’re facing significant regional opportunities, primarily President [Donald] Trump’s peace initiative. I consider this plan a significant milestone. President Trump presented us with a historic opportunity to shape the future of the State of Israel and its boundaries for decades to come…The plan will be advanced responsibly, with full coordination with the United States and maintaining all of the State of Israel’s peace agreements and strategic interests.” 

Key Government Figures Outside of the Coalition

  • Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina Party). Relegated to the opposition, Bennett and company have come out swinging – taking shots at Netanyahu for allegedly betraying right wing values and vowing to fight tooth and nail against the Trump Plan. Bennett has charged that Netanyahu is making a fatal mistake by supporting the Trump Plan because it would mean that Israel has acknowledged and accepted the concept of a Palestinian state (notwithstanding that, under the Trump Plan, what is available to the Palestinians does not meet even the most modest definition of a state). Bennett said that recognitionis a point of no return. One can’t recognize and then un-recognize Palestinian statehood. It’s like un-cooking scrambled eggs…I will oppose anything that allows for acceptance or recognition of a Palestinian state.”

Settler Groups in Public Disagreement Over Trump Plan

Settler leaders form a key interest group outside of the central government (though many settler leaders serve on municipal councils) — a group that will play a key role in the deliberations around annexation. And with the swearing in of the new government that embraces the Trump Plan, disagreements among settler leaders are beginning to become more clear.

Like the Yamina Party, the official settler leadership body – known as the Yesha Council – passed a resolution on May 21st criticizing several aspects of the Trump Plan, without stating its outright opposition to it. While acknowledging it as a “positive change in U.S. policy towards settlements,” the resolution goes on to:

  • Assert that annexation does not require American approval;
  • Reject recognition of – or agreement to recognize in the future – a Palestinian state;
  • Reject any construction freeze in any of the settlements and outposts;
  • Reject the creation of enclaves.

Following the passage of the resolution, Yesha Council chairman David Elhayani said:

“For years, the Yesha Council has been working to apply sovereignty [in the West Bank], and we’ve gone from a situation in which almost no one talked about the subject or was aware of it to the unprecedented situation where the prime minister and the US president discuss an agreement that includes sovereignty. However, we will not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel. If the result of the [Trump] agreement is to establish a terror state in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), include the creation of isolated enclaves and a freeze on construction, we are ready to give up sovereignty, despite all the hard work and resources we have invested in the issue in recent years.”

In opposition to the Yesha council’s statement, a group of settler mayors – representing major settlements like Efrat and Ariel, as well as settlements that, due to their population, have extra weight politically (like Alfei Menashe, which is home to many retired senior IDF officers) — organized their own statement calling for support of the Trump Plan. The statement – led by Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi – was signed by the mayor/chairmen of Ariel, Megilot, Oranit, Alfei Menashe, Elkana, and Har Adar.

ICYMI: Sec. State Pompeo Went to Israel Last Week 

On Wednesday, May 13th, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to Israel for an 8-hour visit to meet with leaders of the new Israeli government (which was set to be sworn in the next day, though that was delayed until Sunday the 17th). In response to an unconvincing statement by the State Department concerning the trip’s purpose – which was officially about coordination on fighting COVID-19 and Iran –  an avalanche of speculative media coverage preceded and trailed Pompeo’s trip, trying to suss out what the trip was truly about, with many focusing on annexation or confronting Israel’s growing ties to China. In response, a State Department official who travelled with Pompeo told the press after Pompeo departed: “[we can] dispel the notion that we flew halfway around the world to talk about annexation…that was not the purpose of the trip…This wasn’t the top line.”

Media speculation that annexation was on Pompeo’s agenda was fueled by an interview Pompeo gave to Israel Hayom one day prior to his trip. When asked directly by a reporter if he planned to ask Israel to delay annexation, Pompeo declined to answer but reiterated his prior comments stressing that annexation is an Israeli decision. And then, on the day that Pompeo arrived in Israel, an anonymous “senior U.S. official” told Israel’s Channel 13 news that the U.S. had passed a message to Israeli leaders that annexation does not have to happen on July 1st.

In a press conference following their meeting, Pompeo appeared to again suggesting that Israel could (or should) delay annexation. Appearing alongside Netanyahu, Pompeo said (to Bibi):

“We’re now some months on from the day that you came to Washington when President Trump announced that Vision for Peace when you were there. There remains work yet to do, and we need to make progress on that. I’m looking forward to it.”

Not long after, Pompeo told the press:

“We spoke of ways to advance the peace plan, Trump’s peace plan.”

Reading into these comments, the New York Times ran pieces suggesting that Pompeo told Netanyahu that the U.S. wants him to delay annexation. In the article, Crisis Group analyst Ofer Zalzberg suggested that Pompeo sought to re-establish a role for Benny Gantz in the government’s consideration of annexation (after Gantz forfeit such a role as part of the coalition deal). Adding to the chatter around delay, Channel 13 News in Israel even reported that Gantz and Ashkenazi voiced concerns about annexation during their meeting with Pompeo, though both Gantz and Ashkenzi have continued to publicly promote the plan (see section above).

Israel Expropriates Land, Green Lights Building Permits for “Humanitarian Access” to Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque

On May 13th, the IDF Commander issued an expropriation order to take control of an area outside of Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs/Ibrahimi Mosque in order to build an elevator and wheelchair ramp leading to the site. The land is owned by the Islamic Waqf and is under the municipal jurisdiction of the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality, according to multiple agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinians concerning the governance of the site. Israel’s expropriation order violates the terms of the Hebron Protocols.

Four days later, on May 17th, the Israeli Civil Administration deposited for public review plans for the project, starting the clock on a 60-day period during which the public can submit objections to the plan.

Emek Shaveh writes:

The project is presented as a response to a humanitarian need but the settlers and the government are in fact creating a precedent of expropriation from the Waqf and construction at a shared holy site. Moreover, according to the Oslo Accords, the tomb comes under the auspices of the Hebron Municipality who have not consented to the plan.”

Palestinian Authority Minister for the Civilian Affairs Hussein al-Shiekh tweeted in response:

“today the so-called Israeli Minister of Defense signed a decision to confiscate [and] annex parts of the Ibrahimi campus in Hebron, which is a violation of the Hebron protocol, an end of the agreement signed between the PLO and Israel [and] a continuation of the #annexation project in the [West Bank and] #Jerusalem”

Israeli Demolitions in al-Walajah, Displacing Palestinians to Make Way for New Israeli Park

On May 18, Israeli forces demolished six structures (three homes and three agricultural buildings) in the Palestinian village of al-Walajah, in an area of the village that is within the expanded Israeli municipal borders of Jerusalem and also inside ofthe Nahal Rephaim National Park. Israel established the park in 2013 on al-Walajah’s land. Ir Amim reports that the demolitions are part of the Israeli government’s plans to open a new visitors center in the park for Israelis in the near future.

The demolitions were carried out by Israeli authorities, despite circumstances that should have required them to be delayed — including the fact that the Palestinian homeowners were unaware that demolition orders had been issued against their property. Moreover, on March 18th the Israeli Justice Ministry declared that residential demolitions would be suspended during the coronavirus crisis (and such has been the case for the past 2 months in East Jerusalem). Further, Israel customarily pauses demolition orders during the month of Ramadan (which is about to end). 

For decades, the Israeli government has carried out a multi-prong effort to push Palestinians off of their land in al-Walajah. This has included demolition campaigns, construction of the separation barrier along a route that encircles the village and cuts residents off from their land, refusal to grant building permits, and the declaration of state parks over lands on which Palestinians have lived for generations. 

High Court Rejects Regulation Incentivizing Artists Performing in Settlements

On May 13th, the Israeli High Court of Justice overturned a controversial government regulation which conditioned the amount of federal funding for arts and cultural institutions (orchestras, theaters, choirs, etc) on their willingness to perform in West Bank settlements. The program was put in place by former Culture Minister Miri Regev. It incentivized arts institutions to perform in the settlements (an act of normalization and de facto annexation) by offering a 10% bonus to cultural groups which perform in the settlements, while reducing grants by 33% for groups unwilling to perform in the settlements.

The Court’s ruling came in response to a 2016 petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI); the petition claimed the regulation violated the right to freedom of expression and conscience.

Justice Hanan Melcer said:

“Refraining from appearing in a controversial region constitutes an expression of opinion and such an expression merits protection. The right to freedom of expression obligates the authorities not to discriminate between people or institutions on the basis of their views and requires them to remain neutral.”

For a fantastic re-telling of Miri Regev’s controversial and dramatic tenure as Culture Minister, see this article by Al-Monitor. In the new unity government, Regev was sworn in to serve as Israel’s Minister of Transportation for the first nine months, and will then serve as Israel Foreign Minister. Regev will be a member of the Israeli security cabinet for the entire duration of the government (18 months).

Violence on the Rise

On the evening of May 21st, settlers from the radical Yitzhar settlement – homebase of the violent “Hilltop Youth” – instigated clashes with Palestinians from the nearby village of Hawwara. The settlers were throwing rocks at Palestinian vehicles along the main road to the village, and Palestinians then gathered and responded by throwing rocks at the settlers. Israeli police arrived to disperse the crowd, directing stun gun fire at the Palestinians.

The head of the Hawwara village council told Haaretz that Palestinian property, including cars and store fronts, were damaged by the settlers.

The incident follows an apparent Palestinian-perpetrated attack (or attempted attack) on Israeli forces near Hawwara earlier this week. Many analysts are now noting the persistent occurrence of violent clashes throughout the WEst Bank, including the death of an Israeli soldier during an IDF night raid in Jenin, the death of a Palestinian youth in Hebron also during a nighttime raid by the IDF, an apparent car-ramming attack, and now the events this week.

Breaking the Silence Breaks Down What Annexation Will Mean on the Ground

In a policy paper, Breaking the Silence co-founder Yehuda Shaul answers several key questions about what annexation might look like, and how the legal structure of Israel’s control over Palestinian life in the West Bank will be transformed. Read the full paper here.

Shaul explains that following annexation:

  • Planning and construction for the settlements will no longer be regulated by the Defense Ministry, where political considerations at times intervened to stop controversial settlement plans. When settlement construction comes under Israel’s domestic bureaucratic procedures, plans for expansion of settlements are expected to move more quickly.
  • The state of Israel will no longer have an existing legal basis for removing settlers from the West Bank (in the hypothetical scenario in which the state should choose to do so). Since 1948, the state has said (at least formally) that the settlements are “temporary” and that they fulfill a “military need.” When Israel evacuated its Gaza settlements, it did so pursuant to a military order saying that the settlements no longer serve a military need, and can be removed. The Court was then able to violate the civil rights Israel affords to its settlers in order to carry out the evacuation. Following annexation, the settlements will no longer be connected to any “military need” and will certainly no longer be held as a “temporary” endeavor, removing power from the government to carry out evacuations should it so choose.
  • Settler municipal bodies will enjoy increased autonomy and power over Palestinians living in annexed land. This means that Palestinians could be paying taxes to the settler bodies, and relying on their benevolence for construction planning, building permits, and other services, etc. Palestinians would likely enjoy no representation in those municipal bodies, which would also have the authority to enforce demolition orders against Palestinians.
  • The bureaucratic process of combining two regimes (the Israeli government and the Israeli military command) to govern the newly annexed territory will take a lot of legislation and it will require Israel to form a complex and massive structure to police the borders of Israeli territory. 
  • The Absentee Property’s Law and declarations of newly annexed land for “public use” will be the key legal tools Israel uses to take privately owned Palestinian land on a massive scale.

The paper also establishes that annexation of West Bank land will mean apartheid. Annexation under the Trump Plan would leave Palestinians living in fragmented enclaves within the Israeli state, without any rights in Israel (i.e. Apartheid). Even if Israel grants some rights to the subset of Palestinians living in the territory annexed to Israel (the report details 5 scenarios Israel might consider), that does not change the overall legal status of the new regime as an apartheid system, where people are granted or not granted rights primarily based on ethnicity.  

Al-Haq Report: Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem Since 1948

In a new report, entitled “Annexing A City: Israel’s Illegal Measures to Annex Jerusalem Since 1948,” Al-Haq examines Israel’s annexation of West Jerusalem in 1948 and East Jerusalem in 1967, and the many Israeli policies which have sought to shore up those annexations in the intervening years.

Al-Haq writes:

“Indeed, Israel’s actions towards the city, from beginning to move its Government ministries to West Jerusalem in 1949, to redrawing the municipal boundaries of the city in 1967, have all been aimed at establishing irreversible facts on the ground before concrete action is taken by the international community. Accordingly, Israel’s policies and practices imposed today in occupied East Jerusalem, ranging from residency revocations to house demolitions, form part of a continuing effort to displace and dispossess Palestinians in Jerusalem, thereby feeding into Israel’s calculated efforts to alter the legal status, character, and demographic composition of the city, in violation of its protected status under international law.”

B’Tselem Report: Jewish Supremacy on Display in Issawiya

In a new report, entitled “This is Jerusalem: Violence and Dispossession in al- ‘Esawiyah,” B’Tselem describes life in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya (aka al-‘Esawiyah). In it, B’Tselem analyzes how Israeli policies have aimed and succeeded at dispossessing Palestinians in Issawiya through deliberate neglect, lack of planning, and an ongoing police campaign in the neighborhood aimed at harassing residents. 

B’Tselem writes:

“Since annexing East Jerusalem, Israel has viewed the Palestinians who live there as an unwanted addition. The policy it implements in these neighborhoods – which is particularly blatant in al-‘Esawiyah – is aimed at incessantly pressuring the residents. In the short term, this is meant to oppress Palestinians in the city, control them and keep them poor, underprivileged and in a state of constant anxiety. Given Israel’s declared intention to ensure a Jewish demographic supremacy in Jerusalem, the long-term goal of this cruel policy appears to be to drive Palestinians to breaking point, so that they “choose” to desert their homes and leave the city. This conduct clearly demonstrates the demographic considerations that guide Israel’s actions: preferring Jewish citizens over unwanted Palestinian residents. Accordingly, the Israeli authorities incessantly harass the entire Palestinian population of Jerusalem, including the blatant example reviewed in this report: the 22,000 people who live in al-‘Esawiyah. This abuse, which is the result of an ongoing policy led by all Israeli governments since 1967, lays bare Israel’s priorities in the only part of the West Bank it has – as yet – taken the trouble to formally annex: no equality, no rights, and not even reasonable municipal services. Instead, state authorities use their power in the annexed territory to cement the superiority of one group over another.”

Human Rights Watch Report: Israeli Land Policies Strangle Palestinian Communities in Israel

In a new report – entitled “Israel: Discriminatory Land Policies Hem in Palestinians” Human Rights Watch documents how policies which have Israel’s occupation policy extened beyond the occupied territories – and also serve to tighly constrict the growth and development of Palestinian cities inside of Israeli borders. 

Eric Goldstein, acting Middle East executive director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement:

“Israeli policy on both sides of the Green Line restricts Palestinians to dense population centers while maximizing the land available for Jewish communities. These practices are well-known when it comes to the occupied West Bank, but Israeli authorities are also enforcing discriminatory land practices inside Israel.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “Annexation is not just about stealing land — it’s about expelling Palestinians“ (+972 Magazine)
  2. “Land grab and deportation: A leading Israeli lawyer’s annexation prediction” (Middle East Eye)
  3. “Jerusalem Day Obscures The Reality of Modern Jerusalem” (Daniel Seidemann for T’ruah)
  4. “What’s the Real Purpose of Israel’s Annexation Plan?” (Hagai El-Ad in Haaretz)
  5. “For Medicinal Purposes The Israeli Military Sector and the Coronavirus Crisis” (Who Profits)
  6. “EU Countries Mull Slapping Sanctions on Israel to Deter West Bank Annexation” (Haaretz)
  7. “Israel expands settlement projects around Hebron’s mosque” (Al-Monitor)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 14, 2019

  1. Court Rules in Favor of Israeli Settler Group, Against Greek Orthodox Church, un Battle Over 3 Claiming Old City Properties
  2. Israel Gave German Construction Giant More Palestinian Land for Quarrying
  3. Settlers Retaliate Against Palestinians for Israel’s (Rare) Demolition of Outpost Buildings
  4. IDF Cuts Budget for Civilian Security Guards in Settlements
  5. New International Crisis Group Report on Israel’s Ongoing Annexation of East Jerusalem
  6. Shadowy Group Wants to Go After All Companies Not Currently Operating in the Settlements – Starting with McDonald’s
  7. European Court of Justice Issues Opinion Upholding EU Differentiation Policy
  8. Anger [& Joy] at U.S. Ambassador Reiterating Support for Israeli Annexation of West Bank Land
  9. Bonus Reads

Questions or comments? Contact Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.


Court Rules in Favor of Israeli Settler Group, Against Greek Orthodox Church, un Battle Over 3 Claiming Old City Properties

Ending a nearly 16-year legal battle, on June 11th the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the  settler group Ateret Cohanim has legal rights to three prized properties in strategic locations in the Old City of Jerusalem, including two famous hotels currently operated by Palestinians. Until now, the properties were owned by the Greek Orthodox Church, which had been fighting to invalidate the transactions at the root of the settlers’ claim to them.

As a reminder, Ateret Cohanim is a radical settler organization working to increase the presence of Israeli Jews living inside Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem – including in the Old City. Ateret Cohanim, along with its compatriots in the Elad settler group, is also leading efforts to take over land and evict Palestinians from their homes in the Silwan neighborhood.

The properties awarded to Ateret Cohanim by the Israeli High Court are:

  1. The Petra Hotel, a four-story building near the Jaffa Gate, one of the key entrances to the Old City. Under the ruling, Ateret Cohanim has a valid 99-year lease with an option for an additional 99 years afterwards. The price Ateret Cohanim paid in the transaction the Church said was improper? A meager $500,000, far below market value.

  2. The Imperial Hotel, located directly across the street from the Petra Hotel – meaning that a radical Israeli settler group now controls a substantial amount of land at a key entrance to the Old City (the Jaffa Gate). The Imperial Hotel is a two-story building. Ateret Cohanim’s lease for the Imperial Hotel is also for 99-years with an option for 99 more. The price paid in, again, a transaction the Church argued was improper and invalid? $1.25 million  – far higher than the price paid for the Petra Hotel but still well below the fair market value of the property.

  3. Beit Amziya, a building in the Bab a-Kuta neighborhood of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.  Ateret Cohanim paid $55,000 for this property, again, far below fair market value.

The legal battle over the properties dates back to 2004, when the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate agreed to sell the three properties to a foreign real estate company under three separate contracts. It did so not knowing that the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim was behind the transaction. News of the sales made headlines in early 2005.

Upon the revelation that Ateret Cohanim was the real buyer, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate was deeply embarrassed and immediately sought to retain control of the properties. The Patriarchate alleged that the transactions involved corruption and bribery, arguing that the legal documents had been signed without permission by a finance employee. Dismissing the church’s arguments, this week the Supreme Court upheld prior rulings that the signatures on the lease documents were valid, with the finance employee acting as a legal proxy of the Patriarchate.

The Greek Orthodox Church has received significant blowback from the sale of these properties. In January 2018, Palestinians protested in Bethlehem in an attempt to block the arrival of Patriarch Theophilos III for Christmas celebrations.

In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, multi-denominational Christian leaders in Jerusalem issued a rare joint statement criticizing the Court’s action. The statement says:

“The actions of this radical group do not only mean an assault on the property rights of the Greek Orthodox Church, but an assault on the status quo protections for all Christians in this holy city of Jerusalem and deeply threatens the Christian presence in our beloved Holy Land. An attempt to undermine the presence of one church here undermines all the churches and the wider Christian community around the world. We reaffirm our belief that a vibrant Christian community is an essential element in the preservation of Jerusalem’s historically diverse society and a prerequisite for peace in this city; Jerusalem must maintain its multicultural and multi-religious mosaic character, being home to the three monotheistic religions.”

Israel Gave German Construction Giant More Palestinian Land for Quarrying

Kerem Navot has produced government documents showing that in February 2019 the Israeli Civil Administration – the arm of the IDF that is effectively the sovereign ruler over the West Bank – signed over rights to 25 acres of Palestinian land to the German construction company HeidelbergCement. The purpose? To expand the Nahal Raba quarry, located on 145 acres of Palestinian land near the Elkana settlement in the West Bank.

HeidelbergCement is the world’s largest cement producer and has a global footprint. In a comprehensive brief, the Israeli organization Who Profits details the situation of the Nahal Raba quarry and the larger context of Israel’s illegal exploitation of natural resources in the West Bank:

“The Nahal Raba quarry is a 600 Dunam aggregate quarry, owned and operated by Hanson Israel [which HeidelbergCement owns]. The quarry is located in Area C of the West Bank and is licensed by the Israeli Civil Administration. The adjacent Palestinian village of Alzawiyah owns the Palestinian land on which the quarry is situated. This land was taken by Israel’s Civil Administration after declaring it to be state land, despite the fact that it was privately owned by the Palestinian villagers in the adjacent town of Al-Zawiyah. As mentioned by Human Rights Watch in its recent report, Occupation Inc., in 2004 Israel built the separation wall in the area to encompass the quarry from the east, unlawfully diverting the route of the wall into occupied territory beyond the pre-1967 armistice line. Today, the quarry is enclaved into Israeli territory, while the separation wall separates the village of Zawiyah and its rightful owners from their land and quarry. Article 55 of the Hague Regulations (1907) establishes that ‘the occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary’ of the natural resources of the occupied territory, and therefore it is prohibited from exploiting them for commercial purposes. Moreover, Article 43 of the Hague Regulations has been interpreted as obliging the occupying State to exercise its powers for the benefit of the residents of the occupied area.”

In 2009, the Israeli NGO Yesh Din submitted a High Court petition demanding that Israel end all mining and quarrying activities in the West Bank, observing that the activity constitutes a brutal economic exploitation of occupied territory for Israel’s exclusive economic interests. In December 2011, the High Court rejected the petition, giving permission for the continuation and expansion of Israel-regulated quarrying in the West Bank. Yesh Din’s 2017 report, “The Great Drain: Israeli Quarries in the West Bank,” provides a comprehensive accounting of the damage imposed on Palestinians by quarrying activities.

Settlers Retaliate Against Palestinians for Israel’s (Rare) Demolition of Outpost Buildings

Palestinians in the Einabus village woke up on June 13th to find the words “Price tag [for the] Yitzhar evacuation” spray painted on the town mosque and adjacent buildings, and several car tires were slashed. The tagged phrase suggest the settlers have taken revenge on the Palestinian village in respose to these demolition of illegally built settlement structures near the radical Yitzhar settlement by Israeli security foces last week.

Following documentation of the damage by Yesh Din, the IDF announced it had opened an investigation into the incident.

This price tag attack is just the latest in a string of violent attacks by settlers on Palestinian villages in the Nablus region. Over the past few weeks, settlers have set several fields on fire and were caught on video hurling stones at Palestinian school, homes, and cars.

IDF Cuts Budget for Civilian Security Guards in Settlements

Ynet reports that the IDF Central Command has informed settlements that budgetary constraints are forcing it to reduce the number of  civilian guards working in several settlements across the West Bank. The reductions will see eight security outposts eliminated completely, including posts in the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron. A security officer from Kiryat Arba said in response: “This is abandonment of human life, and the Defense Ministry must come to its senses as soon as possible,”

The IDF said that:

“It’s clear to everyone the reduction in the number of guards in not ideal, but – all things considered – it’s necessary.”

New International Crisis Group Report on Israel’s Ongoing Annexation of East Jerusalem

In a new report, the Crisis Group provides a comprehensive overview of Israeli settlement and annexation policies affecting East Jerusalem, starting with Israeli actions in the immediate aftermath of 1967 through to present day. The report, entitled “Reversing Israeli’s Deepening Annexation of Occupation,” calls on the international community to stop Israel’s creeping annexation of East Jerusalem and reverse decades of intentional neglect designed to push Palestinians out of East Jerusalem and adjacent areas.

Shadowy Group Wants to Go After All Companies Not Currently Operating in the Settlements – Starting with McDonald’s

Following up on FMEP reporting last week, Haaretz has new details on the organization behind a new drive to ban McDonald’s from participating in the Israeli government’s tender process — because McDonald’s doesn’t operate in any Israeli settlements.

The group, named “Forum of Disabled IDF Veterans for Israel’s Security,” is not registered in Israel as a charitable organization. It thus has the luxury of operating in near total secrecy – not required to disclose who is behind the effort or funding it.

In a statement, the group made its ambitions clear:

“We want every company that isn’t interested in opening branches over the Green Line to be prevented from competing on these tenders. We’ll reach everyone.”

Sources told Haaretz that the group is made up of only a handful of activists, all of whom are disabled veterans of the IDF, and works primarily in cooperation with larger pro-settlement, pro-annexation groups like Im Tirtzu and Ad Kan. The group has hired Rosenbaum Communications to steer the campaign against McDonald’s, though the funding source for the project is unknown.

European Court of Justice Issues Opinion Upholding EU Differentiation Policy

On June 13th, an advocate general for the European Court of Justice (the top court for the EU) issued a legal opinion holding that products made in the Israeli settlements must be clearly labeled as such. The ruling upholds the enforcement of European Union’s legal obligations with regard to the settlements (a policy known as differentiation). The labelling requirements, as required by EU law, necessarily distinguish between sovereign Israeli territory and Isareli settlements built illegally in the occupied territories.

The  new legal opinion, which is not binding but nonetheless sets the tone for rulings to come, was issued in response to a petition filed by Psagot Winery, located in the Psagot settlement, which argues that French labelling laws discriminate against its products by requiring them to specify the origin of their wine. Rejecting that argument the advocate general stressed that EU law requires labelling products based on their true origin in order to give customers the necessary information to make informed purchasing decisions.

Psagot Winery is part of a broad global effort to blur the legal context around Israeli settlements, pushing nations to treat Israeli settlements as indistinguishable from sovereign Isareli territory.

Anger [& Joy] at U.S. Ambassador Reiterating Support for Israeli Annexation of West Bank Land

Coming quickly on the heels of Jared Kushner’s disastrous interview with Axios, Ambassador David Friedman attracted even more outrage over his recent interview with the New York Times in which Friedman reiterated his support for Israeli annexation of land in the West Bank (a position he has held, clearly, since long before becoming ambassador). The interview sparked a barrage of media coverage, worldwide concern about the possibility of unilateral Israeli annexation of its settlements, glee among pro-annexationist lawmakers in Israel, and indignant rationalizing by American Greater Israel apologists like Alan Dershowitz.

Notably, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu – who in the waning days of his April election promised to extend Israeli sovereignty over the settlements – has not commented on Friedman’s statement. Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer observed:

“The easiest way for Netanyahu to counter the settlers’ demands while keeping them in his coalition was to complain about pressure from the Americans. That was his answer every time he was asked why Israel wasn’t building more settlements or evicting more Palestinians. Friedman has taken away Netanyahu’s excuse. It is certainly no coincidence that Netanyahu — usually so quick to praise the slightest gesture coming from the Trump administration — has yet to say a word publicly about the interview. Friedman has done Netanyahu no favors. In less than 100 days — assuming the right wing/religious bloc wins another majority in 2019’s second election, which is almost a certainty — Netanyahu will be more vulnerable than ever.”

Bonus Reads

  1. “A high-tech facelift takes the sting out of an Israeli checkpoint — but not out of the occupation” (Washington Post)

  2. “The Fate of the Palestinians” (LobeLog)

  3. “WATCH: What occupation looks like in the Jordan Valley” (+972 Mag)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 7, 2019

  1. Visualizing 52 Years of Occupation and Settlement Growth
  2. Settler-Backed Jerusalem Cable Car Project Advances, Despite Objections from Public & Experts
  3. One Spring Tells the Tale of How Israel Settlement Councils Succeed in Taking Over More and More Palestinian Land
  4. Netanyahu Appoints Pro-Annexation Settler Leader as Key Settlement Advisor
  5. McDonalds: Either Open in Settlements or Face Sanctions Under Anti-Boycott Law
  6. Bonus Reads

Questions or comments? Contact Kristin McCarthy, kmccarthy@fmep.org.


Visualizing 52 Years of Occupation and Settlement Growth

On the 52nd anniversary of the Israeli occupation, the human rights group B’Tselem published a remarkable interactive visualization of the devastating impact that Israel’s occupation policies have had on contiguity of Palestinian space in the West Bank and Gaza. Along with the portal, entitled “Conquer & Divide: The Shattering of Palestinian Space,”B’Tselem writes:

“Ever since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it has marshaled all its legislative, legal, planning, funding and defense authorities in order to fragment Palestinian space, dividing it into dozens of separate sections, which are easier to rule and exploit, and in order to break up Palestinian social and spatial fabric: In the West Bank, Israel minimized Palestinian presence, condensing it into dozens of densely populated and unconnected enclaves, while exploiting the majority of West Bank resources for its own benefit. In addition, Israel annexed thousands of hectares of West Bank land, which it then placed within Jerusalem’s municipal borders. In the Gaza Strip, nearly two million Palestinians are essentially imprisoned on a small bit of land in appalling conditions, due to the Israeli policy of cutting off Gaza from the rest of the world, including from the West Bank. This interactive map follows a timeline illustrating the implementation of the various measures Israel has implemented to achieve this reality.”

Settler-Backed Jerusalem Cable Car Project Advances, Despite Objections from Public & Experts

On Monday June 3, 2019 the Israeli government’s National Infrastructure Committee (NIC) elected to ignore all public objections submitted against the settler-backed plan for a cable car in Jerusalem, approving the plan and paving the way for it to be submitted for final approval by the government.

Following the NIC’s decision, the Israel NGO Emek Shaveh asked the Israeli Attorney General to postpone a government discussion on the plan until after the elections, citing concerns about a transitional government exercising power – concerns backed by Israeli Supreme Court precedent.

As FMEP has previously covered, the Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative of the Elad settler organization (which is building a massive tourism center – the Kedem Center, which will be a stop along the cable car’s route – in the Silwan neighborhood). The cable car project is intended to further entrench and advance settler activities and tourism sites inside Silwan, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there.

One of the many (rejected) complaints filed against the cable car project was submitted by Emek Shaveh. Signed by Israeli intellectuals and hundreds of residents, it expressed deep concern regarding the irreparable damage that the construction of a cable car will wreak on the historic archeological landscape and environment surrounding the Old City and the harm it will do to the residents of Silwan. In addition, the objection argued that, while marketed as a “solution” to transportation needs around the Old City, the cable car plan has nothing to do with actual transportation needs, but rather is designed to implement the settlers’ agenda in the area. Emek Shaveh writes:

“Besides destroying the view of the Ben Hinnom Valley and the Old City walls along its planned route, the cable car is a political project intended to strengthen the Elad Foundation’s hold on Silwan and is central to development plans by the Israeli government and settler organizations for East Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann tweeted in response to the project’s advancement:

“This crass disney-fication is a crime against Jerusalem, regardless of politics. It’s also part of the settler scheme to turn Silwan into a pseudo-biblical theme park.”

And in a piece in The Forward, entitled “Israel Is Using Archeology To Erase Non-Jewish History,” two experts at Emek Shaveh write:

“The exploitation of archaeology in Jerusalem has been spearheaded by the Elad Foundation, a group of settlers turned archaeology entrepreneurs, who are using ancient sites to take over land and shape the historical narrative. Elad, which emerged 30 years ago with a mission to settle Jews in Palestinian homes in the neighborhood of Silwan, manages the popular archaeological park, the City of David. Visitors to the site are treated to a heavily biblical narrative where discoveries that resonate with the story of King David or the Kingdom of Judea are highlighted. The fact the archaeologists dispute the evidence of a kingdom in the 10th century BCE often goes unmentioned. Furthermore, not many of the half a million people who visit the park annually know about life in the Palestinian neighborhood since Elad arrived on the scene. They will probably never hear about how Elad took over 75 homes in the neighborhood, or closed off virtually the last of the public areas used by the residents and annexed it to the archaeological park. With an annual budget of approximately 100 million shekels, the Elad Foundation now commands several excavation projects in the City of David, including tunnels along an ancient Roman street, which it is marketing as a Second Temple era pilgrims’ route to the Temple. It has recently branched out to establish new projects within the Old City and in other areas throughout the Historic Basin. But Elad couldn’t have done it on their own. If at first they were greeted with mistrust by the authorities in the 1990s, today they have an open door to many government agencies and ministries. From the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is in charge of most of the excavations at the City of David, and the Nature and Parks Authority, which subcontracted Elad to run the site, to the minister of tourism, who is aggressively advancing a cable car to link West Jerusalem to the City of David, to the mayor of Jerusalem, the government and all the relevant agencies are committed to the project of shaping a large tourist zone dedicated to the First and Second Temple periods.”

One Spring Tells the Tale of How Israel Settlement Councils Succeed in Taking Over More and More Palestinian Land

Deep in northern West Bank, near the settlement of Eli, settlers have illegally taken control over a natural spring they call “Ma’ayan Hagvura,” Hebrew for “Spring of Courage.” To claim the site, the Mateh Benyamin Regional Council – which is funded by the Israeli government – financed and carried out its “upgrading,” actively guard the area, and continue to promote it as a destination in nearby settlements. The regional council did all of this despite the fact that the spring is located on Palestinian land in an area that is outside of of its jurisdiction. By doing so, the settlement council has de facto extended the borders of its jurisdiction and increased the amount of land under its control – and in the process seized more natural resources from the Palestinians.

The situation of the spring near Eli is not unique. It is in fact just one of dozens of West Bank springs settlers have taken over.  And in case after case, the Israeli Civil Administration – which is responsible for enforcing all planning and building laws in the West Bank – has failed to intervene to prevent the settlement councils from taking land beyond their jurisdiction and violating the rights of Palestinians.  Haaretz writes:

“The Civil Administration knows that the lack of law enforcement leads to the regional councils operating in many areas that are not under their jurisdiction, but it claims it has no authority to enforce the ordinance. ‘Their jurisdiction does not include closed areas or private land’ says the Administration, ‘even if the area is included in maps defining the regional council’s jurisdiction. The boundaries are examined from time to time and are updated according to circumstances. The regional councils are only authorized to operate within their defined jurisdictions.’”

In addition to the dozens of natural springs settler councils have taken over in this manner, an investigation by the Israeli settlement watchdog Kerem Navot reveals that settlement councils have used similar tactics to illegally take over 50,000 acres of land in the southern Hebron hills, and 200,000 acres in the Jordan Valley. Based on its findings, Kerem Navot estimates that, according to Israeli law, fully half of the territory settler councils control has been taken illegally (according to international law, all control of land by Israeli settlers is illegal). Kerem Navot writes in detail:

“…[there are] six regional councils in the West Bank: Samaria, the Jordan Valley, Binyamin, Gush Etzion, Megillot, and Mount Hebron…Each of these councils has a separate map of jurisdiction, signed by military commanders of the West Bank. These maps, which have not yet been updated nearly 40 years after their signing, include a total area of 2,675,000 dunams, or approximately half of the total area of the West Bank. However, comparing these maps with the language of Order 783, noted above, indicates that nearly half of the areas included in the regional councils maps, are either private Palestinian-owned territories or land included in military firing zones (there is considerable overlap between these two groups, which was offset to calculate the area set to be cleared from the maps): two categories, which can’t be included in the regional councils’ territory according to the order.”

In 2012 OCHA published a report on the seizure of Palestinian springs specifically, detailing the humanitarian impact on Palestinians well-being in addition to the loss of land. OCHA writes:

“The impact of the above practices and policies is not limited to those directly affected by settler violence and property losses. The continuous encroachment on Palestinian land for the purpose of settlement expansion is a key cause of humanitarian vulnerability of the Palestinian population and the most significant reason behind the ongoing fragmentation of the West Bank, which undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”

Netanyahu Appoints Pro-Annexation Settler Leader as Key Settlement Advisor

Settler leaders were surprised, and initially upset, when Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Kobi Eliraz from his post as the adviser on settlement affairs in the Israeli Defense Ministry, where he had served for the past five years. Their mood likely changed again a few days later when, Netanyahu – who is acting Defense Minister – appointed Avi Roeh as Eliraz’s successor.

Roeh previously served as the Chairman of the settler Yesha Council – an umbrella group that coordinates and leads settlement relations between settlers and the government – and has remained an outspoken figure in Yesha strategy since leaving that role in 2017, typically playing the role of Netanyahu’s ally in quieting settler fury at perceived government inaction for the settlements. Roeh has called for the annexation of the West Bank and for one million Israeli Jews to move there.

Roeh’s appointment may not completely appease the settlers. He does not have the government expertise for which the settlers loved Eliraz, particularly when it comes to understanding and managing the levers of government needed to advance settlement construction. Moreover, many settlers reportedly believe that Eliraz was an innocent victim of Netanyahu’s vendetta against former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (for whom Eliraz worked). Lieberman, it should be recalled, was a key figure in blocking Netanyahu’s efforts to form a new governing coalition, leading to yet another Israeli elections scheduled for September 2019.

Prior to the appointment of Roeh, the Yesha Council published a letter asking Netanyahu to reverse Eliraz’s firing, and suggesting that Eliraz’s absence will hinder government efforts to retroactively legalize outposts. The letter notes:

“Kobi has taken care of Israeli settlement and its residents with great professionalism. He is credited for many advancements [on our behalf] in the fields of construction, infrastructure development, security and more.”

The Times of Israel observes, significantly, that the Yesha Council was able to get every single settlement Mayor to sign the letter, explaining:

“The Yesha Council in recent years has struggled to get all of its members on board with its initiative, but the umbrella group’s ability to gather the signatures of every Israeli mayor beyond the Green Line is testament to the broad respect that Eliraz holds among settler leader.”

As of this writing, there has been no official reaction from the Yesha Council to the appointment of Roeh.

McDonalds: Either Open in Settlements or Face Sanctions Under Anti-Boycott Law

Yossi Dagan, the head of the settlers’ Samaria Regional Council, is demanding that the Israel ban McDonald’s from operating in Ben Gurion airport, claiming that the franchise owner (who happens to be a co-founder of the anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now) is violating Israel’s punitive anti-boycott law by refraining from opening a branch in a settlement.

In a letter to the Israeli Transportation and Finance Ministries, Dagan argued that McDonald’s must be barred from participating in the tender process for the airport, where McDonald’s currently operates. In response, the Transportation Ministry said it “does not deal with commercial tenders at the Airports Authority,” and the Finance Ministry said “the issue does not concern us.”

Dagan’s contention stems from a 2013 decision by Omri Padan, the McDonald’s franchisee, to decline an offer to open a McDonald’s branch in the Ariel settlement. At the time, Padan stated that it had always been McDonald’s policy not to operate beyond the 1967 Green Line.

Praising Padan and McDonald’s, Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy writes:

“McDonald’s has issued a resounding statement: The West Bank and Gaza aren’t here. It has said yes to Israel, no to the occupation, which counts for more than 1,000 protest signs at a demonstration. The franchisee never had a license in a piece of land to which Israel also never had a license.”

Israel’s anti-boycott law – passed in 2011 – was specifically designed to make it illegal for Israeli citizens to advocate or engage in a boycott of Israel or settlements. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel explains:

“The purpose of the law is, first and foremost, to squelch legitimate boycotts against goods produced in the settlements. In so doing, it seriously undermines a means of protest that is non-violent, legitimate, legally recognized and accepted worldwide (including in Israel), while violating the freedom of speech, freedom of dissent, and freedom of association of Israeli citizens.”

In addition to the boycott law, Israel passed an amendment to the Entry Law in 2017, which gives Israel an avenue to punish non-Israeli citizens for their association with boycotts of Israel or Israeli settlements. The amendment authorizes the Israeli interior minister to refuse entry to activists or representatives of organizations who publicly call for a boycott of Israel or the settlements. Famously, Israel tried and failed to bar American student Lara Alqasem from entering the country under the new Entry Law provision. Israeli is currently trying to deport Human Rights Watch director Omar Shakir from Israel based on that law.

Bonus Reads

  1. “Palestinians Prove Fraud, Regain Land After Decades” (Al-Monitor)
  2. “Jerusalem’s No Man Land: Chaos and anarchy in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood” (Times of Israel)
  3. “Israel’s Annexation Drive Requires Fighting for Justice in One State” (Middle East Eye)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 15, 2019

  1. State Submits Defense of Mitzpe Kramim Outpost Legalization to High Court, Peace Now Petitions to Join the Case
  2. Civil Administration Employees Go on Strike, Delaying Approval of 4,500 New Settlement Units
  3. 47% of Palestinian Land Expropriated by Israel for “Security Needs” Has Been Given to the Settlements
  4. Transportation Ministry Denies Involvement in Jerusalem Cable Car Project, Calls it a “Tourist Cable Car”
  5. State Department Formalizes Occupation Denial as Official U.S. Policy; Israeli Politicians Immediately Plan for Annexation
  6. For the First Time, AIPAC National Policy Conference to Host Settler Leader
  7. Wind Power & Israel’s Occupation of the Golan Heights
  8. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org


State Submits Defense of Mitzpe Kramim Outpost Legalization to High Court, Peace Now Petitions to Join the Case

On March 10th, the state of Israel submitted a written argument to the High Court of Justice in defense of its plan to expropriate land that it acknowledges is privately owned by Palestinians in order to retroactively legalize the Mitzpe Kramim outpost.

The state’s argument was previously accepted by the Jerusalem District Court in an August 2018 ruling, which paved the way for the High Court to resume its consideration of a petition against the Mitzpe Kramim outpost, submitted by the registered Palestinian landowners in 2011.

In both cases the state’s argument relies on the “market regulation” principle, which the Israeli Attorney General invented as a legal basis for retroactively legalizing settlements and outposts built on land that even Israel recognizes as undeniably owned by Palestinians.

According to the “market regulation” principle, in cases where all relevant parties – in this case, the government, the World Zionist Organization, and the settlers – acted “in good faith” in the course of events that lead to the establishment of the unauthorized outpost on privately owned Palestinian land, the ownership of that land can legally be given over to the settlers. It is notable that the Palestinians are not considered relevant parties in this analysis (even when they and human rights groups alerted Israeli authorities in real time of the illegal building taking place – challenging the very idea of “good faith” mistakes).

The state’s March 10th argument also attempts to explain why the landmark  1979 Elon Moreh ruling, which explicitly prohibits Israel from building settlements on land expropriated for military purposes, should not apply to the Mitzpe Kramim case, given that the outpost was allegedly built in “good faith” based on the settlers’ belief that the land in question was part of a military seizure order from the 1970s (this belief was incorrect – the land was/is recorded in the Israeli Land Registry as privately owned by Palestinians from the village of Deir Jarir).

Also on March 10th, Peace Now filed an application to join the Mitzpe Kramim High Court case as a “friend of the court,” citing the organization’s professional expertise on the subject matter. In the application, Peace Now explained the potential devastating ramifications of the “market regulation” principle, and challenged the notion that “good faith” can be attributed to the Israeli parties involved in illegally building the Mitzpe Kramim outpost. Peace Now’s main points on the case are:

  1. The broad implications of the ruling – Peace Now has submitted to the court a list of 132 settlements and outposts where nearly 7,000 housing units have been built on private Palestinian land, stretching over 10,000 dunams. This is in addition to thousands of dunams or even tens of thousands of dunams taken from their owners by settlements for infrastructure, agriculture, and so on. The ruling is likely to serve as a precedent for the massive land grabs that the state has carried out over the years in the settlements.
  2. Land Management by the Custodian of Government and Abandoned Property in Judea and Samaria – A description of a series of failures in the General Director’s actions led to the many “errors” in the allocation of land that is not owned by the state. Some of the failures were presented in official government reports and by the state comptroller, which attest to historic failures and oversights that have not been corrected to this day.
  3. Land management by the Settlement Division, not done in “good faith” – Extensive information on the activities of the Settlement Division on land allocated to it (and land not allocated to it) and in many cases of allocations granted without authorization.
  4. The nature of the “market” for which the “market regulation” is applied – In fact, there is no “market” or “normal trading life” in transactions of the kind that the state manages in the territories. There is no ongoing trade, certainly not in “state lands” allocated by the state to settlers and transactions between the state and the World Zionist Organization (the umbrella organization that includes the Settlement Division). Moreover, there is no possibility – even theoretically – of the opposite situation: seizing privately owned land for Jews and transferring it “by mistake” to Palestinians. Nor is there a governmental body in the area that expropriates private land from Jews. Only one side is consistently discriminated against, as evidenced in the data according to which 99.76% of the allocated state land in the West Bank was given to the Israeli population, and while less than a quarter of a percent was allocated to Palestinians since 1967.

FMEP’s Annexation Policy Tables track the ongoing legislative, political, and legal transformations happening in the Israeli government to justify the expropriation of Palestinian land for settlements. As a reminder, the “market regulation” principle was promoted by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who offered it as an alternative to the legal basis provided in the “Regulation Law” to legalize unauthorized outposts and settlement construction.

Civil Administration Employees Go on Strike, Delaying Approval of 4,500 New Settlement Units

The Times of Israel’s settlement correspondent Jacob Magid reports that employees of the Israeli Civil Administration – the Israeli legal body that runs the West Bank, operating under the Ministry of Defense – will resume a strike for improved compensation and working conditions. Employees of the Civil Administration went on strike in July 2018 over the same set of issues.

The strike, if it happens, may delay the next meeting of the Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee (the body which regulates all planning and building in the West Bank), scheduled for next week. The committee is expected to advance 4,500 new settlement units.

47% of Palestinian Land Expropriated by Israel for “Security Needs” Has Been Given to the Settlements

Graph by Kerem Navot

A new report by Kerem Navot has revealed the extent to which military seizure orders have been used to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank not for military or security purposes, but to advance the settlements.

The report – entitled, “Seize the Moral Low Ground: Land Seizures for ‘Security Needs’ in the West Bank” – provides detailed data on how land taken by Israel via military seizure orders is currently being used. Important and illustrative data points include:

  • Under international law Israel, as the occupying power, may seize private Palestinian land for military purposes, but such seizures must be temporary in nature (the land must be returned to its owners when it is no longer being used for the purposes for which it was seized) and the owners must be compensated for the period of the seizure.
  • From 1967-2014 Israel issued 1,150 military seizure orders, taking nearly 25,000 acres (just over 100,000 dunams).
  • 67% of land seized by military order is privately owned by Palestinians.
  • 47% of the total land seized by Israel by military orders  is currently used to serve the needs of the settler population.

The new report also provides a fascinating explanation of how Israeli courts have at times held that the establishment of a civilian settlement on land seized for security needs is a valid use of that land, holding that settlements promote Israeli security. This was the case in a 1980 ruling on the Beit El settlement, which held that the civilian settlement of Beit El, constructed on land seized for military purposes, should be viewed as a security asset. Regarding this concept, the judge wrote:

“Israel, a small country within the long narrow confines of the Green Line, is surrounded, very regretfully, by countries that do not hide their hostility toward it. It is doubtful whether this situation, into which I will not go into detail, has any parallel in the history of humankind. … It is therefore reasonable to assume that in this unique situation, which requires supreme alertness to precede any possible calamity if, where, and when it may flare up, it is necessary to make use of exceptional solutions as well. … One of these solutions — and the topic of the discussion before us — is the creation of a Jewish civilian presence at particularly sensitive points. … I am aware of the fact that we are referring to a civilian population. … Against this backdrop, I accept Major General Orly’s claim that a civilian presence at these sensitive points is the necessary solution.”

This legal argument appears to directly contradict the landmark Elon Moreh settlement ruling in 1979, in which the courts barred the state from using privately owned Palestinian land that had been seized for security needs in order to build civilian settlements.

The report is available online here.

Transportation Ministry Denies Involvement in Jerusalem Cable Car Project, Calls it a “Tourist Cable Car”

The Israeli Transportation Ministry has publicly confirmed that it is not involved in the development of the Jerusalem cable car project, contradicting the Israeli Tourism Ministry, which has pitched the project as a transportation solution for traffic congestion around the Old City.

Map by Terrestrial Jerusalem

In response to an inquiry from the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh – a prominent critic of the cable car’s settler-linked agenda and damaging impact on Jerusalem’s archeological integrity – an official at the Transportation Ministry said, “We have no information on the cable car project. This is a tourist project not a transport one.” That fact was confirmed by The Times of Israel, which received the following response to their own inquiry: “This is a tourist cable car, and therefore the Ministry of Transportation is not involved in the project.”

The non-involvement of the Transportation Ministry only compounds the secrecy and unusual circumstances surrounding Tourism Minister Yair Levin’s promotion of the cable car project. In addition to circumventing the normal planning process for such large-scale, landscape-altering construction projects in and around the Old City, the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) – the quasi-governmental body that is leading efforts to implement the plan – continues to refuse requests to release the “economic feasibility report” outlining critical details about the cable car plan. The JDA said that the publication of the report would “disrupt the project’s progress” and “harm” the tender process.

Emek Shaveh filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court to compel the release of the economic feasibility report, only to be told by the court that the respondents to the petition (the JDA and the Tourism Ministry) do not have to respond to the petition until the Fall, well after the April 2nd date for public comment.

In a statement issued in March 2019, Emek Shaveh wrote:

“The fact that the developers of the cable car project are concealing such important information from the planning committees casts a dark shadow over the project. It is no secret that the project was presented  in the National Infrastructure Committee, because it obviously would not have passed in the planning committees. Even in a governmental committee that is their own playing field, the project’s developers have to scheme in order to get it approved. The cable car initiative is a destructive plan that clashes with the unique character of Jerusalem as an historic and holy city for three religions. Spurred by the political interest of strengthening the settler organization “Elad,” the Israeli government is willing to compromise the Old City walls, the skyline of the Historic Basin and its antiquities – and dares to call it tourism. We, at Emek Shaveh, together with a coalition of organizations and people, will do everything we can to object to and stop this plan, which will harm World Heritage assets that were entrusted to the State of Israel.”

Emek Shaveh attorney Eitay Mack said:

“The public has access neither to a transport plan nor to an economic plan. This is a populist project, which hasn’t been thought through and risks becoming a white elephant.”

As FMEP has previously covered, the Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative of the Elad settler organization (which is building a massive tourism center – the Kedem Center, which will be a stop along the cable car’s route – in the Silwan neighborhood). The cable car project is intended to further entrench settler activities and tourism sites inside Silwan, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there.

State Department Formalizes Occupation Denial as Official U.S. Policy; Israeli Politicians Immediately Plan for Annexation

Under the close guidance of U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, the U.S. Department of State’s annual report on human rights covering events in 2018 does not recognize the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territory. The 2018 report also marks U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as “Israeli-controlled” rather than “Israeli-occupied,” as previous administrations had addressed the Syrian territory.

Following the report’s release, and widespread press coverage of the language change, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (who are campaigning for the next Knesset as the co-leaders of The New Right party) announced that they will be introducing a bill to annex Area C of the West Bank. Making the connection to the U.S. policy shift clear, Bennett said:

“Now that the United States no longer sees Judea and Samaria as an occupied territory, there is no reason to wait [on annexing Area C] any longer. Half a million Israelis have to stop being second-class citizens. In Ariel, Ma’aleh Adumim and Ofra Jewish citizens discriminated against because they chose to settle the land. I would like to thank President Trump for the tremendous change in the administration’s position, it is a correct step in the right direction.”

Shaked added:

“It is time to apply sovereignty in Area C. The declaration of the United States obliges the State of Israel to make bold and courageous decisions that will help Israel’s security and full equality of rights for all its citizens.”

Ambassador Friedman has spent his two-year tenure pushing for and implementing pro-settlement policy changes, which is in line with his belief that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not illegal and that occupation is a matter of allegations and opinions. Reflecting Ambassador Friedman’s talking points, a State Department official told Haaretz:

“We retitled the human rights report to refer to the commonly used geographic names of the area the report covers.”

The 2017 State Department report laid the groundwork for the wholesale elimination of occupation from the State Department lexicon this year. It was the 2017 report – issued in 2018 by Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan – that altered the titles of the two sections covering Israel and the Palestinians, from “Israel” and “The Occupied Territories” to “Israel and the Golan Heights” and “West Bank and Gaza.” The 2017 report did acknowledge Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, though reference to and criticism of the occupation was severely neutered compared to previous reports (including the 2016 report issued by the newly inaugurated Trump Administration under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson).

Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a statement:

“After the release of the so-called Human Rights Report by the US State Department, it is now abundantly clear that the Trump administration is gearing all branches of the government to whitewash the Israeli occupation and its pervasive violations of human rights. The ‘report’ also decontextualizes the reality by omitting the inescapable fact of Israeli occupation of Palestine, reflecting this administration’s infatuation with an alternative yet fallacious version of reality and legality…The intention of this publication is clear. It is to exonerate Israel from its indisputable human rights violations, while deliberately attempting to depict the racist policies and attitudes of the Israeli government as benign despite the fact that they deny the Palestinian people’s humanity, nationality, and narrative. In its zealous pursuit to justify and mainstream the right-wing agenda in Israel, the Trump administration has made a mockery of the Human Rights ‘Report’ and reaffirmed its complicity in the promotion and support of human rights violations against the Palestinian people.”

Debra Shushan, Director of Policy & Government Relations at American for Peace Now, told FMEP in reaction:

“Denying occupation doesn’t change the reality of occupation. As for the Golan Heights, US acceptance of Israeli annexation there is a gateway drug to recognizing annexation of West Bank. If the administration, with support from some Congressional Republicans, is willing to recognize the violation of international law with regard to Syrian territory annexed by Israel, why not recognize annexation of other territories Israel occupied in 1967? Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked are taking the State Department report as a US decision that ‘US no longer sees Judea and Samaria as occupied territory’ and pledge to introduce legislation to annex Area C in first week of next Knesset session. If Netanyahu retains the prime ministership he’s likely to agree to anything to get a right-wing coalition to support immunity for him so he can stay out of jail. This report, and the broader Trump/Friedman policy of which it is part, could have huge consequences.”

Also commenting from the U.S., Eugene Kontorovich – head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing pro-settlement organization, who has long argued that Israel is not occupying Palestinian territorysaid:

“This year’s report for the first time does not use the inaccurate legal description ‘occupation’ to refer to Israel’s presence in the West Bank or Golan…This is a massive change in how America relates to the conflict. It is coming to understand that while Israel and the Palestinians have a dispute, international law does not provide the answers to that dispute. The report also for the first time expresses skepticism at the claims and submissions of anti-Israel groups, whose poorly documented allegations had previously been accepted as gospel.”

As a reminder, Kontorovich self-identifies as a key figure in the drafting of “anti-BDS” (but actually, anti-free speech/pro-settlement) laws in the United States. Kontorovich has also testified multiple times to U.S. Congress, including in support of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem; in support of Congress legislating U.S. foreign policy, including with regard to Jerusalem; on the impact of the BDS movement, and in support of U.S. recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a push which gained even more momentum in Congress this week when Senator Lindsey Graham visited the Golan Heights alongside Netanyahu and Amb. Friedman.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also commented on the significance of the Human Rights Report’s language. A spokesman for the Senator told Jewish Insider:

“Sen. Cruz believes that it is in the United States’ national security interests to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Anything that moves in that direction is a welcome step, but we must do more. He will continue advancing his legislation, introduced with Sen. Cotton and Rep. Gallagher in the House, to establish that it is the policy of the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty. Any policy short of full recognition is a policy that falls short of securing American national security interests.”

For the First Time, AIPAC National Policy Conference to Host Settler Leader

The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will host settler leader Oded Revivi at the upcoming AIPAC national policy conference in Washington, D.C. Revivi will speak on a panel entitled, “The Future of Judea and Samaria.” Revivi is the former head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group that represents all settlements in the West Bank; he currently serves as Mayor of the Efrat settlement and the foreign envoy of the Yesha Council. In September 2018, Revivi proudly boasted about his role in illegally establishing a new outpost on privately owned Palestinian land.

With respect to his invitation, Revivi told the Jerusalem Post:

“AIPAC has finally realized that they cannot ignore half-a-million people living in Judea and Samaria, who are becoming more and more attractive to the audience of AIPAC.”

AIPAC denies that Revivi’s official role in the conference marks a change in policy; AIPAC publicly supports the two state solution – a position which produced an awkward public fight between settlers leaders – who do not support a two state solution – and AIPAC last year. An AIPAC spokesman said:

“At every policy conference, we have scores of speakers from across the political spectrum — including those with diverse views on settlements — and this year is no different..we do not take a position on settlements.”

At the 2018 AIPAC policy conference, several prominent Israeli politicians held pro-settlement, pro-annexationist discussions on the margins of the AIPAC conference – but were not part of the official program. Mondoweiss notes that there are growing ties between AIPAC and the Yesha Council, and that AIPAC delegations (including Congressional delegations) regularly meet with Revivi while in Israel and the West Bank.

Wind Power & Israel’s Occupation of the Golan Heights

The Israeli NGO Who Profits has released a new report entitled, “Greenwashing the Golan: The Israeli Wind Energy Industry in the Occupied Syrian Golan.” The report details Israeli commercial wind farms currently under development in the Golan and their role in exploiting Syrian land, strengthening illegal settlements and normalizing the Israeli occupation. The report also exposes the involvement of private international and Israeli corporations, including the involvement of the U.S.-based multinational General Electric and the Israeli publicly traded companies Enlight Renewable Energy, Minrav Group and Energix Renewable Energies.

Bonus Reads

  1. “BBC Global Questions – Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’” (YouTube/BBC)
  2. “VIDEO: Sabbagh Family Faces Imminent Eviction in Sheikh Jarrah” (YouTube/Ir Amim)
  3. “70% of Israeli Jews Find Israeli Control Over the Palestinians as Immoral” (Jerusalem Post)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 1, 2019

  1. As Elections Approach, Here’s Two Settlement Plans Bibi Might Advance to Win Votes/Deflect Pressure
  2. Palestinians March in Hebron on Anniversary of Goldstein Massacre
  3. U.S. Charities Are Financing Radical, Violent Hilltop Youth Settler Movement
  4. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org


As Elections Approach, Here’s Two Settlement Plans Bibi Might Advance to Win Votes/Deflect Pressure

Terrestrial Jerusalem published a comprehensive analysis of how Jerusalem-related issues, including settlement plans, could become a factor in the current Israeli elections campaign. Danny Seidemann writes:

“On the eve of Israel’s national elections and the possible launching of Trump’s so-called ‘peace plan,’ concerns raised in January 2017 regarding the most sensitive and ambitious settlement and settlement-related projects are more relevant than ever…the common denominator to the issues on which we [Terrestrial Jerusalem] are focusing below is this: each is something of a banner under which the ideological right has decided to march. As a result, there is no doubt that these issues will figure prominently in election rhetoric, towards the goal of forcing an already susceptible Netanyahu’s hand.”

Seidemann goes on to lay out likely actions Netanyahu might take, including action on two specific settlement plans:

  • “E-1: E-1 is a settlement planned for an area on East Jerusalem’s northeastern flank (beyond the city’s municipal borders), designed to cement a contiguous block of settlements stretching from Maale Adumim to the city’s east, through Neve Yaacov and Pisgat Zeev to the north, and extending to Givat Zeev, to the northwest (download map here).We have described in several reports the dire threat the implementation of E-1 would  cause to the two-state solution, primarily by dismembering a potential future Palestinian state into two non-contiguous cantons and sealing off East Jerusalem from its environs in the West Bank…implementation of E-1 today still depends solely on Netanyahu giving the green light for the publication of the plans. Once he does, the clock will start ticking toward construction; assuming Netanyahu and his government obey normal planning rules, this clock will run for up to a year — between the resumption of planning and the publication of tenders for construction. Once the green light is given, it will be very difficult (but not impossible) to prevent the publication of tenders.”

  • “Givat Hamatos: As we explained in our January 2017 analysis, plans for construction in Givat Hamatos have been fully approved, but tenders have not yet been published: tenders for the construction of up to 1500 of the 4500 units could be published literally at any time, based on the whim of Netanyahu. As elections approach, the chances that Netanyahu will give the order to publish these tenders rises exponentially — and the significance of him doing so cannot be overstated. In planning terms, the publication of tenders is a Rubicon that, once crossed, is a point of no return, since at that point, third-party rights (purchasers) become involved. In short, the publication of tenders, effectively, would make the construction of Givat Hamatos a virtual certainty. While E-1 is larger in scope and has greater notoriety than Givat Hamatos, the danger posed by the latter is in some respects greater. Assuming Netanyahu and his government follow normal planning rules on E-1, any decision he takes on E-1 will in effect by a trip-wire that will give the world as long as a year in which to engage to try to prevent actual construction. With respect to Givat Hamatos, a move by Netanyahu won’t be a trip-wire, but rather the beginning of a series of detonations that cannot be stopped.”

Palestinians March in Hebron on Anniversary of Goldstein Massacre

On February 22nd, hundreds of Palestinians and international activists led a march towards Shuhada Street in downtown Hebron to commemorate the 29 victims of Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein, who opened fire on worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarch 25 years ago. The march was also a protest against Israel’s policy of segregation (a word that fails to capture the damage done to the fabric of Palestinian life in the heart of Hebron) that was implemented following the massacre. +972 Mag reports:

“…protestors marched toward Checkpoint 56, which separates the part of the city governed by the Palestinian Authority from the Israeli-controlled area. They carried signs calling for the return of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) – the only observer group in the city with an official international mandate. In late January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to renew the group’s mandate, effectively expelling the observers from the city after 22 years of monitoring the human rights situation there…Israeli soldiers were stationed along the route of the protest, on the side of the city allegedly controlled by the PA, already before the protest began. When the crowd of demonstrators approached Checkpoint 56, soldiers pushed them back. At another checkpoint, close to the Tel Rumeida area, soldiers fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at a group of protestors who were hurling stones – against the organizers’ request to keep the protest peaceful. Soldiers also fired stun grenades at a group of journalists.”

U.S. Charities Are Financing Radical, Violent Hilltop Youth Settler Movement

An investigation has revealed that a U.S. charity, The Charity of Light Fund, is the U.S. arm of an Israeli organization called Chasdei Meir that funds the radical and violent Hilltop Youth settler movement. Journalist Mairav Zonszein explains that Chasdei Meir, which is not registered as a tax exempt organization in Israel, recently issued a donation receipt thanking the donor (who made the donation in order to glean more information about the group’s operations) for “helping keep the residents of the outposts in Judea and Samaria warm.” Zonszein goes on to report:

“According to the Israeli outlet Ynet, Chasdei Meir has been linked to the coordination in 2011 of settler violence against Palestinians known as ‘price tag’ attacks, as well as financing settler youth who inhabit illegal settlement outposts and plant trees there as a way of claiming ownership over the land.”

Zonszein’s report lays out how Chasdei Meir and the Charity of Light Fund are part of a larger network of shadowy groups and figures that have found ways to direct U.S. tax-deductible donations to the settlement enterprise as well as groups that ascribe to the racist, nationalist ideology of Meir Kahane and the political party he founded, Kach. The Kach party, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, recently joined forces with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who brokered a political marriage between the Otzma Yehudit (“Jewish Power”) party, which is the current incarnation of the Kach party, and the Jewish Home party, in the hopes of winning sufficient votes to form a coalition that will keep him in power.

Bonus Reads

  1. “A Violent Gang of Young Settlers Haunts Palestinians” (Haaretz)

  2. “Under Occupation, Water is a Luxury” (Haaretz)

  3. “Israel’s Termination of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron” (Al-Shabaka)

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


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.

Map by Peace Now

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.”

Map by Terrestrial Jerusalem

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.

February 15, 2018

  1. Longtime Settler Leader Appointed to Head Government Team to Legalize Outposts
  2. Plans Advance for Settlement Expansion, Including “Unusual” Plan for the Netiv Ha’avot Outpost
  3. De Facto Annexation: Israel Extend  Domestic Law to Settlement Colleges & Universities
  4. Bibi Blocks Settlement Annexation Bill, But Signals Something Bigger
  5. Updates on Jerusalem Settlement Activity
  6. Lara Friedman: Stop Parsing Trump’s ‘Word Salad’ on Settlements
  7. Bonus Must-Reads

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


Longtime Settler Leader Appointed to Head Government Team to Legalize Outposts

Despite criticism from the High Court of Justice, this week the Prime Minister’s office finalized the appointment of settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein to head a government team tasked with leading the process of retroactively legalizing illegal outposts across the West Bank. As FMEP reported when Wallerstein’s appointment was first announced in late October 2017, Wallerstein has been prosecuted for knowingly violating Israeli law by building a sewage plant near the Ofra settlement on private Palestinian land; has admitted to issuing forged building permits for settlement construction without the authority to do so; and has admitted to lying (again) to government authorities to expedite the construction of the (since evacuated) building the Amona outpost.

The team Wallerstein will now lead is tasked with developing legal cases – likely based on new legal precedents and opinions (here, here, and most recently here) established by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit that support the appropriation of private Palestinian land for a public good – to “regularize” outposts (i.e., convert outposts built in violation of Israeli law into official “legal” settlements). The government has already begun to the lay the groundwork for Wallerstein’s work: a leaked recording that surfaced in mid-January revealed that a small team within the Defense Ministry has spent months identifying 70 outposts across the West Bank that it believes can be retroactively legalized.

With this appointment, Wallerstein — who has worked full-time to strengthen settlements since 1979 — will lead government-backed effort to shape the ever-evolving legal mechanisms for justifying, in the eyes of Israeli courts, the appropriation of as much private Palestinian land as possible in order to expand and entrench Israeli settlements and outposts. And notably, the legalization of these outposts will mean, in effect, that while for years Israel committed to not establish new settlements, new settlements were in reality being established continuously through unofficial means.

Plans Advance for Settlement Expansion, Including “Unusual” Plan for the Netiv Ha’avot Outpost

This week, the High Planning Council of the Israeli Civil Administration (the arm of the Israeli Defense Ministry that is the sovereign over the West Bank, governing all aspects of life) advanced several plans to expand settlements and outposts across the West Bank.

Settlement watchdog Peace Now notes that the approvals include plans both for the creation of new settlement “areas” (expanding the footprint of settlements in the West Bank) and expansion within the existing footprints:

  1. A plan to build a hotel and race track for tourists in the Jordan Valley, near the Petza’el settlement (approved for deposit for public review).
  2. A plan to build a gas station and school in the outpost of Mitzpe Danny, located east of Ramallah, in the middle of the West Bank (approved for validation).
  3. A new outpost to “temporarily” house mobile homes for the residents of the Netiv Ha’avot outpost (approved the validation) – more below).
  4. A plan for 68 new units in the Elazar settlement near Bethlehem (approved the validation).
  5. A plan for a new cemetery to be located south of Qalqiliya (discussed but decision to deposit for public review postponed).

The Defense Ministry tried to minimize the significance of these approvals, calling them “non-residential” or “less significant,” because the High Planning Council is only supposed to convene a few times a year, per a reported agreement with the United States. The High Planning Council met once already this year, and is not due for another (what the Defense Ministry might call “significant”) meeting until April.

Peace Now responded to the plans the Defense Ministry’s claim with a statement saying,

“The government is building new settlement areas under the guise of ‘insignificant’ plans that will not include housing units. This is an old trick used to establish new settlements without calling them that by name. All of these plans—the construction of a hotel and tourist complex in the Jordan Valley, an educational campus in an illegal outpost, and even a cemetery as the first stage in the construction of a new industrial zone—in actuality create new settlements. The Netanyahu government has lost all the brakes on the road to de facto annexation of the West Bank, and it continues to distance Israel from the prospects for peace and the two-state solution.”

The plan for the Netiv Ha’avot outpost bears further explanation:

  • Map by Peace Now

    As noted above, the High Planning Council this week approved the validation of a plan to establish a new settlement site to “temporarily” house residents of the Netiv Ha’avot outpost who are facing a court-ordered eviction from Netiv Ha’avot because the outpost was built without permits, and sits partially on private Palestinian land.

  • The plan moved ahead after Israeli authorities dismissed an objection brought by Peace Now and Palestinian residents of the village of Al-Khader, whose land the plan affects.
  • According to the approved plan, Israel will place 15 mobile homes at the selected site — connected to Israeli water, power, sewage, roads, and other infrastructure — located near, but not within, the borders of the Alon Shvut settlement.
  • When the High Planning Council initially approved the advancement of this plan in October 2017, it noted that “the plan is improper, but we will have to approve it as a temporary solution.” At the time, the Council ordered the government to go about expanding the borders of the Alon Shvut settlement to include the land.
  • Because the mobile homes will be put on land that is outside of any settlement border, the plan in effect creates a new outpost.
  • Under the approved plan, the new homes will be allowed to stay in that location for three years. However, based on past practice, it can be expected that within that time, or at the end of those three years, the site will “regulated” by Israel to become a permanent area of Israeli settlement.

FMEP has covered the many unfolding storylines in the Netiv Ha’avot drama repeatedly and in detail, but as a reminder: in 2016 the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the demolition of the Netiv Ha’avot outpost. As of now, 15 structures in the outpost are scheduled to be demolished next month, though efforts are still ongoing to save the structures from complete demolition. High ranking officials in the Israeli government, including Yesh Atid’s leader Yair Lapid, have supported the outposts campaign not only to save the 15 structures but to retroactively legalize the entire outpost. If the latter campaign succeeds, it will mean that the newly approved mobile home site will be available for additional settlers to inhabit for at least three years.

De Facto Annexation: Israel Extend  Domestic Law to Settlement Colleges & Universities

The Knesset this week passed a bill that extends the state’s jurisdiction outside of its borders, bringing colleges and universities in settlements under the authority of the Israeli Council for Higher Education, among other things paving the way for establishment of a medical school funded by US settlement backer (and key Netanyahu and Trump supporter) Sheldon Adelson. FMEP previously reported on this bill and its implications on Feb. 1, 2018 when it passed first reading in the Knesset (a signal that the ruling coalition had approved its passage). Though limited in its direct impact, the bill’s authors and supporters have effectively created the rhetorical and legislative space in which the extraterritorial application of Israeli law is no longer questioned, nor is the ultimate end goal of annexing as much West Bank land as possible.

Unsurprisingly, the Trump Administration offered no criticism of the move.

Making clear the underlying goal of the initiative, Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said:

“From the application of sovereignty on Ariel University [let us proceed] to the application of sovereignty on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria!”

Similarly, a leader of the Yesha Council (the umbrella organization representing Israeli settlements), Shiloh Adler, said:

“Just as there is no reason why Ariel University should be managed by a different council for higher education, we hope that the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley will soon be placed under Israeli sovereignty just like all other Jewish communities in the State of Israel”

PLO Spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi responded with a statement saying the bill:

“…represents another dangerous step in the annexation of the occupied West Bank…All settlements are illegal and constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a direct violation of international law and conventions, including UNSC resolution 2334. Israel is thereby demonstrating its intent to prolong and consolidate its military occupation by working to ‘legalize’ the presence of extremist Jewish settlers, institutions and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Bibi Blocks Settlement Annexation Bill, But Signals Something Bigger

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week intervened to block a vote in the Israeli cabinet on whether to lend government support to a bill in the Knesset that seeks to extend Israeli domestic law to “areas of settlement in Judea and Samaria.” The bill is modelled on a resolution adopted in January, with Netanyahu’s support, by the Likud Central Committee. That resolution calling for the formal annexation of the settlements.  

In explaining his decision to block the vote at a Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu pleaded with his party to hold off on settlement annexation while he coordinated the matter with the White House, stating that he has been in discussions with the Trump Administration about “applying sovereignty” to the settlements for “some time.” A White House spokesman for Jared Kushner (who officially leads the Trump Administration’s Israel-Palestine peace efforts) strongly denied that the U.S. had engaged in any discussions with Israel about plans to annex the West Bank. The statement did not weigh in on those plans, instead reaffirming the U.S. commitment to brokering peace. Reportedly, U.S. officials privately told the Israeli government to put out a correction of Netanyahu’s statement and a senior Israeli official later released a statement partially walking back Netanyahu’s claim, suggesting instead that Netanyahu has kept the U.S. informed about various proposals in the Knesset (there are several annexation proposals that have already passed and some that are still pending).

Ignoring the kerfuffle, several MKs called on Netanyahu to ignore U.S. statements and proceed with annexation.

Americans for Peace Now released a statement saying,

“The Trump Administration must be unequivocal in both its public statements and its private discussions with Israeli officials that the United States regards annexation as entirely unacceptable.”

J Street released a statement saying,

“It would be completely irresponsible for the Trump administration to contemplate endorsing unilateral annexation in any way. US officials should be strongly warning Israel that such a move would be unacceptable — not holding discussions that could give annexation the green light.”

Updates on Jerusalem Settlement Activity

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee met last week to privately discuss three plans for new East Jerusalem settlement projects, all on the Mount of Olives. The three plans were all drafted by the head architect of the Elad settler organization [learn more about Elad, here]. The meeting was an attempt to circumvent the standard planning process that governs construction projects in Jerusalem – a process which requires public hearings. 

Map by Haaretz

Two of the plans relate to the proposal for a new promenade connecting two settlement enclaves (Beit Orot and Beith Hahoshen) located inside the Palestinian neighborhood of A-Tur, the construction of which will require the expropriation of private Palestinian land.

The third plan is for a visitors’ center (to be run by Elad) abutting the Mount of Olives Cemetery – a plan rumored to be moving forward in June 2017. At that time, Peace Now slammed the plan, saying:

“Dragged by settler organizations, the Israeli government is willing to go out of its way to approve this sensitive plan through a highly unusual procedure. In the current political context, to establish a visitor center next to a mosque and 300 meters away from Temple Mount/Al-Haram A-Sharif is to play with fire. A visitor center in this sensitive area could have far reaching implications on the future of the two state solution and the possibility for a compromise in Jerusalem.”

Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tatarsky told Haaretz:

“Over the past two years we have witnessed increased settlement activity under the guise of tourism and heritage initiatives around the Old City. The Old City and the neighborhoods around it are the home of 100,000 Palestinians…On one hand the authorities make it hard for residents to get building permits and deny them adequate services. On the other, they are advancing in dubious ways initiatives aimed at serving the settlement organizations in the eastern part of the city.”

Lara Friedman: Stop Parsing Trump’s ‘Word Salad’ on Settlements

In an interview with Adelson-financed Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, President Trump said, “The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements.”

When asked about the significance of Trump’s criticism of settlements, FMEP President Lara Friedman said:

“He didn’t raise the issue of settlements, he was asked about it and gave a word salad response that implies nothing….There was nothing that indicated that there will be any pressure on Israel in response to the settlements. Since this administration came in, what they say has matched what their feet are doing. They are suggesting policies that are sympathetic to the Israeli right and far-right. There is nothing in [the interview] that contradicts their policy.”

Bonus Must-Reads

  1. [Op-ed] “Take a look around. This is what annexation looks like” (+972 Mag)
  2. [Op-ed] “No chance for peace while settlers dream of holy war” (Al-Monitor)

 


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.