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 26, 2020

1. Netanyahu Talks to Jordan, Gantz (Finally) Lays Out a Position
2. Trump Advisors Meeting in Washington on Annexation Ends Without Decision
3. Bibi Provides Likud With Talking Points on Annexation, Says Settlements Cannot Ever Be Evacuated
4. Court Approves Sale of Church Properties in Old City of Jerusalem to Radical Settler Org
5. Israel Delivers Eviction Orders to Palestinian Businessowners Despite Claims Palestinians Have Consented to the “Silicon Wadi” Project
6. Israel is Expanding Settler-Only Bypass Road Near Bethlehem, Cutting Palestinians Off from Land
7. Plans for Controversial New Settlement Industrial Zone Near Beitar Illit Are Poised for Final Approval
8. High Court Set to Hear Petition Against Cable Car
9. Emek Shaveh Submits Petition Against Settler-Backed “Accessibility” Project for the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs
10. Weaponizing Archaeology as a Means of Dispossessing Palestinians
11. Democrats Oppose Annexation But Don’t Threaten Consequences; Republicans Lawmakers Offer Support for Annexation
12. Bonus Reads

Comments/questions? Contact Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org)

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Netanyahu Talks to Jordan, Gantz (Finally) Lays Out a Position

According to an anonymous Palestinian official, Israel delivered a message to Jordan’s King Abdullah (who then passed it on to Abbas) that Netanyahu is planning to announce annexation of two or three “settlement blocs” as Israel’s initial annexation move, and this announcement will not include annexation of the Jordan Valley. The report provided no details about which “blocs” will be annexed, or how they will be defined. As a reminder, “blocs” is an informal and elastic term that Israel has used to define ever- expanding areas of the West Bank as territory that it will keep.

The reports come after days of suggestions that the U.S. and Netanyahu are favoring a phased annexation plan, meaning that whatever “limited” annexation Israel announces on July 1st (or, more likely, after July 1st), it will be just the first in a wave of annexation announcements, and the fact that it may be “limited” (compared to other options) in no way will signal that Netanyahu has changed his grander ambition to annex every inch of land allowed under Trump Plan. The Trump Plan green lights annexation of around 30% of the West Bank as a starting point, with an implicit green light for further annexation if the Palestinians refuse to negotiate with Israel over the fate of the remaining West Bank territory.

Gantz posted a message on his Facebook page on Friday, June 26th in what some are viewing as an effort to clarify his own position on annexation, which so far has been inconsistent, ambiguous, and confusing. Gantz’s five key positions on annexation according to the new Facebook post are:

1. No annexation of areas where there is a “significant” Palestinian population; 
2. No annexation of land that will impair Palestinians’ freedom of movement;
3. Palestinian living in areas annexed by Israel will be given equal rights;
4. Israel’s security as well as its existing peace agreements will be safeguarded;
5. Israel will initiate “bilateral moves with the Palestinians.”

It was reported earlier this week that Prime Minister Netanyahu presented an ultimatum to Gantz in private deliberations, seeking to force Gantz to choose between supporting annexation or a new round of elections (recent polls suggest new elections would deliver a landslide victory for Netanyahu — no surprise given the fact that in joining the Netanyahu government, Gantz eviscerated Netanyahu’s main opposition party). 

Up to this point, Blue & White party leaders Gantz and Ashkenazi have opposed wide-scale, unilateral annexation on July 1st – instead offering a vision for a phased annexation plan, starting with large settlement blocs, that is coordinated with key international players. Perhaps fulfilling Gantz’s demands, the reports regarding Israel’s message to Jordan propose a more limited initial annexation plan, suggesting perhaps that Netanyahu has adopted two of Gantz’s main positions. It’s also worth recalling that last week Gantz and his party mate Ashkenazi were pushing a phased annexation plan and specified that the Ma’ale Adumim and the Etzion settlement blocs (east and south of Jerusalem) are the place to start.

Even before word of the Jordan communique and Gantz’s Facebook message hit the press on June 26th, it was a near consensus position amongst Israeli news outlets and analysts that Gantz was not going to stand in the way of annexation. On June 22nd, Gantz reportedly told a group of defense officials that Israel “won’t keep waiting for the Palestinians” to engage in negotiations on the basis of the Trump Plan. Those remarks were interpreted as a signal of Gantz’s acquiescence to Netanyahu’s annexation plan (or at least of his growing disinterest in even appearing to oppose it). In the same set of remarks, Gantz went on to blame the Palestinians in even more harsh language, saying they are attempting to drag Israel into “deep shit.” Haaretz suggests, “…Gantz’s tone and his actual comments confirm the assumption that there will be no life-and-death battle here. Gantz knows that the final decision is not up to him, but rather up to Netanyahu.” In a separate article, Haaretz columnist Noa Landau put it this way: “[Gantz’s] remarks [on June 22nd] sounded more like a threat against the Palestinians for refusing to extricate him from this mess.”

Trump Advisors Meeting in Washington on Annexation Ends Without Decision 

Internal Israeli negotiations set a dramatic stage for 3 days of discussions this week in Washington between the Trump Administration officials who are the architects and managers of the Trump Plan, as the reportedly sought to come to agreement over what form of annexation the Trump Administration will green light for July 1. Multiple reports in the days leading up to the U.S. deliberations suggested that the group was considering options ranging from  a “gradual” annexation plan starting with large settlements around Jerusalem, to a more large-scale and immediate plan. At the end of the week, the Americans reportedly failed to reach a decision on how they would want to see Israel’s annexation of West Bank land to proceed. Three members of the team, Avi Berkowitz and NSA Advisor Scott Leith, and Amb. Friedman – are reportedly en route back to Israel and will continue discussions with Netanyahu. Notably, in parallel to the Washington meetings, reports emerged suggesting that Netanyahu’s annexation announcement may be delayed and that July 1st might mark the start of Israeli security cabinet deliberations over annexation (to this point deliberations have been between Netanyahu and Gantz without wider input from cabinet members). 

Amb. David Friedman (who flew to back to DC for the meeting) was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senior advisor Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, and national security advisor Robert O’Brien for deliberations starting on June 23rd. 

Bibi Provides Likud With Talking Points on Annexation, Says Settlements Cannot Ever Be Evacuated

Netanyahu sent a memo to Likud lawmakers this week laying out key talking points in the ongoing effort to defend annexation, in which he argues that evacuating settlement poses an “immediate existential threat” to Israel. The memo says:

“Relinquishing these territories would not only constitute a historic injustice; such a move would create an immediate existential threat to the Jewish state since Judea and Samaria border central Israeli cities.”

The memo also adopts a U.S. talking point that annexation in fact advances the cause of peace, but instead of giving any nod to a future Palestinian state or two state solution, Bibi’s memo claims that annexing West Bank settlements can provide for “to a realistic regional peace based upon facts on the ground.” This double speak (annexation is peace) was prominently articulated by Ron Dermer in a recent Washington Post op-ed.

Court Approves Sale of Church Properties in Old City of Jerusalem to Radical Settler Org

On June 24th, the Jerusalem District Court rejected a final request filed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to block the sale of its historic church properties to the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim. The Court’s ruling brings an end to 16 years of litigation and paves the way for Ateret Cohanim to evict Palestinian tenants and businessowners from three coveted church properties in the Old City including the Petra Hotel and the Imperial Hotel (together, the buildings flank the Jaffa Gate entrance into the Old City – meaning that Ateret Cohanim now controls a substantial amount of land at a key entrance to the Old City). The third building – known to Palestinians as Beit Amziya – is located in the Muslim Quarter.

The ruling comes just four months after the Jerusalem District Court appointed a lawyer associated with Ateret Cohanim as the legal custodian of the Petra Hotel for the duration of a bankruptcy case against the Palestinians currently operating the hotel.

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 legal 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.

Israel Delivers Eviction Orders to Palestinian Businessowners Despite Claims Palestinians Have Consented to the “Silicon Wadi” Project

Middle East Eye reports that the “Silicon Wadi” project (as reported on by FMEP on June 5th) is being discussed by the Jerusalem District Committee but has not yet reached the stage of being deposited for public review. According to one Palestinian business owner who faces eviction under the plan, the District Committee required the Jerusalem Municipality to notify the owners and renters of the buildings that will be demolished to make way for the new construction. Last week, the Municipality delivered that notification to renters in the form of eviction orders, saying that the businesses were operating in violation of Israeli regulations (i.e., illegally, even though the businesses have been there – and paying taxes to Israel – for decades). The orders give businesses 6 months to vacate.

One Palestinian businessowner, Mahmoud al-Kurd, told Middle East Eye:

“I will stay here to the last moment. This profession is my passion. In this old space I managed to achieve my successes. It is enough that the soul of my deceased father roams around me here – he is the one who rented this store decades ago and passed on his means of sustenance to us. I refuse to be an employee of a Jewish broker if we were transferred to work in the Israeli industrial areas.”

The Jerusalem Municipality – which claims that this project has the support and consent of Palestinians  – also claims that it is looking into options for compensating business owners (mostly auto mechanics) who will lose their garages.

Israel is Expanding Settler-Only Bypass Road Near Bethlehem, Cutting Palestinians Off from Land

The Palestinian news outlet Wafa reports that Israel has begun work on expanding a settler-only bypass road just west of Bethlehem.The road is reportedly being expanded and widened on Palestinian land belonging to the Nahalin village; construction of the new road segment and widening the existing road will cut off Palestinians from 741 acres (3,000 dunams) of their land.

The road serves to directly connect the Beitar Illit settlement to the Modiin Illit settlement,  both of which are a part of the so-called “Etzion Bloc.” The construction goes to show that the settlement “Blocs” – around which some suggest there is a “consensus” that Israel will retain them in any future deal with the Palestinians, and others suggest Israel can annex without controvery – are a pretext for a continuing campaign of dispossession, discrimination, and human rights abuses against neighboring Palestinians. For a deep dive into the highly consequential acceptance/normalization of the “settlement bloc” framing, see here.

Plans for Controversial New Settlement Industrial Zone Near Beitar Illit Are Poised for Final Approval

Al Monitor reports that plans for the construction of a new settlement industrial zone near the Beitar Illit settlement in the southern West Bank are ready to be submitted for final approval from the Civil Administration. Environmental activists say the new zone will pollute and possibly destroy the underground water sources feeding the terraced hills of Battir, a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The plan for the new zone – which will include offices, shops, sports facilities, public buildings, and a cemetery – was initiated in 2018 at the insistence of Israel’s former Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. Palestinians claim that plans for the zone include construction on privately owned Palestinian land.

Gidon Bromberg, Executive Director of EcoPeace, told Al-Monitor:

“Planning maps clearly show that the industrial estate would indeed cover much of the buffer zone of the World Heritage site as well as touch the core area itself.”

High Court Set to Hear Petition Against Cable Car

The Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh reports that the Israeli High Court of Justice will take up the case of the Jerusalem cable car project on June 29th. The court will consider three arguments made in a petition filed against the plan submitted by Emek Shaveh and leading experts. Those arguments are:

1. “A transitional government is not authorized to make an irreversible decision such as approval of the cable car project:  The cable car project will cost the public hundreds of millions of shekels.  During a period when the government is carrying out a broad cut in the budget of billions of shekels and is reducing the budgets for health and welfare, it is inappropriate that a transitional government leaves a bequest of this magnitude for the next government to inherit.  In the response of the Deputy Attorney General, Att. Othman Roslan, to the petition, while arguing that the process was not in conflict with the law, he did not conceal the fact that the it was problematic. [See FMEP’s coverage of the Israeli government’s approval of the plan in November 2019]
2. “There was a serious flaw in the planning process in that the Ministry of Transportation was not included in the project that purports to be a transportation project:  While the project is represented  as a transport project, the Ministry of Transportation was not included in the process and the project was not required to meet the standards set forth for transportation projects in the State of Israel. Instead it was approved on the basis of reports and data less comprehensive than those required for every other transportation project.
3. “The decision was made on the basis of misleading simulations:  The backers of the plan did not present complete simulations that accurately illustrate the cable cars in motion and the resulting damage to the historic landscape.  The National Infrastructure Committee should have demanded that the backers present simulations that illustrate the actual cars in motion.”

The Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative of the Elad settler organization (which is building a massive tourism center – the Kedem Center – in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, slated to be a stop along the cable car’s route). The scheme is intended to further entrench settler control in Silwan, via archeology and tourism sites, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. Non-governmental organizations including Emek Shaveh,  Who Profits, and Terrestrial Jerusalem have repeatedly challenged (and provided evidence to discredit) 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 impacts the cable car project will have on Palestinian residents of Silwan.

Emek Shaveh Submits Petition Against Settler-Backed “Accessibility” Project for the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs

On June 18th, Emek Shaveh and Palestinian residents of Hebron jointly submitted a petition challenging Israel’s issuance of a permit to build an elevator to the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs, arguing that:

1. “The plan was illegally approved  by a transitional government; 
2. “The plan is in contravention of international agreements to which Israel is a signatory; 
3. “[The plan] is an unprecedented injury to the character of the ancient structure;  No documentation and preservation file has been submitted.”

One signatory on the petition is a disabled Palestinian, Kamal Abadin, who makes the salient point that Israel’s policies in Hebron do not indicate it has concern for accessibility, saying:

“I almost do not come to pray at the mosque because as a Palestinian, I am not permitted to drive in my car from my house to the site, because the road is closed to Palestinian vehicles.  If Israel asserts that it wants to make the site accessible to the disabled, let it start with allowing disabled Palestinians to access it by car.”

Emek Shaveh explained  in a statement:

“Unfortunately, even at the price of damage to a structure more than 2,000 years old that is holy to Judaism and Islam, Israel is prepared to be led by the settlers and their plans, and on the way, to violate international agreements to which it is a signatory.  The settlers have succeeded in turning the needs of persons with disabilities into a political issue and a means for deepening the dispute with the Palestinians.  We all know that what begins in Hebron does not stay only in Hebron and the unilateral steps at the Tomb of the Patriarchs could serve as a precedent for unilateral actions at another site which is holy to both Judaism and Islam.”

Weaponizing Archaeology as a Means of Dispossessing Palestinians

A settler group which sprung from the radical Regavim organization has sharpened a new bureaucratic weapon by which to advance the dispossession of Palestinians. The settler group – called Shomrim Al Hanetzach (“Guarding Eternity”) – has been surveying areas in the West Bank that Israel has designated as archeaological sites in order to call in Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian construction in these areas. In 2017, it should be noted, Israel declared 1,000 new archaeological sites in Area C of the West Bank. The group communicates its findings to the Archaeology Unit in the Israeli Civil Administration (the military body by which the government of Israel regulates all planning and building in 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. 

In addition, in 2019  the Israeli government increased the size of the Archaeology Unit’s staff and granted the unit new authority to carry out investigations into cases of construction on archaeological sites. Moreover, using new powers the Civil Administration gave itself (via a military order) in June 2017, the Israeli goverment has accelerated the demolition of Palestinian buildings by drastically  limiting the time period during which Palestinians are permitted to challenge demolition orders. Palestinians have a mere 96 hours after receiving the notice to file a legal challenge.

As a result, there has been a sharp rise in the number of archaeology-related demolition orders over the past year: Israel issued 118 demolition order and warnings against Palestinian structures built on West Bank archaeological sites in 2019, compared to 61 orders in 2018 and 45 orders in 2017. 

The Director of Shomrim Al Hanetzach told Haaretz: 

“We took it upon ourselves to make the supervision process more efficient – hiking guides and archaeologists turn to us and tell us about the destruction of antiquities, and we report them further to the necessary people.”

In the case of one Palestinian, Mahmoud Bisharat, he says that Israel conducted an archaeological survey of the area in 1972 but never complained about Palestinian construction in the area until now. The Civil Administration ordered Bisharat to demolish his home, olive trees, well, and concrete structures around a well.

In addition to hiking and surveying Palestinian land, Palestinians have reported that Regavim activists also use drones to photograph their land and buildings, and have made the connection between those activities to demolition orders from the Civil Administration.

Democrats Oppose Annexation But Don’t Threaten Consequences; Republicans Lawmakers Offer Support for Annexation

In warring moves this week, Republicans and Democrats staked out positions on Israel’s forthcoming annexation of land in the West Bank.

189 of 233 Democrats in the House signed a letter sent to Netanyahu and Gantz expressing deep concern about annexation, saying it does not serve Israeli security interests nor the peace process. The letter, notably, does not contain any threat of consequences should Israel implement annexation.  J Street is reportedly behind drafting and circulating the letters for signatures.

116 out of 198 Republicans in the House signed a letter sent  to Prime Minister Nentanyahu expressing support for Israel’s “right to sovereignty and defensible borders.” The letter also praises the Trump Plan. The Republic Jewish Committee is reportedly behind drafting and circulating the letter for signatures.

7 out of 53 Republicans in the Senate signed a letter to President Trump led by Senators Cotton (R-AR) and Cruz (R-TX) that is not only supportive of annexation, but actually encourage Israel to implement annexation.

Back in May, 18 out of 47 Democrats/Independents in the Senate sent a letter to Netanyahu and Gantz cautioning them against annexation.

Bonus Reads

1. “How settler groups could use annexation to deepen Palestinian dispossession” (+972 Magazine)
2. “Israel’s High Court Is Willfully Blind to Theft of Palestinian Land” (Haaretz)
3. “Israel’s ‘strangling’ of Bethlehem tightens as world debates annexation” (+972 Magazine)
4. “Settlers Assault Palestinians on Their Own Land, as Israeli Soldiers Watch” (Haaretz)
5. “For Netanyahu, Annexation May Spell Little Gain, and Lots of Pain“ (Haaretz)

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

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

1. Netanyahu Wavers on Timing of West Bank Annexation [Reminder: Israel is Annexing Land Every Day, & Has Been for Decades]
2. Israeli Court Grants Ateret Cohanim Third Victory in its Silwan Mass Displacement Campaign
3. Peace Now on Annexation, Jerusalem, & Populated Land Swaps Under the Trump Plan
4. Emek Shaveh on Jerusalem Antiquities & The Trump Plan’s Embrace of the Settlers’ Agenda
5. Kerem Navot on the Trump Administration’s “Settlement Enclaves”
6. Kushner’s Media Blitz Further Clarifies U.S. Support for Israeli Settlement Enterprise, Contempt for Palestinians
7. UN Security Council Drafts Resolution on Trump Plan & Prepares for Meetings with Kushner, Abbas
8. European Union Chief Says Israeli Annexation Will “Not Pass Unchallenged” (And Other European Moves)
9. Bonus Reads

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

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Netanyahu Wavers on Timing of West Bank Annexation [Reminder: Israel is Annexing Land Every Day, & Has Been for Decades]

Following the very poorly coordinated annexation announcements from Israel and the U.S. last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu is sending contradicting public messages on his timeline for annexing 30% of the West Bank, as prescribed by the American “Vision.”

After clearly stating his intention to move ahead immediately with annexation just a week earlier, on February 5th Netanyahu hinted that he will fall in line with Jared Kushner’s demand to wait until after the next round of Israeli elections. Speaking at a campaign event in Beit Shemesh, Netanyahu said:

“If we win, when we win, we’ll continue to make history. As soon as we win, we’ll apply Israeli law to all of the Jewish communities in the Jordan Valley and in Judea and Samaria. We, the Likud, won’t let this great opportunity slip from our grasp. But in order to guarantee it, in order to guarantee Israel’s borders, in order to guarantee the future of Israel, I need every Likud member this time around to go out and vote and get others out to vote. This time we’re getting everyone out of the house, we’re not leaving anyone behind.” [emphasis added by author]

Netanyahu’s suggestion that annexation will wait until after elections should not ease any sense of alarm. As Israeli political analyst Gayil Talshir tells the New York Times, the scuffle over immediate annexation has left Netanyahu bruised and vulnerable heading into the next round of elections. In order to win back his angered base of settlers and right-wing fans, Talshir says, Netanyahu might be considering promoting a more limited annexation bill ahead of the March voting date – a means of feeding his base red meat without flagrantly crossing swords with the Trump administration.

Further, on February 6th the pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom paper (owned by Trump backer Sheldon Adelson) printed a front-page story reporting that Netanyahu is in deliberations with the Trump Administration about implementing annexation ahead of elections.

If you need a reminder about Israel’s ongoing annexation of West Bank land, check out FMEP’s Annexation Policy Tables.

Israeli Court Grants Ateret Cohanim Third Victory in its Silwan Mass Displacement Campaign

On February 6th, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled in favor of another petition filed by the radical settler organization Ateret Cohanim, to evict Palestinians from their homes in a building in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan. The ruling was based on the Court’s acceptance of the setter group’s claim to own the land on which the building stands.  The court ordered two Palestinian families living in the building to vacate the property by August 17th.

This is the third time in as many weeks that the Magistrate’s Court has ruled in favor of Ateret Cohanim’s petitions seeking the eviction of Palestinians in Silwan. Ateret Cohanim has nearly a dozen additional petitions still in process, threatening the mass displacement of around 700 Palestinians from the tiny section of Silwan known as Batan al-Hawa, located just outside the southern wall of the Old City.

Previously, on January 19th the Court ruled in favor of the Ateret Cohanim’s petition to evict the Palestinian Rajabi family from their home home of 45 years in Batan al-Hawa. In so doing, the court accepted Ateret Cohanim’s claim to own the tract of land in Silwan upon which the Rajabi home was built. The court ordered that the family must vacate their 3-story apartment building by July 1st; however, the eviction might be delayed as the Rajabi family announced that the family intends to file an appeal against the decision with the Jerusalem District Court.

Subsequently, on January 26th the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled to evict the Palestinian Dweik family from their home (also located in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan) based on a petition filed by Ateret Cohanim on the same basis as the Rajabi petition. The Dwieks were ordered to vacate the building by August 2nd.

Peace Now on Annexation, Jerusalem, & Populated Land Swaps Under the Trump Plan

Peace Now analyzed the details of the proposed annexation and populated land swaps found in the Trump Administration’s “Vision”.

On annexation and Jerusalem, Peace Now found that the Vision green lights:

• Israel’s annexation of 30% of land in the West Bank, bringing a total of 647,072 Israeli settlers into the state’s borders.
• 412,798 of the total number of settlers will remain living in West Bank settlements that will become territorially contiguous with the state of Israel.
• 220,000 of the total number of settlers are currently living in East Jerusalem and will remain there. All East Jerusalem neighborhoods on the Israeli side of the separation barrier (i.e. all Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the surrounding areas) will become part of the State of Israel.
• 14,274 settlers will find themselves in “settlement enclaves,” surrounded by what would nominally be called the state of Palestine (assuming Palestinians met all preconditions and ongoing conditions) but connected to the State of Israel by Israeli-secured roads/tunnels/bridges.

On the annexation plan, Peace Now writes:

“Annexation of settlements would require Israel to secure a line of defense around the West Bank five times greater than the Green Line. Further added to this immense security burden would be the costs building a security barrier around it, as well as to secure Israeli enclaves inside Palestinian territory for less than a mere 15,000 Israelis. Annexation is a unilateral move that critically undermines the goodwill needed for fruitful negotiations… The issue of Jerusalem and its holy sites is among the focal points of the conflict. The US proposal not only denies Palestinians of their symbolic national and religious capital, but it also permanently leaves hundreds of thousands of Palestinians severed from a Palestinian state, under Israeli sovereignty. Previous negotiations have proven that the conflict cannot be resolved without finding a solution for Jerusalem. Israel’s previous attempt to do so at Camp David in 2000, in proposing that the Palestinian capital be located in Abu Dis, led to the derailing of talks and contributed in part to the national-religious tensions over the ownership of parts of Jerusalem that precipitated the outbreak of the Second Intifada.”

Specifically on the annexation of land in the Jordan Valley, Peace Now found that the map accompanying the “Vision” does not match the map Prime Minister Netanyahu published in September 2019 when he unveiled his own plan to annex the Jordan Valley. The main differences is that the Trump  map provides for Israel’s annexation of less land and fewer Palestinians than Netanyahu’s map.

On the “Vision”’s proposal for populated land swaps, Peace Now finds:

• In exchange for the annexation of 30% of the West Bank land, Israel would “give” the future State of Palestine land that equal in size to 13.5% of the West Bank (including land that can by no measure be viewed as comparable on quality).
• Observing a discrepancy, Peace Now notes that:
  • According to the Trump map, 132,028 Palestinian citizens of Israel will be transferred into the borders of the future State of Palestine. 
  • According to the “Vision”’s explanatory paragraph (which lists specific communities to be transferred), 257,050 Palestinian citizens of Israel will be transferred into the borders of the future State of Palestine. 
• In addition, 120,000 East Jerusalem Palestinian non-citizen permanent residents are designated to become a part of the future State of Palestine.

On populated land swaps, Peace Now writes:

“Depriving Arab citizens of citizenship and a place in Israel is shameful, legally questionable, and reeks of ethnic cleansing.”

Emek Shaveh on Jerusalem Antiquities & The Trump Plan’s Embrace of the Settlers’ Agenda

A new Emek Shaveh publication provides specific details on exactly how the Trump “Vision” lends support to settler initiatives to use Jerusalem’s history and antiquities to promote Israeli-Jewish hegemony and control over the city. Though there are hundreds of recognized holy sites in Jerusalem, the “Vision” lists just 31 sites (17 Christian, 13 Jewish, just 1 Muslim, in addition to the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif – which is identified as of joint Jewish-Muslim significance. The list notably omits Al Aqsa Mosque). Sprinkled among the holy sites, the “Vision” lists sites which are neither holy nor widely known, including several sites either owned or managed by the radical Elad settler group.

On this point, Emek Shaveh writes:

“It appears that beyond indicating the city’s sanctity, the list of sites is indicative of how dangerous it is for Jerusalem to remain under the sovereignty of one party which has an interest in underscoring and enhancing its own religious and historical connection to the city. Emek Shaveh’s publication Selectively Sacred: Holy Sites in Jerusalem and its Environs (2016), details how Israel has recognized Jewish sites as holy, without formally recognizing Christian or Muslim sites. In our opinion, the assumption articulated in President Trump’s plan, according to which Israel optimally or equitably protects historical and holy sites, is mistaken. Over the past 20 years we have witnessed the opposite phenomenon, in which the Jewish narrative at heritage sites has been highlighted while non-Jewish connections to sites have been played down or ignored. Settler organizations and the Israeli government have initiated several plans, most notably the Shalem Plan, which aims to reinforce the Jewish connection to Jerusalem through archaeological excavations and tourism. To our knowledge, no projects exist that aim to strengthen Christian or Muslim connections to the city.”

Emek Shaveh goes on to list and explain the antiquity sites listed in the “Vision,” drawing critical distinctions that the ”Vision” obscures in a manner that benefits the settlers’ agenda and erodes Jerusalem’s multi-faith character. Emek Shaveh highlights the following antiquities cites listed in the “Vision” which are connected to settler initiatives:

• “Mount Scopus,” which the state of Israel has never defined as a sacred site. 
• The ‘Path of the Pilgrims,’ which is an archaeological excavation site in Silwan funded by the radical Elad organization. The excavation of this road has caused severe damage to the Palestinian homes above ground. Emek Shaveh notes “The excavations are still ongoing and no scientific reports have been published. Identification of the site remains unclear, therefore its branding as the ‘Path of the Pilgrims’ has not been backed by any publicized research.” Moreover, Israel does not recognize this as a holy site.
• The “Gihon Spring/Ein Umm Al-Daraj/the Pool of Siloam”, which is a way to refer to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy site located in the neighborhood of Silwan, where the Elad settler organization has financed archeological excavations for 25 years. Further, the state of Israel, which officially recognizes this site as holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, has entrusted Elad to manage the City of David national park, which covers this area and the antiquities there. 
• ‘The Tombs of the Prophets Haggai, Zecharia, and Malachi’ (on the Mt. of Olives), which has not been scientifically identified and located. Israeli settlers have adopted this site into their agenda by citing rare Christian traditions which associate the site with the tombs, but that claim has not been corroborated by scholars and is not supported by many clerics.
• Other sites which are not holy and/or not well known:
  • The Sambuski Cemetery (not recognized as holy by Israel)
  • The Hurva Synagogue (not recognized as holy by Israel)
• In addition, settler organizations are applying pressure to shift the status quo on some of the Christian holy sites, such as the “Room of the Last Supper” among others. To date, authorities in control of those sites have managed overall to preserve their properties and status.

All of these facts are the basis for Emek Shaveh’s conclusion that the authors of the Trump Plan lack the essential knowledge regarding “the city’s diverse traditions, and a familiarity with archaeological research and  the sociopolitical changes that have occurred over the past several decade.” [Another equally likely conclusions: they have the knowledge and don’t care, preferring to weaponize the notion of “holy sites” for political purposes.]

Read Emek Shaveh’s full analysis here.

Kerem Navot on the Trump Administration’s “Settlement Enclaves”

In an extended Twitter thread, Kerem Navot founder Dror Etkes uses the Ma’ale Shomron settlement and a neighboring outpost to explain how the Trump Administration’s “Vision” for Israeli-Palestinian “peace” is nothing short of rewarding war crimes. Etkes writes:

“Last week the Trump admin published its plan predicated on the idea that none of the 130 or so Israeli settlements in the West Bank will be dismantled. Israeli settlements are illegal. They are war crimes. Trump’s one-sided proposal fails to recognize this. 

One of these settlements is Ma’ale Shomron – located between the Palestinian cities of Qalqilya and Nablus. Notably, it is home to the Honorable [Dani Dayan], Israel’s Consul in New York. Next to Ma’ale Shomron there is a small Palestinian village (often referred to in Arabic as a ‘khirbeh’) that Dayan doesn’t want anyone to know about. Dayan especially doesn’t want people outside of Israel, to whom he loves to tell his story that ‘settlements are actually good for the Arabs!’ to know about this Khirbeh. So we’ll tell you about it ourselves!  

Long before Dayan started to represent the State of (Greater) Israel overseas, he moved to Ma’ale Shomron – located about 10 kms east of the Green Line, just south of the Qalqiliya-Nablus Road (Road 55). Ma’ale Shomron was established in 1980, on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Kafr Thulth. How was it established? Israel declared more than 5,000 acres in this area as ‘state land,’ of which about 500 acres were given to the settlers of Ma’ale Shomron. The settlement was in fact built in the heart of a British-era pine tree forest, in which half of the trees were cut down for its construction. Here you can see two images, 1 from 1979 & the other from 1983. [map] The rest of the newly-declared ‘state land’ was given to other settlements — Karnei Shomron, Nofim and Yakir — located along Wadi Qana, a tributary of the Yarkon River that runs through the northern West Bank. 

The land Israel took wasn’t uninhabited. In the mid-1940s, 2 Palestinian families moved from Al-Shaykh Munis (on which Tel Aviv Univ is built) to what became a Palestinian Khirbeh called Ayoun Kafr Kara, located southeast of where Ma’ale Shomron would be established. 

With time & enormous investment by the Israeli government and taxpayers, residents of Ma’ale Shomron built permanent homes. Dani and Einat Dayan, like their neighbors, built a generously sized home in the heart of what became a gentrified settlement. 

What about Khirbet Ayoun Kafr Kara? Did Israeli authorities, as they invested heavily in Ma’ale Shomron, also provide for basic necessities – water, electricity, roads – for its Palestinian neighbors, whose residence there pre-dated the arrival of the Dayans by decades? Stop wasting time with silly, provocative questions. 

Instead, let’s fast-forward to the end of the 1990s, when illegal outposts – that is, new proto-settlements established by settlers in violation of Israeli law – started popping up all over the West Bank. Residents of Ma’ale Shomron wanted an outpost of their own. They decided to locate that new outpost to their south, on land that the military had allocated to settlements but for which no construction planning or permissions was granted. Forging ahead on their own, in 1999 Ma’ale Shomron settlers began (illegally) paving a road, with the intention to establish a new outpost on the southernmost part of the land. Their plan came to fruition in 2002, with the establishment of an outpost they called ‘El-Matan.’ As with most outposts, El-Matan was populated by a group of people who, even as compared to the general settler population, are political and ideological extremists. What subsequently happened to El-Matan is linked to the fate of all the outposts. 

Over the years, the Israeli High Court wrestled with the challenge illegal actions by settlers posed to Israel’s rule of law. The Court, rather than hold settlers accountable, encouraged the govt to find creative ways to retroactively legalize the illegal acts of settlers. One of the ways the government developed was to categorize outposts, post-facto, as “neighborhoods” of existing, ‘legal’ settlements. This is what happened to El-Matan, which in 2015 was defined as a “neighborhood” of the settlement of Ma’ale Shomron, located a km away.

In Dec 2014 Ayala Shapira, an Israeli child residing in the outpost, was badly injured by a Molotov cocktail thrown by a Palestinian. As a result, Israel’s government allocated tens of millions of shekels to pave a ‘security road’ for the 15 families in El-Matan.The construction of the ‘security road,’ completed in 2017, severely damaged the historic road connecting the nearby Palestinian Khirbeh, home to around 100 people, to the larger village of Kafr Thulth, where they went for shopping, schools, medical care, etc. 

Shortly after the opening of the new road to El-Matan, the Palestinian Authority began, in coordination with the Israeli military, to fix and upgrade that critical route. But guess who didn’t like this road project? The settlers, who are experienced with these kinds of things, managed with just a little pressure and a couple of protests to get the Israeli military to shut down access for all Palestinian vehicles on the road. But even that wasn’t enough for the Ma’ale Shomron settlers!

Over the past few months the settlers have been demanding that the military block the historic access road even further away from El-Matan in order to prevent Palestinians from coming in with tractors and cars to their own olive groves, located east of Kafr Thulth. While writing this thread, we remembered that a few years back, Dani Dayan said: ‘The prime minister & defense minister have to act as if they are facing a virtual sign that reads, What have we done to facilitate a dignified life for the Palestinians today?’ Clearly, Dayan’s ideas for benevolent Israeli control don’t apply to those Palestinians unlucky enough to be his neighbors. Likewise, this same worldview – under which Palestinian rights are non-existent – is the foundation of Trump’s Vision for Peace.”

Kushner’s Media Blitz Further Clarifies U.S. Support for Israeli Settlement Enterprise, Contempt for Palestinians

In a series of interviews, White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner spoke without hesitation about his support for Israel’s annexation of West Bank land and settlements, and about his contempt for the Palestinians.

Kushner highlights include:

To Al Jazeera: “With regards to the boundaries, we took the time and we tried to draw a map, this is something – between the settlements and the growth of Israel – that has been going on for many years, and we tried to carve out a way with land swaps and with bridges and tunnels to create a Palestinian state that can be contiguous. Where you can drive from the top, with tunnels and bridges and land and highways, all the way to the bottom….that was something that was very, very hard to do. Quite frankly, if we don’t do this today, at the rate at which Israel is growing, I think that it will never be able to be done. So we see this as the last chance for the Palestinians to have a state…What’s more important than what happened in 1967 is what the ground looks like today in 2020…the map that we have drawn is in the spirit of UN Resolution 242…We also recognized the reality that we do not want to uproot any Jews or Palestinians to make sure that all people have the ability to live in as good of an areas as possible…Under this plan, what we’ve done is we’ve capped the growth of the Israeli settlements for four years. So, there’s never been a four-year freeze before, Israel has agreed to do that in exchange for us recognizing those settlements. But the reality is that those settlements are never being uprooted and if we don’t do this then the settlements will continue growing. [Asked about the specific conditions of the settlement growth freeze] Look, we have outlined a map… and what we are prepared to do is recognize the reality of the map. If there is ever going to be a two state solution, I believe this is the only map that can work. Now, is there flexibility? Yeah, there are different areas you can move a line here, you can move a line there but that can only happen through negotiations, but the Palestinian Authority would rather complain which quite frankly shows they are not ready to have a state. If you are ready to have a state you don’t go and call for ‘days of rage.’… what we’ve done is try to unscramble the eggs to the best degree possible and put this in a position where you can have Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in a construct that can work.” And later with regard to Jerusalem, “The Palestinians have been lied to for so many years. They’ve been promised things and there has been no counter to the promises that have been made to them.So, if they have certain expectations that are not realistic, I feel bad for them. They’ve been lied to by their leadership, they’ve been lied to by a lot of people, and they’ve been used as pawns in the Muslim, in the Middle East, ok?…If people want to have better futures, if they want to have better opportunities for them and their children, if they want to get jobs, it’s time to let go of past fairy tales that quite frankly will never happen.” 

To El-Hakaya, an Egyptian news show: “What’s been happening for many years is that Israel has been expanding as they’ve been negotiating and negotiating and there has not been a resolution to the conflict. This is land that they [the Israelis] are never going to leave anyway because they have their people there.” Kushner said, clarifying that the US recognition would be “in exchange for them [Israelis] stopping growing.”

To Fareed Zakaria on CNN: “What they did is they rejected this before it came out. They called for a day of rage, and they’re saying, we want a state. But people who are ready to get a state aren’t calling for days of rage and then marching in the street…What we’ve tried to do is take a pragmatic approach to it. We’ve tried to do it differently, and I think that for the first time there’s a real offer on the table to break the logjam. And it’s really up to the Palestinians to see if they have the opportunity to pursue it.”

To Christiane Amanpour on CNN: “It was very, very difficult to draw these lines… This is something we inherited.” And later, “This is something that we inherited, the situation where Israel continues to grow and grow…“You have 5 million Palestinians who are really trapped because of bad leadership. So what we have done is we’ve created an opportunity for their leadership to either seize or not. If they screw up this opportunity, which again, they have a perfect track record of missing opportunities. If they screw this up, I think that they will have a very hard time looking the international community in the face, saying they’re victims, saying they have rights. This is a great deal for them…They’re calling for a Day of Rage. Who do you know that runs a state that when they don’t get what they want, they call for a Day of Rage?…Again, the Palestinian leadership have to ask themselves a question: do they want to have a state? Do they want to have a better life? If they do, we have created a framework for them to have it and we are going to treat them in a very respectful manner. If they don’t, they’re going to screw up another opportunity like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.”

UN Security Council Drafts Resolution on Trump Plan & Prepares for Meetings with Kushner, Abbas

The United Nations will host White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner for a closed meeting of the Security Council on February 6th, and then Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Feb 11th. Both will speak to the Security Council specifically about the recently published U.S. “Vision.”

According to reports, Tunisia and Indonesia have drafted and are currently circulating a Security Council resolution critical of the Trump Administration’s plan, emphasizing that annexation is illegal, and reaffirming international commitments to the parameters of a two-state solution. 

Tunisia is the only Arab state currently with a seat on the Security Council.

The United States, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, will undoubtedly veto such a resolution, at which point the Palestinians (in their capacity as a non-member observer state) can take the draft text to a vote in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.

European Union Chief Says Israeli Annexation Will “Not Pass Unchallenged” (And Other European Moves)

Failing to broker unanimous support among European Union member states for a statement against the Trump Vision, on February 4th EU Vice President Josep Borrell issued the following statement:

“The EU recalls its commitment to a negotiated two-State solution, based on 1967 lines, with equivalent land swaps, as may be agreed between the parties, with the State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable State of Palestine, living side by side in peace, security and mutual recognition – as set out in the Council Conclusions of July 2014. The US initiative, as presented on 28 January, departs from these internationally agreed parameters. To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties. This includes notably the issues related to borders, the status of Jerusalem, security and the refugee question. The European Union calls on both sides to re-engage and to refrain from any unilateral actions contrary to international law that could exacerbate tensions. We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank. In line with international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the EU does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied since 1967. Steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged. The European Union will continue to support all efforts aimed at reviving a political process in line with international law, which ensures equal rights and which is acceptable to both parties. The EU will engage with both parties, with actors in the region and all international partners. In this context, the European Union reiterates its fundamental commitment to the security of Israel, including with regard to current and emerging threats in the region.”

Israeli press reported that six countries – Italy, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and at least two other unnamed member states – did not agree to a draft of a joint statement. However, later reports suggested that Hungary was the only member blocking the resolution, and doing so on the basis of “timing.” A short time later, Hungary’s Foreign Minister met with White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner. 

Also making news this week, Estonia’s representative in the European Parliament tabled a motion to support the Trump Administration’s “Vision,” and claimed to have support from 27 Members of the European Parliament. This rep, Jaak Madison, has an alarming, anti-immigrant and virulently homophobic recent history. The European Parliament has scheduled a debate on the Trump Plan –  entitled “US Middle East plan: EU response in line with international law” –  on Feb. 11th. 

One positive/helpful European reaction (there are not many) came from Ireland, where the two largest political parties have both promised to pass a piece of legislation which will ban the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements. Ireland’s general elections will be held this Sunday, Feb. 9th.

Bonus Reads

1. “Can the Netanyahu Government Annex Parts of the West Bank?” (Lawfare Blog)
2. “Trump aide ties Israeli settlements to rising anti-Semitism” (AP)
3. “Trump peace plan offers land without people to people who don’t want the land“ (The Times of Israel)
4. “Trump’s ‘peace plan’ rewards settler violence” (Al-Monitor)
5. “Kushner Does Not See the Brutal Occupation I Helped Carry Out” (+972 Magazine)
6. “For Settlers Like Me, Trump’s Plan is a Losing Proposition” (The Times of Israel Blog)
7. “Netanyahu sought deal with US, Morocco to allow normalization of ties” (The Times of Israel)
8. “Netanyahu’s Land of the Settlers” (Al-Monitor)

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

Comments/questions? Contact Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org).

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Trump Lays Out Vision for Sweeping Israeli Annexation

On January 28th, after three years of deliberations with its Israeli partners, the Trump Administration released its so-called “Deal of the Century” (hereafter called the “Vision”), along with a “conceptual map.” The Vision and map delineates Israeli sovereignty over all of West Bank settlements/outposts and all of the Jordan Valley, while stiplulating conditions for a non-autonoumous/non-sovereign Palestinian state in the remaining disconnected enclaves of land (for which the only appropriate word is “bantustan”). Under the plan, no Israeli settlers or Palestinians are slated to be moved, meaning that the Vision is a proposal to make the current reality of occupation permanent – in effect, formalizing an apartheid reality but calling it a two-state solution.

This report will only address the points of the Vision that are directly relevant for settlement and annexation watchers, and which directly relate to FMEP’s ongoing coverage of Israeli annexation policies. The Vision in its entirety is available here.

Annexation of Settlements & Land

The Vision provides for Israeli sovereignty over all West Bank settlements. Most of the settlements/settlers are in large areas of the West Bank that the U.S. will recognize as part of Israel – in effect whittling away large swathes of West Bank land to the north, south, and West, as well as the entire Jordan Valley.

In addition, the Vision’s conceptual map lists the names of 15 specific settlements – all of them located within the areas that are designated for a hypothetical Palestinian state –  that will become “Israeli enclaves.” Notably, the map key includes an asterisk next to the words “Israeli enclaves” noting that the list is “not all-inclusive.” The map offers no further explanation, leaving the meaning unclear, perhaps by design. To those who understand the way settlements have been placed and expanded in the areas in question, the qualification suggests that unauthorized outposts in these areas will be consolidated into the listed “enclaves.” It also suggests a readiness to adapt the plan to accommodate any additional Israeli demand on this score.

Looking at the map, it is difficult to fully grasp the implications of what is being proposed – mainly because the Trump Administration omitted the 1967 lines (so it is not possible to compare what is being proposed to what the map looked like before). Likewise, the Trump Administration elected to place on the map disproportionately large markers for hypothetical roads/bridges/tunnels that will hypothetically turn the isolated islands of Palestinian territory into a coherent state. These markers serve both to obfuscate the fact that the Palestinian areas are completely disjointed, and to visually inflate the size of the proposed Palestinian areas. Israeli mapping expert and analyst Dan Rothem, after superimposing the 1967 borders and removing the markers, was able to analyze the underlying map. He estimates that the disjointed islands of territory left to the Palestinians by the Vision amount to just 70% of the West Bank.

With respect to the 15 (*number not all-inclusive*) settlements that will become enclaves within the Palestinian bantustans, these settlements are home to roughly 3% of the total Israeli settler population Of them (the following data taken from American for Peace Now’s “Facts on the Ground” mobile app):

• • 8 are located in the southern half of the West Bank, mostly clustered around Hebron: 
    • Ma’ale Amos – located north east of Hebron, established in 1981 with approximately 421 settlers currently living there. There is one unauthorized outpost associated with Ma’ale Amos, Ibei Hanachal, which the Israeli government has advanced plans to retroactively legalize as a neighborhood of Ma’ale Amos.
    • Asfar – located north east of Hebron, established in 1983, with approximately 729 settlers currently living there. There is one unauthorize outpost associated with Asfar (Pnei Kedem).
    • Karmei Tzur – located north of Hebron, established in 1984, with approximately 1,037 settlers currently living there. There is one unauthorized outpost associated with Karmei Tzur (Tzur Shalem).
    • Telem – located west of Hebron, established in 1982, with approximately 391 settlers currently living there.
    • Adora – located west of Hebron (just south of the Telem settlement), established in 1984, with approximately 440 settlers currently living there.
    • Negohot – located south west of Hebron, established in 1999, with approximately 332 settlers currently living there. Negohot has two unauthorized outposts associated with it.
    • Beit Haggai – located immediately south of Hebron, established in 1984, with approximately 596 settlers currently living there.
    • Otniel – located south of Hebron, established in 1983, with 1003 settlers currently living there. This is the settlement where Israeli MK Yehuda Glick lives.
  • 2 are located in the northern West Bank:
    • Hermesh – located west of Jenin, established in 1982 with approximately 215 settlers currently living there.
    • Mevo Dotan – located west of Jenin, established in 1978, with approximately 393 settlers currently living there. The is one unauthorized outpost associated with Mevo Dotan (Maoz Zvi).
  • 4 are clustered around Nablus in the central West Bank:
    • Elon Moreh – located east of Nablus, established in 1979, with 1,912 settlers currently living there. This settlement is widely known for its relation to a landmark Israeli court ruling – the 1979 Elon Moreh ruling – in which the court said that Israel is explicitly prohibited from building settlements on land expropriated for military purposes. 
    • Itamar – located south east of Nablus, established in 1984 with 1,199 settlers currently living there. Itamar has 5 large unauthorized outposts associated with it, stretching the string of settlements towards the Jordan Valley. This cluster of settlers are known to be violent. Following the unveiling of the Vision, Netanyahu singled out Itamar in celebration, saying “Tel Aviv will be treated like Itamar.”
    • Yitzhar – the most notoriously violent of Israel’s settlements, and the home base of the “Hilltop Youth” (dubbed “The Jewish ISIS”). Yitzhar is located south of Nablus, established in 1983, with 1,553 settlers currently living there. The Yitzhar settlement has at least 7 unauthorized outposts associated with it.
    • Har Bracha (Berakha) – located south of Nablus (just north of Yitzhar settlement), established in 1983, with 2,4689 settlers currently living there. Har Bracha has 2 unauthorized outposts associated with it.

According to the Vision, Israel will take whatever land it deems necessary to build and secure roads to those enclaves. Dan Rothem points out that, in order to keep the enclaves, Israel is creating a mess:

“Lengthy ‘fingers’ of Israeli annexation expand deep into the West Bank from all sides, practically dividing the Palestinian state to 6 large cantons (2 WB, 1 Gaza, 2 Negev). These ‘fingers’ create an impossibly-long border for Israel: about 1370 km! Tactically this is anti-security. Patrols will inevitably travel along inferior routes and subject themselves to many threats. All in the sake of retaining isolated, small settlements.”

It is worth observing – as Haaretz laid out – that the lack of territorial continuity the Vision offers the Palestinians will be further degraded by Israeli checkpoints associated with the “Israeli enclaves.” This means that Palestinians will conceivably by subjected to Israeli checkpoints not only along their “state’s” borders, but within the “state’s” own territory. The checkpoints issue is just one example of the further concessions that will be forced upon Palestinians, if the Vision is implemented.

In A Single Line, U.S. Vision Obliterates Palestine Property Rights

In a single – albeit tortured – sentence, the U.S. Vision essentially endorsed Israeli judicial sovereignty over any/all Palestinian property claims on land designated to Israel by the Vision. The Vision reads (page 13):

“The drawing of borders pursuant to the Conceptual Map shall be without prejudice to individual claims of title or rights of possession traditionally litigated within the Israeli judicial system.”

This line gives Israeli domestic courts sole and final authority to decide whether Palestinian landowners retain any legal claim to land stolen by settlements, or to land annexted by Israel in the implementation of the Trump Vision.

It’s also worth noting that the Vision does not mention Israel’s unauthorized outposts scattered across the West Bank, suggesting that the authors do not distinguish between official settlements (legal under Israeli law) and outposts (built in violation of Israeli law). Bolster this interpretation is the fact that, in addition to the language set forth in the Vision, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s settlement doctrine also supported the jurisdiction of Israeli courts to decide whether outposts are legal or illegal. It’s also worth remembering that Israel is currently undertaking a concerted procedural/legislative/bureaucratic effort to grant retroactive legalization to unauthorized outposts (most of which or built partially or fully on privately owned Palestinian land). FMEP tracks these efforts in its Annexation Policy Tables.

U.S. Vision Endorses Population Transfer 

As set out on page 13, the Vision reads, “Land swaps provided by the State of Israel could include both populated and unpopulated areas.” The document goes on to endorse the possibility of transferring 300,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel (living in the Wadi Ara region, an area known as “the triangle,” near Haifa) to the future Palestine state. In effect this is a call for gerrymandering Israel’s borders for the purpose of expelling non-Jewish citizens – an open version of ethnic cleansing long  championed by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and his allies, many of whom have been insisting that, at its base, the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians is a demographic battle, not a struggle over land. As Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and analyst, puts it: “The plan endorses the ethnocracy-over-democracy logic of Israel’s recently passed Nation State Law.”

The Jerusalem Post published many responses to this concept from the people who would be affected.

U.S. Calls for a 4-Year “Pause” of *SOME* Israeli Settlement Expansion

The U.S. Vision proposes a four-year period during which Israel and the Palestinians would negotiate the details of a final agreement, on the basis of the “Vision” and its accompanying map. For the duration of that period, the Vision calls for  Israel to refrain from building new settlements in the parts of the West Bank designated for a possible future Palestinian state, as well as to hold off on expanding the footprint of “Israeli enclaves,” and demolishing existing Palestinian structures in those same areas — unless they pose a safety risk to Israel or the demolition is undertaken as a punitive response to Palestinian violence (a massive loophole that will allow Israel to continue, in effect, to demolish at will).

Netanyahu subsequently asserted that this temporary “pause” does not restrict any Israeli settlement  construction because it only applies to areas where there are no settlements, and it allows for building in the Israeli enclaves as long as it does not expand the footprint of those enclaves (a massive, and familiar loophole that essentially greenlights construction). Settler leaders, including some living in the future “Israeli enclaves, also rejected any notion of a freeze.

The Terms of Palestinian Surrender of Jerusalem

The Vision places a laundry lists of conditions which Palestinians must meet in order to be granted “statehood” (notwithstanding the fact that the future Palestinian state outlined in the Vision has no resemblance to an actual state). 

Several of these conditions relate to abandoning the longtime Palestinian demand to have Jerusalem as the state capital. The Vision explicitly states that Jerusalem will be the unified capital of Israel while giving Palestinians the option of using areas east of the separation wall (Kufr Aqab, Shuafat refugee camp and Abu Dis) as a future capital, which it generously allows them to call “Al Quds” if they desire. It should be recalled that these areas are isolated and impoverished suburbs of Jerusalem (they are in fact outlying areas that Israel added to the Jerusalem municipality after it captured the city in 1967), and that under this Vision, the Palestinains not only don’t get a capital in the area that is what is truly East Jerusalem (i.e., Jerusalem pre-1967), but they are cut off from it entirely. This point affirms what has long been obvious to many:  planning and building the separation wall in Jerusalem was an act of de facto annexation of all the land on the Israeli side of the wall. 

On this point, Ir Amim writes:

“According to the plan, a theoretical Palestinian capital would be established in the areas beyond the barrier, which would include Kufr Aqab, the Shuafat refugee camp area, as well as Abu Dis (see linked map). Abu Dis has repeatedly appeared in various Israeli proposals as a substitute outside of Jerusalem for a Palestinian capital and consistently rejected by the Palestinians. It is likewise important to note there is no territorial contiguity between the two areas beyond the barrier and Abu Dis, rendering it an even more artificial construct.” Ir Amim goes on to predict, “The US plan significantly reflects Israeli efforts in recent years to officially uproot the neighborhoods beyond the barrier from Jerusalem. This is liable to cause a wave of Palestinian residents back into the core of East Jerusalem, increasing the already existing burden on the massive housing shortage and failing infrastructure and leading to even greater chaos within the Palestinian neighborhoods on both sides of the barrier. Likewise, it is possible there will be an increase in requests for Israeli citizenship particularly among Palestinian residents living beyond the barrier in order to secure their status in the city.”

FMEP will provide more in-depth coverage of the Jerusalem aspects of the plan – including the U.S. green light (which has subsequently been changed, at least in public statements, to yellow, but will be understood by the Israelis, correctly, as remaining green) as major change to the status quo on the Temple Mount – as more analysis is published (which FMEP knows is coming!).

The Vision Supports Settlement Endeavors in Silwan

In one of the sections addressing Jerusalem, the Vision lists specific holy sites in Jerusalem which Israel currently controls. That list includes many, many Jewish sites, many Christian holy sites (though notably omitting the Garden Tomb), but just two Muslim sites (Haram al-Sharif and an ambiguous “Muslim Holy Shrines”). Most incredibly, the list of holy sites includes several archeological sites run by the Elad settler organization in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Elevating these sites – which have been cultivated as part of the settlers’ mission to increase the Jewish presence in and hegemony over the historic basin of the Old City, most notably Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah – to the status of “holy sites” is a full endorsement of that agenda. This should come as no surprise to anyone, given Amb. Friedman’s now infamous hammer-wielding appearance in the tunnel of an Elad archeological site in July 2019.

Ir Amim explains the significance:

“The plan calls to safeguard Jerusalem’s religious and holy sites and ensure freedom of access for worshippers of all faiths. It subsequently lists various holy sites in Jerusalem. Save for the Haram al-Sharif and a general reference to Muslim holy shrines, there is no other inclusion of sacred Muslim sites on the list, while at the same time it includes a significant number of Jewish and Christian sites. Among the Jewish sites listed, there are various archeological sites which Israel has never before officially regarded or recognized as holy. It should be noted that these sites are located in and around Silwan and constitute the locus of the Elad settler organization’s touristic settlement operations in the area.” Ir Amim later concludes that because of the Vision, “State-sponsored settlement campaigns in the Old City Basin, including settler-initiated evictions of Palestinians, takeovers of their homes, and touristic initiatives are expected to accelerate.”

Netanyahu Promises, Then Delays, Rapid Approval of Bill to Annex All Settlements & the Jordan Valley

Following his side-by-side press conference with President Trump, the Israeli PM told reporters that he will ask his Security Cabinet to vote on bill to annex the Jordan Valley and all settlements (approximately 30% of the West Bank) this Sunday, February 3rd – but also said that his government will “need to do some work to define exactly [what we will annex].” Following his initial promise, several rounds of new reports suggested, and then un-suggested, and then re-suggested that Netanyahu would delay/soften/reframe this promise to bring annexation to a vote At the time of publication, the latest press reports suggest that Netanyahu decided to cancel the weekly Security Cabinet meeting on Sunday, with no new date set.

Netanyahu’s changing position, at least in part, reflects the conflicting messages coming from Washington, DC. Immediately following the unveiling of the Vision, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman offered the Trump Administration’s full support for Israel’s immediate annexation of lands that the Vision transfers to Israel. A short time later, Jared Kushner – breaking with Friedman – publicly cautioned against such a move before the next Israeli election. The Israeli government then went to the media to insist on the message that there is/was no disagreement between the Israeli and American governments (who wrote the Vision together), and that the seemingly uncoordinated annexation plans were simply a “technical” disagreement, with Israel’s wishing to annex in three chunks, and the Americans preferring for Israel to annex everything at one time.

Netanyahu’s promise to hold an annexation vote so quickly should also (perhaps primarily?) be viewed in the context of the premiership-or-prison election scenario he has been facing for the past year. The pressure to annex, and annex immediately, has reached a fever pitch amongst both Netanyahu’s rivals and his most strategic allies.

When a government source hinted to the press that Bibi might delay his promise to call up an annexation bill on Feb. 3rd in order to allow the Attorney General to issue an opinion on the matter, Bibi’s rivals and allies pounced, offering pointed criticism of Bibi’s leadership and stressing the urgency of annexing the land immediately. In the past, Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit has expressed concern that a transitional government cannot take such dramatic steps (notably, the AG is only worried about the timing of annexation, not the validity of it). Recently, however, he softened – nearly reversed – his opposition to the plan. Bibi’s critics were not assuaged even when the Ynet news outlet cited an unnamed government source saying that Mandleblit is prepared to approve an annexation bill.

Even before reports of a delay in order to allow the Attorney General to weigh in, Benny Gantz, took part in a testy Twitter exchange, responding to Netanyahu by saying:

“You can apply Israeli law in the Jordan Valley in a cabinet decision within two hours, without any Knesset discussion. Let’s see you.”

Gantz has also promised to bring the Vision itself up for a vote in the Israeli Knesset next week.

MK Avigdor Liberman (who played the role of kingmaker/bloc-breaker in the past two election rounds, and might do so again) wrote on Facebook: 

“You don’t care one whit about the Jordan Valley. The only thing you care about is immunity.”

On January 22nd, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (a member of Netanyahu’s very fragile political alliance) publicly called on Netanyahu to stop delaying annexation of the Jordan Valley, and “do it now.” 

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich penned a letter to Netanyahu calling on him to bring a bill to annex the Jordan Valley to a vote next week. Smotrich wrote:

“Yisrael Beytenu and Blue and White think that important and fundamental decisions can be made during a transitional government. I am in favor of this. But not for politics, but for essential matters. Applying sovereignty over the Jordan Valley is one of the important Zionist measures that are on the agenda and if Blue and White wink at the right, it will be given the chance to prove it. The political timing is ripe to back such a move. With a true friend of Israel, President Donald Trump, combined with the ‘urgent’ plenary conference on Tuesday, this is a historic opportunity. We have no excuse for missing it. There are those who demand a plenary convening for populist needs of immunity, we must take advantage of this to implement an historic historic step in the Jordan Valley.” 

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (the leader of the Shas Party, also part of Netanyahu’s political alliance) tried to defend the Prime Minister’s delay, saying that the government is already advancing annexation as an administrative fact. Speaking at a Jordan Valley settlement, Deri said:

“As interior minister, I’m telling you that on the municipal side, we’re already starting to prepare the administrative work. There are many challenges that must be dealt with.”

The picture that emerges from the Israeli political scene is one of nearly consensus support for annexation of the Jordan VAlley and all the settlements, with only the Joint List and Meretz Party challenging the overwhelming support for annexation and the Trump Admin Vision within Israeli politics. 

U.S. & Israel to Form Technical Teams to Plan Israeli Annexation

Israel and the U.S. are not wasting any time in implementing the annexation portion of the Vision.

Following the unveiling of the Vision, U.S. Ambassador Friedman told the press that there is no “waiting period” preventing Israel from annexing West Bank land and that, anticipating such a move, he intends to set up a committee (presumably in the State Department and/or Embassy) “as soon as possible” to examine any Israeli annexation plan to make sure it is in line with the Vision. Speaking on annexation, Friedman said:

“It’s a process that requires effort, accuracy and calibration and you have to make sure that the annexation matches the map in our plan. We will look at the Israeli proposal and examine it and make sure it is in line with our plan. We will set up the committee as soon as possible and work on it immediately and try to end quickly but I do not know how long it will take.”

Acting Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett also announced that he Israel will establish a new governmental body to lead the annexation effort. Bennet said:

“I will be clear: Whatever is postponed until after the elections will never happen. We all understand this. Therefore, I am announcing this morning that I ordered the formation of a special team to apply and carry out the implementation of Israeli law and sovereignty over all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samara, over the Jordan Valley, and the hotels around the Dead Sea.”

This is the third annexation body the Bennet has announced the creation of during his short time as the Israeli Defense Minister during the current transition government. Though it is not clear if any/all of these government bodies overlap,  Bennet announced the creation of:

1. The “special team” detailed in the Bennet quote above [Announced January 29, 2020]
2. An inter-ministerial taskforce to develop settlement and annexation plans for the future of Area C in the West Bank. [Announced January 9, 2020]
3. A research team to survey and then present several legal options for how Israel can bring the settlement planning processes under the Justice Ministry (integrating the settlements into the domestic Israeli planning process, and act of annexation). [Announced December 12, 2019]

Invited to Washington, Prominent Settler Welcome Plan But Utterly Reject Vision for (a Non-Sovereign, Non-Autonomous) Future State of Palestine

Several of the most prominent settler leaders accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Netanyahu to accompany him on a mission to Washington, DC for the unveiling of the Trump Administration’s “Deal of the Century.” The leaders were invited to attend in order to receive briefings about the contents of the plan, or, as they put in a statement:

“We came to strengthen the prime minister and to clearly present to the White House the voice of all the settlements. It was important for us to hear the information in person rather than relying on rumors.”

Ahead of the public release, David Elhayani (Chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group, and chairman of the Jordan Valley Regional Council) told the press that he wasn’t getting much sleep due to worry about the plans’ contents, specifically that it would be “horrible for settlements.” Having reportedly heard from Netanayhu that the plan will outline the possiblitiy of a Palestinian state on 70% of the West Bank, Elhayani said:

“We cannot accept a plan that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would pose a threat to the State of Israel. We will also not allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state, even if that means giving up on enacting sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley [for now]. We call on the prime minister and members of Knesset not to accept a comprehensive agreement within which a Palestinian state can be established in any form.”

Upon seeing the plan – which awarded the settlers nearly everything on their wish list short of the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank – the settler leaders’ opposition calcified with two major objections: 1) the hint of a settlement construction freeze in the “Israeli enclaves,” (which, as described above, is not a meaningful freeze) and 2) the possibility of a future state of Palestine (which, as described above, is not a future state but a few islands of Palestinian land completely encircled and controlled by Israel). The rejection leads one to ask, what do the settlers want to do with the Palestinians? 

In Two Rulings, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Sets Precedent for Massive Displacement of Palestinians in Silwan

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court handed down two rulings in the past 10 days that order the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the Batan al-Hawa section of the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Both petitions were initiated by the Ateret Cohanim settler group, which claims to own the land upon which the homes are built. By accepting Ateret Cohanim’s ownership claim in these two cases – which the settler group asserts based on its management of a 19th century trust – the court has set a significant precedent for nearly a dozen additional petitions initiated by Ateret Cohanim to evict some 700 more Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes.  [map]

First, on January 19th the Jerusalem Magistrate Court ruled in favor of the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim to evict the Palestinian Rajabi family from their home home of 45 years in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan, located just south of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. In so doing, the court accepted Ateret Cohanim’s claim to own the tract of land in Silwan upon which the Rajabi home was built. The court ordered that the family must vacate their 3-story apartment building by July 1st; however, the eviction might be delayed as the Rajabi family announced that the family intends to file an appeal against the decision with the Jerusalem District Court. Nasser Rajabi, head of the family, told Haaretz:

“My father bought this house and I was born in this house. We didn’t take it from anyone. We’d never even heard about the Yemenites until they sued us. I’m not leaving the house, where would I go? We will die before they get us out.”

Second, on January 26th the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled to evict the Palestinian Dweik family from their home (also located in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan) based on a petition filed by Ateret Cohanim on the same basis as the Rajabi petition. The Dwieks were ordered to vacate the building by August 2nd.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“This is an attempt to displace a Palestinian community and to replace it with an Israeli one, in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The settlers could not have succeeded without the Israeli authorities’ close support and assistance. In addition to the hard blow to the prospects for a two-state solution by preventing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, this is an injustice and an act of cruelty to throw out families who have lived lawfully in their homes for decades.”

Ir Amim said:  

“The Ateret Cohanim settler organization is waging one of the most comprehensive settler takeover campaigns in East Jerusalem through initiating mass eviction proceedings against Palestinian families in Batan al-Hawa.  Seventeen families have already been evicted with over 80 other households facing eviction demands, placing some 600-700 individuals of one community at risk of displacement. See Ir Amim’s and Peace Now’s joint report, “Broken Trust” for further details and analysis.”

As FMEP has detailed, Ateret Cohanim is a settler organization which works to establish Jewish enclaves inside densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. In Silwan, it is working largely based on its contention that land in Silwan was once owned by Jews and can now, under Israeli law, be reclaimed. Specifically, Ateret Cohanim contends that land belonging to a Jewish trust (named the Benvenisti Trust) in the 19th century is now the property of Ateret Cohanim, which took control of the trust in 2001. In 2002, the Israeli Custodian General agreed to transfer land in Batan al-Hawa to the Trust/Ateret Cohanim. Since then, Ateret Cohanim has accelerated its multifaceted campaign to remove Palestinians from their homes, claiming that the Palestinians are illegally squatting on sacred religious land owned by the Trust. 

Haaretz columnist Nir Hasson tells the story:

“The neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa is an extreme example stressing the difference between how Arab property was dealt with as opposed to Jewish property. A Jewish neighborhood that had been built for immigrants from Yemen with funds raised by the philanthropic organization Ezrat Nidahim lay in the Batan al-Hawa area until 1938. The homes in the neighborhood were owned by an Ottoman-era land trust that was registered in the name of Rabbi Moshe Benvenisti. In 2001, more than a century after the land trust had been established, the Jerusalem District Court approved the request by three members of Ateret Cohanim to become trustees of the land. With this brief decision that takes up half a page, and a subsequent decision by the Custodian General, the state placed 700 Palestinians, along with their property, under the control of Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to increase Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s Old City.”

Israel Issues Eviction Orders to 30 Palestinian Families Living in the Old City of Jerusalem

On January 20th, Israeli authorities delivered eviction orders to 30 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, including 22 houses in the Old City neighborhood of Bab al-Silsila – or Chain Gate. If implemented, the eviction orders will render almost 200 Palestinians homeless. Reports mention that all of the homes have sustained structural damage because of Israeli excavations under the Old City, but no further details are reported concerning the predicate for eviction.

Bonus Reads

1. “Expansion of jurisdiction brings change for settlers” (Ynet)
2. “Ottoman archives help Palestinians reclaim their land” (Al-Monitor)
3. “Israel Rejects 98% of of Palestinian Building Permit Requests in West Bank’s Area C” (Haaretz)
4. “Bennett looks to demolish illegal Palestinian businesses at Ariel Junction“ (Jerusalem Post)
5. “Go ahead, annex the West Bank” (+972 Magazine)
6. “Prejudices and ignorance among Israeli settlers in the West Bank” (Jerusalem Post)
7. “Here’s What Happens if Israel Annexes the West Bank and Lets Palestinians Vote” (Haaretz)
8. “A Designer Villa With a Sprawling View of the Occupation” (Haaretz)
9. “Illegal Settlement Growth, Widespread Hopelessness among Youth Eroding Middle East Peace Prospects, Under-Secretary-General Tells Security Council” (United Nations)

 

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 20, 2019

1. Israeli Court Rules Sumreen Family Can Temporarily Temporarily Stay in East Jerusalem Home
2. Judge Reopens Case Over Sale of Church Properties in Jerusalem’s Old City of to Settler Organizations
3. Vying for Likud Leadership, Gideon Sa’ar Pressures Netanyahu on E-1 Settlement, Area C Annexation, and Evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar
4. Visiting Harvard, Former Jerusalem Mayor Promotes Settler-Palestinian Business Projects
5. UN: Since passage of UNSCR 2334 Three Years Ago, Israel Has Continuously Expanded Settlements
6. In First, Delegation of UN Ambassadors Tour Israeli Settlements, Praise Settlement Industrial Zones
7. Pompeo Slaps Back After Members of Congress Send Letter Objecting to Shift in U.S. Settlements Policy
8. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Contact Kristin at kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Israeli Court Rules Sumreen Family Can Temporarily Temporarily Stay in East Jerusalem Home

The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that the Sumreen family is permitted to remain in their East Jerusalem home as the court considers the family’s appeal against a lower court ruling that granted ownership of their home to the Jewish National Fund, which has worked in concert with the radical settler group Elad to gain control of the property. 

The Sumreen family has been forced into the battle over its legal ownership of the home after the state of Israel, prompted repeatedly by the JNF, declared the Sumreen’s home to be “absentee” property. After that designation – which was not communicated to the Sumreen family – Israeli law permitted the state to take over the rights to the building. The state then sold the rights to the home – located in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem – to the JNF in 1991. The Jewish National Fund has pursued the eviction of the 18-member Sumreen family since then. Israeli courts ruled in favor of the Sumreen family’s ownership claims to the home for years, until a September 2019 ruling by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court granted ownership of the family’s home to the JNF, a decision the family immediately appealed to the Jerusalem District Court. 

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

Judge Reopens Case Over Sale of Church Properties in Jerusalem’s Old City of to Settler Organizations

On November 28th, the Jerusalem District Court ruled to reopen a high profile case which previously awarded the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim ownership rights to three historic church properties in the Old City of Jerusalem. The court made the decision because shell companies involved in the real estate transaction failed to respond to a court requests. Jerusalem District Judge Tamar Bar-Asher also ordered Ateret Cohanim to pay the church $14,400 (NIS 50,000) to cover legal expenses.

In June 2019, the High Court ruled in favor of Ateret Cohanim’s ownership claims to the three buildings. That ruling was promptly challenged by the Greek Patriarchate, which claimed to have new evidence showing Ateret Cohanim’s forgery of key documents and its payment of bribes to obtain the property. The original Jerusalem District Court ruling acknowledged that there were problems in the transaction, but found that the church failed to prove its allegations of bribery and corruption.

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.

Vying for Likud Leadership, Gideon Sa’ar Pressures Netanyahu on E-1 Settlement, Area C Annexation, and Evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar

On December 10th, Gideon Sa’ar launched his campaign to challenge Netanyahu as the head of the Likud party by touring the E-1 settlement site on the outskirts of Jerusalem. With press following his every move, Sa’ar promised to build E-1, implement Israeli sovereignty over Area C, and evict the bedouin residents of the village of Khan al-Ahmar, located in the shadow of the E-1 site. All three of his promises are key longrunning asks of the powerful settler movement, which has been a pillar of support for Netanyahu despite its displeasure with Netanyahu’s delay in delivering on those specific promises.

In a swipe at Netanyahu, Sa’ar said:

“The struggle for E-1 is a struggle for the heart of Israel,” Sa’ar said. “Netanyahu out of all people, who built the Har Homa neighborhood [in Jerusalem] despite international pressure, should be building here. The rule for Har Homa should be the rule for E-1 and Givat Hamatos [in Jerusalem].” And, “In Khan al-Ahmar, as in the rest of Area C, the question is simple. Who is in control – Israel, or the Palestinian Authority, which is using aide from the European Union to create facts on the ground? The Supreme Court has rejected appeals against [Khan al-Akhmar’s] demolition four times.The future of Judea and Samaria will be determined by actions, not words. Evacuate Khan al-Akhmar immediately. A solution needs to be found for the residents, but you have to understand that the issue here is not just about the residents, the question is who is the sovereign here and what will be the future of Area C as a whole, and here we need to take clear, continuous action.”

The E-1 settlement plan still needs to receive final approval from the Israeli High Planning Committee, the body of the Civil Administration which regulates all construction in the West Bank. The plan has been approved for public deposit, but until this juncture Netanyahu has kept his finger off the trigger – keeping the plan from being deposited.

A week after his E-1/Khan al-Ahmar tour, Sa’ar launched a second attack on Netanyahu’s failure to deliver on major Jerusalem-area settler demands. Touring the Givat Hamatos settlement site in East Jerusalem, Sa’ar said:

“The future of Jerusalem will be decided through actions, not words…this location has strategic significance…Construction here will damage the territorial contiguity that the Palestinians are striving for and will be a barrier to the establishment of a Palestinian state. That is why there is also diplomatic pressure, European mainly, to prevent construction for Jews here….The demographic balance between the Jewish majority and Arab minority over the last decade has changed for the worse.”

The Givat Hamatos settlement has been approved but not constructed. Sa’ar’s assertion of the strategic significance of Givat Hamatos is correct; located in the southern part of East Jerusalem, Givat Hamatos has long been called a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. If Givat Hamatos is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction, severing its connection to the West Bank.

if built the settlement will severe any territorial connection between the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood and the West Bank – leaving the neighborhood completely encircled by Israeli construction. Terrestrial Jerusalem’s Danny Seidemann writes:

“In short, Givat Hamatos is not just another detrimental settlement; it is a game-changer. While it is a smaller project, its implications are no less problematic than those of E-1 – something very much recognized by the Palestinians. The key difference is this: while global opposition has been rallied against E-1, far less attention and opposition has been devoted to Givat Hamatos. Most importantly, with E-1 there is a tripwire. Should Netanyahu decide to proceed on E-1, there will be up to a year to stop him. With Givat Hamatos there will be no warning, and the damage will be mostly immediate.”

Seidemann speculates that Netanyahu, under an ever-increasing amount of pressure both politically and personally, specifically increasingly likely to move forward with settlement plans for the E-1 settlement and forcibly evacuating the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin village.

Seidemann writes: 

“Netanyahu is fighting for his political life and is determined to avoid criminal prosecution and prison time. There is very little he will not do in order to remain Prime Minister under indictment. His failure to approve E-1 and to evacuate Khan al Ahmar has become a rallying point for the settler right, with periodic advertisements appearing in the right wing press calling on him to implement both. The fact that he has refrained thus far from carrying out both these schemes is testimony to the impact that EU engagement on these issues. Sensing Netanyahu’s vulnerability, Sa’ar is attempting to use E-1 and Khan al Ahmar to embarrass and pressure the Prime Minister, and to shift votes to himself. Under circumstances like these, Netanyahu may find the price of ignoring Sa’ar’s pressure to be greater than the anticipated harsh EU response.”

Visiting Harvard, Former Jerusalem Mayor Promotes Settler-Palestinian Business Projects

Likud MK and former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat recently lectured at Harvard Business School, a platform he used to promote “economic peace” schemes that normalize settlements in the name of boosting the West Bank economy. Arutz Sheva, the settler-run media outlet, reports that Barkat’s speech included a push for joint economic projects between Israelis living in the West Bank (settlers) and Palestinians. Arutz Sheva writes:

“He [Barkat] further advanced his vision for increased economic cooperation with the Palestinian workforce via a plan to develop increased ‘industrial clusters’ throughout Judea and Samaria along the lines of those which already exist in places like Barkan and Mishor Adumim.”

Barkat’s language aligns with the work of the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce – an Orwellian-named business scheme FMEP has tracked from its emergence – and the growing attention to and support for its work in U.S. Congress. 

Barkat has enjoyed a close relationship with Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter for years, and has spoken at Harvard at Porter’s invitation at least once before.

UN: Since passage of UNSCR 2334 Three Years Ago, Israel Has Continuously Expanded Settlements

Nearing the three-year anniversary of the passage of UNSCR 2334 condemning Israel’s settlement activities, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that Israel has not ceased the expansion of settlements. They reported that since passage of UNSCR 2334, Israel has approved plans for 22,000 new settlement units and have issued 8,000 tenders for settlement construction. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said:

“The existence and expansion of settlements fuel resentment and hopelessness among the Palestinian population and significantly heighten Israeli-Palestinian tensions. In addition, they continue to undermine the prospects for ending the (Israeli) occupation and achieving the two-state solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.”

In First, Delegation of UN Ambassadors Tour Israeli Settlements, Praise Settlement Industrial Zones

At the invitation of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, twenty-three ambassadors to the UN participated in a delegation to Israeli settlements in the northern West Bank, marking the first time a UN delegation has taken an official delegation to the settlements. Participants included UN ambassadors from Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Guatemala, and Haiti.

The tour included a stop at Barkan settlement industrial zone, which appears to have won support from at least one UN Ambassador for economic peace schemes that, in the name of coexistence and prosperity, entrench the occupation and exploitation of Palestinian workers and their economy. 

The Ambassador from Bosnia, Sven Alkala, said: 

“We have seen Arab and Israeli coexistence in factories and we think this is a very important project. By buying these products, we can give peace a real chance.”

As FMEP has previously explained, for decades Israel has used industrial zones as another tool to expand and deepen control over West Bank land and natural resources. Industrial zones perpetuate Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources), and that it is Orwellian to label such initiatives as “coexistence” programs, or to suggest that they offer the Palestinians benefits they should welcome. Importantly, jobs in industrial zones – often the only jobs available for Palestinians living under an Israeli occupation that prevents the development of any normal Palestinian economy – are widely viewed by Palestinians as a double-edged sword. The Israeli group Who Profits recently explained:

“Israeli Industrial Zones constitute a foundational pillar of the economy of the occupation. They contribute to the economic development of the settlements, which are in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, while relying on the de-development of the Palestinian economy and the exploitation of Palestinian land and labor…The Industrial Zones in the oPt form part of a practice of ‘financial annexation’ which is an essential component of the broader policy of annexation taking place.”

Pompeo Slaps Back After Members of Congress Send Letter Objecting to Shift in U.S. Settlements Policy

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to criticisms against the Trump Administration’s settlement policy announcement launched by a group of 106 Congressional Democrats, calling the positions they were defending “foolish.” The Democratic letter to Secretary Pompeo, rather than making the case for a principled stance against Israeli settlement activity, focused on the suggestion that the Trump administration is out of step with bipartisan U.S. policy on settlements, as well as the fact that settlements run afoul of international law. 

Responding to the signers of the letter, Pompeo (unsurprisingly) disagreed with both assertions. He went on to use the Democrats’ arguments as a springboard for writing his own largely ahistorical version of the history of U.S. settlements policy, and for re-hashing a number of highly creative arguments challenging the view that settlements are illegal — arguments formulated and promulgated by a handful of ideological legal experts who have for decades defended all Israeli activities related to the occupation.

Praising Sec. Pompeo’s letter, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman succinctly summarized Pompeo’s letter, saying:

“In his response to the 106 congressmen, Secretary Pompeo lays to rest the criticism that the Administration’s determination with regard to Israeli settlements was contrary to law or inconsistent with bipartisan policy. Indeed, the administration’s decision, in reversing secretary Kerry’s unfortunate statement in support of UNSCR 2334, restores the United States to its historic and appropriate role in mediating the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Expansion of Nof Zion in the heart of Jabal Mukkaber”  (Terrestrial Jerusalem)
2. “Renewed effort to advance Atarot settlement” (Terrestrial Jerusalem)
3. “Palestinians plan legal steps to stop new Hebron settlement” (Al Monitor)
4. “Despite Court Order, Israeli Army Denies Palestinian Landowners Access to Evacuated Settlement Site” (Haaretz)
5. “Fearing Investigation, Israel Says Hague Has No Jurisdiction in West Bank or Gaza” (Haaretz)
6. “High Court: Israel Police Handling of Palestinian Complaint ‘Troubling, to Say the Least’” (Haaretz)
7. “France to support Palestinian agriculture in West Bank areas under Israeli control” (Al-Monitor) 
8. “UN: Israel has advanced 22,000 housing units in West Bank” (AP)
9. “Bennett, the Battle for Judea Has Been Decided” (Haaretz)
10. “Local settlers despair as Hilltop Youth moves in” (Ynet)

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.

September 27, 2019

1. Israeli Cabinet Votes to Legalize the Mevo’ot Yericho Outpost, Pledges to Legalize More
2. Israel Evicts Another Palestinian Family from its Home in East Jerusalem’s Silwan
3. On Israel’s Agenda: Letting Settlers Directly Purchase West Bank land
4. A Jerusalem Suburb is Building a Cemetery in the West Bank
5. New B’Tselem Report: Apartheid in Hebron
6. New Al-Haq Report: Israel Means to Crush Palestinian Life in the Old City of Jerusalem
7. Bonus Reads

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

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Israeli Cabinet Votes to Legalize the Mevo’ot Yericho Outpost, Pledges to Legalize More

On September 15th – two days before elections — the Israeli security cabinet voted to start the process of legalizing the Mevo’ot Yericho outpost, located just north of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. If given final authorization by the next Israeli government, Mevo’ot Yericho will be the sixth official new settlement established by the state of Israel since it signed the Oslo Accords in 1993. 

The Israeli Cabinet approved the plan during a meeting held, exceptionally, in a Jordan Valley settlement. The choice of the location for the meeting, which is a de facto expression of Israeli sovereignty over the area, is especially notable given Netanyahu’s recent promise to annex the majority of land in the Jordan Valley. Dismissed by some as a campaign stunt, the idea was nonetheless supported in principle by Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue & White party, who claimed that the idea was his first. The Cabinet’s choice to legalize the outpost and meet in the Jordan Valley was condemned by Palestinians and senior Jordanian government officials.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“This official establishment of another settlement proves yet again that the government is unencumbered by the thought of international backlash or the end to Israeli democracy on its way to annex Area C. The government continues to show blatant disregard for reaching a two-state conflict-ending agreement with the Palestinians. Instead, it prefers to take new strides in formalizing the acquisition of occupied territory and to control the area’s resources while permanently keeping the Palestinian population confined without full rights in isolated cantons.”

Paving the way for the Cabinet to approve the plan, Israeli Attorney General Mandleblit rescinded his earlier objection to the timing of the approval, apparently having been convinced that granting retroactive legalization to the outpost was an “urgent” matter. According to a source who spoke to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu convinced Mandleblit of the plan’s urgency by informing him that the Trump’s “Deal of the Century” will put outposts, including Mevo’ot Yericho, at risk for evacuation, and that Israel must “combat” the plan before it is published. 

Israel’s move to legalize Mevo’ot Yericho is just the latest in the state’s efforts to effect the mass retroactive legalization of outposts that were built in the West Bank without required legal approvals of the Israeli government and its planning authorities. FMEP has documented this effort, and the legal manipulations that make it possible, in its Annexation Policy Tables. As Israeli calls for annexation become more common, this repository of policies is an illustrative, living archive of how Israel has already acted (and continues to act) to annex land in the West Bank. 

Israel Evicts Another Palestinian Family from its Home in East Jerusalem’s Silwan

On September 20th, a Jerusalem Magistrate judge ruled to evict the Palestinian Sumreen family from its longtime home in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The ruling is the latest boon to two powerful organizations, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Elad settler organization, which have for nearly 30 years been trying to evict the 18-member Sumreen family.

The Sumreens are expected to continue their  fight to stay in their home, by appealing the latest eviction order to the District Court (and then, if necessary, the High Court of Justice).

The Sumreen family has been forced into the battle over its legal ownership of the home after the state of Israel, prompted repeatedly by the JNF, declared that the Sumreen’s home as an “absentee” property. After that designation – which was not communicated to the Sumreen family – Israeli law permitted the state to take over the rights to the building, after which the state sold the rights to the JNF in 1991. Since then, the JNF has been working to evict the members of the Sumreen family who continued to live there. The JNF ran into many obstacles in their pursuit, and for years Israeli courts  ruled in favor of the Sumreen family’s ownership claims to the home. A full history of the saga involving the Sumreen family – which is similar to dozens of other Paelstinian homes in Silwan that were declared Absentee Property in the 1990s – can be found on the Peace Now website here.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“This is a cruel story that did not need to happen. KKL-Jewish National Fund has become a settler fund. It has repeatedly tried to throw a Palestinian family out of its home by exploiting a legal method that is stacked against Palestinians, and has not let go for nearly 30 years even after losing in court. This is part of an ugly process of using absentee property law based on questionable evidence to take Palestinian assets and give them to settlers, and to destroy the delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem.”

As Peace Now mentioned, the JNF’s activities in Silwan have been a source of repeated misery for the Paelstinians. For background, see this report on +972, as well as this commentary from Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran. Notably, controversy over the issue in 2009 prompted the JNF to issue a denial of any role in the efforts; this denial was contradicted by the facts, including the actual wording of the eviction order.

On Israel’s Agenda: Letting Settlers Directly Purchase West Bank land

When Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, it kept in place a pre-1967 Jordanian law barring private land sales to non-Arabs. Now, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Israeli army have reportedly drafted legal opinions in support of canceling this law in order to allow settlers to directly purchase West Bank land. Those opinions have been submitted for consideration by the Israeli Deputy Attorney General, who, according to Haaretz, is expected to approve them with the backing of the Attorney General. 

FMEP’s Lara Friedman weighs in here to explain the background of this issue and the magnitude of the proposed change:

“In 1967, Israel established a military government apparatus to run the West Bank, that eventually became the ‘Civil Administration’ (an Orwellian name, since it is an arm of the Israeli military). Israeli military governance in the West Bank  was set up, at least in principle and at the start, to operate in a manner consistent with international law. International law requires an occupying power to leave in force the existing laws in the territory it occupies, with limited leeway for that power to issue new administrative orders or laws, but only in cases of military necessity or for the benefit of the local population. 

Over the past 52 years of occupation, Israel has re-purposed this international law-based approach into a system of ‘rule by law’ (versus ‘rule of law’). Israel holds on to and enforces pre-1967 laws where those laws can be interpreted and used to serve Israeli objectives. Where those old laws obstruct or fail to sufficiently facilitate Israel’s objectives, Israel supplants them with IDF-promulgated rules, Israeli court rulings, and Israeli domestic laws (i.e., laws passed by the Knesset that apply inside sovereign Israel and are extended to the settlers – as citizens – and to matter that relate to settlers in the West Bank, in what increasingly constitutes a form of “legislative annexation.” [for more details, see Yesh Din’s excellent report, “Through the Lens of Israel’s Interests”: The Civil Administration in the West Bank].

As a result, since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank have been governed by an ever-evolving legal system that includes: (1)  pre-1967 laws (including exploitation of old Ottoman land laws as a means for Israel to declare huge areas of the West Bank to be ‘state land’); (2) international law of occupation (including exploitation of the Occupier’s right to use land for military necessity or the public good as a pretext for massive land expropriation and using land for the sole benefit of the IDF and settlers);  (3) Israeli military orders (governing nearly every aspect of Palestinians’ day-to-day lives, including orders closing off access to land); (4) Israeli court rulings (like rulings that legitimize settlers taking over ‘disputed’ houses in Hebron); and (5) increasingly in recent years, Israeli laws, like the Regulation Law (passed by the Knesset and allowing Israel to transfer Palestinian private property to settlers who built on it illegally, based on the argument that the settlers were unaware that the land was privately owned by Palestinians).

Israel’s decision to leave the Jordanian-era law barring the sale of private land in the West Bank to settlers in place for the past 52 years should be understood as an Israeli government decision, reflecting Israel’s own calculation of what policy served its interests. Why would Israel want to limit the ability for settlers to buy West Bank land? For a number of reasons:

(a) security: wherever settlers move in the West Bank,  their presence has the potential (even likelihood) of sparking violence and conflict that would compel an IDF response. Even absent such conflict, wherever there are settlers, the IDF is required to invest enormous resources in protecting them (including manpower, physical infrastructure). In short, if settlers can purchase land wherever they want, they can, in effect, hijack the IDF, at great expense to Israeli taxpayers and regardless of security considerations.

(b) international relations: settler activity in the West Bank has for most of the past 52 years been closely watched and sharply criticized by the international community, and especially the United States; so long as Israel maintained an official policy of being the sole authority that could permit the establishment of new settlements, it could limit (to some degree) wildcat settler activity and, where such activity did take place, it could disavow responsibility. Notably, in the earliest days of the settlement movement of the early 1970s, settlers did find a limited method of circumventing the Jordanian law (by purchasing property via front companies – a practice that continues to this day); while it is telling that the Israeli government did not at the time intervene to close this loophole in the law, it is equally tellingly that it did not dare use that loophole as pretext for annulling the law.

(c) diplomacy/peace process: unrestrained settler activity across the entire West Bank, undertaken at will and with an official green light from the Israeli government, contradicts even the thinnest pretense that Israel is not engaged in annexation — and annexation not just of settlement blocs, or Area C, or the Jordan Valley, but of the entire West Bank. 

Today, all of these calculations appear to have changed. Israeli military and Defense Ministry advisers are reportedly advocating for Israel to change the law. To this end, they have come up with multiple legal arguments designed to forestall international criticism by arguing that such a change is, in fact, entirely consistent with international law. For example, they suggest playing cynical games with the requirement under international law that laws made by the occupying power be for the benefit of the local population. One idea is to argue that settlers are the “local population” and that Israel thus has an obligation under to adopt laws that are to their benefit (as FMEP has previously explained, in 2016 Israeli Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran opened the door to including settlers in Israel’s understanding of what constitutes the “local population” of the West Bank). Another idea is to argue that allowing settlers to buy West Bank land would provide an economic benefit to Palestinians. And a third is to argue that Israel has the right as the occupier, under international law, to annul the Jordanian law simply on the basis that Israel views it as racist and discriminatory laws — and citing the actions of the United States in Iraq as a precedent.

In sum, after 52 years of using every legal strategy available to ignore the protection afforded to Palestinians and their land under international law, today Israel is resuscitating the idea of international law in the West Bank — but only as a pretext for a new policy that, if implemented, should put an end to any debate over whether there is any real difference, in practice, between Israeli policies of de facto annexation, and an Israeli policy of official annexation. Israeli authorities and political leaders from across most of the political spectrum no longer even feign commitment to negotiating the future of the land and talk openly of annexation; and it appears that Israeli concerns that settler actions will hijack the IDF are outweighed by the desire to take concrete steps that demonstrate that — even without a formal statement of annexation — Israel has shifted to openly treating the entire West Bank as part of Israel.”

A Jerusalem Suburb is Building a Cemetery in the West Bank

With conditional approval from the Israeli army, the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Mevasseret Zion is moving ahead with plans to build a cemetery in the West Bank. The Israeli army had to give its sign off on new cemetery because there is a standing no-construction order – issued by Israel – for the areas adjacent to separation barrier (which was recently used as a legal pretext to demolish 13 Palestinian buildings in the Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood, located in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank).

The IDF gave a conditional approval to the scheme, requiring the neighborhood to obtain additional approval for a plan that includes elaborate security measures for the cemetery. Those requirements include cameras, a 10-foot tall metal fence, and armed civilian guards at every funeral.

This is not Mevasseret Zion’s first step to extend into the West Bank. In June 2018, the anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot discovered that Mevasseret Zion had expanded into the no-man’s land between the internationally recognized 1967 Green Line and the Israeli separation barrier. That encroachment – which was unnoticed up to that point – is plain to see on Google maps.

New B’Tselem Report: Apartheid in Hebron

In a new report, the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem argues that Israel’s policies in Hebron are reminiscent of apartheid South Africa. Entitled, “Playing the security card: Israeli Policy in Hebron as Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinians” the report outlines the history, policies, legal decisions, and key events that convey the segregation and misery inflicted by Israel on Palestinians in Hebron.

B’Tselem writes:

“Some features of the regime employed in Hebron recall certain aspects of the apartheid regime in South Africa…This regime has created what is known as a coercive environment, in effect leading to the forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinians and the closure of hundreds of businesses. This violates the prohibition on forcible transfer enshrined in international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime. Twenty-five years of this segregation have normalized a shameful reality, in which the lives and rights of tens of thousands of Palestinians are trampled underfoot while the interests of several hundred settlers are promoted by violent means.”

New Al-Haq Report: Israel Means to Crush Palestinian Life in the Old City of Jerusalem

In a new report, the Palestinain human rights organization Al-Haq analyzes Israeli policies vis a vis Palestinians living in the Old City of Jerusalem since 1948. Entitled, “Occupying Jerusalem’s Old City: Israeli Policies of Isolation, Intimidation and Transformation,” the report concludes:

“In the course of its 52-year occupation and annexation of Jerusalem, Israel has implemented an array of methods in order to isolate and intimidate Palestinians, and transform the city into its so-called ‘united capital.’ In doing so, Israel has unlawfully appropriated and demolished properties, closed Palestinian institutions, restricted religious practice, obstructed the economy, and implemented countless other measures with the aim of forcibly transferring Palestinians from Jerusalem. At the same time, Israel has attempted to Judaize the city through establishing residential and tourism settlements, changing the names of streets, and altering the landscape. Nowhere are these policies more apparent than in Jerusalem’s Old City, which has been a central target of Israel’s objective of erasing Palestinian presence.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Even if the Settlers’ Party Lost, the Settlements Won“ (Haaretz)
2. “Isarel’s War of Attrition Against A Palestinian Christian Town” (Haaretz)
3. “Cable Cars Over Jerusalem? Some See ‘Disneyfication’ of Holy City” (New York Times)
4. “[Letter from Silwan] Common Ground: The politics of archaeology in Jerusalem” (Harper’s Magazine)
5. “[Podcast] Common Ground: Feet of clay: on the troublesome uses of archeology, past and present” (Harper’s Magazine)
6. “Last Time a Jewish State Annexed Its Neighbors, It Disappeared for 2,000 Years” (Foreign Policy)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 16, 2019

1. Israel Is Playing A Dangerous Game of Politics With the “Status Quo” on the Temple Mount
2. Report: Netanyahu Predicts Trump’s Will Endorse Annexation Ahead of September Elections
3. Ministry of Housing Pumping Millions Into Student-Led Settlement Organization in the Jordan Valley
4. Israeli Govt Welcomes FTA with South Korea, Despite Korean Insistence on Respecting the Green Line
5. Pro-Settlement Legal Attack Dog Sends Letter to ICC Attempting to Show Why Settlements Are Legal
6. Bonus Reads

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

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Israel Is Playing A Dangerous Game of Politics With the “Status Quo” on the Temple Mount

Several recent events and statements suggest that Israeli officials – facing another round of elections next month – are increasingly willing to directly violate the status quo that has, for the most part, reigned on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount since even before 1967.  

First – in a shocking and dangerous decision, last week Netanyahu reversed decades of Israeli policy by announcing that Israel would not only allow Jews to ascend the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif during one of the most important Muslim holidays, Eid al Adha, but that he would allow Jewish prayer at the holy site (see this Ir Amim brief explaining restrictions on non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount) – decisions which fundamentally alter the status quo. These policy shifts – and the resulting presence  Jewish religious extremists, many active with the Temple Mount movement –  predictably led to clashes between Israeli policemen and Palestinians, who arrived in force after being urged to defend Al Aqsa Mosque by the Muslim Waqf and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

Subsequent to the clashes, rather than tamping down incendiary rhetoric, many senior Israeli ratcheted up the tension by calling for Israel to change to the status quo. Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said:

“I think there is an injustice in the status quo that has existed since 1967. We need to work to change it so in the future Jews, with the help of God, can pray at the Temple Mount..This needs to be achieved by diplomatic agreements and not by force.”

Erdan’s caveat, that the change must come through diplomacy, was quickly batted down by Jordan, which is Israel’s cooperating partner in maintaining the status quo. In addition to sending a private letter of protest to Isareli officials, the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi tweeted:

“We completely condemn Israel’s violations of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. The occupation authorities’ absurd actions and attempts to change the status quo in occupied Jerusalem will only lead to the conflict being exacerbated and the situation blowing up, threatening international peace and security. We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and pressure Israel to stop its violations.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz supported Erdan’s comments, and went further to suggest that Israel can act unilaterally. Katz said:

“It is Minister Erdan’s right to put a suggestion on the table for discussion. He didn’t force it but rather set it down. But the sovereignty is the State of Israel’s.”

Yonathan Mizrahi, the Executive Director of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO focused on combating the politicization of archaeology, wrote:

“The responses by Israeli politicians to the events at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif this week reveal that the Temple Movement has succeeded in both getting the attention of the media as well as receiving newfound support from the right. Smotrich’s backing, of course, is nothing new; in 2015 he submitted a bill to the Knesset that would allow Jews to pray freely at the Temple Mount. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who reiterated his support for changing the status quo, has also repeatedly backed the movement…The presence of Jewish worshippers entering the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif during Eid al-Adha signals not only a change in the status quo between Israel and the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the custodian of Haram al-Sharif, but also in the way right-wing voters themselves view the Temple Movement, which just a few years ago was considered fringe, even among the settlers. If the right manages to stay in power after these elections, there is no doubt that the status quo will continue to come undone.”  

Ir Amim said in a report on the events last weekend:

“Not only does this underscore an acute disregard by the Israeli authorities for the sanctity of Muslim holy days and exclusive Muslim worship rights to Al Aqsa, but it further signals capitulation to Temple Movement demands and constitutes a flagrant breach of the status quo, which affirms only Muslims hold worship rights and Jews are visitors. According to what is implied by the status quo, in such a coalescence of events, the exclusive worship rights of Muslims to the TempleMount/Haram al-Sharif take precedence over the visiting arrangements afforded to non-Muslims.”

Earlier this year, on Jerusalem Day in July 2019, the Temple Mount activists and politicians pushing to change the status quo struck another significant victory – providing an even earlier signal that the Israeli government was no longer strictly respecting the status quo. Terrestrial Jerusalem reported at the time:

“[Israeli] Police initially announced that, as in the past, they would not allow entrance of non-Muslims to the Mount in the final days of Ramadan, Jerusalem Day notwithstanding. They conveyed their decision to the High Court, in response to a suit filed by the Temple Mount movements to grant them access to the site on that day. However, on the morning of Jerusalem day, the police reversed their position, and to everyone’s surprise (including the Temple Mount activists themselves), they allowed 120 settlers Temple Mount activists to enter the Temple Mount/Haram Al Sharif, in spite of the customary practice whereby only Muslims  are allowed to ascend the Mount in the closing days of Ramadan. As expected, violent disturbances erupted and the police closed the gates of the Al Aqsa mosque, triggering additional clashes.”

In March 2019, tensions again flared – this time over the move by the Islamic Waqf to re-open Bab al Rahme. Ir Amim explained at the time:

“Seizing on the current unrest, Temple Movement activists are ratcheting up pressure on the government, raising highly contentious demands that have not been publicly aired for years.  Framing the reopening of Bab al-Rahma as a breach of the status quo, they have demanded a lifting of the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif as well as the opening of a synagogue at the holy site. In fact, Bab al-Rahma was an active site within the Holy Esplanade that was closed by the Israeli government sixteen years ago for reasons that are no longer germane, not because its use constitutes a violation of the status quo. The prime minister himself, following violence at the holy site in 2015, averred that ‘Israel will continue to enforce its longstanding policy: Muslims pray on the Temple Mount; non-Muslims visit the Temple Mount.’ Despite Temple Movements’ misrepresentation of events as a breach of the status quo, the framing has proven effective in garnering support within the right wing media and political establishment. Various members of Knesset are now demanding a tough stance from the government, including re-closure of the Bab al-Rahma site. In a television interview this morning, Likud member Avi Dichter declared that Israel will not allow another mosque on the Temple Mount (in reference to Muslim prayers being conducted inside Bab al-Rahma).” 

Reports on August 15th provided yet another suggestion that the Israeli government is no longer committed to respecting the Temple Mount status quo. At the time of reports, Israel was still expecting to allow a congressional delegation led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib into the country, and was apprehensive about the delegation’s plan to visit the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. According to an anonymous Israeli official, the government was planning to:

“make sure there’s apparent Israeli sovereignty over the site, they’ll demand Israeli police go in with them, and not just the Waqf officials.”

Report: Netanyahu Predicts Trump’s Will Endorse Annexation Ahead of September Elections 

The Hebrew-language outlet Zman Yisrael (a sister outlet of The Times of Israel) reports that Netanyahu is predicting confidently that the Trump Administration will come out publicly in support of Israeli annexation of West Bank settlements ahead of the upcoming Israel elections. An anonymous source inside the Prime Minister’s office told the outlet:

“Ahead of the elections, something will happen. President Trump will repeat the statements by Friedman and Greenblatt in his own words. It will likely be dramatic.”

The White House declined to comment on the story [not confirming but also not denying] and an official from the Prime Minister’s office called the report “incorrect.” However – as the Times of Israel article notes – two of the three American officials crafting the so-called “Deal of the Century” have already gone on record supporting Israel’s future annexation of areas in the West Bank, and both are prominent, unapologetic supporters of the settlement movement. 

Ministry of Housing Pumping Millions Into Student-Led Settlement Organization in the Jordan Valley 

The Jewish News Syndicate reports that the Israeli government has granted nearly $3 million (5 million NIS) to the Kedma organization, which pays for young Israelis to live in “student villages” located inside of Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. 

Kedma founder Tirael Cohen told JNS:

“In the Zionist story, the decision was made to protect borders not through tanks or checkpoints only, but through activist communities living on the border. They are the real security of Israel…borders define who we are spiritually…We are still fighting for our physical and spiritual existence, and now we have the opportunity to create the identity of the state for the future.”

With government funding, Kedma provides highly subsidized housing and a yearly stipend of 10,000 shekels ($2,900) to students participating in its program. The program requires student residents to volunteer 300 hours per year on projects around the settlement, helping establish and grow an Israeli presence there. Kedma has already built 5 “student villages” (housing 30-50 students each) located in the Jordan Valley. Cohen reports that an estimated 70% percent of Israelis who live in the “student villages” choose to live in settlements after completing the program. 

Israeli Govt Welcomes FTA with South Korea, Despite Korean Insistence on Respecting the Green Line

According to Ynet news, next week Israel will sign a massive, historic free trade agreement with South Korea that excludes the Golan Heights and West Bank settlements from the deal’s economic benefits. 

If signed, this will be the first time Israel signs a free trade agreement explicitly excluding settlements, though the government has signed on to various other bilateral agreements – including 2012 cooperation program with the European Union and a 2017 labor deal with China – which draw a hard distinction between Israel and its settlements. 

In drawing that line, South Korea is defying Israel’s ever-escalating campaign to erase the Green Line, normalize annexation, and in so doing eschew any consequences of violating international law. 

As context, Israel’s anti-boycott law rejects any distinction between Israel and settlements, and Israel vehemently rejected Europe’s policy calling for differentiation between Israel and settlements. Consist with the Israeli campaign, under President Obama, Congress passed into law two separate bills that intentionally conflate Israel and settlements and make it a priority for U.S. trade negotiators to challenge the policies of U.S. trade partners if they fail to do the same.

Pro-Settlement Legal Attack Dog Sends Letter to ICC Attempting to Show Why Settlements Are Legal

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) European counterpart, the European Center for Law and Justice, sent a letter to the International Criminal Court – which has been conducting a preliminary investigation into the possibility of opening a war crimes probe into Israel’s settlement for the past four years – arguing not only that Israeli settlements are perfectly legal under international law, but that Israel is the victim of Palestinian Apartheid policies in the West Bank. The ACLJ is a pro-settlement legal attack group headed by Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer of President Trump.

The letter, makes three claims:

1. The land is, in fact, Israel’s. 
2. For the sake of argument, even if you do not believe the land is Israel’s, then it is disputed land – which Israel is allowed to settle.
3. Israel cannot be said to be occupying the land because the State of Palestine does not exist.

The ACLJ/ECLJ is not the first pro-settlement legal organization to attempt to convince the ICC of Israel’s blamelessness. In March 2019, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the New York-based Lawfare Project submitted a brief to the ICC outlining their claim that the court has no jurisdiction over Israeli actions vis a vis the settlements.

Unsurprisingly, the policies of the Trump Administration and Israel have aligned neatly the ACLJ and its like-minded allies in their campaign to stop the ICC from opening an investigation into Israeli settlement crimes. On March 17, 2019, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened  ICC staff with travel restrictions and financial sanctions if the court opens a probe into Israel. In September 2018, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened to sanction the ICC, citing the court’s consideration of the settlement issue as a primary justification for those sanctions.  In November 2018, the Israeli Attorney General threatened to launch, according to the Jerusalem Post,  a “public legal campaign, aggressively contesting [the ICC’s] jurisdiction” over the issue.

Bonus Reads

1. “Liberal Zionists, Face the Facts: There’s Already Only One State From the River to the Sea” (Haaretz)
2. “Engineering a Jewish majority’: Palestinian villagers driven out by Israel’s ‘green’ policies” (Middle East Eye)
3. “Settlers Defiant After Canadian Court Rules Their Vineyards Aren’t in Israel” (Times of Israel)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 9, 2019

1. Summary: Another Week, Another Round of Major Settlement Approvals
2. Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 1: Three Outposts are “Legalized”
3. Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 2: Final Approval for 648 New Settlement Units
4. Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 3: Plans Advanced for 1,466 New Settlement Units (With More to Come)
5. Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 4: Reactions
6. Following Murder of Settler Youth, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Commitment to Settlements
7. Latin Patriarchate Files Suit Claiming New Proof of Fraud Behind Settler Takeover of Old City Hotel Properties
8. Education Minister Strips Key Committee Membership from Professor Who Objected to Authorization of Settlement Medical School
9. Bimkom Report: Israel’s “No Construction Zone” Adjacent to the Separation Barrier Has Little To Do With Security
10. Ir Amim: Israel’s Crackdown in Issawiya Advances Settlement Project in East Jerusalem
11. Terrestrial Jerusalem In-Depth Report: The Silwan Tunnel Project
12. Bonus Reads

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

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Summary: Another Week, Another Round of Major Settlement Approvals 

During its quarterly convening on August 5th and 6th, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council advanced plans for a total of 2,304 new settlement units. This includes: 

• the approval of plans legalizing 190 units that have the effect of retroactively legalizing 3 unauthorized outposts;
• final approval for the construction of 648 settlement units; and
• interim approval (i.e., a step toward final approval) for the construction of 1,466 new settlement units

These approvals comes on the heels of the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to issue 6,000 building permits for settlement units last week (details of which are still unpublished). The past week of massive settlement advancements is a clearer-than-ever indication that Israel (with very public backing from top U.S. officials) is not holding back its illegal settlement activities and its ongoing annexation of the West Bank, particularly in Area C.

Details of this week’s approvals are broken down below.

Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 1: Three Outposts are “Legalized” 

Plans advanced August 5-6 by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council In its decisions taken August 5th and 6th include at least 190 units in three illegal outposts — which have the effect of retroactively legalizing those three outposts. The outposts that gained retroactive approval this week are:

• Haroah Haivri – The council approved a plan for an educational institute and accompanying housing for students and staff. Most extraordinarily, Haroah Haivri, located just east of Jerusalem, is within eyesight of the Khan al-Ahmar community,  which Israel is planning to demolish (forcibly relocating the Palestinian bedouin community that has lived there since the 1950s) — ostensibly because the structures in Khan al Ahmar were built without necessary Israeli approvals. The Haroah Haivri outpost was also built without the necessary Israeli approvals, but instead of demolishing the construction, Israel has retroactively legalized it — demonstrating once again that, when it comes to administering the occupation, Israel prefers “rule by law” – where law is turned into a tool to elevate the rights/interests of one party over another, over the democratic rule of law.
• Ibei Hanachal – The Council approved 96 units in this outpost, located southeast of Bethlehem, turning it into a “neighborhood” of the Maale Amos settlement. In reality, the outpost is not contiguous with the built-up area of the Maale Amos settlement, meaning that the implementation of this plan will, in effect, create a distinct new settlement (for coverage of this plan, see here) .
• Givat Salit – The Council approved 94 units in this outpost, located in the northern Jordan Valley, as part of turning it  into a “neighborhood” of the nearby Mechola settlement.

The legalization of these three outposts only adds to the success of Israel’s ongoing and increasingly successful effort to retroactively legalize all illegal settler construction in the West Bank  (that is, construction undertaken illegally under Israel law; all settlement construction is illegal under international law). The lengths to which Israel has gone to in order to achieve that goal include inventing new legal grounds — some outlined by the government’s “Zandberg report” and another – the “market regulation principle” identified by the Isareli Attorney General — that in effect allow Israel to suspend the rule of law and erase private property rights of Palestinians. For the past 2.5 years, FMEP has documented this campaign in detail  in its Annexation Policies Tables – regularly updated and available online.

Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 2: Final Approval for 648 New Settlement Units

The actions taken this week by the High Planning Council include issuing final approval for 648 settlement units – mostly new construction but also some approval of existing construction that had been undertaken without approval (all of this is in addition to the 190 units in outposts legalized retroactively).  Details of these approvals for new settlement construction are as follows:

• 

  Map by Peace Now

  194 units in the Ganei Modlin settlement, located in the northern “seam line zone” in the West Bank but on the Israeli side of the security barrier (by design of the Israeli government). The plan for 194 new units will bring the settlement’s built-up area directly up to the separation barrier, a particularly notable plan given Israel’s recent demolition of 70 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, based on the argument that the construction within a 200-250 foot Israeli-imposed “no construction zone” on either side of the barrier poses an unacceptable security risk to Israel. Israel rejected an offer by Palestinians to privately finance the construction of new and higher wall near the buildings; developers behind the Ganei Modlin project also offered to finance the construction of high wall near the construction, an offer the courts saw fit to accept – resolving the matter in the eyes of the High Planning Council, which approved the plan.

• 96 units in the Kiryat Netafim settlement, located in the northern West Bank and part of a string of settlements and unauthorized outposts – most notably Ariel – extending from the Green Line into the very heart of the West Bank and on towards the Jordan Valley.
• 76 units in the Beit Hagai settlement, located just south of Hebron,
• 66 units in the  Efrat settlement, located south of Bethlehem. Efrat had already received final permission for 1,000 new settlement units at the most recent High Planning Council meeting, in April 2019. As a reminder, Efrat is located inside a settlement enclave that cuts deep into the West Bank. Efrat’s location and the route of the barrier wall around it, have literally severed the route of Highway 60 south of Bethlehem, cutting off Bethlehem and Jerusalem from the southern West Bank. The economic, political, and social impacts of the closure of Highway 60 at the Efrat settlement (there is literally a wall built across the highway) have been severe for the Palestinian population.
• 61 units attached to an educational institute in the Gva’ot settlement, located south of Bethlehem. The Gva’ot (Gevaot) settlement was established as an outpost of mobile homes, and later benefited from Israel’s unilateral, mass expropriation of Palestinian land in 2014 (which Israeli officials explictly said was done in response to a Palestinian terror attack). At the time, Peace Now reported that the move constituted the largest single expropriation of Palestinian land by the Israeli state in over 30 years. 
• 51 units in Shvut Rachel, which only recently became an authorized settlement area when Israel extended the jurisdiction of the Shiloh settlement to include it as a “neighborhood” (along with three other outposts). The plans approved this week will retroactive legalize existing units and permit the construction of a few news one.
• 29 units in the Otniel settlement, located in the South Hebron Hills area. The plans serve to retroactively legalize existing units.
• 27 units in the Maskiyot settlement, located in the northern Jordan Valley. These units are part of a plan allowing the construction of a “bed and breakfast” with 27 additional rooms (and calling to mind Amnesty International’s recent report on the role tourism plays in supporting the occupation).
• 19 units in the Peduel settlement, located in the northern West Bank and part of a string of settlements and unauthorized outposts – most notably Ariel – extending from the Green Line into the very heart of the West Bank and on towards the Jordan Valley.
• 18 units and a park in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
• 11 units in the Einav settlement, located northwest of Nablus.

In addition, the Council gave retroactive approval for a controversial archeological site in the Shiloh settlement, located in the center of the northern West Bank. The Israeli government has devoted a significant amount of money and political energy towards building the tourist site, which is now drawing upwards of 60,000 evangelical tourists each year. For background on the site, see this Emek Shaveh report from 2014 and this brief from 2017, when the government approved the commercialization of the site. For analysis on how the site fits into a bigger pattern of Israeli efforts to normalize the settlements through tourism, see this report by Amnesty International.

Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 3: Plans Advanced for 1,466 New Settlement Units (With More to Come)

Actions taken August 5-6 by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council include advancing plans that, when they eventually receive final approval, will allow for the construction of 1,466 settlement units (details of the various steps of the planning/approval process are laid out by Peace Now here). Specifically, the Higher Planning Council this week approved the  following plans for deposit for public review:

• 382 units in the  Beit El settlement, located north of Ramallah. The plans include the retroactive legalization of 36 units; the remaining 346 are new units. As a reminder, Beit El is the settlement closely associated with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who among other things was the President of the “Friends of Beit El” organization, which raised money on its behalf.
• 354 in the Nili settlement, located in the northern West Bank;
• 200 units in the Asfar settlement, located northeast of Hebron. If approved, this plan will triple the size of the Asfar settlement.
• 168 units in the Talmon settlement, located north west of Ramallah. In December 2018, FMEP reported on a deadly encounter between neighboring Palestinians and settlers from Talmon and/or the many unauthorized outposts associated with it. The settlers had been attempting to takeover another hilltop on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of al-Mazra’ah al-Qibliyah. When Palestinians staged an attempt to stop the settlers from entering the area, a scuffle ensued and Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians.
• 132 units in the Kfar Adumim settlement, located east of Jerusalem and less than one mile from the Khan al-Ahmar bedouin community which the state of Israel is seeking to demolish.
• 84 units in the Shima settlement, located in the southern tip of the West Bank.
• 74 units in the Yakir settlement, located in the northern West Bank and part of a string of settlements and unauthorized outposts – most notably Ariel – extending from the Green Line deep into the West Bank.
• 48 units in the Bracha settlement, located south of Nablus.
• A recreational area in the Kochav Yaakov settlement, located just south of Ramallah.

In addition to the plans approved and advanced detailed above, the High Planning Council delayed consideration of two additional plans, which are:

• A plan that would effectively legalize another outpost, known as Brosh. Similar to the Haroah Haivri plan, discussed above, the plans relating to Brosh serve to retroactively legalize an existing educational institute. Approval of the plan was delayed because the Council had not resolved objections that were filed against the plan, including an objection filed by Peace Now.

A plan for 207 settlement units in the Bracha settlement, located near Nablus (these plans are in addition to the plans for 48 units approved to be deposited for public review, covered above). Though plan was on the Council’s schedule, it could not be approved because the Council first needs to approve the extension of Har Bracha’s existing settlement jurisdiction to include the area units are to be built. Since the plan calls for the construction of units outside of the existing area of jurisdiction, the plan could not be approved.

Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 4: Reactions

Following this week’s advancement of plans for 2,304 settlement units, settlement watchers and key members and bodies of the international community issued sharp criticism and sounded the annexation alarm bells. In contrast, there was glaring –  and very, very, very predictable – silence came from the U.S. administration. A few notable reactions are included below.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The approval of settlement plans is part of a disastrous government policy designed to prevent the possibility of peace and a two-state solution, and to annex part or all of the West Bank. The linkage of thousands of housing permits for settlers and a negligible number of housing units for Palestinians cannot hide the government’s discrimination policy. As a result, we see for example an approval of the illegal outpost (Haroeh Haivri) built for Israelis adjacent to the Palestinian bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar, for which the government refuses to approve any construction permits and instead seeks to transfer. Or we see, the approval of the construction of a new settlement neighborhood adjacent to the separation barrier after demolishing 72 housing units built adjacent to the separation barrier in Wadi Hummus, despite offering to fund security measures.”

The European Union issued a statement which reads:

“The EU expects the Israeli authorities to fully meet their obligations as an occupying power under International Humanitarian Law, and to cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, of designating land for exclusive Israeli use, and of denying Palestinian development.”

United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement:

“The expansion of settlements has no legal effect and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law. By advancing the effective annexation of the West Bank, it undermines the chances for establishing a Palestinian state based on relevant UN resolutions, as part of a negotiated two-state solution.”

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged Israel to stop what he called:

“the effective annexation of the West Bank.”

Leilani Farha, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the right to housing, and Michael Lynk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, said in a statement:

“These settlement housing units are clearly meant to solidify the Israeli claim of sovereignty over the West Bank. Building civilian settlements in occupied territory is illegal, as is the annexation of territory. The international community has spoken out against the Israeli settlements, but it has not imposed effective consequences for the country’s defiance of international law. Israel’s actions indicate it plans to remain permanently and advance a claim of sovereignty. The Israeli Prime Minister made this clear when he said recently that: ‘No settlement and no settlers will ever be uprooted.’ Should we not take him at his word that Israel has no intention of complying with international law? Criticism without consequences is hollow. The international community has a wide menu of commonly-used countermeasures to push recalcitrant states into compliance with their international duties. If the international community is serious about its support for Palestinian self-determination and its opposition to Israeli settlements then, surely, the time has come for meaningful action.”

Israeli settlers, on the other hand, we filled with glee. Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shlomo Ne’eman said in a statement:

“Thank God today we received approval from the Higher Planning Council for new housing units in Gush Etzion. Congratulations to all of our residents on the 200 units in Metzad, which is historic in that it will triple the size of the community. Congratulations on the final approvals for the Sadna institution, which works towards integration and is located in Gevaot, and will enable permanent construction of tens of units. Another major breakthrough is the final approval for Ibei Hanachal, which essentially fully legalizes the community and includes the construction of 96 permanent homes. These are major accomplishments for southeastern Gush Etzion, for the Jewish communities in the Judean Desert, and of course for all of Judea and Samaria. This is an opportunity for me to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu on this impressive accomplishment. Let’s hope that the trend of development and construction in Judea and Samaria continues full speed ahead.”

Following Murder of Settler Youth, Netanyahu Doubles Down on Commitment to Settlements 

Following the murder of a 19-year old Israeli settler, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed once again that he will promote settlement construction in all areas of the West Bank. Speaking at a ceremony marking the establishment of a new neighborhood of 650 units in the settlement of Beit El (which just saw plans for 382 new units advance, see above) Bibi said:

“We promised to build hundreds of housing units. Today we are doing it, both because we promised and because our mission is to establish the nation of Israel in our country. We know that the Land of Israel is bought in agony. Today another one of our sons fell. He was from a family that has already made a heavy sacrifice for the Land of Israel. These vicious terrorists: They come to uproot, we come to plant. They come to destroy, we come to build. Our hands will reach out and we will deepen our roots in our homeland – in all parts of it.”

Bibi’s words — which suggest an intention to continue/expand settlement construction across the entirely of the West Bank — did not satisfy many of his challengers on the Israeli right (against whom he is squaring off against in the upcoming election). Ayelet Shaked – who is leading a union of right wing parties – called directly for annexation. She said:

“We have to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. Gush Etzion is in consensus and there is no reason not to apply sovereignty there.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said:

“our response to the murder has to be [to] apply sovereignty on the settlements, starting with Gush Etzion.”

And the Sovereignty Movement – is an offshoot of the Women in Green organization, and has been working to formalize its expanding influence over Israeli politicians and public discourse by pushing for the establishment of a Knesset committee devoted to the cause of Israeli annexation of the West Bank – issued a statement saying:

“It is either us or them! This is a 52-year-old struggle that must be resolved. Sovereignty will bring resolution and will erase the hope of pushing us out of here through terror attacks. The resolution must be clear and unambiguous – we have returned to the heritage of our fathers, we will bring another million Jews here, we will build dozens of communities. The Arabs are invited to live under our sovereignty as individuals and enjoy a prosperous life as residents.”

Latin Patriarchate Files Suit Claiming New Proof of Fraud Behind Settler Takeover of Old City Hotel Properties

On August 5th, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem filed a request to reopen the underlying case in Jerusalem District Court which awarded the radical settler group Ateret Cohanim the ownership rights to three historic church properties in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Patriarchate’s appeal is based on new evidence of fraud committed by the Jerusalem settler organization Ateret Cohanim – with the aid of church officials – during the sale of the properties. The original Jerusalem District Court ruling acknowledged that there were problems in the transaction, but found that the church failed to prove its allegations of bribery and corruption.

The allegations of fraud rely on the testimony of Ted Bloomfield, a man who managed the Petra Hotel in the 1990s. Bloomfield reportedly told the Greek Patriarchate that Ateret Cohanim paid him to help persuade the Palestinian protected tenants to sell their rights. The lawsuit says these actions are “extraordinary in their severity” and include fraud, forgery of legal documents, and bribery – including alleged attempted sexual bribery. The church’s complaint also alleges that the settler group obstructed justice in deliberately concealing documents during legal proceedings. 

Haaaretz recently published a moving video testimony of one Palestinian man, Abu-Walid Dajani, whose family has run the New Imperial Hotel, one of the targeted properties, since 1949. Dajani is now facing eviction.

Education Minister Strips Key Committee Membership from Professor Who Objected to Authorization of Settlement Medical School

The Haaretz Editorial Board penned a sharp criticism of newly appointed (and interim) Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz, who recently removed Professor Yossi Shain from the Planning & Budgeting Committee of the Higher Education Council. Shain was one of the members of the key professional committee – which essentially serves as the gatekeeper for schools hoping to join the ranks of accredited Isareli education institutions – who objected to the rushed and politicized process by which, in contravention to the Council’s normal practice, a medical school located in the settlement of Ariel received approval from the Higher Education Council.

The Editorial Board writes:

“The ‘revenge’ taken by Peretz against someone acting according to his professional judgment is a worrisome sign. The message conveyed by the education minister’s bureau is crystal clear: In education and academia, loyalty to the occupation and annexation project has become a decisive criterion.”

Bimkom Report: Israel’s “No Construction Zone” Adjacent to the Separation Barrier Has Little To Do With Security

In a new report, the Israeli NGO Bimkom sheds light on the very problematic regulation that was the legal pretext behind Israel’s recent demolition of 70 Palestinian homes in Wadi Hummos – i.e., the argument that the construction was located too close to Israel’s separation barrier. 

Bimkom explains that in 2011, the Israeli military issued a “no construction order” to prevent construction close to the separation barrier, ostensibly on the basis of security considerations. The zone defined by the order ranges from ranges from 30 meters to 700 meters in different areas (on both sides of the barrier). Given that much of the barrier passes through the West Bank (meaning the land on both sides is Palestinian land), the cumulative impact on the Palestinians is significant. According to Bimkon, the total area affected by the no-construction order is approximately 195,000 dunams [48,185 acres/195km2] of land, belonging to 115 Palestinian villages. 

While the order also (theoretically) impacts 15,000 dunams of land in areas where there are settlements located close to the barrier, the perimeter of the zone and enforcement against construction within it follows a predictable logic in favor of the settlements. 

Bimkom writes:

“Similar to the barrier route, the no-construction order is determined such that its impact on settlement construction is minimal, but its impact on Palestinian villages is enormous. The negative impact of the physical barrier on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians is intensified expanded to hundreds of meters in which Palestinian construction is prevented. The potential for Palestinian development in Area C is already very limited, and the no-construction zone only serves to exacerbate the situation. In summary, it can be seen that the security considerations which are supposedly behind the construction ban are often questionable, and this also applies to Wadi al-Hummus. The obvious conclusion is that the security considerations according to which buildings in Areas A and B were demolished are a smoke-screen for political considerations whose purpose is to reduce the Palestinian population in the seam zone, especially in the Jerusalem region, or even to punish them for unrest in the area, according to army reports. The threat of demolition still hangs over Wadi al-Hummus, as there are a large number of other buildings that have received demolition orders and the court is scheduled to discuss their case in the coming months.”

Also, as detailed above, the inconsistency of Israeli policy when it comes to enforcing the “no-construction zone” was on display this week, as Israel approved the construction of 194 units in the Ganei Modlin settlement, right up to the barrier (discussed above). Whereas Israel rejected an offer by Palestinians in Wadi Hummos to privately finance the construction of new and higher wall near their buildings (and went ahead and demolished them), Israel authorities accepted an offer by developers behind the Ganei Modlin project to finance the construction of high wall near the construction, allowing expansion of a settlement to move ahead.

Ir Amim: Israel’s Crackdown in Issawiya Advances Settlement Project in East Jerusalem

In +972 Mag, Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tartarsky published a superb analysis of the ongoing campaign of daily harassment and intimidation Israeli authorities have unleashed against Palestinians living in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Tatarsky writes:

“The campaign against Issawiya signals a new stage in Israel’s oppressive policies in East Jerusalem, and is part of the overall change in Israeli policy toward the Palestinians with the backing of the Trump administration. In the past, Israel primarily focused on settlement construction in the eastern part of the city. By building so-called ‘facts on the ground,’ the government intended to make it as difficult as possible to draw a border along the Green Line and create two capitals in Jerusalem. Today that focus has dangerously shifted to breaking apart Palestinian Jerusalem. Israel is pouring hundreds of millions of shekels into projects that will take over large parts of the the Old City and its surrounding neighborhoods, while fragmenting Palestinian territory and jeopardizing the Palestinian population. Neighborhoods such as Silwan, A-Tur and Sheikh Jarrah have seen an intensification of home demolitions and evictions on the one hand, while on the other the municipality has built promenades, heritage centers, and other tourist attractions for the Jewish settlers living inside Palestinian neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Israel is aiming to redraw the city’s municipal borders so as to push 120,000 Palestinians — more than a third of the city’s Palestinian population — out of the city. According to legislation advanced last year by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, neighborhoods such as Kufr Aqab, Ras Hamis and the Shuafat refugee camp — already separated from the rest of the city by the separation wall — will be drawn out of the municipal boundaries. Issawiya, then, portends what Israel has in store for the remaining Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem: continual violence that has no aim other than oppressing and making life miserable for all who live there.”

Terrestrial Jerusalem In-Depth Report: The Silwan Tunnel Project

Terrestrial Jerusalem produced an essential in-depth report on Israeli and U.S. policy towards Silwan, offering important context and shedding new light on the significance of Ambassador Friedman and Jason Greenblatt’s political stunt alongside Elad in the tunnels underneath the neighborhood.

Danny Seidemann writes in the report’s introduction:

“The event was not merely dramatic. The choreography illuminated at one critical moment and in one critical space two apparently disparate dimensions of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and their current dynamics: the territorial skirmishing and the battle over narrative in Jerusalem. More than anywhere else, the settlement in Silwan embodies the significant changes taking place in the Old City of Jerusalem and its immediate environs. The opening tunnel was, superficially, a minor routine event that disclosed developments that are anything but routine. As such, it requires an in-depth analysis that takes a hard look at the event, its background and its consequences. In our three sectioned report, we will begin by examining the background and significance of the settlement in Silwan. In Part II, we will examine the tunnel, its archeological, historical and ideological significance and the context in which it was excavated. Part III will deal with the nature of the shift in US policy regarding Silwan, its sources and its ramifications.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Goodbye withdrawal, hello sovereignty: The triumph of the settlers” (Times of Israel)
2. “Peace Cast: Housing Rather than Ideology” (Americans for Peace Now)
3. “How Ayelet Shaked, a secular woman, came to dominate the right-wing religious camp in Israel” (JTA)
4. “India’s Settler-Colonial Project in Kashmir Takes a Disturbing Turn” (Washington 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.

June 28, 2019

1. Radical Settler Group Deepens Control Over East Jerusalem Neighborhood & Tourism Network
2. Israel Advances Plan for Settlement Enclave in Beit Hanina Neighborhood of East Jerusalem
3. Former Mayor of Jerusalem Proposes Plan to Build 12 New Settlement Industrial Zones in Area C
4. McDonald’s Wins Bid to Operate in Ben Gurion, Despite Settler Campaign
5. Settlers Continue Price Tag Attacks on Palestinian Villages, Still No Arrests
6. The Bahrain Workshop [Shhh… Don’t mention Settlements!]
7. Bolton Tours Jordan Valley & Hints at U.S. Support for Permanent Israeli Control
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Radical Settler Group Deepens Control Over East Jerusalem Neighborhood & Tourism Network

Approximately two months ago, the radical settler organization Elad opened a new cultural center and cafe in the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Tor (Abu Tor is a mixed but segregated neighborhood). Named “House in the Valley,” Elad’s new cafe is uncoincidentally located adjacent to the site of a planned new pedestrian footbridge designed to expand Elad’s tourist infrastructure across the area. Specifically, that new footbridge will connect Abu Tor with Elad-run tourist sites and settler homes in the Palestinian Silwan neighborhood – located just outside the Old City’s Dung Gate, in the shadow of the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif.

A week after Elad’s new cultural center was opened in April 2019, the Jerusalem Municipality issued “gardening orders” to take control, for a period lasting 5 years (with the likelihood of extensions after that), of 12 nearby plots of privately owned Palestinian land. “Gardening orders” allow Israel to “temporarily” take over privately owned land for what are public purposes (like establishing a parking lot or public garden), based on the argument that the owners are not presently using the land.The government notices posted on the land, say that the Jerusalem Municipality intends to transform the plots with new landscaping, adding new terraces, and a new walking path. Importantly, as Emek Shaveh notes, the 12 plots in question are located in an area declared by Israel to be a national park, meaning that private landowners are legally barred from using their own land. 

In short, this is an Orwellian situation wherein Israel has actively blocked Palestinains from using their own land, and is now using the fact that the Palestinians aren’t using their land as a pretext for seizing it. Adding insult to injury, the land is being taken ostensibly for public purposes – but the public the seizures are designed is Elad and its supporters, not the Palestinian residents of the area.

Ir Amim explains key context:

“Portrayed as a seemingly innocuous new establishment for arts and culture designed to serve the Israeli public, Elad’s ‘House in the Valley’ serves as an entry point into the settlement ring around the Old City. The new promenade, constructed by the municipality to aid and abet Elad’s efforts by connecting its center with the Jerusalem Cinemateque, not only enables access from West Jerusalem to an Elad-managed site beyond the Green Line, but it propagates the idea of a contiguous Israeli space, while blurring its Palestinian surroundings and diffusing the political agenda behind these efforts. Moreover, the confiscation of privately-owned Palestinian land for purported purposes of beautification is intended to serve the Israeli public projected to visit Elad’s new complex and likely lead to additional settler activities in the area.”

Emek Shaveh says:

“In effect, the gardening orders and the tourism development of the area are part of an attempt by the Elad Foundation, with the assistance of the Jerusalem Municipality, to gain a foothold in Abu Tor as well and to increase the Israeli presence in the Palestinian part of the neighborhood.  A pedestrian bridge that will lead to the café from Mount Zion (see map) is also part of this effort. A budget of 1.8 million shekels for the construction of this bridge was approved two months ago by the Jerusalem Municipality.”

As a reminder, Elad – along with its fellow travelers at Ateret Cohanim – has undertaken a politically- and ideologically-motivated project to hide, marginalize, and erase the presence and history of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population. It has done so in large part by developing and controlling tourist attractions and infrastructure in the area. Elad’s activities in this regard have been funded, politically and bureaucratically enabled, and encouraged by successive Israeli governments. One of Elad’s most spectacular projects is the planned Jerusalem cable car line – which, despite objections from transportation and planning professionals, was recently advanced through another phase of the planning process. That project, like Elad’s other tourism schemes, is designed to further entrench settler activities and tourism sites inside Silwan, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. As a spokesman for Elad once proudly declared, “Our aim is Judaize East Jerusalem”).

Israel Advances Plan for Settlement Enclave in Beit Hanina Neighborhood of East Jerusalem

On June 27th, a plan for 150 new settlement units in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem was deposited for public review, a move which sets off a 60-day period for the public to submit objections to the plan. The Beit Hanina settlement plan – as FMEP has previously reported – is backed and promoted by settlement impresario Aryeh King, and it provides for the construction of 150 new units in the southern end of the Beit Hanina neighborhood. If built, it will be the first-ever authorized settlement project in Beit Hanina, located north of the Old City.

Ir Amim explains essential context:

“If approved, the plan will enable an ideologically driven settler outpost in the heart of Beit Hanina, a neighborhood located on the northern perimeter of East Jerusalem that has remained relatively untouched by Israeli settlement within its limits. Since the land in question is not far from Ramat Shlomo to the south-west and Pisgat Zeev to the north-east of it, its construction may mark the beginning of a far sweeping move to create contiguity between the two settlements, while driving a wedge between Bet Hanina and Shuafat.”

According to the plan, 75 units units would theoretically be earmarked for Palestinians – a point used by the plan’s supporters to suggest that it is actually benevolent. The key word here, however, is: theoretically. As noted by Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann in another context:

“Since 1967, the Government of Israel has directly engaged in the construction of 55,000 units for Israelis in East Jerusalem; in contrast, fewer than 600 units have been built for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the last of which were built 40 years ago.”

Former Mayor of Jerusalem Proposes Plan to Build 12 New Settlement Industrial Zones in Area C

Former Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat joined Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University to write what a proposal calling for the establishment of 12 new settlement industrial zones in the West Bank, which Barkat argues will complement the recently unveiled U.S. economic “plan” in jump-starting the Palestinian economy. Like the U.S. plan, Barkat and Porter’s scheme seeks to entrench permanent Israel control and annexation of the land, people, resources, and economy of the West Bank. Barkat made as much clear in an interview with Israel Hayom when he said:

“The plan’s working assumption is avoiding the eviction of Jewish or Arab residents from their homes. Our goal is to take advantage of the relative advantage every society has. The Israeli side can bring the innovation, the capital and managerial knowledge for the benefit of the Palestinian side, which through working in these industrial areas could significantly increase its income. This is a plan that is also good for the settlements, and all the settlement heads have welcomed it.”

Barkat and Porter’s plan – which they say can employ over 200,000 Palestinians and double their average salary – is based on the demonstrably false notion that industrial zones benefit the Palestinian work force and economy. In fact, as Who Profits recently explained:

“Israeli IZs constitute a foundational pillar of the economy of the occupation. They contribute to the economic development of the settlements, which are in violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, while relying on the de-development of the Palestinian economy and the exploitation of Palestinian land and labor…The IZs in the oPt form part of a practice of ‘financial annexation’ which is an essential component of the broader policy of annexation taking place.”

The report on Barkat and Porter’s plan does not include many specific details as to the locations of the 12 proposed industrial zones, but it hints at several projects that are already known to the public, like the “super settlement” and industrial zone planned to unite four settlements in the northern West Bank, and the industrial zone in the South Hebron Hills near the Tene-Omarin settlement – the latter of which was briefed to the U.S. administration by the Israeli government in September 2018. It is also worth recalling that in January 2019, the Israel government advanced plans for two new industrial zones, one near the Beitar Illit settlement and another near the Avnei Hafez settlement.

Barkat and Porter also call for investments in the West Bank tourism industry, specifically Biblical sites like the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs (in Hebron) and Solomon’s Pools (located just south of Bethlehem).

According to the report, Barkat and Porter presented this plan to Israeli Prime Minister Netanayhu and U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, all of whom – according to Barkat – welcomed it. Barkat believes his plan enhances the U.S. menu of investments and proposals outlined in Kushner’s “Peace to Prosperity” presentation. Further, Barkat argues that his plan is more feasible than the U.S. program because it only envisions projects in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank over which Israel maintains full control, while (he argued) the U.S. plans focus on Areas A & B. In fact, nothing in the text of the Kushner plan specifies any territorial locations, boundaries, or divisions for the proposed projects.

McDonald’s Wins Bid to Operate in Ben Gurion, Despite Settler Campaign

On June 23rd, the McDonald’s franchise owner in Israel was awarded a government contract to operate one of the few food stands at Ben Gurion International Airport. His bid of 17 million shekels ($4.7 million) was vastly higher than other competing bids, winning him the right to operate a McDonald’s branch in the airport for seven years, with an optional 2-year extension.

Ahead of the government’s decision, settlers led a campaign to disqualify Omri Padan – the Israeli man who holds the only McDonald’d Israel franchise license – from bidding on the contract, based on Padan’s failure to open any McDonald’s branch in an Israeli settlement. The settlers claimed that Padan’s failure to do so violates Israel’s Anti-Boycott Law and therefore disqualifies him from receiving public contracts.

Settlers Continue Price Tag Attacks on Palestinian Villages, Still No Arrests

Settlers are believed to be behind three separate attacks on Palestinian property this week, including a rash of hate crimes that damaged Palestinian cars, homes, and religious buildings, and served to intimidate Palestinians living near Israeli settlements.

On June 24th, Palestinians in the village of Sinjil woke up to discover 12 cars with tires slashed and hate messages sprayed painted in Hebrew on several buildings. This is the fifth hate crime connected to settlers in the month of June. Some of the graffiti read “a village of terrorists” and “We give them jobs and they rape.” The latter is a reference to the horrific alleged rape of a 7-year old girl in a settlement; a Palestinian man was immediately charged with the crime and subjected to the equivalent of a national political and media lynching; this week, after 55-days of imprisonment, he was released due to lack of evidence.

On June 26th, vehicles were vandalized and hate messages were spray painted on walls in the Palestinian town of Sarta, which is located west of the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Some of the graffiti read, “non-Jews = enemies,” and the Star of David appeared many times. This is the first time that Sarta has been targeted in a price tag attack.

Yesh Din – an Israeli NGO that tracks and demands justice for settler violence –  said in a Facebook post:

“The violent action tonight joins a series of riots that we document in the West Bank against Palestinians and their property. A reality in which families wake up for a day’s work and are forced to discover that while they are sleeping, unknown gentlemen in an area where their children play with the neighbors’ children has become routine. Over the past month we have reported such riots in various areas of the West Bank: Sinjil, Kafr Malik, Einabus, Asira al Qibliya, Burin from Madame, and more. The one who is supposed to prevent the disturbance, and to stop the unknown people who terrorize the Palestinian villages are the policemen of the SJ District, who only this week presented their amateurish work at best, and failed in their worst case. These interrogators and police officers have a responsibility for the personal security of the Palestinians and they do not fulfill their duties. Thus, they create a reality of terror in which there is no safe place for the Palestinian population, and a sense of security does not exist even in the most private space.”

The Bahrain Workshop [Shhh… Don’t mention Settlements!]

The U.S.-hosted “Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop took place in Manama, Bahrain from June 25-26. The widely-ridiculed event focused on a 95-page project prospectus published by the White House in the two days ahead of the workshop. Without giving any real details, the plan talked about enhancing Palestinian property rights — a notion that begs a myriad of questions given that Palestinain private property rights today are undermined first and foremost by Israel, which in 1967 closed the land registry, and which since 1967 has exploited every available mechanism to seize Palestinian private land, and where such mechanisms could not be found, it created them (like the Regulation Law). Notably, the Trump Administration plan treats Palestinian land registration strictly as a means to foster a better investment climate in the West Bank and Gaza (as opposed to a pillar of rule of law that upholds fundamental rights of individuals).

In this regard, the Director of Human Rights Watch Israel, wrote:

“The plan speaks of the importance of private property rights without mentioning the Israeli authorities’ methodical theft of thousands of hectares of privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank to build settlements, which are illegal under international humanitarian law, or their illegal.”

Mocking the workshop’s very strange approach to Palestinian property rights, The Economist journalist Gregg Carlstrom – who live-tweeted his disbelief of the entire conference – noted sarcastically on June 26th: 

“We kickoff the afternoon’s fun with Kevin Hassett, the ‘Dow 36,000’ guy, talking about property rights. In Palestine, ‘You can radically transform economies when you improve their ability to document property rights!’”

Another notable storyline from Manama: Palestinian businessman Ashraf Jabari was the only Palestinian to be on-stage at the event. As FMEP has previously covered, Jabari has been slammed as a traitor by the Palestinian Authority, shunned and dismissed by his fellow Palestinian business people, and disowned by his family in light of his ongoing role with the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce, an initiative Jabari runs alongside Israeli settlers.

In Manama, Jabari spoke about developing thriving businesses in the West Bank. The Washington Post notes that Jabari was the only speaker to discuss political matters on the stage. The Post writes: 

“When asked by British broadcast journalist Nik Gowing…whether the plan could benefit him, Jabari replied that it could — if Palestinians had a state.”

Jabari might have been telling the truth, but he apparently failed to mention the fact that he, alongside Israeli settler Avi Zimmerman, have proposed the launch of a “bond bank” to become the financing vehicle for the Trump Administration’s plan. The bond bank would aggregate projects and issue debt to fund them, allowing for lower borrowing costs. According to the White House presentation, the U.S. envisions a funding mechanism it calls, “The Peace to Prosperity Master Fund” which will manage the money and projects.

Bolton Tours Jordan Valley & Hints at U.S. Support for Permanent Israeli Control

On June 24th, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton toured the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, and the separation barrier, accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer. At a stop overlooking the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu explained to Bolton:

“For those who say that for peace to be established Israel has to leave the Jordan Valley, I’ll say that’s not going to bring peace, that’s going to bring war and terror. We’ve been there and we don’t want to be there again. Under any peace agreement, our position will be that Israel’s presence should continue here for Israel’s security and for the security of all.”

Following the tour, Bolton did not disappoint Netanyahu, tweeting:

“Today I visited the Jordan Valley and Jordan River with PM @netanyahu, Israeli NSA Meir Ben-Shabbat, @USAmbIsrael, & @AmbDermer. I saw firsthand the strategic importance that these locations have on Israel’s national security. In similar acknowledgement of the simple but profound reality that for Israel to defend itself, it cannot relinquish strategic ground along its border, the President in March, signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.America welcomes the opportunity to strengthen the already deep cooperation between the U.S. and Israel and build on our lasting partnership, demonstrated repeatedly when courage and persistence are required.”

Some 11,000 settlers and 65,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley – the latter facing severe restrictions on land use and freedom of movement, and lack of access to municipal services like water and electricity. Israeli government officials have publicly and repeatedly demanded complete Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley – which makes up 30% of the West Bank – in the context of any peace agreement, meaning that any future Palestinian state would be entirely encircled by Israel, having no international border with any other nation. Likud MK Sharren Haskel has led several Knesset efforts to formally annex the entire Jordan Valley, and recently re-submitted a bill to that affect in May 2019. 

Bonus Reads

1. “The Day After: What Happens If Israel Annexes the West Bank?” (Mint Press News)

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.

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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)