Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 8, 2025

1. Israeli Planning Committee Convened on E-1 Settlement Plan, Decision Pending
2. Israel Advances Plans to Expand Four Settlements in East Jerusalem: Gilo, Har Homa, East Talpiot, and Ramot
3. New Outpost Near Bethlehem Tightens Settler Grip on Kisan
4. In Highly Symbolic Trip, U.S. Speaker Johnson Visits the Ariel Settlement
5. Bonus Reads

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Israeli Planning Committee Convened on E-1 Settlement Plan, Decision Pending

On August 6th the High Planning Council convened for a final hearing on public objections submitted against the E-1 settlement plan. In an unusual delay, the Committee meeting ended without issuing its decision and as of publication the decision is still pending. The decision to reject the objections to the E-1 plan and advance it towards final approval could be issued by the Committee any day.

The hearing itself seemed to indicate the Committee’s strong support for the plan and intention to advance it to the final stage of approval. The hearing was scheduled on very short notice, so much so that none of the objectors were able to attend. Peace Now relayed that the committee meeting began with an argument between the committee members and a lawyer representing the Palestinian community of Al-Ezaria which stands to be displaced by E-1 construction. The lawyer asked the committee to be allowed to make preliminary arguments, which the Chair of the Committee rejected and proceeded to have a discussion on the plan.

The E-1 settlement has, for decades, been viewed as a “dooms-day” settlement and treated as a red-line for countries pushing diplomatic efforts towards a two state solution. E-1 is also vehemently opposed by Palestinians and human rights activists because of the impact it will have on thousands of bedouin, including Khan Al-Ahmar, who live in the area slated for the settlements’ construction, just east of Jerusalem. Construction of this settlement would have severe geopolitical implications (cutting the West Bank in half, cutting it off from East Jerusalem); would necessitate the forcible transfer of several bedouin communities (a war crime); and affect thousands of Palestinians (shredding the fabric of life). 

There have been attempts to promote the E-1 plan since the early 1990s, but due to wall-to-wall international opposition, the plan was not advanced until 2012. At that time Netaynuahu ordered it to be approved for deposit for public review (a key step in the approval process), ostensibly as payback for the Palestinians seeking recognition at the United Nations. Following an outcry from the international community, the plan again went into a sort of dormancy, only to be put back on the agenda by Netanyahu in February 2020. Though plans for construction have been repeatedly delayed, in the interim Israel has taken decisive steps to prepare for the construction of E-1, including building the “Sovereignty Road” in 2023, and then In March 2024, Israel seized the land – by declaring it “state land” –  designated for the construction of E-1.

Israel Advances Plans to Expand Four Settlements in East Jerusalem: Gilo, Har Homa, East Talpiot, and Ramot

Ir Amim reports that the Jerusalem District Planning Committee was scheduled to meet on August 4th to advance plans to expand three settlements in East Jerusalem, which if all approved would see 3,976 new settlement units built.

The plans considered for advancement are:

1. 1. Gilo South – 1,900 new units that will expand the Gilo settlement south towards Beit Jala/Bethlehem, to be built on land that includes ancient olive groves owned and tended to by residents of Beit Jala.
   2. Har Homa East – 660 new settlement units that will expand the settlement to the south and east, further encroaching on two Palestinian communities – Beit Sahour/Nu’man and Um Tuba – where residents are facing the threat of mass displacement at the hands of the Israeli government and settlers.
   3. East Talpiyot – 700 new units that will expand the settlement south further threatening to permanently divide the Palestinian neighborhoods of Sur Baher and Jabal Mukabber.
   4. Ramot – 900 new units that will expand the settlement north right up to the Separation Wall.

While Israeli authorities look to advance these plans for the benefit of settlers, authorities are also advancing plans for the mass displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. Including most receipts plans to demolish a 5-story building in the A-Sawana neighborhood which will displace 17 families. In an all too common occurrence, the building was constructed without Israeli permits (which are systematically denied to Palestinians), and so Israel issued a demolition order against the building soon after it was built. The order has not been enforced for 22 years, but is now being pursued by and Israeli agency under the full control of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

New Outpost Near Bethlehem Tightens Settler Grip on Kisan

Middle East Eye reports settlers have established a new outpost east of Bethlehem near the Palestinian village of Kisan. Kisan has struggled against settler encroachment for decades, and OCHA reports that 65% of the village’s land has already been seized by Israel for the construction of settlements including Ma’ale Amos and Mizpe Shalem.

The village is almost completely surrounded by Israeli settlements and at least eight outposts, and has been the target of routine, sustained, and violent harassment by settlers. Over the past month, 23 families (128 people) from the areas surrounding Kisan were forcibly displaced by repeated violence attacks by settlers.

In Highly Symbolic Trip, U.S. Speaker Johnson Visits the Ariel Settlement

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R, LA-4) arrived in Israel this week and included a stop in the Ariel settlement on his itinerary, making him the highest ranking elected official to visit a settlement (though U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have previously done so). 

Speaker Johnson was escorted on his trip to Ariel by Marc Zell, chairman of the Republicans Overseas Israel chapter, who gleefully celebrated Johnson’s visit and the support Johnson offered to Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. According to Zell, Johnson said that “the mountains of Judea and Samaria are the rightful property of the Jewish People.”

Israel Hayom reports that the settler Yesha Council was key to arranging Johnson’s visit to Ariel, and sees it as “a step towards legitimizing Israeli settlement.” Axios reports that the evangelical group “U.S. Israel Education Association” (USIEA) was the main organizer of Johnson’s stay in Israel. USIEA is run by American evangelical mega-church pastors Heather Johnston, and the organization is a pro-Israel, pro-settlement, non-profit group which works with the Family Research Council to lead Congressional delegations to Israel. USEIA has previously signed contracts with the Israeli government to bring thousands Israeli high schoolers to the Ariel settlement to help Jewish Israeli students who are “disconnected from the roots of their faith” to establish “a deeper connection to God by embracing their biblical and cultural heritage.” The website also says that Ariel is “at the forefront of biblical prophecy unfolding in modern Israel.”

Drop Site News reports that Speaker Johnson’s trip to the Ariel settlement connects to a long-running evangelical Christian apocalyptic movement calling for the construction of the Third Temple in order to usher in the end of times (as believed by dispensationalist Christians). 

Johnson was joined on his trip to Israel by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders (who is the daughter of the current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee), Reps. Moran, McCaul, Tenney, and Cloud. Rep. Claudia Tenney serves as the chair of the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus in the U.S. Congress, and champions legislation to acknowledge Israel sovereignty over the West Bank. The trip is being labelled a private trip, and not an official one. 

At the CUFI conference In March 2024 Johnson stated: “The United States must show unwavering strength and support for Israel.” He continued, “God is going to bless the nation that blesses Israel. We understand that that’s our role. It’s also our biblical admonition. This is something that’s an article of faith for us.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Israeli Settlers Torch Palestinian Farmhouse, Tag Walls With ‘Revenge’ and ‘Price Tag‘” (Haaretz, 8/4/25)
2. “Court Clears Settler of Assaulting Bedouin Women and a Toddler in the West Bank” (Haaretz, 8/5/25)
3. “Thousands of Israelis Marched to Gaza – Not to Free It, but Rather to Call for Renewed Jewish Settlement” (Haaretz, 8/4/25)

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.

April 7, 2023

1. In Rare Ruling, Israeli High Court Rejects JNF/Settler Effort to Evict Palestinian Family from their Home in Silwan
2. Israel Advances Plans for 6,500 New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
3. Israel Doubles Funding of Settler Surveillance of Palestinians
4. Bonus Reads

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In Rare Ruling, Israeli High Court Rejects JNF/Settler Effort to Evict Palestinian Family from their Home in Silwan

On April 3rd, a three-judge panel of the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the Jewish National Fund, which has pursued a 32-year legal battle to evict the Palestinian Sumreen family from their longtime home in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. In its ruling the Court criticized the government for declaring the Sumreen home to be absentee property “without any basis in law.” The Court further ruled that the JNF’s subsidiary Himnuta (which was created to take the lead for JNF in litigating aggressive settlement takeover cases like this)  must compensate the family with 20,000 shekels ($5,560).

The case to evict the Sumreen family has been viewed as a key test of the State’s use of the Absentee Property Law to seize Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, with the fate of the Sumreen case likely to set a precedent that could impact the many other ongoing eviction cases brought by settlers against Palestinians in Silwan. 

Reacting to the ruling, the Sumreen family lawyer told Haaretz:

“This decision is precedential and just. The Supreme Court brought justice after two proceedings in which [the court] ordered the eviction of several families from their homes. The decision includes criticism of how the authorities behaved on this matter and the declaration of absentee property despite the fact that the owner is a living resident of Jerusalem.”

The Free Jerusalem activist movement said in a statement:

“There are few moments in which we feel like a bit of justice has been done in the reality of the occupation. This is one of those movements. Amal Sumreen and her children have lived in their home in Silwan for decades. For the first time in those decades, Amal will be able to sleep soundly tonight” and vowed to continue working “until this racist law, which allows the seizure of homes, is struck down, until the occupation ends, until there is full equality for all.”

The Sumreen family home is located in the middle of what today has been designated by Israel “the City of David National Park” (the home existed long before that designation). The Israeli government has handed over management of the area to the radical Elad settler organization, which for years has also been pursuing the eviction of Palestinians from the homes in Silwan. For nearly three decades, the Sumreen family has been forced to battle for legal ownership of their home, after the state of Israel, prompted repeatedly by the JNF, declared the home to be “absentee” property”. As a reminder, that law (as summarized by the Israeli legal NGO Adalah),

“Defines persons who were expelled, fled, or who left the country after 29 November 1947, mainly due to the war, as well as their movable and immovable property (mainly land, houses and bank accounts etc.), as ‘absentee’. Property belonging to absentees was placed under the control of the State of Israel with the Custodian for Absentees’ Property. The Absentees’ Property Law was the main legal instrument used by Israel to take possession of the land belonging to the internal and external Palestinian refugees, and Muslim Waqf properties across the state.” 

Based on that designation – which was not communicated to the Sumreen family, which of course was not “absentee” but was living in the home – Israeli law permitted the state to take over the rights to the building. The state then sold the rights to the home to the JNF in 1991. The JNF has pursued the eviction of the Sumreen family ever since, with the secret funding/backing of the Elad settler group. 

Israeli courts ruled in favor of the Sumreen family’s ownership claims to the home for years. This changed, arguably as a direct result of a deliberate policy (led by then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked) to pack the courts with right-wing judges) in September 2019, when the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court tossed out the previous rulings to grant ownership of the family’s home to the JNF — a decision the family immediately appealed to the Jerusalem District Court. Notably: in 2020, the JNF came under considerable international scrutiny for its handling of the Sumreen case, and was pressured to call off its eviction campaign (it did not). 

In 2022, the Israeli Attorney General issued a legal opinion supporting the JNF’s legal claim to the home and the eviction of the Sumreens. In his opinion, the Attorney General did not address the broader political context of widespread dispossession of Palestinians in Silwan, or the legally dubious actions on the part of the Elad settler group and the Jewish National Fund in having the property declared to be absentee in order to take control over it. Instead, the Attorney General decided simply that there is no new basis on which to overturn the JNF’s ownership of the home, and therefore the Sumreen family does not have a legal right to reside there.

A full history of the saga involving the Sumreen family – which is similar to dozens of other Palestinian homes in Silwan that were declared Absentee Property in the 1990s – can be found on the Peace Now website here. For more on the collusion of the JNF and the Elad settler group, see reporting by +972 Magazine.

Israel Advances Plans for 6,500 New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem

Ir Amim reports that over the past week various Israeli agencies have advanced plans for a total of 6,500 new settlement units slated for incredibly sensitive areas of East Jerusalem. 

On March 29th, the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee took the following actions:

• Wadi Joz Business Center (Silicon Wadi) – the Committee discussed and rejected all objections submitted against this plan, recommending the plan for final approval. The “Silicon Wadi” plan seeks to establish a major high-tech hub along the western side of East Jerusalem’s Wadi Joz neighborhood. While touted as a plan that will benefit Palestinians, its implementation will require the eviction of many Palestinian businesses in the area. You can read Ir Amim’s in-depth reporting on the Silicon Wadi project here.
• Lower Aqueduct Plan – the Committee discussed and rejected all objections submitted against this plan, recommending the plan for final approval.  This plan would see a new settlement of 1,465 units built on a sliver of land located between the controversial settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa – and is intended to connect the two. In so doing, it will establish a huge, uninterrupted continuum of Israeli settlements on the southern rim of Jerusalem, and will destroy Palestinian contiguity between the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  For more background on the Lower Aqueduct plan, see resources by: Terrestrial Jerusalem and Ir Amim.
• Ramot North A and B – The Committee recommended these two plans, outlining a total of 1,918 units, for deposit for public review. Both plans will expand the existing settlement of Ramot northeastward towards the Palestinian town of Bir Nabala.  See more details from Ir Amim here.

On April 3rd, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee was slated to advance the following plans (final confirmation of the committee’s actions has not been reported as of publication on April 6th)

• French Hill/Mount Scopus –  The committee was slated to possibly review amendments to two plans for a total of 1,539 new settlement units to be built in the area of French Hill and the premises of Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus, most of which would be located beyond the Green Line. One of the plans – called the “Bronfman Dormitory Complex” – will encircle a Palestinian residential area on the Mount of Olives. 
• Givat HaShaked – This plan outlines 700 housing units (in 4 high-rise towers and several six-story buildings), a school, and commercial buildings, all to be built on a highly sensitive and geopolitically critical sliver of land located within the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. It was approved for public deposit in September 2022. Ir Amim reports, “although approved for deposit, the plan has not yet been formally deposited for public review. An internal session was scheduled […] to amend the decision on the plan. Although the details regarding this amendment are unknown at present, the assumption is that the modification is a technical issue.” For more information on this new settlement, see previous FMEP reporting.
• Pisgat Ze’ev – The committee was slated to possibly review amendments to a plan for 730 new settlement units that would expand the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement eastwards towards the Separation Barrier and the area of the Palestinian town of Hizma, depleting the few remaining open land reserves in the area. 
• Ramot – A plan for 240 new units in the settlement of Ramot was slated to be reviewed by the committee for the first time.

Israel Doubles Funding of Settler Surveillance of Palestinians

Haaretz reports that the Israeli government budget request includes $11.1 million for a program that organizes and equips settlers to surveil Palestinian construction in the West Bank, doubling the government budget from 2022. Haaretz explains:

“Recent years have seen the formation of ‘land departments’ in West Bank settlements, which track Palestinian construction and cultivation and report such activity to the Civil Administration and the Israeli military. These departments have no enforcement authority, but its inspectors serve as an additional source of pressure on the Civil Administration in Area C…Settlement authorities could use these budgets to hire members of their inspection units, to purchase aerial photos, drones, tablets and vehicles. For larger settlements, the funds could be enough to hire four full-time inspectors and another four part-time ones. In addition, the funds could be used to pay youths doing their national service, and to hold public diplomacy conferences on the matter.”

It’s worth recalling that Bezalel Smotrich – who today is effectively the sovereign power ruling over the West Bank – has previously suggested empowering settlemers, on their own judgment and authority, to demolish Palestinian construction they believe lacks Israeli-required authorizations. As FMEP has repeatedly explained, Israel has long denied Palestinians the ability to build (on land that Israel recognizes they legally own) in Area C, resulting in many Palestinian structures — including homes, schools, and agricultural structures — being built without the required Israeli-issued permits. To fully understand what is happening, see B’Tselem’s excellent explainer.

The program for which the new Israeli government is doubling funding is only one of the ways in which settlers act as a surveillance mechanism of the Israeli state. In November 2020 the Israeli Civil Administration created a hotline for settlers wishing to report their suspicions of “illegal” Palestinian construction in the West Bank (on the Kochav Ya’akov settlement website, the new phone service is called a “snitch line”). In November 2021, Breaking the Silence and the Washington Post revealed that settlers have been helping the IDF build a facial photo database of West Bank Palestinians. The database serves to buttress the facial recognition capabilities of the Israeli army, as part of its pervasive surveillance arsenal, including a growing network of cameras and smartphones.

Bonus Reads

1. “Mount of Olives becomes latest target in fight for control of Jerusalem” (The Guardian)
2. “Why the Netanyahu Government’s Disengagement Repeal is so Problematic for the Biden Administration” (Dr. Deborah Shushan, J Street)
3. “Israeli Settlements in the Ramallah & Al-Bireh Governorate” (PLO NAD)
4. “Israeli Settlers Descend on West Bank Village of Hawara, Injuring Six Palestinians” (Haaretz)
5. “As Israel’s Crises Pile Up, a Far-Right Minister Is a Common Thread” (New York Times)
6. “To Understand the Settler Mindset, Read This Eulogy” (Avi Garfinkel, Haaretz)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

May 31, 2019

1. Israel Publishes Tenders for 805 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem; More May Be Coming
2. The World Zionist Organization Continues to Finance Illegal Settlement Construction
3. Yitzhar Settlers Attack Israeli Police Officers, Again
4. Israel Cut-Off & Trapped a Palestinian Family on the Israeli Side of the Wall, Then Banned Them from Entering Israel
5. Palestinians React to Latest Annexation Rumors Amidst Israeli Government Chaos
6. Florida Governor Leads Headline-Grabbing Trade Delegation to West Bank Settlements
7. Scheindlin: Israel’s Democratic Decay is Happening for the Sake of Annexation
8. Bonus Reads

For questions and/or comments contact Kristin McCarthy – kmccarthy@fmep.org.

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Israel Publishes Tenders for 805 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem; More May Be Coming

On May 30th, the Israel Land Authority published tenders for a total of 805 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, a decisive step towards the start of construction. The 805 tenders were issued for 345 units in the Ramot settlement and 460 new units in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement. These are the first tenders published for East Jerusalem settlement construction since April 2018, and collectively are the most tenders published in a single year (let alone simultaneously) since 2014. Moreover, as Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann explains, this batch of tenders allows for more construction in East Jerusalem settlements than the government has approved for East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods since Israel gained control of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Furthermore, the Jerusalem settlement watchdog group Ir Amim warns that this batch of tenders may only be the first of an oncoming wave:

“For several years after the collapse of the Kerry initiative in April 2014, there was a significant decrease in the approval of master plans in East Jerusalem and as a result, few tenders were announced. This dramatically changed in 2017 and 2018 with the advancement of master plans reaching near record levels. Today’s tenders are primarily a result of plan approvals from last year, potentially signaling impending large-scale announcements of tenders based on additional plans which have been approved over the last year.”

Peace Now, the veteran settlement monitoring organization, said in a statement:

“Continued construction in East Jerusalem does not contribute to Jerusalem and does not contribute to Israel. As long as we have not reached a permanent agreement with the Palestinians on Israel’s borders, building beyond the Green Line is illegitimate and only harms the prospects for peace and trust between the sides.”

The World Zionist Organization Continues to Finance Illegal Settlement Construction

According to documents acquired by Israel’s Movement for Freedom of Information, over the past two years the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization continued to finance illegal settlement construction while simultaneously trying to hide this information from the public.

As a reminder, the Settlement Division is technically part of the World Zionist Organization, but in practice the unit was created by the Israeli government in 1968 and is funded entirely by the Israeli government (and Israeli taxpayers). Its mandate is to manage West Bank land expropriated by Israel, in order to facilitate the settlement of Israeli Jews in the occupied territories. To make this possible, the Israeli government has allocated approximately 60% of all “state land” in the West Bank to the WZO’s Settlement Division [over the past 50 years Israel has declared huge areas of the West Bank to be “state land,” including more than 40% of Area C, where most of the settlements are located]. Together, the WZO and the Israeli government work in coordination to develop West Bank settlements and encourage Jews to move into them, working together so closely that the Settlement Division even splits its real estate profits with the Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry.

According to the WZO’s financial documents for 2017-2018, the WZO subsided settlement projects that are illegal under Israeli law — to the tune of $734,577 USD (NIS 2,668,427).

In addition, the WZO failed to specify how it spent an additional USD $16 million (NIS 58 million) in support of new construction projects, leaving the exact location and legal status of the construction unknown. This represents 43% of the WZO’s overall budget for subsidizing projects.

The settlement projects known to have been subsidized by the WZO in 2017-2018 include:

• • $640,000 USD (NIS 2,330,973) for the establishment of a community center in the Eli settlement. Though the Eli settlement previously received Israeli government approval, a “Master Plan” – which officially zones land for distinct purposes (residential, commercial, public) –  has never been issued for Eli, meaning all construction there is illegal under Israeli law.
  • $85,816 USD (NIS 311,736) on projects in the unauthorized Brosh outpost (the Israeli government is advancing a plan that would legalize Brosh retroactively, but until it does, all projects in it are illegal).
  • $42,000 USD (NIS 153,127) for infrastructure development in the unauthorized Givat Eitam/E-2 outpost, which according to Peace Now appears had not been transferred as of the end of 2018. FMEP has covered the settlers efforts to establish the Givat Eitam/E-2 outpost and the government’s plan to retroactively authorize it as an official settlement in detail. It is worth recalling that the location of the Givat Eitam/E-2 has dire geopolitical consequences for the fate of the two state solution as well as the development of Palestinian communities just south of Bethlehem.
  • $6,000 USD (NIS 22,445) for projects in the unauthorized Mitzpe Kramim outpost. Funding for Mitzpe Kramim over the past two years is particularly galling, given ongoing litigation that has included evidence that the Settlement Division knowingly gave land privately owned by Palestinians to settlers in order to build the outpost.
  • $900 USD (NIS 3,273) for renovation of illegal structures in the unauthorized outpost of Haresha. The Israeli government has successfully used the Haresha outpost as a test case for new legal tools the government of Israel developed in order to justify the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land in order to retroactively legalize outposts. Using these tools,  the government has found a way to “legally” build an access road to the settlement through privately owned Palestinian land; once the road is built, there is nothing preventing the government from retroactively legalizing Haresha.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“The Settlement Division is a body that was born in sin immediately after 1967 in order to carry out the dubious works of building settlements for the government. It turns out that even today, after regulating the activities of the Settlement Division, it still operates without transparency and continues to finance illegal activity. The time has come to dismantle the Settlement Division and to restore to the government the governmental activities it has privatized.”

Despite the WZO’s ongoing defiance of Israeli planning and building laws — or perhaps in light of its direct and very effective role in entrenching and expanding the settlements — the Israeli government is actively seeking to transfer more West Bank land to the WZO for management. In the last Knesset session, a government-backed bill to expedite the transfer of more land to the WZO was stalled by the Israeli Attorney General only because the bill, in the view of the Attorney General, was duplicative of his own efforts to enrich the Settlement Division at the administrative level.

Yitzhar Settlers Attack Israeli Police Officers, Again

On May 26th, dozens of masked Israeli settlers violently attacked Israeli police officers who approached an illegal outpost near the settlement of Yitzhar, forcing the Israeli army to intervene in order to get the police officers to safety.

Not a single settler was arrested for the attack.

The event started when Israeli police arrived at the Kippah Sruga outpost in response to calls saying that clashes had broken out between Palestinians and Israelis in the area. According to Israeli police, when they arrived masked settlers began launching stones at them and slashed their car tires with a knife.

Haaretz reporting on this incident reminds readers:

“Over the past several weeks, settlers from Yizhar and surrounding settlements have been involved in several altercations, yet police have not arrested a single suspect. Last week, Israelis and Palestinians reported a field set ablaze and clashes in the Palestinian towns of Burin, Urief and Asira al-Qibliya. In a video disseminated by Asira al-Qibliya’s council, settlers are seen throwing stones at Palestinians, while soldiers nearby do nothing to arrest them. In response to the video, the IDF spokesman said that ‘Palestinians started a fire near Asira al-Qibliya. The IDF, the Border Police and civilian volunteers worked to extinguish the fire, which was spreading towards a military position and the edge of Yitzhar.’ After a B’Tselem video surfaced, showing settlers setting fire to fields, the army revised its response and confirmed that Jewish settlers also took part in setting fires.”

Israel Cut-Off & Trapped a Palestinian Family on the Israeli Side of the Wall, Then Banned Them from Entering Israel

On May 27th, Haaretz published a gut wrenching profile of the Hajajla family who lives on the Israeli side of the separation wall that cut them off from their hometown of al-Walajah, a Palestinian village just south of Jerusalem. Two days after publication of the profile – which FMEP shares in brief below – Israel issued an order banning the patriarch of the family, Omar Hajajala, from entering Israel, though he lives on the Israeli side of the wall in a spot where the route of the wall juts into the West Bank.

Before jumping into the full story, here is a reminder about the situation facing all of the residents of al-Walajah, in the words of Danny Seidemann:

“Walajeh is a village on Jerusalem’s southern flank that is entirely surrounded by the separation barrier.  Since 1967, Walajeh’s inhabitants have lived in a Kafka-esque situation, with their village technically located inside Israel’s expanded borders, but with villagers never given Israeli residency (they are considered West Bankers and thus are not permitted inside Jerusalem). As a result,  the villagers’ presence in their own village is, under Israeli law, illegal, and their homes there are, by definition, illegal.”

The Hajajla family was the only home in al-Walajah disconnected from the village when the separation barrier was built, leaving the family home on the Israeli side of the wall since 2014. The family refused to abandon their home despite the coercive and legal efforts by Israel to force them to do so. In 2014, after a petition before the High Court of Justice, the Defense Ministry opted to build the family a special passage underneath the barrier so it could reach the village, at a cost $1.1 million USD (NIS 4 million).

After the tunnel was constructed, the Israeli government began to impose new, burdensome, and compounding restrictions on the family regarding its use of the passageway. In 2017, the government decided to install a locked gate at one end of the passageway to control who enters and exits, which could be opened only by a single remote control given to the family. That single remote meant that whenever one member of the family left the home (impossible without taking the remote control with them), the rest of the family was left trapped, literally, until the remote-holder returned.

To make the situation more workable, Omar Hajajla, the family’s patriarch rigged an electric bell near the gate so that the single remote control can stay at the house while family members leave and return (the bell enables someone in the home to know that someone is at the gate needing to be let in). The bell has been in place for over a year, but only recently the Israeli Border police opted to make it an issue. This month, the police took Omar in for questioning and changed the lock so that the family could not open the gate at all. Omar Hajajla was ultimately fined and released, but the lock on the gate remained — until Haaretz filed an inquiry on May 26, 2019.

Omar Hajajla speculates that a recent court ruling in his family’s favor prompted the Israeli Border police to escalate their harassment of the family and make an issue of the bell. About a month ago, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court rejected the state’s assertion that the family’s home is illegal – allowing the Hajajla family to stay put.(Note: The state of Israel has initiated demolition proceedings against dozens of homes in al-Walajah claiming that they were built without Israeli building permits – which are next to impossible for Palestinians to obtain, let alone Palestinians on coveted land like al-Walajah) – 

In response to the May 27th Haaretz profile, Israeli police stated:

“At issue is a security passage that provides a short passage for the family from their home in Israeli territory to the Palestinian Authority areas. As you can see from the attached video and photos, the gate was shut last Monday to repair security cameras that were broken, to repair damage to the gate and to remove an electric bell that the father of the family had installed against the law, by attaching an unapproved electric wire from his home, a distance of dozens of meters from the passage. After the repair the passage was opened on Wednesday but when the father was seen exploiting it to illegally allow Palestinians to enter it was shut again and the suspect was taken for questioning. The passage was opened again yesterday, but because of a technical problem that was discovered it was shut again and we are working to fix it quickly. The Israel Police will not allow any damage to the security passages it is responsible for and will bring to justice anyone who vandalizes them and tries to harm the State of Israel’s security.”

The treatment of the Hajajla family should be seen in context of Israeli efforts to seal off al-Walajah from Jerusalem. As FMEP has previously reported, residents of al-Walajah have long been struggling against the growing encroachment the nearby Etzion settlement bloc and the Israeli government’s attempt to de facto annex the bloc as part of “Greater Jerusalem.” Ir Amim explains several prongs of this effort, including a particularly problematic section of the separation barrier around al-Walajah that has been planned in order to (a) almost completely encircle the village, (b) turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and (c) enable construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.

Palestinians React to Latest Annexation Rumors Amidst Israeli Government Chaos

Al-Monitor reports reactions from Palestinian leaders who are increasingly fearful that rumors about Israeli annexation of the settlements will be acted upon. Those rumors – as FMEP wrote last week – suggest that Israel will strip the Israel Civil Administration of its authority over the settlements and bring all settlements under Israeli domestic law, making settlement affairs the responsibility of the various Israeli ministries.

Wasel Abu Youssef, member of the PLO Executive Committee in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor:

“Expanding the powers of the Israeli ministries at the expense of the civil administration is an attempt to impose occupation and establish it in the West Bank, to end the [idea of a] two-state solution and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, which falls within the framework of denying the Palestinian people their rights to freedom and independence. These efforts mean practically annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel. Unfortunately, this comes with the blessing of the administration of US President Donald Trump, who doesn’t recognize the option of a two-state solution and gives Israel the green light to do whatever it wants in the West Bank.”

Walid Assaf, head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, told Al-Monitor:

“The efforts to transfer the powers of the civil administration to the Israeli ministries directly mean the annexation of the West Bank settlements to Israel. This will lead to annexing Area C — which amounts to over 60% of the entire area of the West Bank — to Israeli sovereignty…Annexing West Bank settlements to Israel would pave the way for Israel to perpetuate a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians, and this will push the Palestinians in Area C to migrate to PA-controlled Areas A and B.”

Hanna Issa, an international law professor at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, told Al-Monitor:

“The Israeli occupation has always been there. It is essential that the Palestinian territories [including the Israeli settlements] remain administered through the civil administration of the Israeli army [in cooperation with the Palestinians] until this occupation ends…“Limiting the powers of this administration and giving its responsibilities to the Israeli ministries is a dangerous step aimed at annexing occupied areas under international law.”

Scheindlin: Israel’s Democratic Decay is Happening for the Sake of Annexation

In a new paper for The Century Foundation, Israeli pollster and political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin writes an important analysis regarding Israel’s path to annexation:

“This report argues that Israel’s slide into illiberal democracy can only be understood as part of an attempt to go beyond military or physical control and establish a political and legal foundation for permanent annexation of both land and people. The assault on Israel’s democratic norms over the past decade initially appeared only indirectly related to a future of permanent annexation, as they suppressed the mechanisms of dissent and undermined the basis for minority rights. Then, in the recent elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made explicit his goal to annex occupied territory in the West Bank, which represented the culmination (to date) of increasingly open policies and legislative initiatives from the previous term that explicitly advance annexation.”

The entire paper is worth reading, and is available online here.

Florida Governor Leads Headline-Grabbing Trade Delegation to West Bank Settlements

From May 25-31, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis led a trade mission – purposefully and prominently also visiting settlements in the West Bank. While on the ground, DeSantis made headlines by blasting BDS, endorsing Israeli settlements, and gloating about Florida’s role in AirBnB’s reversal of its decision to remove rental listing located in Israeli settlements.

DeSantis signed several formal partnerships between Florida universities and Israeli schools, most notably including an agreement between Florida Atlantic University and Ariel University – the first such deal between a U.S. school and an Israeli school located in a settlement. In recognition of the historic deal, Ariel University presented DeSantis with an Honorary Fellowship Award at an event in the settlement, attended by U.S. casino magnates and settlement financiers Sheldon Adelson and Dr. Miriam Adelson. In his acceptance speech, the Governor invoked the Bible to lend his support for Israel’s permanent control of the West Bank, saying:

“We are now in the heart of the Holy Land of Israel. When you think about Israel’s history and the tradition that connects Israel and the U.S., it’s inspiring. On my last visit to Israel in 2014, the U.S. embassy was in Tel Aviv and we were on the verge of signing a destructive agreement with Iran, and I am happy that today we have achieved real progress. We have an American embassy in Jerusalem with an American acceptance of the sovereignty of the State of Israel on the Golan Heights and the agreement with Iran has been removed from the stage of history. I, personally, have fought Airbnb’s discriminatory policy against Jewish-owned properties in Judea and Samaria, and only recently have they changed their discriminatory policy. I say here: BDS has no place in Florida. The memorandum of understanding signed today between the University of Ariel and Florida State University is a blessed agreement that will bring these two institutions forward. I am happy to say that Florida is a very diverse state, but not when it comes to its unequivocal support for the State of Israel.”  

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman also hosted DeSantis for a reception and Israel’s Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan joined DeSantis on a visit to additional West Bank settlements, this time in Gush Etzion, for a briefing about the fight against BDS. Friedman said:

“Israel has no greater friend in all the 50 governor mansions than Ron DeSantis. I welcome you and the Cabinet members and your delegation to this small but incredibly important country.”

As mentioned by Ambassador Friedman, DeSantis was joined by members of the Florida Cabinet on the trade mission, including Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried. In a controversial move, DeSantis convened a Florida cabinet meeting on May 29th at the Embassy in Jerusalem, despite a lawsuit filed in Florida seeking to stop him from doing so. The lawsuit was filed by a government watchdog group and several news outlets, arguing that convening the Cabinet in Israel violated a state law that requires government meetings to be accessible to the public. The lawsuit was dismissed because the court could not serve paperwork to DeSantis and the other named defendants – who were, obviously, in Israel.

At the Cabinet meeting on may 29th, DeSantis signed a bill to prohibit anti-Semitism in Florida’s public schools and universities. The new law wrongly conflates anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel by including in the definition of anti-Semitism, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” ″blaming Israel for all interreligious or political tensions,” and/or “requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” 

The next day, DeSantis met with Prime Minister Netanyahu while the larger delegation visited the City of David national park, which is run by the radical Elad settler group.

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel’s High Court Seeks Order, Not Justice” (Haaretz)
2. “Another Company Withdraws from Israeli Light Rail Project” (IMEMC)

 

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

March 8, 2019

1. Settlers Take Over Two Palestinian Homes in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City
2. Jerusalem Planning Authority Nullifies Only Way Palestinians Can Prove Land Ownership in East Jerusalem
3. Report: Jerusalem City Council to Approve Plan to Build Two New Settlements, Expand Others
4. Israeli Court Rejects Another Petition to Stop the Eviction of the Sabbagh Family from their Home in Sheikh Jarrah
5. Ambassador Friedman Takes Over Palestinian Relations & Settlement Reporting
6. Congressional Funding for Settler Business Council?
7. UNHCR Delays (Again) Publication of Database Identifying Businesses Operating in Settlements
8. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Emailkmccarthy@fmep.org

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Settlers Take Over Two Palestinian Homes in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City

On March 6th, settlers, in coordination with Israeli security forces, moved into a house in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The settlers have elected to name the house after slain American-Israeli settler Ari Fuld, who was killed in a knife attack perpetrated by a Palestinian in September 2018.

The house in question was acquired by  the radical Ateret Cohanim settler organization last year. The sale of the home, which is just 100 meters from the Dome of the Rock/Al-Haram al-Sharif,  sparked intense controversy in the local Palestinian community and political factions, leading to the arrest and alleged torture of the Palestinian-American who was responsible for the transaction, Issam Aqel, by the Palestinian Authority.

An attorney for Ateret Cohanim told Haaretz:

“Happily another house in the Old City was redeemed. The racist Palestinian Authority, which uses terror against Arabs who dare sell a house to Jews, suffered another defeat today.”

Knesset Member Moti Yogev (Habayit Hayehudi) visited the new settlement house and said:

“the house was purchased by Jews and will house Jewish residents, despite efforts by the Palestinian Authority, which tortured Aqel and manufactured forged documents showing ownership of the house, while imposing terror within sovereign Israeli territory, at the heart of our eternal capital Jerusalem.”

In an unrelated report, Maan News reports that settlers have evicted the al-Halabi family from its home and taken over their property in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Settlers reportedly used pepper spray against Palestinians who attempted to prevent them from entering the apartment while the al-Halabi family was out shopping; five Palestinians were detained by the Israeli forces. The home is in a 4-unit building in which, according to Ma’an, Israeli settlers have succeeded in acquiring a majority ownership from its Palestinian owners.

According to OCHA-OPT, there are 20 Palestinian families (74 adults and 30 children) living in Jerusalem’s Old City under threat of eviction. FMEP recently reported on two families under imminent risk of eviction at the behest of settlers.

Jerusalem Planning Authority Nullifies Only Way Palestinians Can Prove Land Ownership in East Jerusalem

In what appears to be a significant change in Israeli policy in governing East Jerusalem – where Palestinians live under Israeli domestic law but are not citizens and do not the same rights as citizens –  the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee annulled the long-standing Israel-accepted procedure which was the only means by which Palestinians could document their land ownership claims in East Jerusalem. Known as the “mukhtar protocol” under this procedures Palestinian East Jerusalemites could document/prove ownership by collecting signatures from local Palestinian leaders acknowledging that the land in question was, indeed, owned by the claimant. The longstanding policy was developed by the Israeli government as an alternative to the formal land-registration process, which has been frozen in East Jerusalem since 1967, after the Six-Day War.

With this shift in policy, the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee reportedly denied 20 applications for building permits submitted by Palestinians at a meeting in early March 2019, where the applications relied on the “mukhtar protocol.”

Mohammed Abu Ghanem, an architect whose plan for 12 homes in the Silwan neighborhood was rejected this week, called the shift in Israeli policy a “catastrophe,” saying:

“we have no other ownership documents to present, and 90 percent of the land is not registered.”

Haaretz reports that settlement impresario Aryeh King is reportedly behind the campaign for the government to stop recognizing Palestinian land ownership based on this procedure.

In May 2018, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced funding for a new initiative to start the process of registering land in East Jerusalem as a means of consolidating Israeli claims to Palestinian neighborhoods (and undoubtedly find more “unowned” land for the settlers). At the time, Israel’s Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked said:

“the start of land settlement of title and registration in East Jerusalem [is] a step toward promoting Israeli sovereignty and control over the city….[t]he day before the strengthening of Jerusalem through the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, and after decades of Israeli sovereignty in eastern Jerusalem, we are strengthening the city and actually applying sovereignty through the program of land regulation in East Jerusalem.”

The Palestinian human rights group Al-Mezan responded:

“This policy violates Palestinian rights and breaches international humanitarian law, whereas this situation almost always results in the conversion of lands into ‘state property’ due to lack of availability of ‘proof of ownership’ by Palestinian current landowners. This will also allow the re-implantation of the Absentee Property Law, which allows the state to seize, manage, lease, transform, and sell the properties of Palestinians who are declared ‘absentees’.”

Report: Jerusalem City Council to Approve Plan to Build Two New Settlements, Expand Others

The settler-run news outlet Arutz Sheva reports that the Jerusalem City Council is preparing to approve a huge plan for new construction in both East and West Jerusalem. If implemented, the plan will allow the construction of two brand-new settlements in East Jerusalem. One, called “Ramot 07,” will consist of 2,000 units built north of the existing Ramot settlement; the second, called “Moradot Neve Ya’akov,” will also consist of 2,000 new units built between the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev settlement and Neve Ya’akov. Both new settlements are specifically for ultra-orthodox (Haredi) Israelis.

Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann notes that the Arutz Sheva report – specifically in regards to the large scale settlement construction in East Jerusalem – which has not been confirmed by other outlets, might not be accurate. Seidemann tells FMEP:

“The report sounds highly questionable. Large scale construction can take place only within the boundaries of the expropriated lands, and the potential there has all but been exhausted. I am unaware of other sites where building of this scale or anything like it is possible elsewhere, and I doubt such sites exist.”

Israeli Court Rejects Another Petition to Stop the Eviction of the Sabbagh Family from their Home in Sheikh Jarrah

On March 3rd, the Israel Law Enforcement and Collection Authority, a support unit for the courts under the Ministry of Justice, dismissed a petition objecting to the eviction of the Sabbagh family from its home of 60+ years in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem at the behest of Israeli settlers.

The ruling puts the 45-member Sabbagh family, once again, at imminent risk of eviction.

The Sabbagh family has been struggling against eviction proceedings initiated by the settler organization Nahalat Shimon, which was awarded ownership rights of their house through use of the “Legal and Administration Matters Law,” which allows Israeli Jews (but not Palestinians) to reclaim property lost/abandoned during the 1948 war. Nahalat Shimon managed to find the Jewish Israeli family who owned the home prior to the war and convinced that family to hand over their ownership rights.

The Norwegian Refugee Council writes:

“The risk of imminent forced eviction of the Sabbagh family in Sheikh Jarrah; the eviction of the Abu Asab family in the Old City and its replacement by Israeli settlers in mid-February; and the progress of settler compounds and touristic settlement in Silwan indicate a bolder intent to further entrench and tighten Israeli control over key locations across East Jerusalem, including through altering the demographic composition of the territory.”  

There have been weekly protests in Sheikh Jarrah against the eviction of the Sabbagh family.

Peace Now writes:

“This is part of an organized and systematic campaign of settlers, with the assistance of government agencies, to expel entire communities in East Jerusalem and to establish settlements in their stead. Dozens of other families face the risk of eviction by legal proceedings in which settlers and government officials exploit discriminatory laws that allow Jews to return to pre-1948 assets yet forbid Palestinians from doing the same. In this way, settlers seek to create a buffer inside the Palestinian neighborhood and make it difficult to reach a territorial compromise in Jerusalem so essential to a two-state solution.”

Ambassador Friedman Takes Over Palestinian Relations & Settlement Reporting

On March 4th, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem was formally closed, and a new “Palestinian Affairs Unit” began operating under the supervision of U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, as part of the U.S. Embassy to Israel, recently established in Jerusalem by the Trump Administration.

The U.S. has been represented in Jerusalem by a Consulate General since 1844; from the start of the peace process in the 1990s until this week, the Consulate served as the de facto U.S. diplomatic mission to the Palestinians, and was a central player in advancing U.S. efforts to broker a negotiated end to the conflict.

Explaining the significance of the closure – and batting down headlines that suggest the consulate was merely “merging” with the new Embassy – Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann tweeted:

“No, the Consulate (the de facto US mission to Palestine) will NOT ‘merge’ with the Embassy. It will be subsumed into the Embassy to Israel. This is no mere technicality, and precisely reflects current US policies: all things Palestinian are subservient to Israeli interests.”

Notably, the Consulate General in Jerusalem reported directly to Washington, covering not only Palestinian affairs but also, notably, all issues related to settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (consulates in nearly all other cases are subsidiaries of the U.S. embassy in a given country, and any reporting they do flows through the embassy and the Ambassador). Now, all that reporting will be overseen by U.S. Ambassador David Friedman.

Friedman, it should be recalled, is a long-time and unabashed settlements supporter. In addition to personal donations to the settlements, prior to his appointment as Ambassador, Friedman served as the President of a U.S. organization dedicated to fundraising for the Beit El settlement. Friedman recently declared to the press that he is a proud “right-wing” defender of Israel. According to reports, Friedman has tried to eliminate the words “West Bank” from the State Department’s lexicon in favor “Judea and Samaria” (the term used by settlers), and, n a departure from longstanding U.S. policy, frequently visits the settlements.

All of this suggests that Friedman – who has made clear that he regards the settlements as part of Israel, does not oppose settlement construction, and that he does not believe the U.S. should or will ask Israel to withdraw from settlements in the context of a peace “plan” or negotiations with the Palestinians – will likely stem the flow of information to Washington regarding settlements, and re-focus it in support of a pro-settlement political agenda.

Notably, in his capacity as Ambassador, Friedman has publicly embraced and promoted economic co-existence initiatives -between settlers and Palestinians – as a core U.S. priority on the ground (FMEP has repeatedly explained the perversity of labeling Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory, including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources, “coexistence,” or suggesting that it brings to the Palestinians benefits they should welcome.

Regarding the consulate closure, the PLO said in a statement:

“The decision of the American administration to close the American consulate in Palestine, which was opened in Jerusalem in 1844, as of this morning and merge it with the US embassy in Israel after moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and operating a special unit for Palestine in the embassy reflect the level of audacity of the American administration in striking the international decisions, which it has contributed to writing, and a denial of the historic rights of our people and the international conventions and laws that support the right of our people to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories started in 1967, the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for refugees as per United Nations resolution 194. This decision is the implementation of the policy and decision of the colonial settlements council in the West Bank.”

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO central committee, said that the merger:

“is not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity.”

Congressional Funding for Settler Business Council?

U.S. Senator James Lankford created confusion recently by suggesting that a new U.S. law provides a funding for the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Congress,” a purported group of Israeli and Palestinian businesspeople cooperating on new ventures in the settlements for the benefit of both peoples (a claim which, as FMEP has repeatedly explained, is ultimately aimed at normalizing and entrenching the exploitative nature of Israel’s occupation and settlement of the West Bank).

The confusion stems from the fact that Sen. Lankford’s suggestion appears to be factually incorrect – Congress has not approved any such funding. One bill which U.S. congresspeople might use for this purpose, the Palestinian Partnership Fund (HR 7060/ S. 3549), was introduced in the last Congress, but has not yet been moved in the new Congress. The bill’s authors intended (and ostensibly continue to intend) to provide funding for people-to-people exchanges that bring Palestinian and Israeli civil society together, with the understanding that such programming is an important complementary track to good-faith peace negotiations.

If and when (and with whatever motive) the U.S. Congress acts on HR 7060/S. 3549, or introduces any legislation relating to financing these economic coexistence endeavors, it will be reported and analyzed by FMEP President Lara Friedman in her weekly legislative roundup (subscribe here).

UNHCR Delays (Again) Publication of Database Identifying Businesses Operating in Settlements

On March 5th, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet announced that the Human Rights Council has once again delayed the publication of a database listing companies that do business inside of Israeli settlements. In a letter, Bachelet committed to publishing the database “in coming months.”

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on March 24, 2016 mandating the creation of the database listing the business enterprises that “have, directly and indirectly, enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements.” The database is meant to assist UN member states in complying with their legal obligations under international law. International legal scholar Valentina Azarova explained:

“The UN database is a mechanism to document, report, and engage primary interested parties. It does not have the mandate to adjudicate the responsibility of concerned parties, nor to act as a coercive tool of law enforcement. Thus, commentators who refer to it as a “blacklist” misrepresent it and undermine its legitimacy.”

Human Rights Watch issued a statement regarding the latest delay, saying:

“Israeli authorities’ brazen expansion of illegal settlements underscores why the U.N. database of businesses facilitating these settlements needs to be published,” Bruno Stagno Ugarte, an advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Each delay further entrenches corporate involvement in the systematic rights abuses stemming from illegal settlements.”

Israel and the United States have fought tooth-and-nail against the publication of the database, labeling it an anti-Israel “blacklist.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Are Palestinian Police Protecting Settlers?” (Al-Monitor)

2. “One Israeli’s Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Settler to Peace Activist” (NBC News)

3. “At West Bank High School, Knesset Candidates’ Discuss Future of Pupils’ Home” (Times of Israel)

4. “What Netanyahu’s Election Strategy Shows About How Settlers Vote” (Times of Israel)

5. “By Force of Forgery: How Settlers Claim Palestinian Homes” (Middle East Eye)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 8, 2018

1. Jerusalem Municipality Gives Final Approval to Two East Jerusalem Settlement Schemes Pushing Towards Beit Hanina
2. Claiming Ignorance, State Tells the Court it Will Demolish New Jordan Valley Outpost
3. Government Officials Lay Cornerstone of “New Migron” Settlement
4. Israel Seizes Palestinian Land to Build New Road to Settlement
5. Bennett Violated Govt Rules to Get a Legal Opinion Supporting the De Facto Annexation of Ariel University
6. In Reversal, Israeli Ministers Embrace Bill to Allow Knesset to Overrule High Court on Any Issue (Not Just on Deporting Asylum Seekers)
7. Settlers Group Alleges Palestinians are Undertaking a European-Backed Scheme to “Take Over” Area C of West Bank
8. UN Report Details Israel’s De Facto Annexation of West Bank Land
9. Four Alleged Security Incidents Near Settlements
10. Bonus Reads

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

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Jerusalem Municipality Gives Final Approval to Two East Jerusalem Settlement Schemes Pushing Towards Beit Hanina

On November 6th, Jerusalem planning authorities granted approval to two settlement projects totalling 652 units in strategic areas that will increase the encroachment of settlements on the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina – where the Israeli government is also advancing the first-ever government-backed settlement enclave inside of the neighborhood. This week the Committee approved:

1. A plan for 152 new units in the Ramot settlement in northern Jerusalem, extending the settlement’s footprint towards the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
2. A plan for 640-units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement, to be built partially on Palestinian land, also extending the settlement north towards an existing settlement enclave inside of the Palestinian Beit Hanina neighborhood.

In granting final approval for the Ramat Shlomo plan, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee decided to increase the number of approved units, from the proposed 500 to 640. And significantly, the Committee rejected serious complaints about expropriating privately owned Palestinian land for settlement purposes.

The Israel anti-settlement watchdog NGO Ir Amim filed one such complaint against the plan, explaining:

“Promoted by Israeli developers claiming ownership of the land in question, the Ramat Shlomo plan exemplifies the endemic discrimination in the planning process that serves to foil Palestinian planning and development.  The plan includes Palestinian-owned land, in an area developers have now designated for a park and access road. In order to overcome the legal prohibition against submitting a plan on land not owned by the applicant, the developers successfully engaged the Jerusalem Municipality to sign on as an additional applicant, thereby enabling the expropriation of private Palestinian land.”

Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tartarsky told Haaretz this week:

“It’s very disappointing that the district committee relied on formalistic reasons to approve a step that violates the property rights of Palestinian landowners through and through. These aren’t extremist settlers in outposts somewhere out on hilltops in Samaria [the northern West Bank] but state institutions that are working in Israel’s capital city. This decision is additional proof that Israeli control in East Jerusalem means a regime based on serious discrimination.”

The new approvals add to an ever-growing tidal wave of settlement activity in East Jerusalem affecting the viability of the two-state solution, while tightening the screws on the local Palestinian population.

Claiming Ignorance, State Tells the Court it Will Demolish New Jordan Valley Outpost

Israeli government lawyers told the High Court of Justice that the State of Israel does not know who built an illegal outpost on a disused military base in the Jordan Valley, which settlers have named  “Camp Gadi”, and announced that the Civil Administration will demolish it. If the Civil Administration moves to demolishes the outpost, it will require evicting several settler families who are squatting there, and shutting down a pre-military school that the families have been promoting.

The head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, David Lahiani, seemed to contradict the government’s claim to innocence when he said that he has been in touch with the Civil Administration about legalizing the outpost. If Lahiani has been in touch with the Civil Administration, then questions arise about at what point the Israeli government learned about the outpost and who is behind it. Lahiani’s statement also contradicts (or at least raises questions about) a prior statement from the Jordan Valley Regional Council which denied involvement in establishing the outpost. Further calling into question the role of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, Lahiani was in a picture taken at the outpost which was uploaded to Facebook on October 24th.

Government Officials Lay Cornerstone of “New Migron” Settlement

A cornerstone laying ceremony marked the start of construction on the “New Migron” settlement, to be for the settlers who were removed from the illegal Migron outpost. Several government officials were on hand to lay the cornerstone of the new settlement, plans for which were approved in 2017, near the Kochav Yaakov settlement north of Jerusalem.

In 2011, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Migron outpost must be evacuated because it was built on privately owned Palestinian land. Most of the illegal outpost’s  residents were evacuated and most buildings were demolished in Migron in 2012.  Determined to demonstrate its support for settlers in the face of this court-compelled evacuation, the government promised to establish  two new settlements: “New Migron” (located close to Kochav Yaakov settlement) as well as the approval of a plan for 184 housing units east of the Adam settlement (aka Geva Binyamin). All said, the two new settlements and temporary housing for the evicted settlers cost Israeli taxpayers millions of dollars – sending settlers a clear message that for them, law-breaking pays off.

At the ceremony this week, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin said:

“During such events, it is customary to rejoice, but as someone who accompanied Migron from the moment of the evacuation to the present day, this is not a happy event. We would be happy if we had another legal system that made a logical decision, and I long for the days when the justice system will do justice. The settlement will grow and expand this way from time immemorial. The evacuation attempts will only lead to the strengthening and expansion of settlement.”

Housing Minister Yoav Galant, also at the ceremony, said:

“laying the cornerstone means that the territories of Yehudah and Shomron are not negotiable. It is not a subject for sale. We are laying a cornerstone for Migron and we will build it. I will see to it that the Israeli government does so by the end of the year.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, also in attendance, said:

“I did not come here to convince anyone about our rights in the land of Israel, I came here with mixed feelings of happiness from laying the cornerstone, alongside the great sadness of the difficult evacuation five years ago. We are here, first and foremost, thanks to the families of Migron that did not give up.”

Israel Seizes Palestinian Land to Build New Road to Settlement

According to Maan News, Israeli forces seized 38 acres (155 dunams) of Palestinian land in order to pave a road to the Beit Aryeh settlement, located northwest of Ramallah. Members of the al-Lubban al-Gharbi village council claim that the land is privately owned by Palestinians from the village and called on village residents to find documents proving land ownership in anticipation of an appeal against the construction.

So far this year, the Beit Aryeh settlement has been the beneficiary of two significant settlement advancements totalling 563 new units:

1. On August 23, 2018 the Israeli Housing Ministry published a tender for 52 new settlement units in Beit Aryeh.
2. On August 11, 2018 the government published a tender for 511 new settlement units in Beit Aryeh.

Bennett Violated Govt Rules to Get a Legal Opinion Supporting the De Facto Annexation of Ariel University

According to a new Haaretz report, Education Minister Naftali Bennett violated Israeli guidelines by using a private law firm to support his Knesset bill bringing settlement colleges and universities under the authority of the Israeli Higher Education Council. Prior to the Knesset’s passage of Bennet’s bill in February 2018, the Higher Education Council  only included schools located inside of sovereign Israeli territory. The new law is tantamount to de facto annexation of settlement schools, and members of the Israeli Higher Education Council remain vocally opposed to the move.

The use of a private law firm is seen as an attempt to bypass the Education Ministry’s own apolitical (for now) legal advisors, and is a breach of the guidelines set years ago for every ministry by the Israeli Attorney General. The guidelines stipulate that in cases where private opinions are sought, the legal advisors for the ministry must supervise the process.

Bennet reportedly used an opinion paper issued by the Herzog Fox & Neeman firm stating the inclusion of Ariel University in the domestic Higher Education Council would not violate existing grant terms between universities in sovereign Israel and the European Union (which does not do business in the occupied territories). The opinion was then presented to members of the Higher Education Council to assuage fears that implementing the new law would result in losing international funding. The opinion said that the potential for funding cuts is “nearly non-existent.”

An anonymous senior official with the Higher Education Council told Haaretz:

“You cannot base official policy on an opinion paid for by an interested party. That’s not serious.”

Ariel University has not yet been admitted to the Council, despite the passage of the law in February 2018 and despite Minister Bennett’s repeated threats to end state relations with the Council if it did not immediately grant membership to the school. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin issued a rebuke to Bennett’s threats, saying:

“It’s possible to love Ariel without mocking academia.”

In Reversal, Israeli Ministers Embrace Bill to Allow Knesset to Overrule High Court on Any Issue (Not Just on Deporting Asylum Seekers)

At a meeting on November 4th, ministers in the governing Israeli coalition reportedly decided to abandon a bill that would empower the Knesset to reinstate its plan to deport African asylum seekers after it was struck down by the High Court, in favor of  a much more far-reaching bill granting the Knesset the ability to reinstate any law the High Court strikes down. The passage of that bill would likely impact the fate of not only African asylum seekers but settlement-related legislation that has already been passed – most notably,the settlement Regulation Law – and other undemocratic measures that might follow. This news follows an exact opposite announcement two weeks ago, when Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked embraced the single-issue version of the bill, while promising to make the unlimited version a sticking point in any future coalition agreement.

Notably, the leaders of the current governing coalition decided to make this move at a meeting that was not attended by Kulanu Party leader Moshe Kahlon, who has until now blocked the coalition from advancing the unlimited version bill.

Israeli Attorney General Mandelblit vehemently opposes the bill. Mandelblit said:

“One must vigorously oppose this bill, which harms the constitutional regime of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Removing all restrictions on undermining the human rights of a specific group, as is proposed now, has far-reaching implications for constitutional law and the democratic regime in Israel, and I strongly oppose it.”

Settlers Group Alleges Palestinians are Undertaking a European-Backed Scheme to “Take Over” Area C of West Bank

The radical settler organization Regavim – which devotes its efforts to systematically mapping out and expelling Palestinians from strategic areas in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Negev – presented a new report to the Knesset this week claiming that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is using European funding to take over land in Area C of the West Bank. The report alleges that  the PA uses European money to pave roads, build on strategic military and diplomatic locations, and “steal” water resources, at the expense of Israel.

Regavim warns:

“If the government does not come to its senses and ‎does something now, the Palestinian plan will create ‎irrevocable changes and facts on the ground.”‎

Adding irony to Regavim’s current efforts to stop “illegal” Palestinian activity in the West Bank, in August 2018 the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a comprehensive investigation into Regavim’s leaders. The group’s stated mission is “to ensure responsible, legal, accountable & environmentally friendly use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation.” The investigation revealed, however, that the organization’s efforts to identify and stop illegal construction are merely a tool to dispossess Palestinians of their land.

The Investigation found, in fact, that Regavim and its leaders have a demonstrable disregard for the Israeli planning and building laws that they purport to be dedicated to enforcing, evidenced most plainly by the fact that 15 Regavim officers are living in structures built on privately owned Palestinian land, some with demolition orders issued against them. These include the building where Yehuda Eliyahu, the current executive director of Regavim, lives.

UN Report Details Israel’s De Facto Annexation of West Bank Land

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights in Palestinian Territories, Michael Lynk, issued a new report to the UN General Assembly – half of which is devoted to documenting the Israeli government’s annexation of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and de facto annexation of land in the occupied West Bank.

The report concludes in part:

“These statements of political intent, together with Israel’s colonizing  acts on the ground, its legislative activity, and its refusal to adhere to its solemn obligations under international law or to follow the direction of the international community with respect to its 51-year-old occupation, have established the probative evidence that Israel has effectively annexed a significant part of the West Bank and is treating this territory as its own. While Israel has not yet declared formal sovereignty over any parts of the West Bank, the Special Rapporteur submits that the strict prohibition against annexation in international law applies not only to a formal declaration, but also to those acts of territorial appropriation by Israel that have been a cumulative part of its efforts to stake a future claim of formal sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Four Alleged Security incidents Near Settlements

In the past three days, Israeli authorities have reported four security incidents near settlements:

On November 7th, the IDF reported that unknown assailants shot at a bus and lightly injured two Israelis near the settlement of Beit El, located deep inside the West Bank near Ramallah.

On November 6th, three Palestinian men were arrested near the Mevo Dotan settlement, south of Jenin,  one of whom was allegedly carrying a gun.

Earlier on November 6th, a Palestinian woman was shot and arrested near the Kfar Adumim settlement, between Jerusalem and Jericho,after allegedly attacking Israeli border policemen with a pair of scissors.

On November 5th, a Palestinian man was shot and arrested after allegedly attempting to stab Israeli settlers and an Israeli IDF officer near the Kiryat Arba settlement, in  Hebron.

Bonus Reads

1. Khan al-Ahmar and Israel’s Creeping Annexation of the West Bank” (Newsweek)
2. “Everyone Knows Settlers Cut Down Palestinian Olive Trees. But Israel Doesn’t Care” (Haaretz)
3. “Settler leaders warned Rabin not to ‘cross redlines’ before assassination” (Times of Israel)
4. “Hard Questions, Tough Answers: Why the Israeli mainstream turned right” (Americans for Peace Now)
5. “An Interview with MK Sharen Haskel” (Fathom Journal)
6. “Israeli justice minister opposes letting government jurists act as ‘gatekeepers’” (Haaretz)

 

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

October 4, 2018

1. More Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem: Ramot & Ramat Shlomo
2. Settlers Take Over Palestinian Building in Silwan, Evict Current Tenants
3. The Kohelet Policy Forum: The Right-Wing Group Driving Pro-Settlement Policies

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

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More Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem: Ramot & Ramat Shlomo

Ir Amim reports that on October 4th, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee will discuss – and is expected to advance – two plans to expand settlements along the northern perimeter of East Jerusalem: a plan for 500 new units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement and a plan for 152 new units in the Ramot settlement. If implemented, both plans will compound the encroachment of settlements on the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina; the Jerusalem Municipality only recently approved the first-ever settlement construction inside Beit Hanina.

These two plans are just the latest advancements for Ramot and Ramat Shlomo: in August 2018 a plan for 263 units in Ramot  was deposited for public review, and construction tenders were published for a plan for 603 units in Ramat Shlomo (under what is colloquially known as “The Biden Plan”).

The plan for 152 new units in the Ramot settlement is especially alarming because, as Ir Amim details, it is part of a larger scheme to claim undeveloped land in East Jerusalem for settlements:

“[The Ramot plan] represents a bold push toward Israel consolidating control of the undeveloped area between Ramot and Bir Nabala. Ir Amim has acquired documents showing plans to expand the entire northern section of the Ramot settlement toward the Palestinian area. As can be seen on the map, the large open area between the Israeli settlement and the Bir Nabala enclave is already cut by the Separation Barrier, which completely encircles the enclave, isolating its residents from the surrounding Palestinian space and imposing severe economic hardship.” [Editor’s note: for more on how the separation barrier has completely isolated the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Bir Nabala, see this short video by The Guardian].

For its part, the advancement of the Ramat Shlomo is also alarming, since Israeli authorities essentially rewrote the laws governing construction in Jerusalem in order to advance the project:

“The [Ramat Shlomo] plan includes Palestinian-owned land, in an area developers have now designated for a park and access road. In order to overcome the legal prohibition against submitting a plan on land not owned by the applicant, the developers successfully engaged the Jerusalem Municipality to sign on as an additional applicant, thereby enabling the expropriation of private Palestinian land. Despite this process contravening the Planning and Building Law, the District Committee approved the plan for deposit, circumventing the normal process of land reparcelization conducted to ensure an equitable distribution of land rights.”

The expected advancement of these plans for the expansion of the Ramot and Ramat Shlomo settlements is a continuations of an alarming acceleration in East Jerusalem settlement advancements since President Trump assumed office in January 2017, reflecting the sea change in U.S. policy towards settlements. Over the past two months alone, Israel has advanced plans for:

• 75 units in Beit Hanina (advanced through first stage of planning process)
• 13 units in Sheikh Jarrah (deposited for public review)
• 345 units in Gilo (deposited for public review)
• 1,064 units in Pisgat Ze’ev (deposited for public review)
• 263 units in Ramot (deposited for public review)
• 603 units (“The Biden Plan”) in Ramat Shlomo (tenders published)
• Reported above, 500 additional new units in the Ramat Shlomo in August 2018
• Reported above, 152 new units in Ramot settlement in August 2018.

Settlers Take Over Palestinian Building in Silwan, Evict Current Tenants

Ma’an News reports that the radical Elad settler organization has evicted a Palestinian family from a building that settlers purchased in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. The previous owners of the building, who currently live in the U.S. – reportedly notified tenants at the property of the sale several months ago.

The settlers, under the protection of Israeli security forces, did not allow the evictees – 7 members of the Maswadeh family – to move their belongings out of the building before moving in. The Maswadeh family had rented two apartments in the building for the past 30 years. According to reports, the settlers have already started to build what appears to be a gate to control access to the property.

The Kohelet Policy Forum: The Right-Wing Group Driving Pro-Settlement Policies

Haaretz published a lengthy profile of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing advocacy organization that wields enormous influence over senior Israeli government figures, including Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Likud). The Kohelet Policy Forum is revealed to have played a major role in shaping several of the most significant pro-settlement, pro-annexationist legislative actions in the past year, including the high court override bill, the Nation-State Law, and a bill that would allow Israeli cabinet ministers to select their own personal legal advisors.

According to Haaretz, the Kohelet Policy Forum’s fingerprints “are visible in every explosive and divisive issue that has weakened the legal system and regulations.” FMEP tracks all these pieces of legislation, and many more, in its Annexation Policy Tables.

The funding sources for the Kohelet Policy Forum, which was established in 2013, are worth noting: the largest funder is an anonymous donor in the United States, who funds were transferred to Kohelet via an American nonprofit called American Friends of Kohelet Policy Forum. In 2016 the American group donated about 7.8 million shekels ($2.1 million) to Kohelet; in 2017 about 28.5 million shekels ($7.7 million). In light of Kohelet’s agenda, the anonymity of Kohelet’s major U.S. funder escapes the ire of the Israeli government, which has sought to stigmatize and shutdown groups which draw the majority of their funding from foreign sources.

Another main funder is the Tikvah Fund, a wealthy U.S.-based organization with a mission to promulgate American Republican Party views in Israel. Since its founding, the Kohelet Policy Forum has received over $1 million from the Tikvah Fund, and the two entities share board members. The Tikvah Fund also supports pro-settlement organizations.

Notably, Eugene Kontorovich is the head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum. Kontorovich self-identifies as a key figure in the drafting of “anti-BDS” (but actually, anti-free speech/pro-settlement) laws in the United States. At the core of these laws is the conflation of Israeli settlements with Israeli proper, based on Kontorovich’s argument that Israel is not occupying Palestinian territory. Kontorovich has also testified multiple times to U.S. Congress, including in support of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem; in support of Congress legislating U.S. foreign policy, including with regard to Jerusalem; on the impact of the BDS movement, and in support of U.S. recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

 

***NOTE: This week the Israeli government unleashed a massive wave of approvals to advance plans for settlement construction — in excess of 2,000 units — in highly sensitive and strategically significant areas deep inside the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. More approvals/advancements are expected in the coming weeks. See below for detailed coverage of the individual plans, keeping in mind both the significance of each approval on its own, and as part of the overarching Israeli government agenda clearly intending to both prevent any possibility of a Palestinian state and to further the march toward formal annexation of the West Bank. Also keep in mind, importantly, that there has been zero public push back from the Trump Administration against this surge, which comes on the heels of Ambassador Friedman’s statement last week that Israel will never be required to remove any settlements.***

August 24, 2018

1. Settlement Wave, Part 1: High Planning Council Advances Plans for 1,004 Settlement Units (96% Located Deep in the West Bank)
2. Settlement Wave, Part 2: Housing Ministry Published Tenders for 420 Settlement Units
3. Settlement Wave, Part 3: Jerusalem District Committee Advances Plans for 603 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
4. Settlement Wave, Part 4: More Settlement Construction Coming Soon
5. U.S. Stands by Israeli “Intentions” on Settlements
6. State Tells High Court: We Can Annex the West Bank – International Law Be Damned
7. This Week in Ariel: Settlers Celebrate 40 Years, A Construction Boom, A Medical School, & An Evangelical “Leadership Camp”
8. Amana (the Official Settler Movement) Moves Its HQ to Sheikh Jarrah
9. Settlement Gains in East Jerusalem Result in Palestinians Self-Demolitioning Their Homes
10. Bonus Reads

Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org. To subscribe to this report, please click here.

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Settlement Wave, Part 1: High Planning Council Advances Plans for 1,004 Settlement Units (96% Located Deep in the West Bank)

On August 22nd, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council (the body in the Israeli Defense Ministry responsible for regulating all construction in the West Bank) advanced plans for 1,004 new settlement units, 96% of which are located deep inside of the West Bank. Of the total, 620 units were approved for deposit for public review and 382 units were given final approval for construction.

As reported by Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, the plans approved for deposit for public review (totalling 620 units) are:

• 370 units in the Adam settlement (aka Geva Benyamin). This project was urged on by Defense Minister Liberman following a stabbing attack in the settlement, which resulted in one death and injuries to three others. The 370 units are part of a larger plan for 1,000+ units that will, if built, connect the Adam settlement to two large settlements in East Jerusalem (Neve Ya’akov and Pisgat Ze’ev) that are on the Israeli side of the separation barrier (the route of the barrier juts far beyond the 1967 Green Line to include Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Ya’akov on the Israeli side while the Adam settlement is on the West Bank side). If the larger plan is implemented, the Adam settlement will have built up areas on both sides of the separation barrier, which could (in all likelihood) present Israel an opportunity to re-route the barrier around Adam — which would de facto annex even more West Bank land to Israel and further choke off Palestinian East Jerusalem from the West Bank to its north. [Note: FMEP’s Lara Friedman and Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran published an op-ed in Haaretz in 2008 warning of this plan – you can read that background here].
• 85 units in Karnei Shomron settlement. Israel has repeatedly confiscated as “state land” located between Karnei Shomron and the Palestinian village of Qalqilya (which is literally surrounded on three sides by the separation barrier). In November 2017, Israel began clearing landmines from that “state land” in order to prepare for settlement construction. At the time, Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan said that the new construction in the Karnei Shomron area will bring “a million Jews [to] live in Judea and Samaria in the future.”
• 84 units in the Kiryat Netafim settlement, located about half way between the Ariel settlement and the cluster of settlements close to the 1967 Green Line that are slated to be united into a “super settlement” area (Oranit, Elkana, Shiva Tikva, and others). The expansion of Kiryat Netafim will go towards creating a contiguous corridor of Israeli settlements stretching from sovereign Israeli territory, though the super settlement, to Ariel. As FMEP has repeatedly said, the Ariel settlement is located in the heart of the northern West Bank, reaching literally to the midpoint between the Green Line and the Jordan border. The future of Ariel has long been one of the greatest challenges to any possible peace agreement, since any plan to attach Ariel to Israel (with a finger of land running through settlements like Kiryat Netafim) will cut the northern West Bank into pieces.
• 52 units in the Beit El settlement. This is the second major approval for new units in Beit El in 2018, with a third plan for 300 more units coming soon, according to Israel Hayom. The construction boom is being hailed by the settler-aligned Arutz Sheva outlet, which wrote that the plans will increase the size of Beit El by 65%. If any of the units are constructed it will be first new, government-sanctioned construction in Beit El in over 10 years. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is closely associated with the Beit El settlement, having donated to and fundraised for it prior to his appointment as ambassador (including in his capacity as the President of the American Friends of Beit El, reportedly from 2011 until he became ambassador).
• 29 units in the Otinel settlement, located south of Hebron. MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) lives in Otinel.

Plans that gained final approval, meaning no additional formal approvals are required to move ahead with construction (totalling 382 units) are:

• 168 units in the Tzofim settlement, located on the Israeli side of the separation barrier, but jutting towards the Karnei Shomron settlement, which also received advancements this week. See the section on Karnei Shomron, above, for context and news regarding this area of settlements.
• 108 units in the Nofim settlement, located on the Israeli side of the separation barrier but jutting towards the Karnei Shomron settlement, which also received advancements this week. See the section on Karnei Shomron, above, for context and news regarding this area of settlements.
• 56 units in the Barkan settlement, located near the Kiryat Netafim settlement. Both Barkan and Netafim are located about half way between the Ariel settlement and the cluster of settlements slated to be united into a “super settlement” area (Oranit, Elkana, Shiva Tikva, and others). See the section on Kiryat Netafim, above. for context and news regarding this area of settlements.
• 44 units in Ma’ale Adumim, the mega settlement just east of Jerusalem.
• 6 units in the Avnei Hefetz settlement, located southeast of the Palestinian city of Tulkarem.

Notably, Netanyahu intervened to remove two items from the High Planning Council’s agenda, both of which would have led to the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts. Those plans are:

1. A plan to retroactively legalize the Ibei Hanahel outpost, which is a non-contiguous “neighborhood” of the Ma’ale Amos settlement, located deep in the southern West Bank. The plan would have allowed the outpost to be demolished and then rebuilt legally with residential units, transforming the outpost into a new, fully authorized settlement.
2. A plan to build an education center in the Nofei Prat South outpost, which is a non-contiguous“neighborhood” of the Kfar Adumim settlement, located northeast of Jerusalem. The land on which the project would be built is located just 1.5 km away from the Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin community – the same one that the Israeli government plans to forcibly evacuate in order to cleanse the area of Palestinians and expand settlements. The outpost was established by the Haroeh Ha’ivri (“the Hebrew Shepherd”) nonprofit association, which is funded by the Israeli Education Ministry.

In response to Netanyahu’s directive to remove these two items from the agenda, the heads of the Knesset’s “Land of Israel Lobby,” Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Yoav Kisch (Likud), said that the Prime Minister should “ act with greater rigor to promote settlement, rather than doing the opposite.”

Settler leaders were also unsatisfied with the High Planning Council’s overall numbers. Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council (a municipal body for settlements in the northern West Bank), said:

“We are happy about every new house in Samaria, but we have to tell the truth. Hundreds of housing units are not enough for an area that constitutes 12% of the State of Israel…We expect the government to step in the gas, stop worrying about what they will say overseas, and develop this beautiful region.”

Settlement Wave, Part 2: Housing Ministry Published Tenders for 420 Settlement Units

On August 23rd, one day after the Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council advanced a huge tranche of settlement plans (detailed above), the Israeli Housing Ministry published tenders for a total of 425 settlement units (under plans previously approved by the High Planning Council).

Those tenders include:

• 211 units in the Ma’ale Efraim settlement, located in the Jordan Valley.
• 54 units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement, located north of Jerusalem.
• 52 units in the Beit Aryeh settlement, which comes in addition to the the publication of tenders for 511 units in the settlement last week.
• 42 units in the Ariel settlement. See reporting below for extensive coverage of the many reasons settlers in Ariel are celebrating this week.

Settlement Wave, Part 3: Jerusalem District Committee Advances Plans for 603 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem

In addition to the tranche of settlement plans advanced by the Defense Ministry’s High Planning Council and the tenders published by the Housing Ministry (detailed above), the Jerusalem District Committee deposited for public review (one of the final steps before approval) plans for a total of 608 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, with 345 units slated for the Gilo settlement and 263 units in the Ramot settlement. 

On the plan for the Gilo settlement, Ir Amim explains:

“The Gilo plan is being promoted in tandem with development of the new Green Line branch of the Light Rail (construction of which was launched in May), which will be built adjacent to the settlement expansion. This sequencing of events once again exemplifies a pattern of the state investing billions of shekels in transportation infrastructures to allow for extensive construction beyond the Green Line.”

As Ir Amim notes, this week’s advancements come on the heels of Israel’s August 15th decision to publish tenders for 603 units in Ramat Shlomo, and its June 2018 advancement of plans for 1,064 settlement units in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement — bringing Israel’s two-month total of settlement advancements in East Jerusalem to 2,275 units.

As a reminder, approvals/advancement of settlement plans is not the only ongoing threat to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Settlers and settler-run organizations continue their campaign to take over sensitive areas in East Jerusalem neighborhoods neighborhood – like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah – and to create more settler run tourist sites – like the Jerusalem cable car, the Kedem Center, the Abu-Tor footbridge, the Yemenite “heritage center,” and more – to erase the visibility of Palestinians in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, pending legislation in the Knesset seeks to gerrymander the borders of Jerusalem to create a Jewish majority by annexing settlements and cutting out Palestinian neighborhoods from the borders of the city. Sounding the alarm on all of these trends, Ir Amim writes:

“It is vital that the traditional calculus of settlement building be readjusted to a) treat these coordinated efforts to consolidate control of the Old City and surrounding Palestinian neighborhoods with the same urgency afforded to settlement building throughout the whole of East Jerusalem; b) ensure a holistic response that regards private settlement inside the Old City Basin and touristic settlement not as individual phenomena but as multiple elements of a unified and politically lethal strategy.”

Settlement Wave, Part 4: More Settlement Construction Coming Soon

In addition to the plans for 1,004 units that were advanced this week by the High Planning Council, the 425 tenders published by the Housing Ministry, and the 608 units advanced in East Jerusalem (all detailed above), this week saw reports that additional plans are expected to advance soon. Those are:

1. Ir Amim reports that on September 2nd, the Jerusalem District Committee is expected to discuss a plan to build a six-story building in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in which at least 75 families face eviction by radical settlers, with the backing of the Israeli government and courts. For detailed reporting on the building, plans for which were deposited for public review in May 2018, see FMEP reporting here.
2. Peace Now reports that tenders are expected to be issued (having already been marketed) for more units in the Adam (Geva Binyamin) settlement. If true, this will be another step towards uniting Adam to the East Jerusalem settlements – the details of which are covered above.
3. Peace Now also notes that a plan for 300 units in Beit El is expected to be advanced. This comes in addition to the 52 tenders issued for Beit El this week.
4. The Times of Israel reports that plans for hundreds of additional settlement units will soon be marketed for construction by the Defense Ministry. These plans received final approval before this week’s High Planning Council meeting. A Civil Administration official hinted that the plans will be marketed for the Alfei Menashe and Ma’ale Efraim settlements. [NOTE: This reporting was before the subsequent publication of tenders for 211 units in Ma’ale Efraim, covered above.]

U.S. Stands By Israeli “Intentions” on Settlements

When asked for comment on the various major settlement announcements, the U.S. State Department said that the Trump Administration believes the Israeli government has clearly demonstrated an intent to “adopt a policy regarding settlement activity that takes the president’s concerns into consideration” – a statement that suggests unequivocally that the Trump Administration has given a green light for massive settlement expansion across the length and breadth of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Notably, on the same day that the bulk of the settlement announcements were made, President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton, was on the ground in Jerusalem. Not only did he offer no comment or criticism of the settlement announcements, he very publicly joined Israeli politicians and settlers leaders for dinner in East Jerusalem, dining in the “City of David National Park,” the archeological/touristic/residential site in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan that is run by the radical Elad settler organization. As FMEP has repeatedly covered, the Elad settler organization is spearheading a government-aided campaign to evict Palestinians from their homes in Silwan, replace them with Jewish Israeli settlers, and transform the neighborhood into a Biblical tourist site emphasizing exclusively the area’s Jewish history.

The head of the Peace Now Settlement Watch program, Shabtay Bendet, told Al-Monitor:

“The situation on the ground is changing rapidly…Restraints on construction in the settlements have been lifted. The Americans don’t care…”

State Tells High Court: We Can Annex the West Bank, International Law Be Damned

On August 7th, the state’s private attorney Harel Arnon submitted a second brief [Hebrew] to the High Court of Justice in defense of the settlement “Regulation Law.” In it he argues that the Knesset is not bound by international law and has the right to apply its own laws outside of its borders and annex land, if it wishes.

Arnon argues:

“The mere application of a certain Israeli norm [law] to an anonymous place outside the state does not necessarily make that anonymous place part of Israel. The Knesset is not restricted from legislating extra-territorially anywhere in the world, including in the region, the Knesset can legislate in Judea and Samaria.”

The brief also argues:

“The Knesset is permitted to impose the powers of the military commander of the West Bank region as it sees fit. The Knesset is permitted to define the authorities of the military commander as it sees fit. The authority of the government of Israel to annex any territory or to enter into international conventions derives from its authority as determined by the Knesset…[and] the Knesset is allowed to ignore the directives of international law in any field it desires.”

Lawyers representing Adalah responded:

“the Israeli government’s extremist response has no parallel anywhere in the world. It stands in gross violation of international law and of the United Nations Charter which obligates member states to refrain from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity of other states – including occupied territories. The Israeli government’s extremist position is, in fact, a declaration of its intention to proceed with its annexation of the West Bank.”

Harel was ordered to submit a second defense of the bill in response to a petition filed by Adalah and Al-Mezan on behalf of seventeen local Palestinian authorities. The petition argues that the Regulation Law violates international law and that the Knesset cannot enact laws over the West Bank where the majority of the population is Palestinians (who are not Israeli citizens and cannot vote).

The High Court of Justice is widely expected to strike down the “Regulation Law,” but has yet to make a ruling. Just last week, Arnon made the case that the recently passed Nation-State Law, which makes “Jewish settlement,” a “constitutional value,” can help him defend the settlement law before the High Court.  

For ongoing tracking of the Regulation Law and other annexation trends in Israel, see FMEP’s Annexation Policy Tables.

This Week in Ariel: Settlers Celebrate 40 Years, A Construction Boom, A Medical School, & An Evangelical “Leadership Camp”

Haaretz published a lengthy report this week on the history of the the Ariel settlement – which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month – and the dramatic spike in construction in the settlement in 2018. Even before tenders were issued for 42 new units this week (see above), plans for 839 units had already been approved during the first eight months of 2018, compared to tenders for fewer than 5 units each of the past three years. One of the original settlers of Ariel said:

“During the Obama years, everything here was frozen. But thanks to Donald Trump, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Not only has Ariel seen a massive surge in construction advancements this year, but the settlement broke ground on a new medical school heavily financed by U.S. casino magnate, and Trump backer, Sheldon Adelson (who this week gave $25 million to the GOP to help it keep the Senate, and in May gave the GOP $30 million to help it keep the House). Many settler leaders and Israeli officials, as well as Adelson and his wife Miriam, were in Ariel this weekend to attend a dedication ceremony for the medical school, despite ongoing controversy around its accreditation under domestic Israeli law. Prime Minister Netanyahu was notably absent from (and reportedly was not invited to) the ceremony, fueling rumors regarding the growing disaffection between him and Adelson.

According to another recent report in Haaretz, Ariel university is illegally dumping construction debris on land that Israel acknowledges is not “state land.” The dump site is outside of the so-called “Blue Line” which the Israeli government uses to demarcate the land that it considers “state land.” Since the dump site is not within the Blue Line, it is likely on land that even the government of Israel recognizes as being privately owned by Palestinians. Anti-settlement watchdog and founder of Kerem Navot, Dror Etkes, commented:

“It’s not surprising that Ariel University, which is the only university in the world built and existing by military order, has adopted the standards accepted in the West Bank involving the takeover of private Palestinian land.”

According to a third Haaretz report, the Israeli Education Ministry has signed a contract to sponsor 3,000-4,000 Israeli high school students of Ethiopian descent to take part in a leadership training program located in Ariel.  The program, called “JH Israel,” was founded by American evangelical mega-church pastors Bruce and Heather Johnston, the latter of whom also runs the U.S. Israel Education Association, a pro-Israel, pro-settlement, non-profit group which works with the Family Research Council to lead Congressional delegations to Israel. The JH Israel website says its mission is to help Jewish Israeli students who are “disconnected from the roots of their faith” to establish “a deeper connection to God by embracing their biblical and cultural heritage.” The website also says that Ariel is “at the forefront of biblical prophecy unfolding in modern Israel.”

As FMEP has repeatedly documented, Ariel is located in the heart of the northern West Bank, reaching literally to the midpoint between the Green Line and the Jordan border. The future of Ariel has long been one of the greatest challenges to any possible peace agreement, since any plan to connect Ariel to Israel will cut the northern West Bank into pieces.

Peace Now Settlement Watch Director Shabtay Bendet spoke to Haaretz about the future of the Ariel settlement and the (other) significant repercussions of opening the new medical school. Bendet said:

“Most places in Israel don’t get recognized as cities unless they have 20,000 to 30,000 residents. Ariel became a city when it had just 11,000 residents. Why was this so significant? Because maybe you can uproot a settlement, but you don’t uproot a city. The same holds true for the university. Why was it so important for him to get it accredited? Because when a place has a university, that means it’s established — no pulling it out of the ground….By creating a buffer between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank it makes any future Palestinian state unviable. But besides that, it is also causing damage in the present because its continued expansion impinges on the ability of the surrounding Palestinian villages to develop and grow.”

Amana (the Official Settler Movement) Moves Its HQ to Sheikh Jarrah

The Ynet news outlet reports that the Amana settler organization – the official body of the settlement movement, operating since the 1970s – has moved into its new headquarters in the heart of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where settlers are continuing to wage a displacement campaign against Palestinian residents. Though Amana has owned the plot of land since 1992, various legal challenges and incredibly sensitive geopolitical considerations have slowed construction of the building, called the “Amana House” (see a detailed history here).

Regarding the strategic implications of the location, Ynet reports:

“Amana says the new headquarters will help bolster the territorial contiguity of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.”

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) who previously served as the CEO of Amana, commented that the organization’s relocation:

“constitutes a significant reinforcement to the (Jewish) settlement in east Jerusalem and the bolstering of the Jewish territorial contiguity in the area.”

Several settlement plans are currently proceeding in Sheikh Jarrah, underscoring the strategic location and goals of settler activity in Sheikh Jarrah. As covered previously in this report, Israel is expected to advance a plan for a 6-story office building for settlers, located at the entrance to the neighborhood. Across the street from that building, a highly consequential plan for a new religious school (the Glassman yeshiva) was approved for deposit for public review in July 2017. The goal is clear: to unite the enclaves of settlers living inside of the Palestinian neighborhood by creating a contiguous area of settlement that connects to West Jerusalem, thereby cementing an immovable Jewish Israeli presence in a key Palestinian neighborhood – closing off the possibility of evacuation under a future peace deal.

Settlement Gains in East Jerusalem Result in Palestinians Self-Demolishing Their Homes

OCHA reports that two Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina were self-demolished after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of settlers’ ownership claims.  OCHA writes:

“In recent decades, Israeli settler organizations, with the support of the Israeli authorities, have taken control of properties within Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, and some 180 Palestinian families are currently facing eviction cases, filed mainly by settler organizations.”

Bonus Reads

1. “How Israeli Right-wing Thinkers Envision the Annexation of the West Bank” (Haaretz)
2. “Let’s Admit It: The Settlers Have Won and We Have Lost” (Haaretz)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

November 2, 2017

1. Netanyahu Delays Cabinet Vote on the “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill”
2. More Settlement Approvals in East Jerusalem: Ramat Shlomo & Ramot Plans to Advance
3. Settlers Continue Protests for Immediate “Security Package” Funding
4. Israel Appoints Settler Leader to Craft Legal Cases to Retroactively Authorize Outposts
5. Bonus Reads

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

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Netanyahu Delays Cabinet Vote on the “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill”

At the last minute, Prime Minister Netanyahu postponed the Israeli Cabinet’s consideration of the highly controversial “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill,” scheduled to take place on Oct. 29th. In the words of the bill’s author, the purpose of the legislation is to guarantee a Jewish majority in Jerusalem by annexing over a dozen settlements into the Jerusalem Municipality. You can find a detailed explanation of the bill, including key resources from anti-settlement watchdogs, in last week’s Settlement Report.

Despite sustained, strong international condemnation of the annexation bill, the Trump administration’s eleventh hour intervention is what convinced Netanyahu to delay the bill from advancing. Ynet News reports that Saudi Arabia’s prodding is what ultimately convinced the U.S. to intervene against the bill, rather than concerns of the U.S. itself (pro-settler media reports that the U.S. knew about the bill for months and never expressed criticism).

An unnamed U.S. official commented, “It’s fair to say that the U.S. is discouraging actions that it believes will unduly distract the principals from focusing on the advancement of peace negotiations. The Jerusalem expansion bill was considered by the administration to be one of those actions.”

Though tabled for the time being, the “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill” could resurface anytime. One of the bill’s authors, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, has already announced that he is redrafting the bill and expects the Knesset to pass during it during the current winter session. The new draft will not extend Israeli sovereignty to the prescribed settlements, but will still count the settlers as Jerusalem voters.

The “Greater Jerusalem [Annexation] Bill” is not the only active Israeli effort to redraw the borders of Jerusalem in ways that seek to secure Jewish majority in the city. As we reported last week, a second bill that similarly aims to gerrymander a Jewish majority in Jerusalem is still in play. This bill will cut out some 100,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem from the Jerusalem Municipality, creating a new Israeli regional council for them – and only them – instead. And a third bill, the so-called “Jerusalem Supermajority,” is also in play. This bill will required 80 out of 120 votes in the Knesset to approve any deal transferring parts of Jerusalem to a foreign entity.

Ir Amim writes,

These dangerous unilateral initiatives disregard the wishes and interests of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, treating them as a pawn to be moved around at will. Such plans will bring neither peace nor stability to Jerusalem.

More Settlement Approvals in East Jerusalem: Ramat Shlomo & Ramot Plans to Advance

Another 700 highly controversial East Jerusalem settlement units are set to be promoted by the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee this week. The plans are for 500 units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement and 200 units in the Ramot settlement. The Ramat Shlomo and Ramot announcements follow a month of alarming settlement advancements made by the High Planning Council and last week by the Jerusalem Planning Council, both of which include highly sensitive plans in East Jerusalem.

The plans for Ramat Shlomo and Ramat are particularly noteworthy, not just for their location in Palestinian East Jerusalem but also in light of very recent history. A vote on the plans was scheduled in December 2016 on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel to give a major speech on U.S. peace principles. Israel cancelled the vote in light of U.S. anger. In 2010, tenders were issued for units in Ramat Shlomo while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel, leading the Vice President to issue sharp words against Israel while on the ground. Henceforth the plans for Ramat Shlomo that were advanced in 2010 have been dubbed “The Biden Plan.”

The promotion of these plans comes in the context of an opening of the settlement floodgates in Jerusalem, starting at the beginning of July. For details, see this comprehensive timeline of East Jerusalem settlement-related developments (July 1 – Oct 30), published by Jerusalem expert Danny Seidemann. Seidemann notes:

The intensity of the government initiatives in Jerusalem in the last four months is unprecedented, whether in regard to the scope and implications of the settlements announcements, to the nature of the legislative initiatives, or to the political assault against all those daring to challenge the occupation and the government narrative in Jerusalem.

Settlers Continue Protest for Immediate “Security Package” Funding

Settlers staged another protest in front of Netanyahu’s home to demand immediate funding for infrastructure projects across the West Bank. In early October, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman promised a $939 million “settler security package” as part of the 2019 budget. A week later, Netanyahu promised that $228 million will be made available in January 2018 for settler infrastructure projects. Not trusting Netanyahu at his word, settlers insist that the money be allocated immediately.

Peace Now has detailed information and maps showing the 5 bypass roads that will be funded in 2018 as specified by Prime Minister Netanyahu in a letter to settler authorities. Peace Now points out the 4 out of 5 bypass roads serve settlements deep inside the West Bank, one near the Nablus and another near Hebron.

Peace Now writes,

The projects…have far-reaching implications in terms of reaching a two state solution as on the one hand expansion of settlements connected to the roads is expected to accelerate and on the other hand the possibility for Palestinian development will be limited or eliminated in those areas.

In addition to the bypass roads, the funds will also cover projects to install cell phone service towers, street lights, and to increase the number of armored buses services settlers across the West Bank.

Israel Appoints Settler Leader to Craft Legal Cases to Retroactively Authorize Outposts

A top settler advocate has been appointed to lead a new government committee that was formed in the wake of the Amona outpost evacuation in order to protect unauthorized Israeli outposts from similar actions. The appointee, Pinchas Wallerstein, has an extensive history representing settlements, and last year he admitted to lying to the Israeli government about the construction of the Amona outpost, which was later proven to have been knowingly built on privately owned Palestinian land.

In response to Wallerstein’s appointment, Dror Etkes – who heads the settlement watchdog Kerem Navot – commented:

In a normal, healthy society Mr Wallerstein, who is involved in countless number of criminal actions of land grab and dispossession, would likely be writing his memoir from jail right now; but in 2017…he is treated as a culture hero.

The work of the outpost defense committee is set to begin in the coming weeks, but the work should ostensibly be on hold under an injunction against the so-called “Regulation Law.” The law was passed by the Knesset earlier this year to provide a legal basis for the retroactive legalization of outposts constructed without Israeli authorization. The injunction was issued by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit in August, to allow the High Court to hear arguments on two petitions that civil society groups launched to challenge the law’s constitutionality. In September, the Knesset asked the Court to reject the petitions; the Court has not rejected the petitions. Arguments were expected to be heard in October, but have not yet been scheduled.

Peace Now found that 55 outposts (out of approximately 100 across the West Bank) and 4,000 outpost units stand to be retroactively legalized if the Regulation Law survives the pending challenges (in addition to legalizing the unauthorized seizure of large areas of West Bank land being used for settler agriculture).

Bonus Reads

1. “Jewish Federations Donated Millions to Israeli Settlements Over Four Years” (Haaretz)
2. “Creeping Annexation” (J Street)
3. “FIFA will not take action on Israeli settlement teams” (Al Jazeera)
4. “Israel Denies Entry to Amnesty USA Staff Member” (Amnesty International)

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

 

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

July 7, 2017

1. Israel Announces Thousands of New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
2. Settlement Watchdogs & Jerusalem Experts Sound the Alarm
3. The U.S. Response
4. Israeli AG says Accidental Land Theft is Legal
5. The Beit El Spitting Match Continues
6. Bonus Reads

For questions and comments please contact FMEP’s Director of Policy & Operations, Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org).

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Israel Announces Thousands of New Settlement Units in East Jerusalem

This week the Israeli government announced the advancement of thousands of new settlement units across East Jerusalem. This includes plans inside large settlement neighborhoods like Gilo and Ramot, as well as unprecedented projects in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. The settlement floodgates in East Jerusalem are now officially open, and daringly so. The announcements this week will constitute the largest settlement expansion in East Jerusalem in many years, and it reveals the lengths to which this Israeli government will go to in order to increase Israeli control and claim over East Jerusalem, including changing the longstanding modus operandi governing settlement planning and construction to open new areas for construction and to build at far greater density.

For detailed reporting on the specific plans advancing this month, click to read comprehensive resources produced by:

• Terrestrial Jerusalem
• Peace Now
• Ir Amim

The most provocative projects (detailed extensively in all of the above resources) are in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Once approved, the projects will require the eviction of 5 Palestinian families. Another project, as we reported last week, will build a large yeshiva (Jewish religious school) at the entrance of Sheikh Jarrah.

The plans for Sheikh Jarrah – and many of the other plans being promoted this month – are efforts to irrevocably change facts on the ground in East Jerusalem by expanding settlement enclaves inside of densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods. These announcements are poison pills for any attempt to re-start a political process or negotiate a permanent status agreement on the contested future of Jerusalem.

Settlement Watchdogs & Jerusalem Experts Sound the Alarm

Hagit Ofran, Director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch, writes: “The [Israeli] government is brutally attempting to destroy the possibility of the two-state solution, and this time it is by establishing a new settlement at the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and [by] promoting nearly 1,800 housing units beyond the Green Line.”

Danny Seidemann, founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, writes: “This is not routine, either in scope or impact. Within a period of two weeks Israel will be approving more than 1,800 settlement units – an increase of 3.3% of all of the settlement units built in East Jerusalem since 1967.”

Betty Herschman, Director of International Relations & Advocacy at Ir Amim, writes: “The simultaneous lack of restraint in the Historic Basin through the revival of plans in Sheikh Jarrah is of paramount concern – signaling, as it does, the government’s continued determination to exert its sovereignty over the Historic Basin in advance of prospective negotiations.”

 

The U.S. Response

Following Israel’s announcement on Wednesday approving 800 units in East Jerusalem – the first East Jerusalem construction announcement under the Trump administration and just the first tranche of units expected to advance this month – the White House gave a statement to the press reiterating its policy on Israeli settlement activity. The statement reads, “unrestrained growth does not advance the prospect for peace,” adding, “at the same time, the administration recognizes that past demands for a settlement freeze have not helped advance peace talks.”

The statement suggests that the U.S. will likely not exert meaningful pressure on Israel to hold back on settlement growth, even in the most contentious areas in East Jerusalem.

Also this week, settler leaders were welcomed to Ambassador David Friedman’s party on the 4th of July at his official residence in Herziliyah. Ambassador Friedman’s invitation was celebrated by settlers as a “dramatic shift in policy.” This comes on the heels of Ambassador Friedman quietly attending a wedding in the West Bank settlement of Psagot at the end of May, as documented on Twitter by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (it was the wedding of Boteach’s son), who tweeted a photo of himself with Ambassador Friedman caption, “With my friend US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at a wedding in the Holy Land. Gd bless.”

 

Israeli AG says “Accidental” Land Theft is Legal

Hoping to prevent future “Amonas” (i.e., public relations nightmares where the nightly news broadcasts Israeli security forces forcibly removing Israeli settlers from hilltops on the West Bank because of court decisions), Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mendleblit has suggested a new legal basis for Israeli settlement construction on privately owned Palestinian land.

Israeli law currently forbids settlement construction on land recognized by Israel as “privately owned” by Palestinians (all settlement construction is illegal under international law). Despite the prohibition – and despite the fact that it is very difficult for Palestinians to get Israel to recognize their private ownership of land – the Israeli government and settlers have built on lands that even Israeli law recognizes as privately owned by Palestinians.

In an effort to find a fix to this problem that does not involve respecting the rule of law and the legal rights of Palestinians as landowners, last year the Attorney General brought up a 1967 government special order entitled, “Order Concerning Government Property.” That document says, in part, that settlers who bought land from the Israeli government believing that it was land the government claimed was “state land” should not face penalties, even if the land turns out to be privately owned by Palestinians.

Late last year, AG Mendleblit recommended using this special order to retroactively legalize illegal settlement construction, while simultaneously warning the government against passing the Regulation Law, which gives license to the Israeli government to legalize all illegal settlement construction and land seizures (it passed into law anyway). Mendleblit warned that the Regulation Law was unconstitutional, and suggested the 1967 special order as an alternative legal avenue to accomplish the same goal. Peace Now currently has a petition before the High Court of Justice challenging the constitutionality of the Regulation Law.

 

The Beit El Spitting Match Continues

Last week we reported on ongoing controversy over building projects in the Beit El settlement, which in June Netanyahu had blocked from advancing. The subsequent tantrum thrown by settler leaders’ won a promise from Netanyahu that 300 settlement units will be built in Beit El by September 2017.

Not taking the PM at his word – or, as likely, seizing an opportunity to score more pro-settlement political points – far right-wing MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) introduced a bill last week that would force Netanyahu to build the units. That bill was scheduled to come up for vote this week, but Netanyahu intervened to prevent the bill from being considered. This does not mean Netanyahu will continue to block the Beit El plan as it moves through the normal settlement planning process governing Israeli construction in the West Bank (the plan is in the final stages of the approval process).

 

Bonus Reads

• “Settler Leader Used State Resources to Fund Illegal Outpost, While Israel Turned Blind Eye” (Haaretz, July 4, 2017)
• “A New Jewish settlement begins to rise in the West Bank” (Washington Post, July 1, 2017)

 

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