Settlement Report: September 27, 2017

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

September 27, 2017

Netanyahu Delays Settlement Approvals at U.S. Request
High Court Hears Arguments on the Demolition & Forced Relocation of anan al-Ahmar
Another West Bank Community – Susiya – Faces Imminent Demolition (Again)
Israeli Military Sets Up New Guard Post in Area A
Defending their “Regulation Law,” Knesset Asks Court to Reject Palestinian Petitions
Palestinian Laborer Kills Three Israelis in Settlement Attack
Bonus Reads

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

Netanyahu Delays Settlement Approvals at U.S. Request

Reportedly at the Trump Administration’s request, PM Netanyahu has put a two-week delay on a highly consequential meeting of the Civil Administration’s Planning Committee, which was set to consider advancing plans for the construction of as many as 2,000 new settlement units. The meeting had already been delayed at least once, out of concern for international blowback around the United Nations General Assembly confab last week. The delay comes as President Trump’s special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, arrives in the region to continue talks ostensibly aimed at restarting peace negotiations.

The decision angered Israel settlers and their allies, many of whom are already frustrated by Netanyahu’s failure to fulfill his promise to market tenders (a final step in the planning process) for 300 new units in the Beit El settlement earlier this month. Once the tenders are marketed, there will be a 60-day bidding period, after which the tenders will be awarded. Beit El is the settlement for which U.S. Ambassador David Friedman served as a longtime fundraiser, until his diplomatic appointment earlier this year. The settlement is deep in the West Bank, near Ramallah.

High Court Hears Arguments on the Demolition & Forced Relocation of Khan al-Ahmar

~~On September 25th, Israel’s High Court of Justice heard arguments~~ [CORRECTED: The hearing scheduled for September 25th was delayed, and a new date for the hearing before the High Court has not yet been set. Read on for information about the State’s response to the petitions, submitted to the High Court this week.] on two competing petitions regarding the future of the residents of the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar. One petition, submitted by settlers living near Khan al-Ahmar, seeks to expedite the demolition of the village school. Another petition, submitted by Khan al-Ahmar’s residents (Palestinian Bedouins), seeks to delay the demolition of the village’s structures, all of which have been issued demolition orders.

Map by Middle East Eye

We covered the background of the community – and Israel’s plan to forcibly relocate its residents [a war crime] to a site near a garbage dump, in order to expand the Maale Adumim settlement – in last week’s Settlement Report, which you can read here.

The Israeli government submitted its response to the petitions on Monday, saying it intends to carry out the demolition of the village and the relocation of its residents by mid-2018. The State asked the High Court to reject both petitions and allow the plan to advance. B’Tselem’s Executive Director Hagai El-Ad issued a blistering response to the State’s argument saying:

No sanctimonious language about a ‘planning, proprietary and realistic’ alternate, or ‘time to prepare’ can erase the disgrace or hide the facts: the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar means the forcible transfer of protected persons, and forcible transfer is a war crime. Those responsible for it will bear personal criminal liability – exactly as B’Tselem stated two weeks ago, in a letter addressed to the prime minister, defense minister, justice minister, chief of staff and the head of the Civil Administration.

Peace Now also issued a statement on the State’s response:

While the government argues that the residents of Khan al-Ahmar will received alternative housing, they will in fact be evacuated against their will for the benefit of settlers, and placed above the garbage dump in Abu Dis. This type of forceful evacuation of protected persons constitutes a severe violation of international humanitarian law.

It appears that the forceful displacement of the residents of Khan al-Ahmar is a form of “compensation” for his right wing supporters for the upcoming evacuation of the Illegal outpost of Derech Ha’Avot, following a High Court ruling.

It is shameful that settlers from Kfar Adumim, who received their lands for free from the government, are fighting for the evacuation of their Palestinian neighbors, who resided in the area long before them.

Ahead of the hearing, the Haaretz editorial board penned a plea to the Court against the forced relocation and replacement of West Bank Bedouin with Jewish settlements, stating:

This political project – the forced uprooting of Bedouin communities, replacing them with new Jewish settlements – is against international law. It has reached the doorstep of the High Court justices, who are under constant pressure to “respect the will of the people” – that is, the will of the settlers who control the government – even though this will is neither legal nor moral. It must be hoped the justices will be able to stand in the breach.

Another West Bank Community – Susiya – Faces Imminent Demolition (Again)

Map by B’Tselem

The Israeli Defense Ministry is “no longer willing to postpone” the demolition of the Palestinian community of Susiya, according to Haaretz reporting. A senior security official told Haaretz that the demolition will happen within a few months.

Like the Khan al-Ahmar community, the Palestinian residents of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills are the target of Israeli demolition orders and relocation plans. The community that makes up Susiya has a long history, as reported by Haaretz:

Susiya has long been a symbol of both Palestinian steadfastness and Israeli policies. In 1986, Israel expelled the residents from their original ancient village, whose lands were declared a national park. In 2001, they were thrown off their agricultural lands, where they had settled after the earlier expulsion. The High Court of Justice allowed them to return, but didn’t order the authorities to allow them to rebuild. As a result, all the structures in the village were built without permits and are at risk of demolition. The Civil Administration never prepared a master plan for Susiya and rejected the plan the residents had submitted, demanding instead that the residents move to an area near the city of Yatta. The residents refused, but agreed to meet with Civil Administration officials to try to come to some understanding.

The plight of Susiya’s residents continues to inspire a vibrant civil society campaign in both the U.S. and in Israel. Notably, the Obama Administration intervened in the case of Susiya as recently as last year. Back in November 2016, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) a statement praising PM Netanyahu’s decision to delay the demolition (the link includes links to Feinstein’s long engagement on this issue). In 2015, 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry raising the village’s plight. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN are a few major U.S. outlets that have featured the Susiya’s story sympathetically.

Israeli Military Sets Up New Guard Post in Area A

Peace Now this week published a report documenting the fact that the Israeli army recently established a new guard post in the West Hebron Hills, in a part of the West Bank that is designated as “Area A.” Under the 1995 Interim Agreement, the Palestinian Authority has full civil and security control in the 18% of the West Bank designated as “Area A.” Israeli forces are not allowed to operate in – or even enter – Area A; however, for years Israel has insisted on its right to “hot pursuit” in Area A, carrying out operations at it pleases.

Map by Peace Now

The establishment by the IDF of a static post in Area A (dispensing with even the pretense that the operation is related to “hot pursuit”) represents a new and significant escalation in Israel’s violation of the 1995 Interim Agreement. According to Peace Now, the new “pill box” guard post was built “in the heart of the Palestinian village of Khursa in the West Hebron Hills….in order to protect vehicles of the Negohot settlers, who drive through Area A in order to shorten the way between Jerusalem and the South Hebron Hills.” The Negohot settlement was established in 1999 without official Israeli authorization. A jurisdiction was approved to retroactively legalize the settlement in 2013.

Peace Now said:

The placing of a guard post in area A is a blatant violation of the Oslo Accords and shows the length the Israeli government is willing to go in order to help a handful of settlers take a shortcut on their way home. The new IDF guard post illustrates, yet again, that the settlements do not contribute to Israel’s security, but rather pose a national security burden.

Defending their “Regulation Law,” Knesset Asks Court to Reject Palestinian Petitions

This week the Israeli Knesset submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice its response to petitions challenging the constitutionality of the “Regulation Law,” which was passed by the Knesset in February 2017. The law provides a legal basis to retroactively legalize Israeli outposts, settlement structures, and agricultural lands that were built illegally (i.e., without permission and/or on land recognized by Israel as privately owned by Palestinians).

The Knesset’s legal advisor argued that Israel is able to selectively write laws for the West Bank. The Knesset asserts it must do so in this case because no other means exist to legalize the settlement homes and outposts [Note: no other means exist because, according to rule of law, the law applies, regardless of whether politicians like the results].The Knesset’s response asks the Court to reject petitions against the Regulation Law.

Last month, a private lawyer hired by the government submitted the State’s response to the petitions, after the Israeli Attorney General declared the law illegal and refused to defend it. The State’s response claimed that the law is legal because Israel can legislate in the West Bank and because the law provides an avenue to compensate the dispossessed Palestinian landowners.

Peace Now and Yesh Din are among the 13 civil society groups leading a legal challenge to the law on behalf of Palestinians. According to data collected by Peace Now, the law will lead to the expropriation of over 8,000 dunam (nearly 2,000 acres) of private land upon which structures have been built illegally – and tens of thousands of dunams of land on which agricultural crops have been planted. The land designated for expropriation is owned by thousands of Palestinians, among them many of the residents of the villages represented in the petition.

Palestinian Laborer Kills Three Israelis in Settlement Attack

On September 26,, a Palestinian man opened fire at the gate of the Har Adar settlement, near Jerusalem. He killed three Israelis – two civilian security guards (one of them a Palestinian citizen of Israel)and one border policeman – and injured another guard. The assailant, who was killed at the scene, was identified as 37-year-old Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal from the neighboring Palestinian village Beit Surik. He reportedly had an Israeli-issued work permit (which requires security screenings) to enter the settlement, where he was employed as a cleaner. Jamal reportedly had no security record and was married with four children (meaning he did not fit any profile for someone who might commit such an attack). He was reportedly having serious personal and family problems.

Shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a range of Israelis responses targeting not the assailant (who died in the attack) but his family, his immediate community, and potentially Palestinians beyond that: the assailant’s house will be demolished and any work permits issued to his relatives (extended family) will be revoked. The attacker’s hometown, Beit Surik, was sealed-off by the Israeli army, and his brothers was arrested. Additional Israeli troops were sent into the area around Har Adar, which sits in what Israel calls the “seam zone,” i.e., the area of the West Bank that runs along, and sometimes on the Israeli side of, the separation barrier. Netanyahu also blamed President Abbas and Palestinian official “incitement” for the attack, despite Israel media reporting widely on the personal problems of the attacker.

FMEP President Lara Friedman has written about how Israel’s response to terror, many elements of which have already unfolded around this attack, amounts to collective punishment.

Bonus Reads

“Israeli settler sics dog on border police” (Times of Israel)
“Israeli settler torch olive trees in revenge attack” (The New Arab)

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.

August 31, 2017

Netanyahu: Israel Will Not Withdraw from Settlements, Ever
U.S. Refuses to State a Clear Position on Settlements
Netanyahu Delays Settlement Advancements Until After September UNGA Session
Palestinians & NGOs Launch Legal Challenge to New Settlement
Settlers Ordered to Leave the Illegally-Occupied Building in Hebron, or be Evacuated
Liberman Approves New Israeli Municipality for Settlers in Hebron
Liberman Comes Out Against Regulation Law…Because It Could Undermine Settlements
Beit El Settlement Will Get a Wall & New Homes This Year
Bonus Reads

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

Netanyahu: Israel Will Not Withdraw from Settlements, Ever

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to make the case that no Israeli government has been better for settlements than his own. This time around, he did so at an event held in a settlement, celebrating 50 years since took control of the West Bank (or, occupied and began illegally settling civilians in it).

At the event, Netanyahu pledged,

Map by Peace Now

We are here to stay, forever. There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. It has been proven that it does not help peace. We’ve uprooted settlements. What did we get? We received missiles. It will not happen anymore…So we will not fold. We are guarding Samaria against those who want to uproot us. We will deepen our roots, build, strengthen and settle.

At the same event, Minister of Education Naftali Bennett said, “We [Israelis] shouldn’t need permits, building in Judea and Samaria should be unrestricted. The freedom to build in our country.” Bennett is a leading figure in a powerful far-right faction of the Israeli government which is pushing Netanyahu to take radical, anti-democratic positions to advance settlements and sabotage the possibility of any future peace deal with Palestinians.

As a reminder, the Israeli settlement watchdog organization Peace Now documents 131 Israeli settlements and 97 outposts in the occupied West Bank, totaling 385,900 settlers. There are an additional 208,410 Israelis living in Palestinian East Jerusalem. There cannot be a viable, contiguous, independent Palestinian state if all of these settlements remains in place.

U.S. Refuses to State a Clear Position on Settlements

Despite a Palestinian pressure campaign last week to get the Trump Administration to publicly commit to a two-state solution and a settlement freeze while in the region, the U.S. delegation came and went without articulating support for either of those baselines for negotiations.

Immediately after the negotiation team departed, Palestinian news reported that Jared Kushner – who led the delegation – told President Abbas that the U.S. cannot call for a settlement freeze because the it would lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government. A senior White House official quickly, and vehemently, denied the report as “nonsense.”

These are just the latest reports adding to the confusion and concern about the Trump Administration’s changing position on settlements. To date, the U.S. has only (and repeatedly) stated that unrestrained settlement growth is not “helpful” to the peace process. President Trump and his spokespeople have refused to comment directly on any of the major settlement announcements Israel has made since Trump took office, including the approval of the first new official settlement in 25 years (Amichai, located far beyond the separation barrier and approved as a pay-off to settlers who defied Israeli law in building elsewhere) and alarming developments in East Jerusalem.

At first the White House even declined to comment on Netanyahu’s promise to never uproot another Israeli settlement (reported above); 24-hours later, an anonymous White House official commented to the Times of Israel that, “It is no secret what each side’s position is on this issue [settlements]. Our focus is on continuing our conversations with both parties and regional leaders to work towards facilitating a deal that factors in all substantive issues.”

Several FMEP grantees and U.S. civil society organizations have put out statements on the Administration’s position:

- J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami writes, “It is no accident that the prime minister’s open rejection of the two-state solution has grown bolder since President Trump took office. By refusing to support two states or to seriously oppose settlement expansion, the Trump administration has given the Israeli government the green light to entrench the occupation and avoid meaningful negotiations. It is empowering the most extreme voices and positions on both sides.”
- Americans for Peace Now released a statement saying in part, “By refusing to publicly endorse a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and suggesting that doing so would “bias one side over the other” regarding possible outcomes, the Trump Administration yesterday dropped a dangerous and unacceptable bombshell. The Administration turned its back on a core bipartisan foreign policy principle, thumbed its nose at an international consensus regarding the way to resolve the conflict, and handed a gift to extremists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.”

Netanyahu Delays Settlement Advancements Until After September UNGA Session

The Times of Israel is reporting that the Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee has delayed a meeting scheduled for this week until the conclusion of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session (taking place September 12-25 at UN headquarters in New York). The committee’s meeting was set to advance 3,000 settlement units first reported to be moving in June of this year. The units are expected to be advanced by the end of September, despite the short delay.

In addition, the Times of Israel report suggests Netanyahu’s government is moving to significantly shorten the settlement approval process by eliminating the number of authorizations each plan needs to obtain before being implemented.

Palestinians & NGOs Launch Legal Challenge to New Settlement

This week, a group of Palestinians and Israeli NGOs filed a legal challenge against the first settlement to be built in the West Bank in 25 years, Amichai. The petition claims that the settlement’s location will deny Palestinians access to their own private land – land on which they depend for farming and grazing. A construction plan for Amichai was approved earlier this year as payoff to families which the government was forced to evacuate from the illegal Amona outpost.

Map by Peace Now

The location of the new settlement, north of Ramallah and deep in the Shilo Valley, is a brazen challenge to Israeli planning laws. Bimkom, an Israeli NGO leading the new petition against Amichai, explains that the IDF has repeatedly demolished an illegal outpost on the very same hilltop on which Amichai is being built. Alon Cohen-Lifschitz of Bimkom says, “We [Bimkom] didn’t even file petitions against the outpost. The Defense Ministry simply understood that it was illegal and acted. But now they want to establish a settlement in that same problematic area…“there was no legitimacy to establish the settlement. They [the Israeli government] rushed through the entire process without gaining the necessary permits.”

The petition might delay the construction of the new settlement for several months while the court considers and demands a State response to the petitions’ claims. Such a delay would be i addition to the problems already facing the new settlement: after getting off to a fast start, construction on Amichai stopped at the end of July due to budget shortfalls, and so far has not resumed despite reports that Netanyahu’s government is seeking to triple the government’s contribution to the project.

Settlers Ordered to Leave the Illegally-Occupied Building in Hebron, or be Evacuated

On August 27th, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit ordered Israeli settlers to voluntarily leave the building in Hebron they have dubbed the “Machpelah House” within the week, or face a forcible evacuation. Approximately 100 Israeli settlers broke into the property and took up residence on July 25th, over five weeks ago. The Attorney General’s order has put an end date on attempts by the Defense Ministry to negotiate a peaceful evacuation.

The Attorney General’s order came as the result of a petition filed by Palestinians who say they own the home. Legal ownership of the home is a complicated, fiercely disputed matter; what is neither complicated nor in disputed is the fact that the settlers broke Israeli law when the took over the site.

Hagit Ofran, the head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Project, said, “It’s truly a shame that the state needs a High Court petition in order to uphold the law.”

Liberman Approves New Israeli Municipality for Settlers in Hebron

On August 29th, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that the government had approved granting the status of an independent municipality to the loose cluster of settlements, home to around 1,000 Israeli settlers, located in Hebron’s city center. Until now, these settlements and their residents have technically fallen under the municipal jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority while for all practical purposes operating as an enclave under full Israeli control and authority. That changed officially on Thursday, when the Israeli army signed an order to create a new municipal services administration for Jewish settlers.

Map by Mike King for the New York Review of Books

The creation of a municipal body is a major boon to the settlers, who will now enjoy far greater freedom and authority to administer their own affairs and promote their own agenda – which includes attempting to rewrite the city’s history and cultural identity to effectively erase the Palestinians – without having to deal with the Palestinian Authority.

Liberman’s decision, and the actions of the settlers, violate the 1997 Hebron Protocol signed by Arafat and Netanyahu, which divided Hebron into two security areas, H-1 controlled by Palestinians (80% of Hebron) and H-2 controlled by the Israeli army. That agreement stipulated that the Palestinian Authority would provide municipal services to all parts of the city, gave the PA control over all infrastructure, and specifically protected the Palestinian cultural identity of Hebron.

Commenting on this new development, Peace Now says:

By granting an official status to the Hebron settlers, the Israeli government is formalizing the apartheid system in the city. This step, which happened immediately following the announcement on the evacuation of the settlers who took over a house in Hebron [discussed above], is another illustration of the policy of compensating the most extreme settlers for their illegal actions.

Liberman Comes Out Against Regulation Law…Because It Could Undermine Settlements

To the surprise of many, this week Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman – himself a settler – railed against the Regulation Law, which was passed by the Knesset in order to retroactively legalize Israeli outposts in the West Bank.

Why would an ardent supporter of settlements do so? Liberman’s logic is clear: he is concerned that the law will provide the basis for legalizing not only illegal construction by settlers but that it could also lead to the legalization of “illegal” Palestinian construction. Unpacking the false symmetry built into this logic, Liberman fears that this law – designed to legalize the approximately 2,000 units settlers built on private Palestinian land, making them illegal even under Israeli law, will compel Israel to also legalize the approximately 10,000 units build by Palestinians on their own private land, but without Israeli permits (it is virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain such permits in the more than 60% of the West Bank known as Area C, that under the Oslo Accords is under full Israeli control).

Liberman also criticized unauthorized construction in settlements, which his ministry was recently tasked with cracking down on – because, he argued, the lawlessness often brings land cases before the High Court and draws more legal scrutiny to the settlements. In addition, he called the violent Hilltop Youth movement “disturbed idiots,” leading the movement’s supporters to file a criminal complaint against the Defense Minister in order to “send a message that this is not how an elected official is supposed to behave.”

Beit El Settlement Will Get a Wall & New Homes This Year

This week the Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed that it is planning to build a wall around part of the Beit El settlement, located northeast of Ramallah. According to a Defense Ministry spokesman, the wall will be built along a portion of the settlement’s western side, separating it from the Palestinian Al-Jalazoun refugee camp, “based on security needs and circumstances.” The construction does not yet have the necessary permissions, but the spokesman said he expects building to begin in the coming weeks.

Map by Haaretz

Prime Minister Netanyahu has personally promised to approve 300 new housing units for Beit El by the end of September. There was significant outrage in pro-settlement quarters earlier this year, when new homes in the Beit El settlement were not included in the wave of settlement approvals that came out in July. That outrage was rewarded with the Prime Minister’s assurances that the units would, indeed, be built.

Beit El is the settlement with which current U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is most closely associated, having donated to and fundraised for prior to his appointment (in his capacity as the President of the American Friends of Beit El, reportedly from 2011 until he became ambassador). As of March 2017, Amb. Friedman’s son-in-law was still reportedly involved in fundraising for the settlement.

Bonus Reads

“Jerusalem Stakeout Reveals ‘New Generation’ of Radical Jewish Settlers” (Haaretz+)
“The Writing on the Wall: Signs of Occupation in Hebron” (The Forward)
“Hobby Lobby Funds Israeli Settlement Archeology” (Al Jazeera)
“How Palestinian students prepare for settler attacks” (Al Jazeera)

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.

August 24, 2017

Israel Mounts Legal Defense After High Court Puts 2-Month Hold on Regulation Law
Government Data Shows Regulation Law Could Legalize 3,455 Settlement Structures
Israeli AG Demands Better Enforcement of Settlement Construction Laws
Yitzhar Settlers Attack IDF During Outpost Demolition
Settler-Led Petition Seeks to “Test”High Court’s Consistency on Palestinian Land Ownership Rights
Updates: Amichai Funds, Sheikh Jarrah Eviction, Jordan Valley Race Track, E-1 Demolitions
Bonus Reads

For comments and questions, please email Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org).

Israel Mounts Legal Defense After High Court Puts 2-Month Hold on Regulation Law

On August 17th, the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered a two month hold on the use of the controversial Regulation Law, which was set to take effect this week. The Regulation Law (also called the “Expropriation Law,” the “Regularization Law,” the “Legalization Law,” or the “Settlements Law”) was passed earlier this year by the Israeli Knesset to pave the way for the government to retroactively legalize outposts and other construction of Israeli settler homes on privately owned Palestinian land, among other things. The High Court ordered the two-month freeze following a direct request from Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit, who has called the law unconstitutional.

The court is currently weighing two petitions challenging the legality of the law filed this past March; one petition by the Israeli civil society organizations Yesh Din, Peace Now, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI); the second petition was filed by Palestinian civil society groups Adalah, Al-Mezan, and the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center.

Map by Peace Now

In response to the petitions, the Israeli government’s private attorney Harel Arnon provided the court with a 156-page defense arguing that, “the Regulation Law balances the obligation of the government towards thousands of citizens who have relied in good faith on government action and a minor infringement of property rights, with increased compensation to the [Palestinian] landowners.” Prominent Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard explained why this is “legal fantasy.” Israel was forced to hire a private lawyer to represent them before the High Court after Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit announced his refusal to defend the measure as soon as it was passed into law.

The trio of Israeli petitioners released a blistering statement following the government’s response. Peace Now, Yesh Din, and ACRI wrote,

“The State of Israel, in its response today, is trying to present the land expropriation law as addressing a national problem, when in practice it involves continued government support for a criminal enterprise that has continued for decades. The government is minimizing the continuing harm to the rights of the Palestinian landowners, and at the same time is trying to present the Israeli citizens who are taking part in the looting of West Bank Palestinians as people who have been harmed and who require ‘compensation’ for their part in the looting,” they added. “We hope the court rejects the state’s arguments out of hand, strikes down this unconstitutional and immoral law, and sends a loud and clear message: No more.”

Peace Now goes further to say, “In its response the government attempts to present Israeli citizens, who are directly involved in land theft of Palestinians, as deserving a reward for their participation in the thievery.”

Adalah also issued a sharp response, saying “The state’s position amounts to a de facto annexation of the West Bank.”

Haaretz put out a searing editorial demolishing the government’s claim that settlers are owed a solution to the “distress” they live in as a result of their land theft. Haaretz editors wrote in “The ‘distress” of the Israeli settlers,”

The government broke a record for cynicism when it made its arguments against the petitions. In a perfect reversal of occupier and occupied, it explained that the expropriation law constitutes “a humane, proportionate and reasonable response to the real distress” of all those “Israeli residents” who live under “a cloud of uncertainty” that is “disrupting their lives.” It’s hard to believe, but this is not a description of the situation of millions of Palestinians living under occupation whose lands are being seized, but of the distress of the settlers, who chose to live outside the state’s official borders and whose very presence there is illegitimate.

The High Court of Justice is months away from issuing its ruling on the Regulation Law’s constitutionality. The Knesset’s legal experts are expected to present their case in support of the law in September, and Attorney General Mandleblit is expected to argue against his own government’s law in October.

Government Data Shows Regulation Law Could Legalize 3,455 Settlement Structures

According to the Israeli government’s own data, there are 3,455 illegally built Israeli structures in the West Bank that can be legalized if the Regulation Law (see above) goes into effect. Haaretz has an explanation of the three categories of land where these structures were illegally built and how the Regulation Law seeks to absolve the government and its settlers of their illegality.

The Haaretz reporting confirms and compounds documentation published by Peace Now earlier this year which estimated that the Regulation Law could legalize 3,850 structures and 53 outposts, adding up to a total land grab of 8,000 dunams of privately owned Palestinian land (1 sq. km = 1,000 dunams | 1 acre = 4 dunams).

Israeli AG Demands Better Enforcement of Settlement Construction Laws

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit held a series of meetings over the past month in an attempt to force the government to rein in illegal construction happening inside of settlements. Haaretz reports that Mandleblit met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon several times to demand the creation of a special unit in the Defense Ministry tasked with policing planning and construction laws inside of settlements.

Haaretz relays from sources in the meetings, “He [Mandleblit] said, in the presence of officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, the treasury and the Defense Ministry, that the present situation, in which there is no group enforcing the planning laws in the settlements except for the committees acting on behalf the settlements’ regional councils themselves, is ‘clearly illogical,’ and creates a situation in which there are illegal structures over which nobody has authority.”

The recent discussions followed Mandleblit’s request last month for the High Court to issue an order demanding the Defense Ministry to create the unit. The Defense Ministry has refused to establish the unit, citing a lack of funding. Mandleblit’s request to the High Court was meant to force Defense Minister Liberman to create the unit by making it mandatory.

Yitzhar Settlers Attack IDF During Outpost Demolition

For the second time this year, the Israeli army clashed with radical Yitzhar settlers as the army executed orders against homes the settlers built without the proper permissions. This time, in contrast to the incident in June where houses were razed inside the settlement, the IDF removed six caravans that were set up outside of the settlement’s municipal border in an outpost known as Kumi Ori.

Settler-Led Petition Seeks to “Test” High Court’s Consistency on Palestinian Land Ownership

Ynet News reports that the right-wing settler organization Regavim has launched a petition against the construction of a road in the West Bank, which they claim – with undisguised irony – is being built on privately owned Palestinian land. The road is an access road to the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, a $1.4 billion dollar investment project to provide a state-of-the-art planned city for Palestinians in the West Bank (and the first new Palestinian city Israel has permitted since 1967).

For Ragavim, the case is a win-win. If the court rules in Regavim’s favor, it will be a blow to efforts to develop Rawabi. If the court rules against Regavim (i.e., in favor of the construction and against the rights of Palestinian landowners), it will set a legal precedent that Regavim and others can exploit for the benefit of settlers. Regavim is clearly hoping for the latter result: Regavim’s lawyer said, “In the last few years, the High Court of Justice has taken a very strict line and ordered the demolition of buildings and roads built by Jews on private Palestinian land. That is why in this case, it is unacceptable that the High Court of Justice is nonchalant about the rights of private landowners.”

Updates: Amichai Funds, Sheikh Jarrah Eviction, E-1 Demolitions, Jordan Valley Race Track

Haaretz has spoken to four government officials who report that the office of the Prime Minister has requested to nearly triple the amount of government funds allocated towards the construction of the first new settlement in 25 years, Amichai. The Prime Minister’s office denied the Haaretz report.
In Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem court rejected a petition to delay (again) the eviction of the Shamasneh family from their longtime home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood. Eviction is rumored to proceed on September 9th.
In E-1, the Israeli Army’s Civil Administration has threatened to move forward with demolitions against Bedouin structures they say were illegally built in the area of E-1 despite an order from the High Court of Justice delaying the demolitions. Back in February, the High Court ruled that the structures should not be demolished and that the Bedouin and Civil Administration must work together to see if the structures can be legalized.
In the Jordan Valley, Israeli settlers are continuing to build a recreational race track despite a stop-work order issued against the project in February 2017. The large race track complex is partially on land that the Israeli army has declared a closed firing zone, a designation which resulted in the forcible displacement of Palestinians who lived there
For background on all of these stories, see past editions [link] of FMEP’s Settlement Report.

Bonus Reads

“U.S. Trying to Prevent UN ‘Blacklist’ of Companies Working in Israeli Settlements” (Washington Post)
“Netanyahu to attend West Bank event celebrating 50 years of settlements” (August 21, 2017, Jerusalem Post)
“In Walajeh, Palestinians residents mobilize against Israeli demolitions” (August 21, 2017, +972 Mag/Active Stills)
“From jail cells, settler youth call for defiance of administrative orders” (August 23, 2017, Times of Israel)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

August 9, 2017

Israel Moves Forward with Inflammatory Evictions & Home Demolitions in Jerusalem
Netanyahu Celebrates Expansion of Beitar Illit Settlement
Attorney General Requests Temporary Injunction Against “Regulation Law”
Palestinian Leaders Criticize U.S. Peace Efforts & Point to Silence on Settlements
New Poll Reveals Settlers Prefer the Status Quo to Annexation or Peace
Updates: Machpelah House; New “Amichai” Settlement; Netiv Ha’avot Outpost
Bonus Reads

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

Israel Moves Forward with Evictions & Home Demolitions in Jerusalem

Last week we covered three devastating bills moving in the Knesset that seeking to remove Palestinians and include far flung settlements in the borders of Jerusalem. Now, several seemingly small but incredibly significant developments in Jerusalem show how Palestinians are already being forced out of the city:

Map by Peace Now

In Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian family is fighting against imminent eviction from their family home of 50 years, an eviction ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court. This is the first eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem since 2009 and comes on the heels of several inflammatory settlement announcements which will bring more Israeli settlers into the neighborhood that sits just north of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Court’s decision to evict the Shamasneh family relies on an Israeli law which allows Jews to regain East Jerusalem property owned before Jordan’s 1948 capture of that part of the city. Daily solidarity protests are reportedly being staged in an effort to prevent the family’s eviction.

Map by Emek Shaveh

In Silwan, the settler group Elad is bidding to become the majority-owner of an apartment building that Palestinians are in a bidding war to keep. The Siyam family originally owned the entire building but over time lost control of one-half of it to the settlers another one-fourth of it to Israel’s Custodian of Absentee Property. The owners of the remaining one-fourth – Silwan non-violent opposition leader Jawad Siyam and his sister – currently reside. Now the Custodian is auctioning off its one-fourth share and if the settlers have the winning bid, it is a near certainty that Jawad and his sister will be evicted from the house by Israeli courts. This ownership battle could have a decisive impact on the character of this critically-located East Jerusalem neighborhood, which sits in the shadow of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Elad has long been active in Silwan, taking over properties and, working hand-in-hand with the Israeli government and Jerusalem Municipality, gaining control over the public domain via tourism and park projects at the expense of the Palestinian residents. Elad recently won the rights to build a state of the art visitor center that will also be a stop on the new cable car line running to the Mount of Olives. Elad’s efforts to take over Palestinian property in East Jerusalem rely in large part on Israel’s “Absentee Property Law” (1950), according to which Palestinians who were not present at their property immediately following the 1967 war are considered “absentee,” and consequently forfeit ownership rights to the Israeli government. The government can then dispose of the property as it sees fit. In Jerusalem, Elad’s multi-million dollar annual budget puts Palestinians at a potentially insurmountable disadvantage. When Israel used the “Absentee Property Law” in 2004 to seize Palestinian property in East Jerusalem, then-President George W. Bush called on Israel to reconsider the decision.

In al-Walajah, a wave of home demolitions combined with the nearly completed construction of the separation barrier threatens to completely sever and displace al-Walajah’s residents from the West Bank (who hold West Bank IDs, rather than Jerusalem residency, despite the fact that in 1967 most of the village’s land was made part of Jerusalem). Just this week the Israeli government issued demolition orders against 14 Palestinian homes built without the proper permits (these permits are nearly impossible for obtain).
Map by Ir Amim

The 14 homes are in addition to 28 other homes already slated for demolition in the village. On the same day, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to temporarily delay the implementation of 7 of those previous orders in light of a petition brought to the court by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Residents of al-Walajah have fought 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 unbelievably section of the separation barrier planned to almost completely encircle the village, to turn its valuable agricultural land into an urban park for Jerusalem, and construction of a highway that will connect the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem with Israeli-only bypass roads.
In Jabal al-Mukaber, a neighborhood south of the Old City in East Jerusalem, Israel demolished four Palestinian homes without prior notice to the residents. Ma’an News reports, “Israeli authorities have stepped up issuing demolition warrants for Palestinians in East Jerusalem in recent months, particularly after Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat threatened that the demolition of the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona in the occupied West Bank would be met with the mass demolition of Palestinian homes lacking the nearly impossible to obtain Israeli-issued building permits.”

Netanyahu Celebrates Expansion of Beitar Illit Settlement

Prime Minister Netanyahu attended a cornerstone-laying ceremony for hundreds of new homes set to be built in the Beitar Illit settlement, a massive, fast-growing, ultra-Orthodox settlement in the Etzion bloc. At the ceremony, Netanyahu proudly repeated his assertion that, “There is no government that does more for the settlement [movement] in Israel than the one under my leadership.” The project will annex a third strategic hilltop to the Beitar Illit, which like much of the Etzion bloc is located on the Israeli side of the separation barrier.

The same day Netanyahu visited Beitar Illit, several right-wing Knesset members traveled to the northern part of the West Bank to call on the Prime Minister to re-establish four Israeli settlements located near the West Bank city of Jenin, that were dismantled in 2005 of part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza. A bill has been introduced in the Knesset that would rescind the 2005 disengagement memo which led to the evacuation of the four settlements.

Attorney General Requests Temporary Injunction Against “Regulation Law”

On August 7th, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit weighed in on a petition filed with the Israeli Supreme Court challenging the legality of the “Regulation Law,” which was passed this year and provides a legal basis for retroactive legalization of outposts and other settlement activity in the West Bank on land owned by Palestinians. Mandelblit – who argued against passage of the Regulation Law late last year and after the law’s passage and said he would not defend it in court – asked the High Court to put a temporary injunction against the law until the Court issues its ruling. The injunction would prevent the Civil Administration (the arm of the IDF that rules over the West Bank) from using the law, and possibly from even taking the preliminary steps towards using the law, in order to retroactively legalize outposts and unauthorized settlement activity.

The petition against the Regulation Law (also called the “Expropriation Law,” the “Regularization Law,” the “Legalization Law,” or the “Settlements Law”) was filed in March by three leading Israeli settlement watchdogs: Yesh Din, Peace Now, and ACRI.

Palestinian Leaders Criticize U.S. Peace Efforts & Point to Silence on Settlements

The Palestinian outlook on President Trump’s negotiation efforts has grown outright grim this week. Any initial optimism has been replaced with a sense of abandonment on the part of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and the topic of unfettered settlement growth has been a recurring talking point. On August 7th in Ramallah, Jordan’s King Abdullah and the Palestinian Authority jointly called for the U.S. to unequivocally state its support for a two-state solution and reiterated that a complete settlement freeze remains a precondition for the resumption of negotiations, including in East Jerusalem. That statement should dispel any lingering questions regarding reports in June that the PA was willing to drop a settlement freeze as a precondition to peace talks.

The new statement comes after a week of terse, unscripted criticism by the Palestinians aimed at President Trump. A top Abbas advisor, Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, told Haaretz that that Palestinians no longer look to the U.S. to be helpful on the issue. Sha’ath said, “Palestinian efforts in the near term will be focused on the international arena in an effort to prevent accelerated settlement construction or the passing of laws that have direct consequences for the peace process.”

In an interview with Jewish Insider last week, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat did not mince words about his disappointment with the Trump administration’s earlier attempts to get the ball moving on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Of note, Erekat laments, “Israel announces thousands of new settlement units that make it almost impossible to achieve the two-state solution, and it’s merely met with silence from U.S. officials.” Erekat is not entirely correct about the U.S.’s silence. The U.S. Department of State has repeatedly issued the same ambiguous statement regarding Israeli settlement policy, that “unrestrained settlement activity is not helpful to the peace process.” The statement echoes President Trump’s remarks in February calling for Israel to “hold back a little” on settlements.

In a third report, an anonymous Palestinian official took aim at Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s senior-most envoys dealing with Israel and the Palestinians. The source said, “It’s not a nice thing to say, but they are both ardent supporters of the settlements.They are completely unfamiliar with the other side, they don’t understand the region and they don’t understand the material. You can’t learn about what is happening here in a seminar lasting just a few weeks.” The remarks came one day before the release of a recording of Jared Kushner revealed his thinking on the topic of Israeli-Palestinian issues during which he expressed a lack of interest in history lessons on the topic.

New Poll Reveals Settler Prefer the Status Quo to Annexation or Peace

A new poll reveals remarkable differences between Israeli Jews living within the borders of sovereign Israel and those living in settlements. It sheds light on who in Israel is benefitting from the current “status quo” (which was undefined in the poll’s questions to respondents):

Of Israeli settlers:

35% called for the continuation of the status quo
24% want Israel to annex the West Bank
15% want to see a peace agreement
10% back a decisive war against the Palestinians

Of Israeli Jews living in Israel:

18% called for the continuation of the status quo
9% want Israel to annex the West Bank
45% support a peace agreement
12% back a decisive war against the Palestinians

The poll also examined the views of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Updates: Machpelah House; New “Amichai” Settlement; Netiv Ha’avot Outpost

Several important updates to last week’s settlement report:

In Hebron, settlers continue to illegally occupy the Machpelah House under the protection of the Israeli army, despite a new petition seeking their evacuation filed this week by Palestinians who claim to own the house. Last week, the head of the “Samaria Regional Council” Yossi Dagan, moved into the house along with his wife and three children. Approximately 120 Israeli settlers were already living there, having illegally broken into into the house last week in a bid to circumvent legal proceedings regarding rightful ownership. The IDF quickly declared the house a closed military zone, but the order has not been enforced, which is the only reason why Dagan and his family were able to enter the building. Yossi Dagan was elected head of the Samaria Regional Council in 2015. He opened a campaign office for Donald Trump during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and published an open letter to Steve Bannon expressing his admiration and support for the newly elected U.S. administration.
Netanyahu’s cabinet gave a major boost to the stalled construction of a new settlement called Amichai by reportedly doubling the size of the government’s financial contribution to the project. Last week, after it was reported that construction has been halted due to lack of funds, Netanyahu quickly issued assurances that the problem will be fixed. The new Amichai settlement – the first to be approved by the government since 1991 – is being built in the Shilo Valley, deep inside of the West Bank, as the payoff for families who built the illegal Amona outpost and were evacuated earlier this year. Immediately next to the Amichai construction site, at the site of the future Shvut Rachel East settlement (which was the original plan to pay-off the Amona evacuees but was rejected because it wasn’t the preferred hilltop — but was nonetheless approved for construction by the Israeli government as a neighborhood of the Shilo settlement) several caravans have been moved onto the recently leveled land in preparation for further construction.
In two separate meetings last week, settler leaders met with PM Netanyahu and his chief of staff in their bid to cajole the Prime Minister into intervening against a demolition order threatening 15 homes in the Netiv Ha’avot outpost near Bethlehem. Commenting on the issue while at a ceremony in the Beitar Illit settlement, Netanyahu committed to helping the affected families “within the framework of the law that would minimize the damage.” It’s not clear if the Prime Minister was referring to the past damage caused to the Palestinians who own the land upon which settlers built illegally, or the future damage it will cause to relocate the families who live in illegally built homes.

Bonus Reads

Who Profits Flash Report: “Tracking Annexation: The Jerusalem Light Rail and the Israeli Occupation” (July 2017)
“The Young Palestinian Men of East Jerusalem Have Nothing to Lose” (August 3, 2017 | Haaretz+)
Human Rights Watch: “Jerusalem Palestinians Stripped of Status” (August 8, 2017)
“Demographic hysteria leaves Jerusalemites by the wayside” (August 7, 2017 | +972 Mag)

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

To receive this report via email, please click here.

July 21, 2017

In Jerusalem’s North: The “Adam-Neve Ya’akov” Plan Resurfaces
In Jerusalem’s South: The “Gilo Southeast” Plan Expected to Advance
In the Shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City: Settler-Run Visitor Center is Approved
In the Heart of East Jerusalem: Alarming Plans Advance As Expected
U.S. Department of State: Settlements & Settlers Provoke Violence
Settlement Outpost Near Bethlehem is Angling to Avoid Demolition
Court Wants Settlers/Palestinians to “Negotiate” Land Theft Ex-Post Facto
Bonus Reads

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

In Jerusalem’s North: The “Adam-Neve Ya’akov” Plan Resurfaces

The Israeli Construction & Housing Ministry announced impending plans for a 1,100 unit housing project to Jerusalem’s immediate northeast.

Map by Ir Amim

The plan aims to connect large settlements in East Jerusalem (Neveh Ya’akov and Pisgat Zeev) with an isolated settlement in the West Bank (Adam, aka Geva Binyamin). The land identified for the project is within the municipal boundaries of Adam, but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier (the route of the separation barrier in this area cuts deep into the West Bank). If implemented, the Adam settlement would have built up areas on both sides of the barrier.

Israeli Housing Minister Yoav Galant’s office issued a statement explaining, “We will be everywhere that it is possible to build and to provide solutions to the housing shortage, particularly, as in the case of Adam, in the vicinity of Jerusalem. In Greater Jerusalem, there is also particular security importance in Israeli [territorial] contiguity from the Gush Etzion Bloc in the south to Atarot in the north, and from Ma’aleh Adumim in the east to Givat Ze’ev in the west.”

Ir Amim writes that the plan would, “further fracture a future Palestinian state by… breaking contiguity from north to south… while isolating the southern perimeter of Ramallah from East Jerusalem, the future capital of the Palestinian state. Advancing a project of this size, given its extreme geo-political ramifications, would have a fatal impact on the two-state solution.”

The same plan was developed in the early 2000s and explored in 2007 and again in 2008, but shelved because of its political sensitivity and international concern for the future of Jerusalem and the prospects for a two-state solution. Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann of Terrestrial Jerusalem writes, “What is different now than in the past is talk of the plan comes in the context of an opening of the settlement floodgates in East Jerusalem, including green lights and expediting of plans the implementation of which, for any number of reasons, in the past was far-fetched or even inconceivable. Consequently, it is important to flag this scheme as early as possible, and to monitor in vigilantly.”

In Jerusalem’s South: The “Gilo Southeast” Plan Expected to Advance

Map by Ir Amim

The Israeli government is set to advance a plan to expand the borders of the Gilo settlement (between Jerusalem and Bethlehem) in order to build 3,000 new units. This plan, called “Gilo Southeast,” is expected to be considered at a meeting on July 26th.

If implemented, Gilo Southeast would further surround the Palestinian city of Beit Safafa, severing the town from the West Bank. An area of intense Israeli settlement infrastructure growth (a settler-only freeway divides the community, and the area has been the focus of demolitions of Palestinian homes), Beit Safafa’s Palestinian residents describe a life under siege.

Gilo Southeast is just one of several alarming plans threatening to sever Palestinian contiguity between East Jerusalem and the southern West Bank:

Gilo Southeast would abut the border of the Givat Hamatos doomsday plan, which is only waiting for the publication of tenders to begin construction. The Givat Hamatos plan has remained blocked under the previous political calculations, but can be tendered at any moment.
The plan would also connect Gilo to Har Homa, a fast growing settlement that was built with the Netanyahu’s approval in 1997 – the last official settlement to be built until the recent approval of the Amichai settlement.

Ir Amim writes that Gilo Southeast would create “one more link in a chain of developments designed to seal off the southern perimeter of Jerusalem from the West Bank, nullifying prospects for a two state solution.”

In the Shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City: Settler-Run Visitor Center is Approved

Map by Emek Shaveh

Last week the controversial Visitor’s Center in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan (known to Israelis as the “City of David” and located just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City in the shadow of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif) took another important step forward in the final stages of the planning process. According to the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, the plan “awaits final approval by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which will only be granted once the archaeological excavations at the site are completed. In our assessment this should happen soon.”

Known as the “Kedem Center,” the building is being financed and promoted by the settler-run Elad Foundation, whose goal is to establish Jewish hegemony over all of Jerusalem (i.e. erase all Palestinian presence, history, and any visibility in the city). The Center will be the largest, state-of-the-art tourism center in Jerusalem and will also serve as a station for the new cable car line approved this year, a cable car line that is designed to facilitate tourists visits to Jewish sites in East Jerusalem while preventing tourists from encountering Palestinians.

Emek Shaveh issued a statement saying, “this project will change the landscape in the area between the Old City and the village of Silwan, and will have a considerable impact on the identity of the Historic Basin. The purpose of the Kedem Center is first and foremost political – to Judaize Silwan and prevent a political solution for Jerusalem.”

The Jerusalem Post reports the Kedem Center plan was approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu as a defiant gesture following UNESCO’s decision to designate sites in Hebron as World Heritage Sites, which Netanyahu incorrectly says deny Jewish history.

In the Heart of East Jerusalem: Plans Advance as Expected

In addition to the north, south, and center settlements plans detailed above, previously reported settlement plans targeting East Jerusalem were all approved for deposit for public review at a government meeting last week. We reported extensively on these in our last edition, here. The plans approved for deposit for public review include the incendiary plans in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, and more.

Though the plans were all approved for deposit for public review, as of this writing none have been deposited (yet). Like almost every step in the Israeli settlement planning process, actually depositing the plans for public comment is itself a political decision.

U.S. Department of State: Settlements & Settlers Provoke Violence

In the recently released 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism, Secretary Tillerson’s State Department writes, “Continued drivers of violence included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tactics that the Palestinians considered overly aggressive.” [emphasis added]

Notably, the 2015 Country Reports on Terrorism (an Obama Administration document) did not focus on the role of settlements or identify settlements/settlers as a “driver of violence.” The 2015 document simply noted a handful of terrorist incidents, including the trend of “price-tag attacks,” committed by settlers and committed by Palestinians near settlements.

Settlement Outpost Near Bethlehem is Angling to Avoid Demolition

A settlement outpost near Bethlehem – built illegally even under Israeli law – is fighting a decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to demolish 17 buildings that were found to have been built on land owned by Palestinians. A 2016 decision ruled that buildings in the center of the outpost sit partially on Palestinian land and must be demolished by March 2018. The NGO Yesh Din has an additional, broader petition before the High Court that seeks to prove that the whole outpost is on Palestinian land.

Map by Peace Now

The Netiv Ha’avot outpost was built in 2001 as an additional “neighborhood” of the Elazar settlement southwest of Bethlehem, but was in fact built on a hilltop near the outskirts of the settlement, on land located beyond the settlement’s borders. Forty Israeli settler families currently live there, 15 of which will be affected by the demolition orders.

The outposts’ residents are aggressively pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu to intervene in their favor (Netanyahu has already caved to vociferous settler protests several times this year). At a demonstration in support of the outpost, signs read “This destruction too is on your watch” (referring to the Amona evacuation) and “Bibi wake up and intervene.”

Court Wants Settlers/Palestinians to “Negotiate” Land Theft Ex-Post Facto

The Israeli Supreme Court made an unusual move to try to avoid having to return private land to Palestinians. The ruling pertains to a case in the Jordan Valley, where the Israeli military seized Palestinian private land for military uses, and subsequently (and improperly, according to Israeli law) gave the land to settlers. Rather than compel the settlers to return the stolen land to its owners, the court wants the Palestinians to negotiate with the settlers for compensation. The court’s move – which is in response to a 2013 petition – is an attempt to resolve the issue without having to rule on the validity of the land seizure, and without having to compel Israel to forfeit the land and evict the settlers (even if doing so requires suspending even the pretense of the rule of law).

Haaretz explains how we got here, “After the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, the army issued an order prohibiting Palestinians from entering the area between the border fence and the Jordan River. At the beginning of the ‘80s, the government decided to encourage farmers to work the fields to create a buffer zone with Jordan. The World Zionist Organization was given the land and leased it to settlers.”

Bonus Reads

“In Israel’s ‘eternal capital’ anti-Palestinian discrimination is built-in” (July 16, 2017; +972 Mag)
“Black is the New Orange: 30% of Settlers are Haredim” (July 18, 2017; Times of Israel)
“Why Adelson is Pouring Millions of Dollars Into an Army-run Israeli University in the West Bank” (July 19, 2017; Haaretz+)
“The Biggest Attack in Jerusalem” (July 18, 2017; Haaretz+)
REPORT: “Insurance against political risk: Settlements and the Yanai governmental insurance corporation” (Akevot, July 21, 2017)

Overview: “Archival records, now declassified at Akevot’s request, tell the story of the financial safety net Israeli government provided for commercial companies and settlement agencies beyond the Green Line. Referred to as a “political guarantee” or “political insurance”, it protected settlers and investors in the occupied territories against such “political risks” as Israel’s evacuation from the occupied territories, policy changes or boycotts. As use of the government guarantees gradually expanded, a government insurance corporation was created, to sell insurance policies against these political risks. This is the story of the political guarantee in the occupied territories and the Yanai insurance corporation.”

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

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

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

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:

Map by Peace Now Israel

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

Map by Haaretz

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)

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

To receive this report via email, please subscribe here.

May 26, 2017

The High Stakes of Trump’s Silence on Settlements While in Israel
Israel Forms New Outpost Legalization Committee, Kerem Reim Plans Advance
New Report from Peace Now Israel Shows Over 30% Increase in Settlement Activities
IDF Makes Arrests in Huwara, Deploys More Troops to West Bank Hot Spots

Contact Kristin McCarthy (kmccarthy@fmep.org) with questions and comments.

The High Stakes of Trump’s Silence on Settlements While in Israel

President Trump’s 28-hour trip to Israel and the occupied West Bank did not include any specific policy pronouncements (click for transcripts of Pres. Trump’s public speeches: 1, 2, 3, 4). The lack of public pressure on Israel to stop settlement growth comes at a time when Netanyahu’s government is reportedly advancing plans to build new, peace-killing settlements & infrastructure in East Jerusalem and across the West Bank. Netanyahu is also under pressure by his own coalition – which apparently understands President Trump to be supportive of the Israeli settlement enterprise – to escalate the building pace even more, some have even called for outright annexation.

Following Trump’s departure from Israel, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said bluntly, “Israel doesn’t need a green light from Washington for settlement building.” According to Liberman, the High Planning Council – the body that approves plans for all Israeli construction in the West Bank – may meet on June 7^th to consider plans for “several thousand” new settlement units. While the details of which plans the High Planning Council’s upcoming meeting will handle are not known, Liberman specifically mentioned the massive Jerusalem-area settlement Ma’ale Adumim as well as the South Hebron Hills.

Israel Forms New Outpost Legalization Committee, Kerem Reim Plans Advance

The Times of Israel reports the Israeli Security Cabinet created a new committee this week to “advance the legalization of West Bank outposts and illegal settler homes.” According to the same report, the committee will include the Prime Minister’s Office, the Defense Ministry, and the Civil Administration. With the Knesset’s passage of the Legalization Law (or “Regulation Law”) earlier this year, several cases related to the retroactive legalization of outposts have landed in the High Court of Justice.

One of those cases, stemming from a petition Peace Now filed that resulted in a stop-work order issued against the illegal outpost of Kerem Reim, is awaiting government response due to the High Court of Justice by May 30^th. Americans for Peace Now reports that this week the Israeli government has acted to advance 3-year old plans for construction in Kerem Reim in the hopes of having the stop-work order lifted.

New Report from Peace Now Israel Shows Over 30% Increase in Settlement Activities

The settlement watchdog group Peace Now released an important new report on 2016 settlement growth. Several alarming facts we noted:

There has been a 34% increase in construction starts in 2016, 70% of which was outside of the so-called “settlement blocs”
There has been a 33% increase in planning advanced by the Israeli government, 60% of which was outside so-called “settlement blocs”
The Efrat settlement saw the most construction in 2016. South of Bethlehem, west of the separation barrier, Efrat is inside a settlement enclave that cuts deep into the West Bank. Efrat’s location and the route of the barrier wall that grabs it, have literally severed the route of Highway 60 between Jerusalem and Bethlehem – Highway 60 is the sole major roadway providing north/south contiguity to the West Bank for Palestinians. The economic, political, and social impacts of the closure of Highway 60 at the Efrat settlement (there is literally a wall built across the highway) have been severe for the Palestinian population. The concentrated settlement growth in Efrat exacerbates all of these problems and further entrenches what settlement expert Lara Friedman called “the trend of ‘canonization’ of the West Bank.”
On outposts, Peace Now writes, “While in recent years, most of the construction in outposts was done by individuals who initiated the construction of their own houses, in 2016 we saw more organized construction projects in outposts, with massive infrastructure works which requires funding and investment. Such investment must require the active, or at least passive, involvement of the authorities, and the settlement municipal councils in particular. The mechanism of the governmental involvement in illegal construction in the West Bank was exposed by Peace Now in our latest report, can be found here.”

IDF Makes Arrests in Huwara, Deploys More Troops to West Bank Hot Spots

Arrests were made following a violent incident in Huwara that left 1 Palestinian dead last week. Three Palestinians are reportedly in custody, including a Red Crescent ambulance driver.

Following an upsurge in settler violence in the Nablus area and elsewhere, the IDF is reportedly deploying hundreds of more troops into “known friction points, sensitive sites, and Palestinian cities.”

Welcome to the 1^st edition of FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about what is happening this week related to Israeli settlement activity – news, context/background, and why it matters. 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.

In this 1^st edition we’re playing catch up, examining the unprecedented shift in U.S. policy regarding settlements that has already occurred under President Trump and looking at recent developments on the ground.

To receive this report via email, please click here.

April 21, 2017

A New U.S. Policy on Settlement Construction?
Bibi Announces 1^st Official New Settlement in Decades; U.S. Says “Meh”
About Israel’s New Settlement in the Shilo Valley: Details
So Much for “Restraint”: Israel’s Newest Outpost
Recent Court Decisions on Settlement Activities
Settlements as Flashpoints of Violence

For questions, comments, and inquiries email Kristin McCarthy (Director of Policy & Operations @ FMEP).

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A New U.S. Policy on Settlement Construction?

President Trump and the Netanyahu government reportedly reached a private agreement on what it will mean for Israel to “hold back on settlements a little bit,” per President Trump’s February 2017 request. Billed as an agreement to curb Israeli settlement growth, media reports indicate that, in fact, President Trump may have given Israel a license to build in “settlements blocs” as well as in “adjacent” areas – opening the door for massive construction so broadly defined as to potentially include every inch of the West Bank other than existing Palestinian built-up areas. Here’s a few choice explainers that highlight why calling this a “curb” is an utter fallacy:

Peace Now(maps and data): “The New Declared Settlement Policy: Not a Restraint at All”
B’Tselem: “Unbridled Theft Masquerading as ‘Restrained Construction'”
Times of Israel: “Billed as self-restraint, Netanyahu’s ‘settlement curb’ actually allows for massive building”
APN: Settlement Bloc(k)s on the Road to Peace
Mitchell Plitnick: “Netanyahu’s Settlement Scam”
Ori Nir: “Settlement Blocs Block Prospects for Peace”
Terrestrial Jerusalem: “Limiting Settlement Construction to the ‘Blocs’ – Implications for Jerusalem”

“Such a shift in U.S. policy would almost certainly mark the end of the peace effort that began more than two decades ago in Madrid – an effort that sought to make good on the historic promise of trading land for peace.”

– Lara Friedman

President, Foundation for Middle East Peace.

(more from Lara on this here)

Bibi Announces 1^st Official New Settlement in Decades – Amichai; U.S. Says “Meh”

As part of the new agreement with the Trump administration, Netanyahu appears to have secured U.S. approval for building the first entirely new settlement announced in the past 20 years. The new settlement being is to be located in the Shilo Valley, the heartland of the northern West Bank, an area that cannot conceivably be retained by Israel in any peace agreement.

This new settlement is being called Amichai and is billed by Netanyahu as an exception to the “settlement curb” deal, with Netanyahu arguing that it must be built in order to provide homes for 40 families evacuated earlier this year from the illegal settlement outpost of Amona. Yes, that’s right: this brand-new, “legal” settlement is a reward to settlers for breaking Israeli law. First they built illegally on land recognized even by Israel as privately-owned by Palestinians; then the Israeli government spared no effort in trying to find a way to legalize that crime; and when those efforts failed, Netanyahu decided to give the law-breakers a brand-new settlement as a pay-off for leaving Amona, despite the fact that they still did not leave voluntarily. This pay-off is in addition to the Israeli government’s approval of thousands of new units in existing settlements in tandem with the evacuation of Amona.

A great summary of the Amona saga is here.

President Trump reportedly “understands” why Netanyahu has to build this new settlement. If these reports were accurate, it would be an unprecedented shift in U.S. policy, representing the first U.S. approval of a new settlement in history.

Less than a year ago, the U.S. Department of State strongly condemned Israel’s promotion of a plan for a new settlement in the same Shilo Valley, warning that this plan “would link a string of outposts that effectively divide the West Bank and make the possibility of a viable Palestinian state more remote” and that “Proceeding with this new settlement is another step towards cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”

To date, the Trump administration has not issued a statement on the historic announcement of the Amichai settlement in the Shilo Valley.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, however, issued a strong statement condemning the new settlement and warning, “if settlement expansion continues, I’m afraid future Israelis will face a choice between democracy and a Jewish state.”

About Israel’s New Settlement in the Shilo Valley: Details

Israel’s new settlement – Amichai – will be built deep in the heart of the West Bank’s Shilo Valley, an especially problematic location.

According to Peace Now, the exact location is a hilltop 2.5 kilometers east of the settlement of Shilo. The area is notorious for aggressive settlers who harass and intimidate Palestinian villagers, often violently.

For more maps, data, and analysis of what’s happening in the Shilo Valley, please read:

“Settlement Blocs that Sever the West Bank: The Shilo Valley as a Case Study” (Yesh Din, November 2016)
“Between Shilo and Duma: The Valley of Wild Outposts” (Peace Now, 2015)

So Much for “Restraint”: Israel’s Newest Outpost

Peace Now has published evidence of construction of a new settlement outpost. This construction is taking place near the settlement of Adam, southeast of Ramallah, without legally required approvals and permits. This is the first new illegal outpost established since PM Netanyahu’s reported promise in February 2017 to restrain settlement growth.

Recent Court Decisions on Settlements & Outpost

There have been two significant favorable decisions on settlement growth in Israeli courts following the Knesset’s passage of the Legalization Law (or “Regulation Law”) in early February. The law opened the door to retroactively legalize settler activity undertaken in violation of Israeli law, including ~4,000 homes in West Bank settlements and outposts. Here are two key uses of the legalization law thus far:

In the Shilo Valley, two illegal outposts – Palgei Mayim and Givat Haroeh – have begun the process of being retroactively legalized after a favorable court ruling. (Haaretz)
The Israeli Civil Administration – the arm of the Israeli army that rules over the West Bank – has interpreted the Regulation Law to protect four illegal structures in the settlement Psagot – east of Ramallah – from demolition. The buildings had been previously slated for demolition because they were built on private Palestinian land. (Jerusalem Post)

The settlement watchdog group Peace Now launched a legal challenge to the Regulation Law. Following Peace Now’s petition, the High Court of Justice issued a stop work order for the illegal outpost Kerem Reim (west of Ramallah). The outpost was a case study for that March 2017 Peace Now report.

The High Court is currently reviewing the legality of the Regulation Law; it’s unclear what that means for cases currently before the courts who continued existence will depend on the law’s retroactive authority.

Settlements as Flash Points for Violence

VIDEO: Club-wielding settlers from the radical Baladim illegal outpost attacked Palestinian shepherds and Jewish Israeli volunteers from the peace NGO “Ta’ayush” (“Coexistence”). Baladim is infamous for the extremist, violent “hilltop youth” who are encamped there. Located on a hilltop in the northern Jordan Valley, Baladim has been evacuated by the IDF and re-occupied by the youth numerous times. It is alleged that settlers from Baladim may have been responsible for the horrific arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma which killed an infant and both of his parents, and critically wounded his 4-year old brother in July 2015. Background on Jordan Valley settlements and outposts is here.

Attack in Gush Etzion settlement, a Palestinian killed a 70-year old Israeli in car ramming attack. Gush Etzion is a “settlement bloc” located south of Bethlehem inside the West Bank; today it is home to over 75,000 Israeli settlers. In response to the car ramming, the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council said, “When they shed our blood, every hate monger must know that … the result will be many more houses and settlers throughout the Land of Israel.”