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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

December 5, 2019

1. In The Heart of Hebron, Israel Begins Starts Planning New Settlement
2. Targeting East Jerusalem (Center): Israel Begins Work to Triple Size of Nof Zion Settlement
3. Targeting East Jerusalem (South): Moving Ahead with 3 Plans to Expand Gilo
4. Targeting East Jerusalem (North): Plans Readied for New Settlement on Ramallah’s Outskirts
5. Jerusalem’s Settler-Backed Cable Car Project Challenged in High Court
6. Settler Leaders’ Endorse Netanyahu…and Netanyahu Govt Approves New Funds for Settlers
7. Israeli Government Funnels Nearly USD $270 Million of Surplus Taxpayer Funds to Settlements Each Year (in addition to regular budgets)
8. Joint U.S.-Israel Research Project Will Include Ariel Settlement University
9. Not the Onion: Israeli Govt Sold Palestinian Land to a Settler Org & Now Pays Rent to the Settlers
10. Settler-Run Business Council Asks US Congress to Fund Settler-Palestinian Projects
11. Bonus Reads

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

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In The Heart of Hebron, Israel Begins Starts Planning New Settlement

On December 1st, acting Defense Minister Naftali Bennet announced that he had ordered the start of the planning process for a new settlement in downtown Hebron that will double the number of settlers living there. The plan calls for the demolition of the historic Palestinian wholesale market – consisting of shops belonging to Palestinians who hold the properties under what Israel has, until now, recognized as protected tenancies.

Under the plan, the historic Palestinian market will be replaced with new structures that will include 70 new settlement units located above the new ground floor. Bennet boasted the the project will double the number of Israeli settlers living in Hebron. The site of the planned  settlement is located on Shuhada Street in the heart of Hebron, a street that serves as the perhaps the clearest example of Israel’s apartheid-like military administration of the city, as detailed in a recent report by B’Tselem.

In announcing the directive, Bennett made clear the strategic and symbolic importance of the new Hebron settlement, saying it:

“will create a territorial continuation from the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, and double the number of Jewish residents in the city.”

The plan to build a settlement at the site of the Palestinian wholesale market – which Israel closed 25 years ago following the 1994 Baruch Goldstein massacre of Palestinians worshipping at the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque (detailed history here) –  is not new. In fact, it has been a goal of settlers for years, the realization of which has been because previous Israeli governments were less willing to brazenly reverse Israel’s longstanding recognition of the tenancy rights of the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality (which built the market) and the Palestinian vendors who rent market stalls from it. 

Such calculations changed following the election of President Trump and his administration’s open support for the settlers and their agenda. In November 2018, Avigdor Liberman and Ayelet Shaked (at the time the Defense Minister and the Justice Minister, respectively) worked together to issue a new Defense Ministry legal opinion, which argues that, based on claims of Jewish ownership of the land prior to the 1929 Hebron riots and massacre of Jewish residents, the state of Israel has the authority to override the tenancy rights of the Hebron Municipality to build a settlement. This legal opinion paved the way for Bennet’s announcement – long awaited by settlers – this week. In this context, the vague commitment Bennet offered as part of his decision to promote the settlements plan – in which he promised that the rights of Palestinians on the ground floor “will be preserved as they are today” – rings hollow.

Bennet and Shaked’s plan marks a significant expansion of the government’s use of the legal principle that allows Jewish Israelis to reclaim properties that were owned by Jews prior to 1948, as an extension of the Jewish right of return. Peace Now writes:

“The basis of the settlers’ demand for the establishment of a settlement in the wholesale market is that the land was owned by Jews before 1948… If the Israeli government accepts the claim of the landowners to right to return to their land taken in 1948, it will undermine the Israeli claim that the Palestinians’ right of return inside Israel need not be implemented.”

Upon Bennet’s announcement this week, former Justice Minister Shaked reminded Israelis of her role in changing Israeli legal interpretations in order to build the new settlement:

“As justice minister I worked for two years to free the land from a legal entanglement in which it was for many years, and the neighborhood had waited about a year for the defense minister’s approval. Bennett’s courageous decision will boost the Jewish community and develop the city.”

In reaction to Bennet’s order, Peace Now said in a statement:

“This is very bad news for Israel: bad morally, bad for the security, and bad in terms of the political chances for peace. The settlement in Hebron is the ugliest face of Israel’s control in the Occupied Territories. In order to maintain the presence of 800 settlers among a quarter of a million Palestinians, entire streets in Hebron are closed to Palestinians, denying them freedom of movement and impinging on their livelihoods.”

Targeting East Jerusalem (Center): Israel Begins Work to Triple Size of Nof Zion Settlement

On November 8th, the Israeli government began construction work to expand the settlement enclave known as Nof Zion, located in the middle of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukaber. The project will add 182 homes to Nof Zion, tripling its size and turning Nof Zion into the largest settlement enclave inside a Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood (surpassing the Ma’ale Zeitim settlement in Ras al Amud, on the Mount of Olives).

Ir Amim writes:

“Establishing and expanding state-backed settler enclaves like Nof Zion within Palestinian neighborhoods not only erodes the fabric of these communities, but further reinforces Israeli control of East Jerusalem and foils the possibility of a future political resolution on the city. This phenomenon is exemplified by the acceleration of settlement initiatives in the Old City Basin aimed at further embedding Israeli sovereignty of this area through a constellation of state-sanctioned residential and touristic settlement sites, as illustrated by Ir Amim’s map, ‘Settlement Ring around the Old City.’ “

Though the Nof Zion settlement currently has 91 units built, in 1994 the Israeli government originally approved plans for a total of 395 units. However, the first phase of construction bankrupted the developer and the remaining building permits were never issued. A drama ensued over the fate of the project, after a Palestinian-American made a bid to buy the development rights. His winning bid was ultimately blocked by right-wing Israelis [with a key role played by Jerusalem settler impresario Aryeh King], who objected to the sale of the property – in a Palestinian neighborhood – to an Arab. Plans then stalled. 

In September 2017, rumors emerged that the government was set to issue 176 building permits for the already-approved project. According to Ir Amim, those permits were ultimately issued in April 2019.

Targeting East Jerusalem (South): Moving Ahead with 3 Plans to Expand Gilo

According to Ir Amim, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee has approved an outline plan to build 290 new units in the Gilo settlement, located in southern Jerusalem between the isolated Palestinian East Jerusalem neighbrohood of Beit Safafa and the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Ir Amim reports that the proposed new units will be built within an already built-up area of the settlement, meaning that this plan (unlike the Gilo southeast plan and/or the Har Gilo west plan) will not expand the footprint of the Gilo settlement.

According to Ir Amim:

“The plan is designated for an area in Gilo directly along the planned route of the Jerusalem Light Rail’s green line currently under construction, which will significantly ease access between the neighborhood/settlement and West Jerusalem.”

In approving the outline plan, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee dismissed objections to the plan by a Palestinian family that had fought to prove their ownership of the land. In fact, the committee did not even consider the petition, ruling instead that the question of ownership was beyond the court’s purview – demonstrating yet again  the culpability of Israeli courts in the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.

Additionally, on November 27th, the Local Planning Committee discussed two more plans to expand the Gilo settlement. The first plan, calls for the construction of 1,444 new settlement units in the northern part of the Gilo settlement adjacent to Beit Safafa. The second plan calls for the construction of 110 units and would, if implemented, expand the footprint of the Gilo settlement eastwards towards the West Bank city of Beit Jala. Ir Amim reports the plan is being pushed by a private company.

Ir Amim comments:

“Together all three plans will significantly increase the number of Israelis living over the Green Line in Gilo, while also extending the settlement territorially. These plans are being promoted in tandem with the massive road infrastructure developments in the area, including expansion of Route 60 as well as work on the planned route of the Jerusalem Light Rail’s green line. Road infrastructure projects are part and parcel of the settlement enterprise and are used to lay the groundwork for future settlement expansion. Not only will these developments expedite traffic between Gilo and West Jerusalem, but it will ease access between the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Jerusalem.”

Targeting East Jerusalem (North): Plans Readied for New Settlement on Ramallah’s Outskirts

On November 28th, the news outlet Israel Hayom reported that the Minister of Construction and Housing is preparing a plan to build a new settlement in East Jerusalem at the site of the disused Atarot airport. The site is located just north of the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina and extends to the southern border of Ramallah. The plan reportedly outlines 11,000 new settlement units. If implemented, this plan would be the first new government-backed settlement established in East Jerusalem since the construction of Har Homa in the 1990s.

The Atarot airport site is an important commodity and it was previously  promised to the Palestinians for their state’s future international gateway. Developing the site into a settlement would deprive a future Palestinian state of the only airport in the West Bank, dismember Palestinian neighborhoods in the northern part of the city, and sever East Jerusalem from a Palestinian state on this northern flank of the city (acting like E-1 on Jerusalem’s northeast flank, and like Givat Hamatos on Jerusalem’s southern flank).

The Atarot settlement plan dates back to 2007; it was pursued by the Israeli government in 2012 but shelved under pressure from the Obama administration. The plan came back into consideration in April 2017 (a few months following the inauguration of President Trump) when it was rumored to be included on Netanyahu’s master blueprint of settlements for which he was seeking U.S. approval. It was expected to be announced in May 2017 on the occasion of the Jerusalem Day celebration, but was not.

Commenting on the plan when it was under discussion in 2012, Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran observed:

“Not only that this plan might severely harm the future Palestinian State, destroying the only airport in the West Bank, but it will also cut between East Jerusalem and Ramallah at the heart of many Palestinian neighborhoods: Shu’afat and Beit Hanina in the South, Bir Nabala, Al Judeira, Al Jib, Rafat and Qalandia in the West, Ar-Ram, Dahiyat al Bareed and Jaba’ from the East, and Qalandia Refugee Camp, Kafr ‘Aqab and Ramallah from the North. It seems that what the Givat Hamatos plan is meant to do in the South of Jerusalem (to cut between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem), this plan will, god forbid, do at the North of it. The goal of this plan is clear: to prevent the possibility of a Palestinian State in the West Bank, and thus to kill the two states solution.”

Jerusalem’s Settler-Backed Cable Car Project Challenged in High Court

Led by the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, a coalition of architects, archeologists, and other professionals has filed an appeal to Israel’s High Court of Justice seeking the withdrawal of a settler-promoter plan to build a cable in East Jerusalem. The plan received approval from the Israeli Housing Cabinet on November 4, 2019.

Emek Shaveh explains the nature of this appeal:

“Our Claims: The plan was approved by a transitional government which was not authorized to do so; This alleged transportation plan was not assessed according to the Ministry of Transportation’s accepted standards; The decision was made based on misleading simulations…Since the High Court of Justice is unauthorized to discuss planning issues, other than the legality of the procedure, the points that were discussed in the public objection, signed by 450 people including 70 public figures, is not included in the appeal…The cable car is a grotesque idea and catastrophic for a unique city such as Jerusalem. It is unclear why the Israeli government needed to approve an irregular, controversial project at the cost of hundreds of millions of shekels in its last days. The fact that senior professionals from all the relevant fields – architects, historians, geographers, tourism specialists and archaeologists – need to turn to the High Court of Justice to prevent it shows, more than anything, that the process of approving the project was unprofessional.”

Though the appeal is limited to a procedural challenge – based on the jurisdiction of the High Court over such matters – Emek Shaveh’s objections to the plan relate to the design of the plan and the negative impact that will result if the plan is implemented. As FMEP has repeatedly covered, this Jerusalem cable car project is an initiative of the Elad settler organization (which is building a massive tourism center – the Kedem Center – in the Silwan neighborhood, which will be a stop along the cable car’s route). The scheme is intended to further entrench settler control, via archeology and tourism sites, inside the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, while simultaneously delegitimizing, dispossessing, and erasing the Palestinian presence there. Non-governmental organizations including Emek Shaveh,  Who Profits, and Terrestrial Jerusalem have repeatedly discredited the government’s contention that the cable car serves a legitimate transportation need in Jerusalem, and have clearly enumerated the obvious political drivers behind the plan, the archeological heresies it validates, and the severe impacts the cable car project will have on Palestinian residents of Silwan.

Settler Leaders’ Endorse Netanyahu…and Netanyahu Govt Approves New Funds for Settlers

On December 1st, the Israeli Cabinet approved a USD $11.5 million security package for the settlements. According to Haaretz, USD $9.9 million of the funds are allocated as a one-time grant to regional settlement councils; the remaining $1.6 million is reportedly earmarked for the construction of “first aid stations.”

In a meeting with Yesha Council leaders prior to the approval of the funds – during which the Yesha Council leaders offered their continued endorsement of Netanyahu amidst the ongoing Israeli political upheaval (in which Netanyahu is fighting for his political life and, likely, to stay out of jail) – Netanyahu promised:

“We are continuing to strengthen the settlement movement and help it. They won’t uproot us from here.”

Shortly after the cabinet’s vote, MK Ayman Odeh sent a letter to Israeli Attorney General Mandelblit requesting an inquiry into the constitutionality of the move, commenting that the sequences of events:

 “raise[s] a grave suspicion of a budget allocation [was made] in exchange for a political favor.”

MK Odeh asked whether the security package had been properly reviewed by government professionals. Condemning the disbursal of funds, Odeh said:

“Netanyahu has done the two things that he loves, at the same time, is appropriating public funds for his personal benefit and expanding the settlement enterprise in order to deepen the occupation. It is unconscionable for the head of a transitional government to use the money belonging to all of us to buy the support of the heads of the Yesha Council of settlements for his public battle against the legal system. I demand that the allocation be canceled and its funds directed into the program to curb domestic violence, which has been waiting for funding since its approval in 2017.”

Israeli Government Funnels Nearly USD $270 Million of Surplus Taxpayer Funds to Settlements Each Year (in addition to regular budgets)

According to data from the Israeli Finance Ministry, obtained and analyzed by Peace Now, the Israeli government is using its surplus funding to invest in the growth and entrenchment of settlements — to the tune of nearly $270 million each year. The figure does not include regular funding that goes towards the normal maintenance and security of the settlements. 

The data shows:

•  There has been a 50% increase in surplus funding for the settlements since 2017 (i.e. the inauguration of President Trump). 
  • 2017 expenditure: NIS 1.650 billion
  • 2018 expenditure: 1.4 billion
  • The first quarter of 2019 data indicate another increase.
• The settlements receive ~12% of all Interior Ministry’s grants to all local authorities (including Israel proper), despite representing less than 5% of the total Israeli population. 

The Israeli government produces these figures (which, ironically, make a hard distinction between Israel proper and the settlements – a policy of differentiation which the government is very much trying to fight) to comply with a U.S. condition on loan guarantees set in 1990s by Republican President H.W. Bush. At the time, the U.S. administration made an effort to penalize Israel for its settlement activity by deducting the amount spent by Israel for non-security-related settlement costs from the total value of U.S. loan guarantees available to Israel. The condition therefore required the Israeli government to calculate and inform the U.S. every few months regarding its settlement-related expenditures. Peace Now reports in detail on how the Israeli government makes that calculation (spoiler: it’s an estimate) and what is included in it (spoiler: it does not include all of the ways the Israeli government directly funds the settlement enterprise).

 Importantly, Peace Now notes that:

“as of September 2018, following the recognition of the Trump administration in annexing the Golan Heights, the Finance Ministry stopped reporting to Americans on investment in Israeli communities in the Golan Heights. At the same time, the first quarter figures for 2019 indicate record expenditures in the settlements, with NIS 390 million (between January – March 2019), compared with an average of NIS 354 million in each quarter in 2018 (including the Golan).”

Commenting on the figure, Peace Now said in a statement:

“State figures themselves show that Israel continues to invest huge capital in developing settlements at the expense of development within Israel. The government’s decision this week to add another NIS 34.5 million in grants unique to the local authorities in the settlements indicates that the government has lost all self-regard for serving the Israeli public at large. With a transitional government on the verge of new elections and close to the end of the fiscal year, the government finds it appropriate to add millions of shekels to the indulgence that is already being given to settlement authorities that receive, according to Treasury figures, close to three times the proportion of their population.”

Joint U.S.-Israel Research Project Will Include Ariel Settlement University

Israeli Minister of Science and Technology Ofir Akunis is reportedly expected to sign an historic agreement in the coming weeks that will establish a new joint research project between American  and Israeli universities which will, for the first time, include an Israeli university located in a settlement – Ariel University.  Minister Akunis told told the Israeli news outlet Israel Hayom (owned by Sheldon Adelson, who not coincidentally is a key financial backer of Netanyahu, Trump, and Ariel University) that the new agreement:

“is a direct result of the American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Secretary of State Pompeo’s declaration that the settlements in Judea and Samaria do not violate international law.”  

For more analysis of the recent announcement by the Trump Administration, see last week’s Settlement Report. 

Not from the Onion: Israeli Govt Sold Palestinian Land to a Settler Org & Now Pays Rent to the Settlers

Peace Now reports that the Israeli government sold unofficially expropriated (i.e., stolen) land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood  to the radical Amana settler organization for $262,000 (a fraction of its value). But the story gets better: the Israeli government is now paying $224,000 per year in rent to Amana – the settler organization – for use of a single floor of a building built on the land.

The details of this Kafka-esque story – laid out below – show yet another means by which the Israeli government not only assists settlers in acquiring privately owned Palestinian land, but continues to line the pockets of settlement groups working to take more land from Palestinians. 

Regarding the land Amana is now renting to the government, Israel intended to expropriate the land in question from the Palestinian Abu Ta’ah family following the 1967 war. However, the government went ahead and gave the land to the Amana settler organization, and Amana began construction on it, before the process of expropriation was complete – in effect giving the settlers what was still, legally, private Palestinian land. In order to complete the expropriation of the land from the Abu Ta’ah family – which remained the legal owner of the land and fought against the expropriation and Amana’s construction there – the government had to actually retroactively change how the plot of land was registered and sign a retroactive expropriate order.

Peace Now told Haaretz:

“After it received the land that was expropriated in a dubious process without a tender, Amana is profiting in three ways: It built a luxurious office building for itself in the midst of a Palestinian neighborhood; it also strengthens the settlement it built by bringing in Israeli visitors to the welfare office inside the Palestinian neighborhood; and has treated itself to a nice income of about a million shekels a year at our expense and with the help of state and municipal institutions.”

Settler-Run Business Council Asks US Congress to Fund Settler-Palestinian Projects

Ashraf Jabari and Avi Zimmerman, the Palestinian and Israeli co-founders of the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce, recently met Members of Congress while in Washington, D.C.  Their goal: to seek support and funding for their joint projects in the West Bank, in the name of supporting peace and coexistence. 

Zimmerman said of the trip:

“we now embark on the implementation process by welcoming private and public investments to partner with the businesses that are generating impact for generations to come. Representatives from both Houses and parties were highly responsive, and impressed that we have already begun with strategic planning for private investments.”

As FMEP has repeatedly explained, economic “coexistence” initiatives like the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce (JSCC) seek to normalize, entrench, and reward Israeli settlements while perpetuating Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). Congressional support for such initiatives could mean U.S. taxpayer dollars going directly (and publicly) to the settlements.

Zimmerman and Jabari were hosted on Capitol Hill by Heather Johston, the Executive Director of the US-Israel Education Association (USIEA). The USIEA is a American evangelical group deeply involved in supporting and normalizing settlements, working in partnership with the Israeli government. It is also works with the Family Research Council to lead Congressional delegations to Israel and runs a bible camp in the Ariel settlement. Boasting of her warm relations on Capitol Hill, Johnston recently spoke to the press about her work to promote the JSCC in Congress:

“Just about everyone on Capitol Hill accepts and recognizes the unique relationship between the U.S. and Israel. It is critical that members of Congress and the Senate have a clear and all-encompassing picture of reality in Israel and how the country and its citizens relate to their neighbors. This visit by Zimmerman and Jabari to Capitol Hill not only introduces members of Congress and the Senate to a phenomenon that is not widely known about but also to untapped opportunities of advancing prosperity and stability in the Middle East.”

Commenting on Jabari and Zimmerman’s recent meetings on Capitol Hill, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) – who led an August 2019 Congressional delegation funded by USIEA, which was hosted by Jabari in his Hebron home –  told The Hill:  

“Sheikh Ashraf Jabari told us the economic relationship between Palestinians and Israelis is basic, strong, and can’t be separate. In a strong bipartisan way, we should be supporting the grassroots movement for economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. It’s foundational to achieve peace in the region.”

McMorris Rogers and her delegation are not the only Members of Congress who have been warming up to the concept of peace through joint economic “coexistence” schemes like the JSCC. In early March 2019, U.S. Senator James Lankford incorrectly suggested that Congress had already allocated funding for the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Congress. Despite the error, his statement signalled that there are concerted, ongoing conversations in Congress regarding economic peace schemes. 

In addition to Members of Congress, Jabari and Zimmerman enjoy close and warm relations with U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, who has repeatedly met with and promoted the JSCC’s work. Amb. Friedman’s support first came into public view in October 2018 when Amb. Friedman attended an event convened by the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce. Then, in February 2019, Amb. Friedman spoke about economic co-existence initiatives at a conference hosted by the JSCC and US-Israel Education Association. Speaking to the press at conference, Ambassador Friedman said the goal of the forum is to “encourage business development in Judea and Samaria, encourage the prosperity of people who live there, most of them Palestinian residents.” 

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel Limits West Bank Farmers’ Access to Lands Near Green Line” (Haaretz)
2. “Forbidden: The West Bank land Israel locks away from Palestinians.” (Middle East Eye)
3. “100-plus Democrats sign letter criticizing new US stance on Israeli settlements” (JNS)
4. “ Israel Limits West Bank Farmers’ Access to Lands Near Green Line” (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 11, 2019

1. Israeli Government Data Shows 14,400 New Settlers Added in 2018
2. Palestinian Landowners to Ask Israel to Evict Settlers from Illegal Outpost
3. Masked Settlers Expand Reach of Hate Crimes Targets
4. Congress Still On Board w/ Economic Peace Scheme & Rave About Settler Business Council
5. ECFR Publishes “Differentiation Tracker” To Hold EU States Accountable for Their Policy Towards Occupation and Settlements
6. Bonus Reads

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

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Israeli Government Data Shows 14,400 New Settlers Added in 2018

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics released new official data charting population growth in Israel and in the West Bank for 2018.  Before diving into the numbers regarding settler population growth, it is essential to note that the data below does not specifically count the population of settlers in East Jerusalem or their growth rate as a discreet group. Instead, East Jerusalem settlers are treated as normal/everyday Israeli citizens, reflecting Israel’s assertion that it has annexed East Jerusalem, a claim which is rejected by the international community. 

According to an analysis of the new data by Peace Now:

• The population growth rate in the settlements was 3.5% – almost double the growth rate in Israel proper (1.9%)
  • The Jerusalem Post noted that this is the third year in a row that the settlement population growth rate has been 3.5% – reflecting stagnation.
• In 2018, the settler population in the West Bank grew by 14,400 individuals.  
  • 8,050 of the new settlers (56%) moved or were born in settlements that Israel would probably need to evacuate under a two-state peace agreement (according to the Geneva Initiative proposed border).
• There are a total of 427,800 settlers in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem.
  • According to Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann: “The most up-to-date and reliable statistics put the number [of Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem] at about 218,000, of those 215,000 in large settlement neighborhoods, 2,700 in settlement enclaved implanted in Palestinian neighborhoods.” The approximate total number of settlers (West Bank + East Jerusalem) is therefore around 640,000.
• Settlers account for 14% of people living in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem settlers.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Thousands of new settlers have been added to the settlements this year with almost no attention or public discussion, even though this is a trend that could doom Israel’s fate to an ongoing conflict and an apartheid reality. Particularly worrying is that most of the settlers were added to the settlements that Israel would probably have to evacuate in order to reach a peace agreement. In order to save its existence, Israel would eventually have to end the occupation, yet any house built in the settlements is making evacuation more difficult and painful.”

Palestinian Landowners to Ask Israel to Evict Settlers from Illegal Outpost

Peace Now reports that Palestinian landowners in the Makhrour region west of Bethlehem are planning to file a police complaint demanding the eviction of the settlers from a new, unauthorized outpost that was recently established on their land. The new outpost –  which, according to Peace Now is 1 of 25 new outposts set up since 2016 – is just 70 meters from the site of the recently demolished Palestinian Cassia family’s home and business.

In the weeks since the Cassia family’s eviction and the demolition of their property, settlers have moved in to the area and started illegally building structures. The settlers claim to have leased the land from the Jewish National Fund (more specifically, they claim to lease the land from Himanuta – a subsidiary of the JNF). The JNF claimed to have bought the land in the 1960s, but only recently brought forward ownership claims and began waging a legal battle against Palestinian landowners, including the Cassia family, to evict Palestinians living there. Helpfully, Peace Now has published a detailed history of settler attempts to takeover land in the Makhrour area, which is a strategic parcel of land that connects Bethlehem to five Palestinians villages to its west and also runs between a string of settlements to the immediate north and south of the area.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Establishing the new 70m outpost on a Palestinian house destroyed by JNF pressure removes any doubt: When the JNF demanded the demolition of the Cassia family’s house, it didn’t mind illegal construction on the land it claimed; it just did not want Palestinians on the land. Now it leases the land to Israelis who have erected an illegal outpost on this land. Unfortunately, the Jewish National Fund has become a Jewish settler.”

As a reminder, the Cassia case is part of Himanuta’s long-running campaign to expel Palestinians from their homes in recent years, a campaign which has been reinvigorated over recent years in partnership with other pro-settlement groups including Elad and Regavim.

Masked Settlers Expand Reach of Hate Crimes Targets

Palestinians in the village of Qira woke up on October 6th to find they were victims of a hate crime evidenced by hatefuly graffiti sprayed across their cars, buildings, and streets. Video footage would later show masked individuals entering the village in the middle of the night, and defacing property and puncturing car tires.

A local council head Aisha Nimr told Haaretz that this is the first time settlers targeted Qira with their hate crimes, which Nimr suggested signals a dangerous escalation in the Jewish settlers’ conduct. The Palestinian governor the Qira area called on all Palestinian communities near settlements to establish guard committees to protect themselves.

Congress Still On Board w/ Economic Peace Scheme & Rave About Settler Business Council

Members of a recent Congressional delegation to Israel led by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), recently spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives to promote the work of the now infamous Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce (JSCC), a business council run by an Israeli settler, Avi Zimmerman, and a disgraced Palestinian businessman, Ashraf Jabari. Rep. McMorris Rodgers also stated that she will be asking the Trump Administration to support this group – and more broadly economic cooperation between settlers and Palestinians – as part of its peace plan.

As FMEP has repeatedly explained, initiatives like the JSCC perpetuate Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources). Labelling such initiatives as “coexistence” programs or suggesting that Palestinians should welcome the benefits of settlement economies is perverse.

Statements by members in support of this Orwellian organization and the fraudulent notion that they further peace in the region include:

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.): “We were witnessing amazing cooperation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. For me, I just feel like it is the untold story. It is a story about opportunity and hope at a time when too many despair. It was the Palestinian business leaders and workers who told us that BDS hurts their ability to work and to provide for their families. They want economic freedom, not boycotts…We are going to be talking to the administration and urging them to include in any kind of a peace plan this economic cooperation and America standing in support of this bottom-up, grassroots approach that really makes a difference in people’s lives. We need to have the economic cooperation and encourage the economic cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinian business leaders.”

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.): “We saw firsthand Israelis and Palestinians working together to promote peace and harmony. … Many of the Palestinians were making between three and four times what they would otherwise earn if they did not have this opportunity to have this integrated business that we saw going on in Israel. They were standing up to what I would call strong divisive forces that seek to vilify Israel and undermine its credibility as a force for peace.”

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.): “You saw people, not nations, working together to make life better for their community.”

Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.): “It is good for Palestinians to be able to take advantage of the miracle of the Israeli economy—giving them that opportunity so that they can have a better life for them and their families. I hope that we in this country and we in this Congress do everything in our power to help these people grow economically in their businesses, but also to find that peace that only people-to-people actions can find for us all.”

ECFR Publishes “Differentiation Tracker” To Hold EU States Accountable for Their Policy Towards Occupation and Settlements

The European Council on Foreign Relations released a new online tool – – called “The Differentiation Tracker” – –  to see if, and to what extent, member states of the European Union are complying with their own policies which require states to explcitly exclude Israeli settlements from dealings with Israel (i.e. uphold a hard distinction between Israel and the occupied territories). To learn more about what “differentiation” is – see this founding treatise published in October 2016 by ECFR.

ECFR’s Policy Fellow Hugh Lovatt explains the significance of the new tracking tool:

“Amid the failure of international efforts to curtail Israel’s policy of settlement and annexation of occupied territory, a fuller and more diligent implementation of legally necessitated differentiation measures remains one of the few effective means of defending the territorial footprint for a two state solution. In order to comply with UNSCR 2334, bilateral agreements signed with Israel should contain a ‘differentiation’ clause defining the territorial scope of an agreement’s application to within Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders (the ‘Green Line’). Correcting pre-existing agreements that have fallen short of such a requirement is undoubtedly more laborious but just as important.”

Along with the tracking tool, ECFR published analysis of the data. The main findings include:

• By differentiating between Israel and the settlements, the EU has acted as a trailblazer, setting down important markers for others to follow. Since December 2013, the EU has insisted on the inclusion of a differentiation clause within all new agreements with Israel. Yet the EU’s job is by no means finished and work remains to consistently apply its differentiation principle to all areas of its relations with Israel, including trade with settlements, police cooperation, cross-border data transfers, and marketing standards for fruit and vegetables.
• A number of European states have undertaken their own differentiation measures. One of the oldest examples can be found in the UK’s 1957 social security agreement – pre-dating the occupation – which limits its applicability to the “territory administered by the Government of Israel on the 19th of July, 1956”. The British government has also pledged to exclude the settlements in full from its new post-Brexit trade agreement. Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands too have also taken measures to exclude settlements from some aspects of their bilateral relations relating to social security, and research and development projects.
• Although harder to track, ECFR research indicates that in a few instances negotiations over new agreements (including new social security provisions) may have stalled over member state insistence, and Israeli refusal, on the inclusion of a differentiation clause. In 2017, the Israeli government also backed out of the EU’s ‘Creative Europe’ programme over its exclusion of Israeli settlements, although it signed onto other such deals before and after.
• A majority of EU member states have published advisories warning their businesses of the legal, financial and reputational consequences they could expose themselves to by dealing with Israeli settlement entities.
• Despite positive examples of differentiation measures, a majority of European bilateral agreements with Israel potentially benefit its settlements, their companies, and residents – including with regard to social security, taxation provisions, and the burgeoning cooperation in research and development. National governments have also done very little to enforce the European Commission labelling guidelines for settlement products.
• Of the 268 European agreements reviewed by ECFR, at least 158 were signed without any territorial definition defining their scope of implementation. A further 65 agreements contain either vague or ambiguous clauses, including definitions of Israeli territory according to ‘the laws of the State of Israel’ or ‘the territory where it levies taxation’ – descriptions that could justify the inclusion of Israeli settlements. Some of the most common agreements relate to social security, taxation, research and development, and financial investments.

Bonus Reads

1. “Jerusalem Is Becoming a Jewish Disneyland, NYT’s Architecture Critic Warns” (Haaretz)
2. “My Day With the West Bank Settlers Who Are Destroying Zionism” (Haaretz)
3. “With or without Netanyahu, West Bank annexation is on Israel’s agenda” (The Arab Weekly)
4. “Annexing the Jordan Valley Doesn’t Make Security Sense” (Haaretz)
5. “Who do the settlers vote for? – Voting figures in Judea and Samaria in the 22nd Knesset elections” (Yesha Council)

 

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

August 30, 2019

1. NEW: Peace Now Releases Updated 2019 Settlement Map
2. Netanyahu Promises 300 New Units in Dolev Settlement in Response to Terror Attack
3. Following New Ruling, Settlers Move Back in to Contested Hebron Property
4. Israel Demolishes Palestinian Home & Business Near Bethlehem After High Court Rules in Favor of Settlement Organization
5. Israeli Govt Approves School Trips to Contested West Bank Religious Sites; Settlers Storm Joseph’s Tomb in Violent Celebration
6. Israeli Economic Minister Promises to Compensate Settlements if they are Hurt by South Korea FTA
7. Ayelet Shaked Rolls out Campaign Pledge to Build 113,000 New Settlement Units — & Thereby Solve the Israeli Housing Shortage & Erase the Green Line
8. Israeli Occupation & the Case of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, where Rep. Tlaib’s Family Lives
9. Pro-settlement U.S. group Brings GOP Codel to the West Bank
10. Pro-Settlement Propaganda Continues to Grease Gears for Israeli Annexation of AreaC
11. Bonus Reads

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

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NEW: Peace Now Releases Updated 2019 Settlement Map

Peace Now recently released an updated version of its 2019 Settlement Map, available online and for download here. New on this version is the site (a garbage dump adjacent to Abu Dis) where Israel wants to forcibly transfer residents from Khan al-Ahmar, as well as a detailed outline of the E-2 settlement plan, and the 11 outposts established since 2018.

Netanyahu Promises 300 New Units in Dolev Settlement in Response to Terror Attack

On August 26th, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the Civil Administration to give final approval to a plan for 300 new settlement units in the Dolev settlement, located west of Ramallah. The move was framed as a response to a terror attack on a nearby spring (called Ein Bubin) in which an Israeli teenager was  killed. 

In response to Netanyahu’s approval for 300 units in the Dolev settlement, Peace Now said in a statement:

“Netanyahu has adopted the morbid conception of the settler Right that there is a payoff in the form of settlement expansion for the blood of terrorism victims. This calculation cynically turns terrorism into a political tool to promote an ideological vision, without bringing up the issue for national debate on whether we want to forever control the West Bank at the cost of our democracy.”

Notably, the Ein Bubin spring, like many others across the West Bank, was historically a Palestinian, taken over in recent years by Israeli settlers. According to settlement expert Dror Etkes, as reported by Haaretz, there are: 

“60 springs in the central West Bank that settlers coveted and seized as part of a project of plunder that began 10 years ago. The landscaping and renovation work at about half of them has been completed, the dispossession made absolute, the Palestinians blocked from even approaching the springs and their lands. Other springs targeted by the settlers are in various stages of takeover.”

Following New Ruling, Settlers Move Back in to Contested Hebron Property

Israeli settlers once again illegally moved into a disputed home – called “Beit Machpelah” by the settlers and the Abu Rajab House by Palestinians (named for the building’s owners, the Abu Rajab family). Settlers previously illegally entered the Beit Machpelah/Abu Rajab building several times –  in 2012, 2013 and most recently in 2017 – but each time were forced to evacuate by the IDF.  The disputed building is located on Shuhada street in downtown Hebron, across the street from the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs. 

Settlers moved back into the property following a recent ruling by Israel’s Civil Administration (the arm of the IDF that acts as the sovereign authority in the West Bank) affirming that the settlers own 50% of the three-story building. They did not coordinate the move with Israeli authorities, and it appears to have been premature and illegal. This is because the Isreeli Civil Administration ruled that there still must be a process to adjudicate how the settlers will share the building with the Palestinians who own the other 50%. 

The ruling – issued by the Civil Administration’s Israeli First Registration Committee – validated the settlers claim that they legally purchased a portion of the building from members of the Abu Rajab family in 2017 — based entirely on circumstantial evidence. For example, committee members cited as the fact that the Palestinian Authority arrested members of the Abu Rajab family as proof that family members must have sold the building to settlers. The committee’s ruling (accompanied by reports of Netayahu’s personal intervention in the case to help the settlers) – and subsequent illegal re-entry into the home by the settlers –  comes just one week before a planned visit by Netanyahu to Hebron to attend a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the 1929 Hebron massacre, in which 67 Jews were killed by Arab rioters.

Israel Demolishes Palestinian Home & Business Near Bethlehem After High Court Rules in Favor of Settlement Organization

On August 26th, Israeli authorities demolished the home and business of the Cassia family, located just west of Bethlehem, in Area C of the West Bank (documented in real time on Twitter by Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran, here). The demolition followed a campaign waged by Himunata – a pro-settlement group associated with the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) – which claims that it legally purchased the land in 1969. 

The Cassia family fought against the state and Himunata’s legal assault on their property rights for years, arguing they have lived on the land for decades and never sold the rights to it, and furnishing documents showing the paid property tax on the land from the period when Jordan ruled the West Bank. Nonetheless, on July 29, 2019, the High Court dismissed the family’s latest effort to defend their rights, allowing the demolition to move forward.

Peace Now said in a statement:

“KKL-JNF has become The Fund for the Expulsion of Palestinians. Through greed and cruelty of the JNF, it has thrown its weight its resources to the interests of the settlement agenda. Even if it were true that Himanuta was the owner of the land (which is under dispute), still, it could have come up with different solutions rather than demolition. It could have tried to negotiate with the family about renting or buying the land. The interest of evicting the Palestinian family that has been living in the area for decades, and destroying the restaurant from which it subsists, is not in the interest of the Jewish National Fund and does not reflect the desire of thousands of Jews in the world who donate their money to it.”

Peace Now also notes that this case is part of Himanuta’s long-running campaign to expel Palestinians from their homes in recent years, a campaign which has been reinvigorated over recent years in partnership with other pro-settlement groups including Elad and Regavim. Victories include a November 2018 ruling against Palestinian landowners south of Bethlehem.

Israeli Govt Approves School Trips to Contested West Bank Religious Sites; Settlers Storm Joseph’s Tomb in Violent Celebration

On August 20th, the Israeli Education Ministry announced that it will fund school programs to bring Israeli students (from schools located inside the Green Line) to religious sites – including Joseph’s Tomb and Tel Shiloh, under the control of settlers in the West Bank. Until now, Israeli schools have been prohibited from taking field trips into the occupied West Bank. This shift is part of a growing trend in Israeli policies of formally treating the West Bank as part of Israel. 

The same day the decision was announced, the IDF escorted buses of Israeli settlers to Joseph’s Tomb – a site located in Nablus, in an area dotted by violent outposts and settlers. Predictably, the visiting settlers clashed with Palestinians who attempted to prevent their entry to the site; the IDF used live gunfire and tear gas to disperse the Palestinians, injuring several.

Peace Now said:

 “the Ministry of Education should not be the information arm of the Yesha Council and the messianic right…We will not let Rafi Peretz [the current Israeli Education Minister] brainwash our kids! Declare that you will not send your children to lend a hand to the occupation.”

Since being appointed to the position in June 2019, Peretz has advanced a controversial agenda, and has begun instituting policy changes called for by the religious right-wing parties. For example, Peretz announced that the Nation-State Law – which last year declared Israel the “national home of the Jewish people” and stated that “the state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development”  – will be added to Israeli school curriculums.

Israeli Economic Minister Promises to Compensate Settlements if they are hurt by South Korea FTA

Israel and South Korea signed a free trade agreement on August 21st, ending three years of negotiations over South Korea’s insistence that the deal excludes Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Israeli and international media reported that Israel agreed to the South Korean demand, allowing the terms of the trade deal to make a hard legal distinction between businesses located what the international community recognizes as sovereign Israel versus business located in settlements in what the international community views as occupied territory. Since the text has not yet been published, the exact terms of the deal are unclear. 

Economic Minister Cohen, a strong advocate for the settlers, initially denied that Israel had agreed to this distinction (“there is no agreement that we sign which includes territorial separation. As far as we are concerned, Judea and Samaria are part of the State of Israel. There is no change in that, period”). He then clarified that if the terms of the deal,did in fact, make any such distinction, “there will be complete compensation by the Israeli government for manufacturers in Judea and Samaria,” and made clear the settlers have already been assured that this is the government’s position.

Surprisingly, Cohen’s statement was publicly endorsed by the Yesha Council, the umbrella group which represents all settlements in the West Bank, which issued a statement saying: 

“In a conversation between Economy Minister Eli Cohen and Yesha Council Chairman Hananel Dorani, it was clarified that the agreement makes no mention of a territorial distinction that discriminates or could hurt businesses and entrepreneurs in Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley or the Golan Heights, and that the agreement was crafted on the model of existing agreements with the European Union…[Cohen] promised that if South Korea does not grant customs benefits to businesses from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights, that the Economy Ministry intends to fully compensate them.”

Why would the Yesha Council be giving the green light for the government to sign an international agreement that distinguishes between Israel and settlements (a position that, when adopted by Europe of anti-occupation activists has consisently been case as anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, similar to the Nazis, and even supportive of terrorist)?  Veteran Israeli analyst Akiva Eldar speculates:

“This strange reaction to the agreement that discriminates against the settlements may lie in internal right-wing politics on the eve of the elections. Another possible explanation could lie in the equanimity with which the news was received. Israel has decided on a mechanism — similar to the one it adopted vis-a-vis the free trade deal with the EU — which would compensate exporters from the settlements in the occupied territories. The compensation reflects the difference between the duties paid on their exports and the duties that would have been paid under the beneficial terms of the free trade agreement. This mechanism significantly eases these exporters’ discrimination compared to those exporting goods and services from sovereign Israeli territory.”

Ayelet Shaked Rolls out Campaign Pledge to Build 113,000 New Settlement Units — & Thereby Solve the Israeli Housing Shortage & Erase the Green Line 

Speaking at a campaign press conference on August 21st, former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – who heads the newly formed Yemina Party – announced a five-year plan to build 113,000 new settlement units in the northern West Bank as a means of solving Israel’s affordable housing shortage and of furthering Israel’s annexation of Area C. If built, the plan envisions bringing an estimated 500,000 new settlers to the West Bank, which would more than double the number of settlers living there currently. 

Shaked also promised to extend the length and lanes of Route 5 (called the “Trans Samaria Highway,” which Palestinians have only restricted access to). The road project would allow settlers a short commute to Tel Aviv and would facilitate future settlement growth. Bezalel Smotrich, the third-ranking member of Yemina, boasts that the plan will “erase the Green Line” dividing the West Bank from Israel. 

The Democratic Bloc party said in response:

“Shaked and Smotrich have decided to turn the entire population into settlers. Not only [do they want] religious coercion in the education system, but they want to transfer the citizens of the state to live in the settlements where they can re-educate them in the laws of halacha.”

The Peace Now issued a statement: 

“Instead of investing in unnecessary settlements and harming the prospect of peace, the State of Israel should focus on addressing actual distress and on strengthening the periphery communities in the Negev and the Galilee.”

Israeli Occupation & the Case of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, where Rep. Tlaib’s Family Lives

Dror Etkes – founder of the Israeli NGO Kerem Navot and long-time settlement watchdog – published the timely analysis of how Israeli settlements have negatively impacted the village of Beit al-Fauqa, the Palestinian village where the family of U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is from (and where members of her family, including her elderly grandmother, still live). 

Etkes writes:

“…the real story of Beit Ur al-Fauqa is not the settlement of Beit Horon [built nearby on land taken by Israel from the village] but Route 443, a highway built through the West Bank in the early 90s to connect northern Jerusalem and its adjacent settlements to Israel’s coastal area. To pave this road, the Israeli army confiscated 50 acres of the village’s land in the late 80s. Hearing that their land would be confiscated, landowners from Beit Ur al-Fauqa and the neighboring villages petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice. The High Court would eventually dismiss the petition, accepting instead the IDF claim that the road would also serve the ‘local population,’ who will be able to drive on it faster and more securely. 

“When the road was finally paved, 425 acres of Beit Ur al-Fauqa’s cultivated and grazing land were practically disconnected from the village, remaining southwest of Route 443. What about an access road to these 425 acres or a tunnel under the newly-built highway? Not in the West Bank. Once the road was constructed, the villagers were forced to make a seven-kilometer detour to reach their land

“…At the end of 2000, as the violence of the Second Intifada was beginning to unfold, Palestinians were sporadically banned by the IDF from using Route 443. Following several cases of Palestinian gunfire at Israeli vehicles on the road, in which six Israeli citizens and one resident of East Jerusalem were killed, Israel entirely prohibited Palestinians from using the road in 2002. Yet the IDF had officially committed to the High Court’s demand that Palestinians be allowed to use the road. For this, the army uses ‘temporary seizure orders.’ 

“Between 2005 and 2006, the IDF issued seizure orders for 30 more of the village’s acres in order to pave two ‘fabric of life’ roads — an alternate network of roads and tunnels intended for Palestinian use only — that would serve as Palestinian bypass roads on Beit Ur al-Fauqa’s land. It is true that Beit Ur al-Fauqa does not suffer the worst consequences of Israel’s occupation and its land grabbing enterprise. In many ways, it’s just ‘another village’ — and that’s bad enough.”

Pro-settlement U.S. group Brings GOP Codel to the West Bank

A delegation of four Republican members of Congress recently toured the Hebron and Ariel settlement industrial zones in the West Bank and met with members of the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce. The delegation was hosted by Heather Johnson of the US Israel Education Association (USIEA), a U.S. evangelical group deeply involved in supporting and normalizing settlements, working in partnership with the Israeli government. USIEA is also works with the Family Research Council to lead Congressional delegations to Israel and runs a bible camp in the Ariel settlement. 

A darling of the Trump adminstration diplomatic trio, the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce is a group formed by Israeli settlers from Hebron and Palestinian businessman Ashraf Jabari, who has been slammed as a traitor by the Palestinian Authority, shunned and dismissed by his fellow Palestinian business people, and disowned by his family in light of his ongoing role with the committee. As FMEP has repeatedly explained, initiatives like this perpetuate Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources), and that it is Orwellian to label such initiatives as “coexistence” programs, or to suggest that they offer the Palestinians benefits they should welcome.

The Congressional delegation hosted by such a pro-settlement group has not received a hint of criticism from other members of the U.S. Congress. FMEP President Lara Friedmand notes that:

“While folks are still bashing @IlhanMN & @RashidaTlaib for having [the] temerity to try to visit Isr/Pal w/ group other than AIPAC, right-wing media is crowing re: Members visiting ‘Judea & Samaria’ with group devoted to getting Congress to back ‘Greater Israel’ 1-state solution.”

Pro-Settlement Propaganda Continues to Grease Gears for Israeli Annexation of Area C

Two recent articles continue an effort to normalize the concept of Israel’s annexation of land in the West Bank.

The Times of Israel published an op-ed by Andy Blumenthal entitled, “The Coming Annexation.” The piece goes on to outline eight reasons why Israel’s annexation of the West Bank is completely legitimate, including this:

“Reality on The Ground: Israel has around 450,000 settlers in the West Bank in about 130 settlements (the vast majority in Area C) and 300,000 live in East Jerusalem (the later which Israel already annexed in 1967). These Israelis are living in and working the land and building it productively, and many are deeply nationally, religiously and ideologically tied to the biblical Promised Land of the Jewish people that includes the West Bank (and even beyond). It is wholly irrational to think that this multitude of Israeli citizens would be uprooted or abandoned under any circumstance.”

The settler-run outlet Arutz Sheva published analysis of a report by the radical settler group Regavim. The report surveys five years of Palestinian construction in Area C – which Regavim decries – and claims that there have been upwards of 10,000 “illegal” projects undertaken by Palestinians as part of the Palestinian campaign to create a de facto state. The author, Edwin Black, adds commentary that attempts to further paint Palestinian existence in Area C as illegal, ill-intentioned, and a problem that the Israeli government must end.

Bonus Reads

1. “[Letter from Silwan] Common Ground: The Politics of Archaeology in Jerusalem” (Harpers Magazine)
2. “Ignoring or Downplaying Price of West Bank Annexation Is Playing With Fire” (Haaretz)
3. “Palestinian community denied access to water in occupied West Bank” (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.

August 9, 2019

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

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

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Summary: Another Week, Another Round of Major Settlement Approvals 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 

  Map by Peace Now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israeli Annexation via Settlement Construction Unleashed, Part 4: Reactions

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

Peace Now said in a statement:

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

The European Union issued a statement which reads:

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

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

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

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

“the effective annexation of the West Bank.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Editorial Board writes:

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

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

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

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

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

Bimkom writes:

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

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

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

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

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

Terrestrial Jerusalem In-Depth Report: The Silwan Tunnel Project

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

Danny Seidemann writes in the report’s introduction:

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

Bonus Reads

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

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

July 26, 2019

1. Annexation By Demolition in East Jerusalem-adjacent area of West Bank
2. High Court Rules Settlers Can Stay in Hebron Compound Owned by Palestinians
3. Peace Now Report: Return of Rampant Outpost Construction is Ushering in Annexation & “A Permanent Single Undemocratic State”
4. Settlement Construction Boom Preys on Vulnerable Palestinian Workers
5. Settler Groups: We Want Israeli Annexation, But Not Israeli Law
6. Regavim Ups Pressure on Candidates to Promise Annexation of Area C
7. Settler-Palestinian “Business Council” Visits Dead Sea
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Annexation By Demolition in East Jerusalem-adjacent area of West Bank

On July 22nd, Israeli forces demolished 13 large apartment buildings (approximately 70 units) in the Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood, leaving the area – located in the West Bank just east of the Israel-declared municipal border of Jerusalem, but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier – looking like a war zone. 

Israel’s decision to demolish the buildings was given the official seal of approval by a Supreme Court decision (much to the comfort and pride of U.S. Ambassador David Friedman). It its arguments, the Court held that the buildings, located mostly in Area A — where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have full control — posed an unacceptable security risk to the Israeli state because of their close proximity to Israel’s separation barrier.

In so ruling, the Supreme Court set an alarming precedent that puts thousands of additional Palestinian buildings located near the separation barrier at risk of demolition. In addition, the Court provided yet another legal tool in the service of Israel’s ongoing campaign of de facto annexation of Palestinian land. 

This case demonstrates yet again, that the Israeli court system affords no meaningful measure of protection or justice for Paelstinians, a fact clearly illustrated in a recent B’Tselem report. B’Tselem said in a statement: 

“The Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice Meni Mazuz, fully accepted the State’s framing of the issue as one of purely security matter… Like in many past cases, the judges did not discuss in their ruling the Israeli policy almost completely preventing Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem, with the purpose of forcing a Jewish demographic majority in the city – a policy that forces the residents to build without permits…Instead, the judges ruled that the home demolitions were necessary for security considerations, because construction near the fence ‘can provide hiding for terrorists or illegal aliens’ and enable ‘arms smuggling.’ The judgment also clarifies the extent to which the ‘transfer of powers’ to the Palestinian Authority in areas A and B as part of the interim agreements has no practical meaning – except for the need to promote Israeli propaganda. When it serves its own convenience, Israel relies on that ‘transfer of powers’ to cultivate the illusion that most of the residents of the West Bank do not really live under occupation, and that actually, the occupation is almost over. Whereas when it is not convenient for Israel, like in this case, it sets aside the appearance of ‘self-government,’ raises ‘security arguments,’ and realizes its full control of the entire territory and all of its residents.”

The Israeli NGO “Terrestrial Jerusalem” (led by Danny Seidemann) writes:

“This one case, unfolding in remote areas of the Jerusalem municipal boundary that few Israelis or Palestinians have ever heard of, illuminates the inherent absurdity of the mythical ‘undivided capital of Israel’ and the lack of correlation between the location of a village, the laws that apply to its residents and the authority that governs them. Hence, the residents of Wadi Hummus live on the Jerusalem side of the barrier, but with no rights in Israel, in an area where governance is vested in those with no formal  power to govern, where the only “legitimate” use of governmental power is by an occupier whose authorities are based exclusively on military necessity.”

Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, writes:

“…we know that Israel’s policy of home demolitions is not just about security. It is an ongoing policy that has been carried out for years that is part of a deliberate planning regime designed to prevent Palestinian demographic growth in East Jerusalem. We know this because our grantees have systematically documented Israel’s policies in East Jerusalem for decades, designed to secure a Jewish majority in the city by diminishing the possibility of Palestinian life and growth…Israel’s demolition of unauthorized Palestinian structures has accelerated massively under President Donald Trump. That makes a lot of sense. Prime Minister Netanyahu and pro-annexationist government know a green light when they see one. Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special envoy for negotiations, recently said, that he ‘hasn’t found anything to criticize’ in Netanyahu’s policies.”

High Court Rules Settlers Can Stay in Hebron Compound Owned by Palestinians

On July 21st, a three-judge panel of the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that Israeli settlers may continue squatting in two disputed Hebron properties while litigation regarding ownership of the property remains ongoing. The property – called the Zaatari Compound after its Palestinian owners, but called “Beit Rachel and “Beit Leah” by the settlers – is located in the heart of downtown Hebron on Shuhada Street, within sight of the Tomb of the Patriarchs/Al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Settlers claim that they purchased the property from the Zaatari family. The Zaatari family rejects that claim. The case remains under consideration in the High Court of Justice.

The new ruling is in response to the Zaatari family’s petition to have the settlers removed from the property, where the settlers have been squatting under the protection of the Israeli military since March 2018, when they broke into the homes. The settlers tried to pull off this stunt once before in 2016 to much less success; that time around, instead of validating the settlers’ theft by allowing them to stay put, a court ordered the Israeli police to evacuate the settlers.

In response to the March 2018 invasion, Peace Now said: 

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

Peace Now Report: Return of Rampant Outpost Construction is Ushering in Annexation & “A Permanent Single Undemocratic State” 

In a new report entitled, “Return of the Outpost Method,” the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now documents the proliferation of new illegal outposts (i.e., new settlement sites established in contravention of Israeli law and regulations; according to international law, ALL settlement activity is illegal) in the West Bank over the past 7 years, with the direct assistance of the Israeli government. The report catalogues 32 new unauthorized outposts established deep in the West Bank since 2012; of those, 18 (56%) were established during the 2.5 years since President Trump took office. 

Peace Now said in a statement accompanying the report: 

“The Netanyahu government has established dozens of new settlement outposts quietly, without any public debate, in order to take over more territory and prevent the two-state solution. This comes despite talk of regulating the legal status of the more established outposts, in part to create a semblance of law enforcement in the West Bank. When the government and Knesset declare that they will do anything to legalize any unauthorized construction by settlers and even steal private land, settlers see this correctly as an incentive to build more outposts. This outpost method has consequently become a choice tactic in the process of de facto annexation of the West Bank, and it is leading us to a permanent single undemocratic state.”

For many years prior to 2012, settlers did not devote much effort towards establishing new outposts, a decision that bore in mind effective forms of international criticism of outpost construction in addition to the signals sent to the settlers by the Israel government’s decision to evacuate the unauthorized outposts. It was only after March 2011, when Netanyahu’s government declared its intention to legalize as many outposts as possible, that settlers once again set out to build outposts and claim more land in the West Bank. True to its word, the Netanyahu government has undertaken several legal projects aimed at retroactively legalizing these new outposts along with others, a campaign which FMEP has chronicled in detail (see here). 

Additional key findings of the new Peace Now report include:

• Since 2012, 32 new outposts have been established, the majority after President Trump was elected. All of the new outposts (except one) are located deep inside the West Bank, in areas that Israel will likely have to evacuate within the framework of any imaginable permanent agreement.
• 21 of the outposts are agricultural farms, which take over large areas for pasturing and cultivation, while their settlers work to remove Palestinian shepherds and farmers from the vicinity.
• Around some of the new outposts there is an increase in violence and attacks against Palestinians.
• The outposts are established in an organized fashion with the involvement of the local settlement authorities, Amana and the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization.
• At the same time, the government is working to retroactively legalize existing outposts. To date, 15 outposts have been legalized (“regularized”) as independent settlements or “neighborhoods” in existing settlements. At least 35 additional outposts are undergoing the legalization process.
• One of the outposts established in 2012, Kerem Re’im, has already been legalized, thus becoming an official settlement with nearly 70 families living in dozens of permanent homes.

Settlement Construction Boom Preys on Vulnerable Palestinian Workers

Al-Monitor spoke with several Palestinian construction workers about the risks of participating in the surge of settlement construction that has unfolded in the Trump-Netanyahu era, which has spurred a 39% increase in Israeli spending on infrastructure in the West Bank. The surge has exacerbated an employment “catch-22” facing Palestinians: many Palestinians see no other option but to work in the settlements, but by working in the settlements, they facilitate the expansion and entrenchment of Israeli occupation that ensures there can be no normal Palestinian economic development within which they could find alternate employment.

In addition to that moral/political dilemma that settlement jobs present to an exploited and severely underemployed Palestinian workforce, Al-Monitor columnist Miriam Deprez explains:

“Settlement construction thrives off systemic labor rights abuses of the Palestinian workers by denying proper wages, insurance and basic personal protection equipment, complain the workers and a handful of organizations who try to protect them.”

One Palestinian laborer, Naser Qaswal, worked in a settlement for 25-years before he was forced to leave his job because of injuries he sustained due to the physical demands of the job, yet the settlement employer has not paid Qaswal any form of compensation. According to Qaswal, his cousin lost two fingers in an accident while working at an Israeli settlement, but he did not hold ask his employer for compensation or support in fear that Israel would withdraw his permit to work in Israel. Another laborer, Ahmed, explained how his father fell three stories off a crane while working at a settlement. The accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. The employer paid wages and caregiver fees to Ahmed’s family for the next two years, until his father passed away at the age of 52. The family was left with no income.

The absence of labor safety regulations in the settlements does not only affect Palestinians, as  tragically illustrated on July 26th by the death of an Israeli two days after he fell off of a ladder while on the job at a construction site in Neriya settlement. Haaretz reports that the 2019 death toll for settlement laborers stands at 48.

Settler Groups: We Want Israeli Annexation, But Not Israeli Law

For years, settlers have been demanding that the Israel law treat the settlements exactly as part of Israel, with demands for Israeli law to apply and increasingly for outright annexation. Yet, now it seems settlers want to have their cake and eat it too, as illustrated by the Hebron Hills Regional Council – a settlement municipal association – which is fighting against a High Court petition that seeks to extend Israeli laws over settlements in its jurisdiction. Why?  Because in this case, Israeli law would limit the Council’s ability to collect association fees from new homebuyers. The petition stems from a request by 26 settlers to who paid exorbitant fees to the association when they moved to the Eshkolot settlement, located in the southern tip of the West Bank but on the Israeli side of the separation barrier.

Haaretz writes:

“…the Hebron Hills Regional Council as well as the Eshkolot community association are arguing before the court that the rule on fees should not apply to [the West Bank]. The Hebron Hills Regional Council’s stand is particularly surprising because like other settler regional councils, it has been insistently calling for Israeli law to be applied in the settlements. Against this, the government is arguing that the rule applies to the settlements because it is a policy of the government’s Custodian for Government and Abandoned Property. What applies inside the Green Line, applies outside it and to Eshkolot.”

Regavim Ups Pressure on Candidates to Promise Annexation of Area

On July 19th, the radical settler group Regavim placed full-page newspaper ads warning: “A Terrorist State – Just Around the Corner.” The group accused the Israeli government of ignoring the alleged “Arab takeover” of Area C, some 60% of the West Bank that the Oslo Accords placed under (temporary) full Israeli control, as an interim stage towards negotiating permanent status of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Specifically, Regavim accused the government of allowing the Palestinian Authority to build thousands of structures on “state-owned land in strategic locations,” construction which the settlers allege is funded by the European Union with the intention of propping up a “terrorist state” next of Israel. Regavim called on ministers and Knesset members to “take immediate action to prevent a terrorist state in our backyard.”

Settler-Palestinian “Business Council” Visits Dead Sea

On July 9th, leaders of the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce” took a field trip to the Dead Sea. Ashraf Jabari – one of the few Palestinians who attended the recent U.S.-convened “Peace to Prosperity” shindig and the only Palestinian given a speaking role on-stage at the event (also the only Palestinian to publicly praise the event) – said that the trip was a “direct continuation of the economic workshop in Bahrain,” and mentioned that the group was exploring opportunities to expand cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian business communities.

As FMEP has previously covered, Jabari has been slammed as a traitor by the Palestinian Authority, shunned and dismissed by his fellow Palestinian business people, and disowned by his family in light of his ongoing role with the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce, an initiative Jabari runs alongside Israeli settlers. 

Bonus Reads

1. “The US Law Restricting Satellite Imagery of Palestine-Israel” (Al-Shabaka)
2. “How the Goliath of the Jerusalem settler movement persuaded the world it’s really David” (Mondoweiss)
3. “Amnesty International Requests TripAdvisor Employees to Delist Jewish Settlements” (Jerusalem Post)
4. “In Bethlehem basement, Palestinian distiller is toasted with global acclaim” (Times of Israel)
5. “I’m an Israeli settler. This is why I spoke with J Street’s first ‘alternative Birthright’ group.” (JTA)

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.

July 12, 2019

1. Israel Evicts Palestinians from Silwan Apartment, Turns Property Over to Settlers
2. Mayor Reveals Israel’s New Settlement Policy in Jerusalem: Build Everything (Except Givat Hamatos)
3. Bibi’s “Principles” for Future Deal Seek International Approval for Apartheid-Like Status Quo
4. Stunt by Radical Settler Group Hoped to Scare Government Into Annexing Area C
5. United Nations Human Rights Expert Lays Down the Law on Israeli Annexation, Urges International Community to Consider Imposing Consequences
6. John Bolton Joins U.S. Chorus Defending & Normalizing Isareli Settlements, Calls them “Housing Projects” at Evangelical Confab
7. Adva Center: Israel Has Chosen Settlements/Annexation at the Expense of Development
8. Bonus Reads

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

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Israel Evicts Palestinians from Silwan Apartment, Turns Property Over to Settlers

On June 10th, Israeli police forcibly evicted five members of the Palestinian Siam (also spelled ”Siyyam”) family from their apartment in the Wadi Hilweh section of Silwan, in East Jerusalem. The action took place following a 30-year legal battle of the course of which settlers attempted six separate times (and failed the first five) to convince a court to evict the Siams. On the sixth try, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the radical settler group Elad is the legal owner of the apartment.

Not only has Elad won the apartment (which increases its ownership share of the entire apartment building, where a few Palestinians owners continue to live), the settler organization (which is funded and abetted by the state of Israel) put a lien on donations crowdfunded to support the Siam family, claiming the money is belongs to Elad pursuant to the court order requiring the Siams to pay Elad 10,000 shekels ($2,798) for legal fees.

As a reminder, U.S. officials Ambassador David Friedman and special envoy Jason Greenblatt recently endorsed Elad’s operations in Silwan by participating in a political stunt promoting one of Elad’s excavation projects in Silwan – an unprofessional and destructive excavation located within a few hundred meters of the apartment from which the Siams were evicted.

Ir Amim explains why this eviction is particularly noteworthy in Elad’s campaign to evict Palestinians and deepen control in East Jerusalem:

“Elad has targeted the Siam family’s property since the early 1990’s, bringing a total of six lawsuits against the family and embroiling them in a lengthy and costly legal battle. Over the course of nearly three decades, it has managed to take over the majority of the family’s property through various mechanisms, most recently through the application of the Absentee Property Law of 1950. The settler takeover of 6/8 of the Siam family’s property is also a symbolic blow to the Palestinian community in Silwan since Jawad Siam, a social worker and longtime community leader, who established community centers for local children and youth, serves as a leading figure in the struggle to protect the Palestinian residents of Silwan.”

Mayor Reveals Israel’s New Settlement Policy in Jerusalem: Build Everything (Except Givat Hamatos)

On June 2nd, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon told the right-wing outlet Makor Rishon that, with the singular exception of the plans for the Givat Hamatos settlement, there is no longer any political pressure holding back unrestrained settlement building across East Jerusalem. Leon said (as translated by Terrestrial Jerusalem):

“I do not know of any problem today in building beyond the Green Line, except for Givat Hamatos, all the construction plans have a green light for implementation. We start and actually build everywhere – in Gilo, in Armon Hanatsiv, in Homat Shmuel [Har Homa] and in the whole city.” 

The one exception, the planned but yet to be built Givat Hamatos settlement located in the southern part of East Jerusalem, has long been called a doomsday settlement by parties interested in preserving the possibility of a two-state solution. This is because if Givat Hamatos is built, the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa in East Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by Israeli construction.

However, Terrestrial Jerusalem predicts notwithstanding Leon’s comments, Givat Hamatos and E-1 are very much still a threat:

“…if, in the run-up to elections, Netanyahu fears that he is losing his base to the parties to the right of the Likud, he may feel compelled to consolidate his support by giving the green light to one or more bold settlement moves. In such an eventuality, Netanyahu may move on Khan al Ahmar prior to the elections. That said, Netanyahu does not currently seem prone to take action on Khan al Ahmar, Givat Hamatos and E-1, and as we will now see, he may indeed have very compelling reasons to act on these schemes – but only after the elections. If, after the approaching election results come in, Netanyahu will be asked by the President to form a government, he will use all the cards in his deck to achieve one overriding objective: securing his immunity from prosecution. We believe it likely that in the coalition negotiations, Netanyahu will attempt to “trade” the implementation of Givat Hamatos, E-1 and/or Khan al Ahmar in exchange for legislation granting him immunity from criminal prosecution. It is less likely he will “waste” these moves on anything less – including the possibility of approving these during the election campaign.”

Bibi’s “Principles” for Future Deal Seek International Approval for Apartheid-Like Status Quo

Speaking at an event in the Revava settlement, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Samaria Regional Council (a settlement municipal body in the northern West Bank), lame-duck Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu laid out his “principles” and promises with respect to the future of the West Bank in any “political agreement”. He said:

“…I am guided by several principles when it comes to the West Bank. The first – this is our homeland. The second – we will continue to build and develop it. Third – not one resident [settler] or community [settlement] will be uprooted in a political agreement. Fourth – the Israeli military and security forces will continue to rule the entire territory, up to the Jordan Valley. Fifth – I am working to get international ratification of these principles. Look at what we did in the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. To be continued.”

Bibi also said:

“I also make no distinction between the settlement blocs and isolated settlement sites. Every such spot is Israeli from my point of view.”

Though bleak, the “principles” laid out by Netanyahu are not merely forward-looking. Rather, they paint an accurate picture of what is already happening on the ground: Israel’s construction of new settlements, expansion of existing settlements and corresponding infrastructure, retroactive legalization of unauthorized outposts, expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land, tightening grip over the Jordan Valley including effort that appears designed to drive Palestinians away, and pushing Palestinians out of of Area C, alongside policies designed to prevent the natural growth of Palestinian villages.

In addition to these principles, Netanyahu tossed in a commitment to no forced evictions of either Jews or Palestinians (whom Netanyahu refers to only as “Arabs,” a pointed denial of the existence of the Paelstinian identity and national aspirations). This surprising – and seemingly conciliatory –  comment is clearly disingenuous. As demonstrated by the case of the Siam family (discussed above), which just this week was forcibly evicted from its home in Silwan, Netanyahu’s words are emptied of meaning by the large body of Israeli laws and regulations literally designed to dispossess Palestinians of their land and homes. Under the guise of legality, these laws are regularly wielded by the state, often in cooperation and coordination with the settlers, to eviction Palestinians and turn land over to the settlers, as powerfully demonstrated in a recent B’Tselem report on this topic.

Stunt by Radical Settler Group Hoped to Scare Government Into Annexing Area C

In a gratuitous stunt, the radical settler group Regavim placed Palestinian flags along several of the main West Bank highways used by settlers. It should be emphasized that it is not illegal to fly the Palestinian flag in Area C of the West Bank (yet). However, Regavim clearly understands that most Israeli settlers, who take for granted Israeli complete control over the area, would be shocked by the flags and likely perceived them as a Palestinian challenge and provocation.

The intent behind the stunt, according to Regavim Director Meir Deutsch, was to:

“shock, alert, and illustrate what will happen if illegal Arab construction is allowed to continue unhindered and a de facto Palestinian state is established as per the Fayyad Plan of 2009…The [Israeli] population of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank} has been lulled into a dangerous slumber. The flags that we put up this morning won’t change the future of Judea and Samaria but the tens of thousands of structures that were built over the past decade and the thousands of dunams that the PA has taken over with the assistance of European countries will determine the future of Area C.”

MK Bezalel Smotrich – who helped establish the Regavim organization – called the stunt “important and even critical,” saying:

“The time has come for all of us to wake up and thwart the Arab takeover of our homeland. These flags are not dangerous, but the thousands of houses, roads, and trees that the Arabs are building, and paving, and planting under our noses are! The responsibility falls on the shoulders of one man — Netanyahu.”

United Nations Human Rights Expert Lays Down the Law on Israeli Annexation, Urges International Community to Consider Imposing Consequences

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory, Michael Lynk, responded to the growing U.S.-Israeli consensus on Israel’s annexation of areas in the West Bank. Lynk said:

“International law is very clear: annexation and territorial conquest are forbidden by the Charter of the United Nations. The Security Council, beginning with Resolution 242 in November 1967, has expressly affirmed the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war or force on eight occasions, most recently in 2016. While annexation has not disappeared from the modern world, this strict prohibition in international law has had a considerable dampening effect. The power of the prohibition is that annexations in the modern world, when they do happen, are rarely recognized by other nations. International law, when married to international resolve, works. International criticism, absent any consequences, can no longer be justified in the current circumstances,” said Lynk “If annexation proceeds, the chances for a genuine and just peace in the foreseeable future will have gone from implausible to unimaginable.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Lynk elaborated on what those consequences might be:

“The international community has to look at the available menu of countermeasures that is commonly used to a wide range of countries involving gross human rights violations and has to decide what are the appropriate ones to consider to use with respect to Israel. The international community actually holds a lot of cards with Israel, and it has to say to Israel: ‘Your membership or privileges through bilateral or multilateral agreements with respect to your economy, political and cultural relationships are all going to be called into question and reviewed unless you show genuine attempts to unwind and undo the occupation’.”

Lynk also outlined immediate steps that he believes the international community can call for, including the publication of a long-awaited database of Israeli and international companies that profit from operations in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and for the International Criminal Court to complete its preliminary investigation of allegations of rights abuses by Israel. Lynk states:

“Unless there is international pressure on Israel to do the right thing, Israel will continue to deepen and further entrench the occupation,” Lynk told Al Jazeera. I don’t know what the international community needs to come to the realisation that Israel is not going to unwind the occupation and permit Palestinian self-determination all on its own.”

John Bolton Joins U.S. Chorus Defending & Normalizing Isareli Settlements, Calls them “Housing Projects” at Evangelical Confab

Speaking at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conference on July 10th, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton told the audience:

“At the behest of the so-called State of Palestine, the ICC has threatened to investigate Israeli housing projects in addition to targeting Israeli counter-terrorism efforts in the West Bank – and we’ll not allow the ICC bureaucrats in the Hague to dictate our foreign policy.”

In addition to John Bolton, the CUFI conference drew participation from U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman and U.S. Envoy Jason Greenblatt. Asked to respond to the chorus of critics who lambasted him and Friedman for participating in an excavation controlled by the radical Elad settler group, Greenblatt said:

“We were accused of Judaizing the city. We will not tolerate that kind of language. I know that’s been tolerated before, but under President Trump, we will push back every single [time]. You cannot possibly build peace without a foundation of truth. And for somebody to suggest that this tunnel is not the truth, they need to be corrected.”

To note, spokesman for Elad Yigal Kaufman has said, on the record, that the mission of Elad is to “Judaize” East Jerusalem.

Adva Center: Israel Has Chosen Settlements/Annexation at the Expense of Development

In a new report, entitled “Annexation Trumps Start-Up Nation,” the Adva Center compares Israel’s investment in so-called “development towns” (cities established on the Israeli periphery with the aim of creating cultural and economic hubs) to its investment in settlements established at the same time. 

The results are clear: development has disappeared from the Israeli agenda, in part replaced by a more narrow concept of economic growth, but, more broadly speaking, completely overshadowed by the government’s ideological focus and support for expanding the settlements. The Adva Center writes:

“the settlements project promises that annexation will continue to trump development. Had the sums spent on the settlements over the years been channeled to the Israeli periphery, it is reasonable to assume that it would by now be far less peripheral. As long as the conflict continues, the Israeli economy will labor under the threat of instability, threatening its international status; As long as the conflict continues, Israel will not be up to the task of reducing the socio-economic gaps between its center and periphery; As long as the conflict continues, Israel will be hard pressed to reduce the poverty rate, which is among the highest among developed countries; As long as the conflict continues, Israel will not find the wherewithal to reduce inequality within; today, Israel is among the developed countries with the highest degree of inequality. As long as the conflict continues, Israel will have a hard time extracting itself from the delirium of annexation in order to adopt an agenda of development.”

In addition to the economic advantages showered on the settlements, the Adva Center notes that the settlements have also succeeded in gaining an influential foothold on political power, writing:

“the political power of the settler right goes beyond its electoral achievements. This is because the settlements are now the very heart of the continuing conflict. Thus, the settler right constitutes a key factor in the determination of the entire national agenda: the constant pressure to jettison the Oslo Accords, to oppose negotiations with the Palestinians, to increase construction in the recognized settlements, to achieve recognition for the illegal outposts, to take over Palestinian buildings, to tormentPalestinian farmers, to demand more and more military protection – to define who and what is patrioticand who and what is not. Development towns – and the entire Israeli periphery – never succeeded in attaining such a position, one that would enable it to put development back on the Israeli agenda. Annexation trumps development.”

Bonus Reads

1. “U.S Duty Free Magnates Bankrolled Expansion of Israeli Settlement Vineyard Over Palestinian Land” (The Independent)
2. “Mobile Companies Break Deal on Judea and Samaria” (Globes)
3. “Graffit in West Bank Targets Palestinian Who Was Suspected of Raping a 7-Year Old Israeli Girl” (Times of Israel)

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

June 7, 2019

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

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

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Visualizing 52 Years of Occupation and Settlement Growth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Netanyahu Appoints Pro-Annexation Settler Leader as Key Settlement Advisor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus Reads

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

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

To subscribe to this report, please click here.

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.

May 17, 2019

1. TV Report: U.S. Peace Plan Allows for Israeli Annexation of All Settlements
2. Peace Now Special Report, Part 1: Key 2018 Settlement Data & Analysis
3. Peace Now Special Report, Part 2: Settlement Growth During 10 Years of Netanyahu
4. Following Trump Election, Netanyahu Unleashed 39% Increase in Settlement Funding
5. 11 Knesset Members Join Campaign to Cancel 2005 Disengagement Law & Re-establish Evacuated West Bank Settlements
6. Bibi Pushes High Court Override Legislation During Coalition Negotiations
7. Trump Envoy Praises US-Backed Economic “Coexistence” Group for Joint Settler-Palestinian Hebron Iftar
8. Bonus Reads

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TV Report: U.S. Peace Plan Allows for Israeli Annexation of All Settlements

According to an Israel TV report, the Trump Administration’s peace plan allows for Israel’s annexation of all settlements in the West Bank. Israel TV also reports that, independent of the fate of the peace deal, the U.S. will not object to Israel’s unilateral annexation of those settlements through the extension of Israeli law over them. Though the Trump Administration position on settlements has been made explicitly clear for some time, the reporting, if accurate, confirms that the U.S. “peace plan” is no more than a plan for permanent Israel control in the West Bank.

As FMEP has explained, institutionalizing the application of Israeli law over the settlements – which ends the legal distinctions between Israel and the settlements, as upheld by current Israeli law – would be tantamount to de facto annexation. FMEP has also documented, in great detail, Israel’s progress towards incrementally annexing the settlements in this manner, as various initiatives move through the Knesset, the Executive/Ministerial body, and the Courts. That data can be found on the second table on this document.

Settlers immediately celebrated the Israel TV report. Har Hevron Regional Council Chairman Yohai Damari said:

“I call on the prime minister to immediately announce, following the  establishment of a government, that he will extend Israeli law to all the Jewish settlements as a basis for any offer that may come. We have to take advantage of this window of opportunity during the Trump administration in the wake of the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of the Golan Heights. Now it is time for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

Damari’s plea to the Prime Minister to act quickly to annex the settlements only adds to the growing crescendo pushing for the immediate, unilateral annexation, which U.S. Ambassador Friedman publicly urged on during his recent speech at the AIPAC national policy conference.

Peace Now Special Report, Part 1: Key 2018 Settlement Data & Analysis

In a special version of its annual report on settlement growth – entitled “Special Annual Settlement Construction Report 2018: A Glance at 10 Years Under Netanyahu” – the settlement watchdog group Peace Now published important data and analysis of settlement activity in 2018 (not including East Jerusalem).

According to the report, during 2018:

Israel began construction on 2,100 new settlement units.

• This represents a 9% increase from the annual average of the past 10 years.
• Of that 2,100 units,
  • At least 10% (218 new units) are in illegal outposts;
  • Nearly 73% (1,539 new units) are in settlements outside of the proposed Geneva Initiative border;
  • At least 10 are located on privately owned Palestinian land.

Construction began on 2 new settlements.

• The government officially planned and approved the establishment of the new Amichai settlement, the first new government-backed settlement in over 20 years. Amichai is located in the heart of the West Bank on a hilltop that settlers chose in the hopes it will prevent the possibility of the two-state solution.
• In addition, developers began construction on 108 new units in an area east of the Avnei Hafez settlement and then marketed the new units as a new settlement, which they call “Kedem”. Developers built this settlement based on a construction plan approved in 1998.

A total of 5,618 settlement units were advanced through plans in 79 settlements.

• 

  Map by Peace Now

  Of that number, almost 83% (4,672 housing units) are planned in settlements east of the proposed Geneva Initiative border.

A total of 5,808 settlement construction tenders were published (but construction had not yet began)

• This was the highest annual total for settlement tenders in almost two decades.
• The Beitar Illit settlement saw the most construction starts in 2018, concentrated in a new neighborhood which significantly expands the footprint of the settlement.

Additional 2018 Key Data Points

• Israel continued to build up an Israeli settler presence on the land between the Elkana settlement and its surrounding settlements (Etz Efraim to its east and Shaarei Tikva to its west), effectively creating one large “super settlement” and building a contiguous settlement band towards the Ariel settlement in the heart of the West Bank.
• In addition to West Bank settlement tenders, tenders for 603 new settlement units in East Jerusalem were also published in 2018.

Peace Now Special Report, Part 2: Settlement Growth During 10 Years of Netanyahu

In its special report  – entitled “Special Annual Settlement Construction Report 2018: A Glance at 10 Years under Netanyahu” – Peace Now reports that since taking office in 2009, the Netanyahu governments have invested some $2.8 billion in settlements and built 19,346 new settlement units, the majority (70%) of which are located in areas of the West Bank that under past negotiations would have been in a future state of Palestine.

Peace Now writes:

“In the past decade, most of the construction was in isolated settlements that Israel will have to evacuate. The Peace Now count of housing construction starts reveals that 73 percent of the construction in 2018 (1,539 housing units) and 70 percent of construction during the decade of Netanyahu’s government (13,608 housing units) were implemented precisely in places that jeopardize a two-state agreement (east of the proposed border route of the Geneva Initiative). In this decade, close to 50,000 settlers have been added to these settlements, and the housing units built have the potential to add 60,000 settlers. This means that the Israeli government is digging the country a pit to fall in. Every house built in the settlements and every family that moves there will need to be brought back into Israel in a painful and difficult evacuation. Even if the government does not believe that peace can be achieved in the near future, there is no logic to expanding the settlements and making the solution impossible.”

Following Trump Election, Netanyahu Unleashed 39% Increase in Settlement Funding

After two years of repeatedly submitting freedom of information requests, the AP published results, based on documents turned over by Israel’s Finance Ministry. The documents  reveal that the government unleashed at least a 39% funding increase – dubbed by the AP a “spending binge” – on settlement activities in the immediate aftermath of President Trump’s election.

According to the Finance Ministry data, in 2017 the Israeli government spent $459.8 million (NIS 1.65 billion) on roads, schools, and public buildings in settlements across the West Bank, compared to $333.2 million (NIS 1.19 billion) in 2016. AP notes that the new data does not include funds spent on police, education, health, and military, and completely omits government investments made in East Jerusalem settlement related activities — meaning the numbers actually undercount Israeli settlement-related spending (in both years).

The 2017 figures are the highest amount of Israeli government funds invested in the settlements by the government of Israel during any year since Netanyahu became prime minister 10 years ago (and has remained in power since). The Israeli government tracks its own spending on settlement activities in order to report that total sum to the U.S. government, a practice which began under President George H.W. Bush – which in theory is supposed to deduct the sum from U.S. loan guarantees available to Israel (in reality, the U.S. has made only occasional and minimal deductions).

The areas with the highest growth rate in funding in 2017 were school construction (68% increase from 2016) and road construction (54% increase from 2016). Hagit Ofran, co-Director of the Settlement Watch project at Peace Now, explained the significance of Israeli investments in roads for the settlements:

“We see it very immediately, after the opening of a road, a big boom in construction along the road,” she said. “I think the investments we have these years in the roads are dramatic and will allow the expansion of settlements dramatically. That is very much worrying.”

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said:

“This proves that the current U.S. administration encouraged settlement activities.”

11 Knesset Members Join Campaign to Cancel 2005 Disengagement Law & Re-establish Evacuated West Bank Settlements

Eleven members of the Knesset, including Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, participated in tour of one of the four settlements in the northern West Bank which Israel evacuated in 2005 as part of its Gaza Disengagement plan. The IDF had to provide special permission for the MKs to visit the Homesh settlement, because , even all these years later, it is a closed military zone. This is just the latest event in a settler-led campaign to pressure Netanyahu into canceling the 2005 Gaza Disengagement Plan and re-establishing those settlements.

After Israel’s evacuation of the four settlements in the West Bank  – Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim – the IDF issued military orders barring Palestinians from entering the areas,  let alone building in them. At the same time, settlers have regularly entered the areas and even repeatedly built a yeshiva at the Homesh site.  

Bibi Pushes High Court Override Legislation During Coalition Negotiations

Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu plans to promote the so-called High Court Override bill, which would empower the Knesset to effectively strip the High Court of its power to review and strike down legislation it deems unconstitutional, as well as overrule the Court’s administrative decisions – a new, and alarming, component of the long touted law. This new component is needed in order for Netanyahu to ensure his own immunity against criminal charges, but it will also empower the Knesset to ignore the Court’s administrative decisions issued in response to petitions – effectively giving elected and partisan government officials a veto over the only justice system accessible by Palestinians. As Haaretz explains: “for example, if a minister makes a decision that is overruled by the court in response to a petition – such as Netanyahu’s decision to ban the entry of Palestinian participants of a joint memorial day ceremony – the minister could reissue the decision anyway.”

Critical for FMEP reporting, if the law is passed the Knesset will be empowered to reinstate the settlement Regulation Law if the High Court rules against it, which it has long been expected to do. The law, passed in February 2017 and quickly frozen, directs the government to retroactively legalize a huge number of illegal outposts and settlement structures which were built on privately owned Palestinian land. Implementation of the Regulation Law was quickly frozen in light of petitions to the High Court challenging its constitutionality.

According to the Haaretz report, an agreement to promote the override bill will be included in the coalition agreement Netanyahu is negotiating to form the next government, and parties are engaged in debates over the specific form the law will take. The right-wing parties want to pass the law within 60 days after the new government takes over, and in a form that would totally negate the authority of the High Court to strike down decisions by elected officials or bodies like the cabinet, the ministers or the Knesset. The comparatively centrist Likud members support the principle of the override law but not the specifics proposed by negotiating partners. Likud members say they are reviewing various models for the law which tinker with the mechanism by which the Knesset can override High Court rulings and administrative decisions.

The override bill has been a key objective of Netanyahu’s negotiating partners, most prominently MK Bezalel Smotrich and Transportation Minister Yariv Levin, who are competing to become the next Justice Minister and whose negotiation demands FMEP analyzed some weeks back. FMEP has also documented the progress of the High Court Override bill in its Annexation Policies tables.

Trump Envoy Praises US-Backed Economic “Coexistence” Group for Joint Settler-Palestinian Hebron Iftar

On May 14th, U.S. peace envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted his praise for a joint settler-Palestinian iftar event in Hebron, hosted by the “Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce,” a favorite group of the Trump Administration’s peace team. As has become a key mantra, Greenblatt said the event helps lay the “groundwork for peace” and said it was a “wonderful example of what could be possible.” As pointed out by many voices on Twitter, praise for the event ignores ignoring the apartheid conditions in Hebron under which Israeli policies deny Palestinian rights and well-being, for the benefit of some 800 Israeli settlers.

Palestinian businessman Sheikh Ashraf Jabari held the event in his Hebron home. Jabari recently launched a new Palestinian political party, the Reform and Development Party, advocating for a one-state solution because, Jabari argues, Palestinians have no other choice than to accept Israeli sovereignty over them. It is well known that Jabari has close ties to the Trump administration, which has very publicly embraced settler-Palestinian economic co-existence initiatives as a core U.S. priority on the ground and are seeking an alternative Palestinian leadership with which to make a deal.

Jabari told the Jerusalem Post about the iftar event and his broader aims:

“We want to build a united front, to create a breakthrough on the economic issue. We are issuing a clear call to separate between economics and politics, and hope to have fruitful cooperation on the subject. From our point of view, we need to strengthen the connection between the US legislature and activity that promotes economic equality here. This meal is meant to reinforce the growing trend in which economic-business connections can strengthen relations and friendship, by way of leading people to a more positive place.”

Along with Jabari, high profile event attendees – which included Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and Hebron Jewish community leader Yishai Fleisher – praised the business initiative as a model for peaceful relations.

Uri Karzen, the Director General of the settlers in Hebron and an attendee of the iftar, said in a tweet:

“First  #Iftar in #Hebron with Kosher food. We are laying the groundwork for peace between people and economic prosperity for all.”

Heather Johnston, executive-director of the US-Israel Education Association which leads U.S. congressional delegation to settlements and runs camps in the Ariel settlement (no joke  – to help Ethiopian Jews rediscover their roots), told the event attendees:

“Each of you have played a role in helping to build this integrated business movement. You have made sacrifices. You have gone into the unknown. You have been willing to take risks in business and in relationships. And this is what it takes to pioneer something that will one day be a humongous success. I have been involved in Samaria for the last 22 years. I believe there is more hope today for this important relationship to actually succeed than ever before.”

Chamber president Avi Zimmerman, of the Ariel settlement, said:

“We can measure progress at a people-to-people level, at every business transaction. Every time I get up and say ‘this is only about economics, it is not about peace,’ everyone starts talking about peace. Which makes me believe that if everyone keeps talking about peace when we speak of economics, that these incremental, measured steps toward mutual interest are actually what will birth the peace. They can birth a political process, but it will not happen the other way around,” he said. “We have learned for 70 years that it is not going to be the other way. It has to start this way.”

FMEP has repeatedly explained how initiatives like this perpetuate Israel’s economic exploitation of occupied territory (including the local workforce, land, and other natural resources), and that it is perverse to label such initiatives as “coexistence” programs, or to suggest that they offer the Palestinians benefits they should welcome. The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority explaining the Orwellian reality of settlement industrial zones:

“Somebody occupies your country, steals your land, steals your water, steals your resources, then says: ‘I’ll make a good deal for you if you come work for me. I’ll create jobs for you. We are not occupiers. We are employers.’ This is ridiculous. The colonial settlements are illegal in every sense of the word.”

Bonus Reads

1. “Israel Okays Major West Bank Roads, Seizing Large Tracts of Palestinian Land” (Haaretz)
2. “Israel Dismisses Complaint Against Lawmaker Who Called to Ban Arabs from Highway” (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.

February 8, 2019

1. Another Challenge to Israel’s Plan to Retroactively Legalize Adei Ad Outpost
2. New Eviction Proceedings Against Two Palestinian Families in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City
3. Higher Education Council Reverses Approval of Adelson-Backed Medical School in Ariel University
4. Activists Ask High Court to Revoke Status of West Bank Nature Reserve Run By Settlers
5. Settlers Threaten to Blacklist Palestinians Who Work with Human Rights Organizations
6. Prominent Israeli Politicians Pledge To End Two-State Solution
7. 40 Ambassadors to the United Nations Visit Settler-Run Tourist Site in Occupied East Jerusalem
8. Settler Org Credits Trump for Growth in West Bank Settler Population & Death of Two-State Solution
9. New B’Tselem Report Slams High Court for Role in Dispossessing Palestinians, Validating Occupation
10. Video Compilation of Likud Candidates Touting Role of Tourism in Expanding Settlements
11. EU Settlement Report Details “Unprecedented” Level of Settlement Advancements 2018
12. Bonus Reads

Questions/comments? Email kmccarthy@fmep.org

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Another Challenge to Israel’s Plan to Retroactively Legalize Adei Ad Outpost

On January 31st, Yesh Din filed a petition with the High Court of Justice to reverse an expansion of “state land” boundaries in the Shiloh Valley that seized privately owned Palestinian land in order to retroactively legalize the notoriously (and recently) violent Adei Ad outpost.

In 2014, Palestinian landowners, in cooperation with Yesh Din, first petitioned the Court to evacuate the unauthorized Adei Ad outpost which was built on their land in contravention of both international and Israeli law. Instead of enforcing the law, the Israeli Civil Administration announced that it would “reexamine” the boundaries of state land in the area, an examination which found that Adei Ad was, according to the new Israeli mapping of the area, built on state land. To make the findings of the reexamination official, the Civil Administration used an entirely new procedure (a “declaration amendment”) to expand the boundaries of a previous state land declaration. In so doing, the Civil Administration found a way to avoid issuing a new state land declaration, which can be challenged in a court by Palestinians and legal groups like Yesh Din. For “declaration amendments,” landowners can only seek recourse through the Civil Administration. Objections filed to the expansion of state land in this case were all dismissed.

The new Yesh Din petition filed on January 31st challenges the secretive and unjust process by which the Civil Administration expanded the scope of state land to include the Adei Ad outpost. The petition reads:

“[…] Not only does the procedural structure for objection to the declaration, as stated in the procedure, substantially diminish the rights of the petitioners and other objectors who seek to receive their day in court before an independent and impartial judiciary (which is offered without exception to their neighbors, indicative of institutional discrimination), but even in substantive terms, the decision of the first respondent [the head of the Civil Administration] was carried out in violation of the law, in contrast to judicial decisions, in a manner entirely lacking transparency and conveying the arbitrariness that ultimately results from irrelevant considerations — the desire to legalize the outpost of Adei Ad at all costs.”

The new petition seeks to stop the implementation of the next step in the Civil Administration’s process to retroactively legalize Adei Ad, a plan that was announced in August 2018. Under the scheme, Adei Ad will be retroactively legalized by defining it as a “neighborhood” of the Amichai settlement – the first new government-backed settlement in 25 years, approved as payoff to the settlers who were evacuated from the unauthorized Amona outpost – located nearby.

In 2013, Yesh Din published a lengthy report about the Adei Ad outpost – how it was established and how the settlers who live there use violence to take over more and more land from nearby Palestinians.

Kerem Navot recently wrote:

“The outpost of Adei Ad has the hard-earned dubious reputation as one of the wildest and most violent outposts in the West Bank. Since its establishment in the late 1990s, settlers have initiated numerous violent incidents, all based on one simple rationale: take control of as much land as possible. As a reward for 20 years of wreaking havoc, the state is currently authorizing the outpost and has recently deemed it a ‘neighborhood.’ Guess whose: a ‘neighborhood’ of the settlement of Amichai that was established less than two years ago after the state granted “compensation” estimated at 300 million shekels, to the group of land thieves who were evicted from the outpost of Amona.”

New Eviction Proceedings Against Two Palestinian Families in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City

Ir Amim reports that settlers are behind two new eviction proceedings against Palestinians in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

In the first case, the Abu Asab family received a notice that they must vacate their home in the Muslim Quarter by February 12th. The family has been renting the house since the 1960s, when the Old City was under the authority of the Jordanian government, which managed leases for vacant properties. In 2014, a settler-run trust – the Maisel Trust – petitioned to annul the family’s protected tenancy rights, arguing that those rights had been lost when the original tenants allegedly “abandoned” the property (the current residents are second generation relatives of the original renters).  The Court ruled in the settlers’ favor in, and a subsequent appeal against the ruling was rejected.

In the second case, just 100 meters away from the Abu Asab family home, the Ghaith-Sub Laban family was warned that another settler-managed trust –  the Gengel Trust – filed a new request for their eviction, arguing that the original tenants had abandoned the home and therefore forfeited their protected tenancy rights. The new eviction proceedings were initiated despite a 2016 Supreme Court ruling that held that  Nora Gaith and husband Mustafa Sub Laban are legally allowed to remain in the apartment for 10 years), at which time their protected tenancy will be (prematurely) terminated and their children’s status as protected tenants annulled.

Ir Amim notes that there are a total of eight Palestinian families at imminent risk of eviction in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, all in close proximity to the cases detailed above.

Higher Education Council Reverses Approval of Adelson-Backed Medical School in Ariel University

On February 7th, the Planning & Budgeting subcommittee of Israel’s Higher Education Council voted 3-2 against the approval of a medical school in Ariel University, reversing the subcommittee’s previous vote to approve the medical school in July 2018.

The Israeli Attorney General’s office ordered the second vote after it was revealed that one of the members of the subcommittee should not have been able to vote in July 2018, due to a major conflict of interest (Ariel University had promised the individual a promotion in the event the school was approved).

Since receiving the approval in July 2018, Ariel University has taken significant steps towards opening the medical school this fall, despite multiple unfolding controversies surrounding the process by which the school was approved. In addition to addition to the controversy surrounding the July 2018 vote, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett is accused of violating government rules to secure a legal opinion in favor bringing the school under Israeli domestic laws (an act of de facto annexation). Bennett is also accused of inappropriately intervening to expedite the approval of the school.

In response to the vote Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said:

“I do not intend to give up. I will fight the university cartel until we establish the Faculty of Medicine at Ariel University.”

Following the vote, the settler Yesha Council (an umbrella group which lobbies on behalf of the settlements) issued a statement saying:

“We expect the Israeli government to handle the matter and renew the permit in the coming year.”

As FMEP has previously reported, Ariel University became an accredited Israeli university in 2012, following significant controversy and opposition, including from Israeli academics. It has since been the focus of additional controversy, linked to what is a clear Israeli government-backed agenda of exploiting academia to normalize and annex settlements. In 2018, the settlement broke ground on the new medical school, with significant financial backing from U.S. casino magnate, settlement financier, and Trump backer Sheldon Adelson. In February 2018, in an act of deliberate de facto annexation, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that extends the jurisdiction of the Israeli Council on Higher Education over universities in the settlements (beyond Israel’s recognized sovereign borders), ensuring that the Ariel settlement medical school (and its graduates) would be entitled to all the same rights, privileges, and certifications as schools and students in sovereign Israel.

As a reminder, 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 attach Ariel to Israel will cut the northern West Bank into pieces.

Activists Ask High Court to Revoke Status of West Bank Nature Reserve Run By Settlers

A group of Israeli human rights activists have petitioned the Israeli High Court to revoke the special status of the Umm Zuka nature reserve and firing zone in the West Bank, saying the Israel’s designation of the land as a protected area has only served as a pretext to remove Palestinians and allow settlers to take over.

The petition goes on to explain that Israeli settlers have built an unauthorized outpost on the land that is slated to be added to the existing nature reserve, and have essentially turned the wilderness area into a private settler park where Palestinians are not allowed to enter. Despite complaints, the Israeli Civil Administration has not removed the unauthorized outpost – which consists of several structures connected to the water, sewage, and electricity of a nearby army base. The Civil Administration spokesperson told Haaretz that it is undertaken unspecified “enforcement proceedings” against the unauthorized outpost.

Eitay Mack, a lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of the group, told Haaretz:

“the reserve and the firing zone have effectively become a private settler farm that receives personal security service from Israel Defense Forces soldiers and bars entry to the farm’s enormous territory on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, religion and political opinions.”

Settlers Threaten to Blacklist Palestinians Who Work with Human Rights Organizations

Settlers have taken to posting signs in Palestinian villages warning that Palestinians who cooperate with human rights organizations will be prohibited from working in of Israeli settlements. The posters threaten:

“Do you wish to keep working in the settlements? Do you want to provide a living for your families from the Jews? Whoever cooperates with any one of these individuals and organizations (Ta’ayush and Rabbis for Human Rights) will never be allowed to enter the settlements for work. Be warned!”

+972 Magazine reports that the settlers behind the posters have also distributed leaflets to business owners inside of the settlements which list names of Palestinians alleged to work with (or have family members who work with) human rights groups – ostensibly encouraging Israeli business owners to fire them.

An Israeli activist working with the Tayyush organization (which is named on the posters as a group Palestinians cannot work with) explained:

“These flyers are yet another reminder that we [Israeli human rights groups] are a target of far-right groups, which get their marching orders from the Israeli government. The goal is clear: to expel Palestinians from their Area C of the West Bank and minimize their ability to defend themselves.”

Observers have noted the similarity between these flyers and signs posted by the Ku Klux Klan in the US years back targeting Black Americans.

Prominent Israeli Politicians Pledge To End Two-State Solution

In the context of Israel’s current election campaign, dozens of Israeli politicians have signed a pledge to the “Nahalah Movement” which reads:

“I hereby commit to be loyal to the land of Israel, not to cede one inch of our inheritance from our forefathers. I hereby commit to act to realize the settlement plan for the settlement of 2 million Jews in Judea and Samaria in accordance with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s plan, as well as to encourage and lead the redemption of all the lands throughout Judea and Samaria. I commit to act to cancel the declaration of two states for two peoples and replace it with the stately declaration: The land of Israel: One country for one people.”

Among the most prominent signatories are Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (New Right) Education Minister Naftali Bennett (New Right), Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Environmental Protection and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Culture Minister Miri Regev, Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Communication Minister Ayoub Kara, Immigration and Absorption Minister Yoav Galant, Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel.

The petition was introduced and signed as the climax of the Nahalah Movement’s two-week-long protest outside of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem. The activists were protesting what they portray as Netanyahu’s policy of severely restricting settlement construction. The Nahalah movement calls for unconstrained settlement construction and the establishment of new settlements. The Nahalah Movement released a statement saying:

“The signing of the petition opposite the Prime Minister’s Residence at the height of the Likud primary election campaign and at the height of the efforts to compile the [Knesset] lists in the right-wing and center bloc and in particular ahead of the coming election campaigns constitutes an ideological and ethical loyalty test for the various contenders.”

The settlement agenda promoted by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir – the one mentioned in the Nahalah pledge – was one of unrestrained growth and absolute opposition to compromise with the Palestinians and/or Arab governments in the region. Notably, Shamir’s promotion of the settlement enterprise was strongly opposed by then-U.S. President George W. Bush, who threatened to cut U.S. aid to Israel if settlement construction did not stop.

40 Ambassadors to the United Nations Visit Settler-Run Tourist Site in Occupied East Jerusalem

A group of 40 Ambassadors to the United Nations visited a tourist site run by the radical Elad settler organization in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. The delegation was led by Israel’s own Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, who appeared on video saying:

“We arrive today with nearly 40 UN Ambassadors to the City of David, Ir David, to show them the real truth about Israel….when the Ambassadors come here and they see for themselves the history of the Jewish people they understand why you cannot disconnect the Jewish people from our eternal capital Jerusalem.”

In the same clip, the President of Elad (aka the “City of David Foundation”) said:

“Why are they here? Far away from the halls of the United Nations building, here they will travel with us through the field and actually lift up the archaeological evidence and see the facts in front of their eyes. This is not a matter of fantasy and not only a matter of faith. Here we have facts that prove the connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem.”

As a reminder, the explicit ambition of the Elad settler organization is to increase Jewish hegemony across all of Jerusalem at the explicit and intended expense of the Palestinian East Jerusalemites. In Silwan in particular, Elad has undertaken a multi-faceted campaign to evict Palestinians and increase the number of Jewish settlers living there.

Intending to give a backhanded compliment to the visiting delegation, Eugene Kontorovich – who heads the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing pro-settlement organization – tweeted that the UN Ambassadors must not agree with U.N. Resolution 2334, which calls on the international community to differentiate between Israel and areas occupied by Israel in their dealings in the region. Kontorovich also told Jewish Insider:

“The Security Council resolution calls on countries to ‘differentiate’ between Israel and territories that came under its control in 1967. The resolution is of course not binding, and by going on in official state visit across the green line in the company of Israeli government officials, these UN ambassadors show that they are fully aware what a dead letter the resolution is.”

As a reminder, Kontorovich self-identifies as a key figure in the drafting of “anti-BDS” (but actually, anti-free speech/pro-settlement) laws in the United States. 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.

Settler Org Credits Trump for Growth in West Bank Settler Population & Death of Two-State Solution

A settler-run organization has released an analysis of Israeli government data citing the Trump Administration as a key driver of a “surge” in the growth rate of the Israeli settler population in 2018, and predicted a larger surge to come. The group claims the settler population in the West Bank grew by 3.3% last year (449,508 – excluding East Jerusalem – as of January 2019), compared to a 1.9% increase in Israel’s overall population.

The director of the group, Baruch Gordon, told the Associated Press:

“Since the change of the U.S. administration, the atmosphere for construction permits has become much easier. They’re being given with greater ease. I think possibly the next report and certainly in the ones after that, I think we’ll start to see a huge surge in the numbers here….Those who continue to talk about a two-state solution, in my mind it’s just a sign that they’re removed from the reality and the facts on the ground.”

When another settler organization – the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria – published near identical data points in January 2019 (literally last month), the overwhelming response of the settler community was to blame former U.S. President Barack Obama for a slowdown in the population growth from the 2017 rate, which was at 3.4%. However, if Gordon is correct in his prediction of a settler surge to come, that surge will indeed by blamed on or credited to – depending on the source – U.S. President Donald Trump.

Peace Now has documented the sharp in increase in settlement advancements in 2018, which will eventually result in an increase in the population of settlers (by as many as 60,000 settlers) once those new units are built and sold.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the AP:

“The American support for settlements through silence is doomed to failure because there is no peace and stability without an agreement with the Palestinian people and its legitimate leadership.”

New B’Tselem Report Slams High Court for Role in Dispossessing Palestinians, Validating Occupation

B’Tselem published an important new report entitled “Fake Justice: The Responsibility Israel’s High Court Justices Bear for the Demolition of Palestinian Homes and the Dispossession of Palestinians.” The report examines the role the highest court in Israel (and the only practicable avenue by which Palestinians can challenge Israeli policies and settler actions) has played in perpetuating the severe injustices inflicted upon Palestinians by the Israeli occupation and providing a guise of legality to for the Israeli policies behind them. Looking at its actions over the years as a whole, the report concludes that the court’s support of Israeli planning policy in the West Bank is tantamount to support for “forcible transfer” —  a war crime.

The report’s executive summary explains: 

“On the declarative level, Israeli authorities consider the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank as no more than a matter of illegal construction, as if Israel does not have long-term goals in the West Bank and as if the matter does not have far-reaching implications for the human rights of hundreds of thousands of individuals, including their ability to subsist, make a living and manage their own routine. The Supreme Court has fully embraced this point of view. In hundreds of rulings and decisions handed down over the years on the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, the justices have regarded Israeli planning policy as lawful and legitimate, nearly always focusing only on the technical issue of whether the petitioners had building permits. Time and time again, the justices have ignored the intent underlying the Israeli policy and the fact that, in practice, this policy imposes a virtually blanket prohibition on Palestinian construction. They have also ignored the policy’s consequences for Palestinians: the barest – sometimes positively appalling – living conditions, being compelled to build homes without permits, and absolute uncertainty as to the future.”

The report is available to read and download here.

Video Compilation of Likud Candidates Touting Role of Tourism in Expanding Settlements

The Israeli archaeological group Emek Shaveh produced a video compilation of prominent Likud candidates touting their role in driving settlement tourism projects – in statements made in anticipation of the Likud primary elections (which were held on February 5th). Snippets in the video include:

• Former Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barakat bragging about his work on behalf of settlement projects run by Elad in the Silwan neighborhood;
• Transportation Minister Yaariv Levin bragging on Facebook about the huge investments his ministry made into developing a settlement tourism industry, including doubling the amount of tourism to the West Bank in two years, funding two hotels in the Kiryat Arba settlement, and starting a grants program for tourist projects in settlements;
• Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin celebrating the opening of a “visitors center” in a settlement near the central West Bank city of Nablus.

Emek Shaveh writes:

“What was previously termed ‘hidden settlement’ has quietly transformed amid the Likud primaries into open policy. The extent of the Israeli government’s investments in the tourist settlement is now being exposed.”

There has been a growing awareness of – and opposition to – Israel’s overt investment in settlement tourism as means to expand and entrench Israeli settlements, most acutely in East Jerusalem. In February 2018, a leaked report by the European Union said explicitly that Israeli archaeological and tourism projects in East Jerusalem are “a political tool to modify the historical narrative and to support, legitimacy and expand settlements.”

Emek Shaveh issued a statement elaborating on leaked EU report, saying:

“Archaeological tourism projects are favored by the settlers as a means of winning the hearts of minds of the Israeli, Jewish and evangelical publics. The EU now recognizes how archaeological sites in East Jerusalem are being used as a political tool to ‘modify the historical narrative and to support, legitimise and expand settlements’. The City of David in Silwan, the new cable car project, the national parks in Palestinian neighborhoods compliment evictions and house demolitions in marginalising and disenfranchising the East Jerusalem Palestinian public. The difference between ‘cultural projects’ such as the national parks or the City of David and house demolitions is that in addition to the physical displacement, the former also expropriate the narrative, dispossessing the Palestinians from their historical and cultural contexts. When it comes to Jerusalem, narrative is not an abstract issue because in Jerusalem history and questions of present-day sovereignty are intertwined. And when it will come to determining the final status of the city, the question of who ‘owns’ the history of the city will be crucial.”

EU Settlement Report Details “Unprecedented” Level of Settlement Advancements 2018

On February 4th, the European Union issued its bi-annual report (pdf) documenting and analyzing trends in Israeli settlement activity from July through December 2018. It also provides a big picture summary of settlement activity in recent years, which found that there was a three-to-four-fold increase in settlement advancements in 2017/2018 (the era of U.S. President Donald Trump) compared to 2015/2016 (under Barack Obama).

The full report is available as a pdf here.

Bonus Reads

1. “As West Bank Violence Surges, Israel is Silent on Attacks by Jews” (New York Times)
2. “Digging Up Controversy” (US News)
3. “US Blocks UN Statement on Israel Ending Hebron Monitors Mention” (Ynet)
4. “CAF rejects tender for Jerusalem’s Railway as it Traverses ‘67 Borders” (Maan News)