Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.
June 19, 2026
- EAST JERUSALEM: Silwan Updates, Israel Seizes Church Land, New Report by Ir Amim
- WEST BANK: Plans for 576 Units Advance, Israel OKs Settler Construction in Hebron’s H2, Doron Settlement Cornerstone Laid, IDF Clears Several Outposts
- BONUS READS
EAST JERUSALEM
Court Continues Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem; Final Ruling Seals Displacement of Family in Batan al-Hawa
Peace Now reports the Israeli Supreme Court has summarily rejected the final appeal of the Palestinian Sarhan family, ruling that the family must vacate their homes of more than 60 years in the Batan al-Hawa section of Silwan so that the Ateret Cohanim settler organization can take possession of it. Ateret Cohanim has used discriminatory Israeli law to carry out the mass displacement of the local Palestinian community in Silwan and other communities of East Jerusalem.
Peace Now said in a statement:
“Regrettably, there is no other term to describe this than ethnic cleansing. Settlers, with the assistance of the government and a discriminatory legal framework, are expelling an entire Palestinian community and replacing it with settlers. This is happening in Jerusalem in 2026, and it will remain a stain on the State of Israel. The government can and must stop the forced displacement of an entire community, and responsibility rests squarely on its shoulders. In its advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) explicitly addressed the discriminatory legal regime and Israel’s settlement policy in East Jerusalem, finding them to be in violation of international law.”
The Sarhan family is made up of 12 nuclear families, living in four buildings on the same plot of land; one of the buildings – a five story hose that can house up to 12 families – has already been taken over by settlers with the assistance of the state.
In Batan al-Hawa, 38 Palestinian families (numbering hundreds of people) have already been evicted from their homes and replaced with settlers. There are four more buildings scheduled to be evicted in the coming months, and still three ongoing lawsuits where Palestinian families are continuing to fight against settlers seeking their eviction.
JNF Targets Another Family in Silwan for Displacement
Peace Now reports the Palestinian Shaludi family has received an eviction order telling them to leave their longtime home in Silwan by June 24, 2026. The lawsuit behind their eviction was brought by the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL), which plans to move settlers into the home upon the family’s forcible displacement where they have lived since 1964. For more information on the legal mechanism behind this instance of displacement, see Peace Now’s reporting.
Abed Shaludi told Peace Now:
“My parents rented this house in 1964, I was born here 55 years ago, and here my four children were born. I have memories from every corner of this house. I cannot imagine myself in another place, without this house, without the olive tree in the yard upon which I built wooden houses where I slept during summer nights. No one can give anyone the right to expel a person from his home and his land. This is an injustice and a crime.”
Peace Now said in a statement:
“The Jewish National Fund has turned itself into the Settler National Fund and is trying to throw a destitute Palestinian family out of their home just so settlers can take over another house in a Palestinian neighborhood. This is cruelty and an ugly move of using the Absentees’ Property Law based on dubious testimonies in order to take properties from Palestinians and give them to settlers, and to destroy the delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem.”
Israel Raids, Takes Control of Jerusalem Patriarchate Property in Silwan
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem reports that Israeli authorities raided its Church property in Silwan on June 15th, forcibly removing Patriarchate staff, confiscating Church property, uprooting trees, and barricading the property off with fences and gates. The Jerusalem Municipality has said that it conducted these operations on the basis of “gardening orders”, which allow the government to take control of land in order to do landscaping.
The Patriarchate filed a lawsuit to stop the work and recoup damages, asserting that the Patriarchate is the registered owner of the land, which is not only adjacent to an ancient monastery but also contains significant historical, archaeological and religious artifacts.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court held a hearing on the matter on June 18th for a hearing, where the Jerusalem Municipality argued the land was neglected and does not recognize the Patriarchate’s ownership of the land, stating that since the land is uncultivated it is considered “state land.” A representative of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority further told the Court that it is his intention to establish a permanent Israeli presence on the site. The Court ultimately decided not to issue an injunction, and asked the parties to continue discussions for one week.
In a June 15th statement the Patriarchate said:
“…the seizure of this private Church property, with its Christian heritage and religious significance, sets a dangerous precedent for Church rights in Jerusalem. The Patriarchate added that reliance on a municipal gardening order issued on April 18, 2019, whose term expired in April 2024, provides no lawful basis for uprooting trees, removing the lawful caretaker, sealing off Church land, or denying the Patriarchate access to its own property.
The Patriarchate stated that the events in Silwan fall within a wider pattern of escalating assaults aimed at weakening the indigenous Christian presence in the Holy Land. It noted with deep concern the rising Israeli attacks against Christians and churches amid unacceptable international tolerance. In 2024, 111 Israeli attacks or acts of violence were recorded against Christian clergy, nuns, worshippers, and church communities, including 35 attacks targeting churches, monasteries, and religious symbols.”
Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann posted:
“Let there be no doubt about what is happening here: this is the Jerusalem Municipality fronting for the settler organizations in Silwan, in a blatantly illegal attempt to seize Church properties for the benefit of the settlements in Silwan. I will not trouble you with the baseless pretext for seizing the property. I rely on the Church to do that. But this needs be said: when the biblically driven, messianic settlers of East Jerusalem covet property that happens to belong to a Church, nothing will stop the Government from using all their powers to seize that property. The vulnerable Christian communities struggling to maintain their communal presence, and secure their properties, are expendable. Acceptable collateral damage. Unless they happen to be end-of-days evangelical rapture mongers.”
Peace Now said in a statement:
“Jerusalem is a city of profound importance to three religions and to billions of people around the world. The State of Israel should serve as a model of governance that respects all faiths and affords dignity to all of Jerusalem’s residents. Instead, in recent years, Israeli authorities have increasingly pushed the city’s non-Jewish presence aside, not only Palestinians, but also Christians.
The takeover of Church land in Silwan is part of a broader effort, led by settler organizations, to gain control over the entire Wadi Rababa and Silwan area and transform it from a Palestinian space into an Israeli one. The Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority have become instruments of the settler ideological agenda.”
New Report from Ir Amim: “‘Greater Jerusalem’ – Expulsion and Annexation”
In a new report entitled, “‘Greater Jerusalem” – Expulsion and Annexation”’ Ir Amim provides a comprehensive documentation of the settlement expansion, construction of outposts, construction of settler infrastructure, and the escalating state and settler violence against Palestinian communities that have propelled Israel’s accelerated annexation of the “Greater Jerusalem” area. The report documents how Israel has dramatically reshaped the West Bank area around Jerusalem over the past three years, and argues to understand the many mechanisms for Israel’s forcible transfer of Palestinian communities as a key tool in its annexation drive.
Ir Amim writes:
“These developments are part of a broader Israeli government agenda across the West Bank: expanding Israeli territorial contiguity while uprooting and pushing Palestinians into disconnected enclaves within an increasingly fragmented Palestinian space. This strategy is unfolding throughout the West Bank, but it is especially visible around Jerusalem.
[Thie report] details the cumulative system of pressure being used to make life unsustainable for Palestinian communities, including land confiscation, settlement and outpost expansion, demolition orders and denial of building permits, military closure orders, new permit regimes, settler and military violence, severe restrictions on movement, and the closure of entire areas to Palestinian access.”
Read the full report and/or executive summary here.
WEST BANK
Israel Approves 576 New Settlement Units Across West Bank
On June 17th the Israeli High Planning Council approved the construction of 576 new settlement units across the West Bank. the approvals include:
- Mitzpe Yericho: 456 new settlements units were approved for the Mitzpe Yericho settlement, located just west of the Palestinian city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley. This plan will enable thousands of new settlers.
- Karnei Shomron: 120 new settlements units were approved for the Karnei Shomron settlement, located in the northern West Bank, east of the Palestinian village of Qalqilya. Israel has openly declared its intention to continue expanding settlements in this area with the stated goal of bringing 1 million settlers to live in the area.
- Approval of a new dormitory for yeshiva students in the heart of historic Hebron, see the next section for more details.
After Seizing Planning Authority, Israel Approves Construction of Dormitory in Historic Hebron
Peace Now reports that on June 16th the Israeli High Planning Council approved the construction of a new dormitory for settlers on Al-Shalala street, located in the heart of Hebron’s historic market (the Kasbah) and which has become the main route for Palestinians to access Hebron’s Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque since Shuhada Street has been sealed off to Palestinians. The dormitory will be built above a building called the “Romano House”, which the government gave to settlers in September 2025 and have since become a religious school (Shavei Hevron yeshiva).
This new construction approval comes just one week after the Israeli Higher Planning Council seized authority over Israeli settlement construction and planning in Hebron H2 area and Jewish heritage sites there (the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs), stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality of the administrative powers assigned to it in the 1997 Hebron Protocol (which was signed by Israel). The Israeli Security Cabinet reportedly approved the assumption of these authorities, though
Israeli Minister Smotrich posted defiantly on X that he “canceled the Hebron Agreement.,” prompting the Israeli Foreign Ministry to put out a statement saying the Protocols have not been annulled but confirmed Israel had taken control of administrative powers from the Hebron Municipality. Nonetheless, while celebrating the opening of the Doron settlement, Smotrich said in a speech:
“Yesterday we annulled the Hebron Accords…For many years, one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo accords remained in place, in which authority over the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the holy sites were dependent on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday we put an end to that.”
Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian activist living in Hebron, released a video statement responding to these developments.
Peace Now said in a statement:
“The government is racing toward annexation and apartheid. Hebron is the most extreme example of the regime Israel imposes in the West Bank, under which Israeli Jews enjoy rights while Palestinians are denied them. It is a city where entire streets are closed to Palestinians so that settlers can move through them freely. The decision to strip Palestinians of planning authority and to build a large new settlement compound in the heart of Hebron’s Kasbah is a microcosm of the annexation being implemented by the government—one that is condemning us to a future of conflict and bloodshed.”
Doron Settlement in South Hebron Hills Opens
Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz participated in a cornerstone-laying ceremony at the new Doron settlement in the South Hebron Hills. Pictures show Smotrich planting a tree and raising a flag over the site of the future settlement. Makeshift structures were later brought to the site, which had been previously cleared, including several caravans, water tanks and equipment.
The ceremony punctuates the settlers’ takeover of the land and continued harassment of nearby Palestinian communities. The settlement is located on the lands of the Dura village, on Mount Tarousa. Last week Palestinians filmed the IDF escorting settlers and their equipment onto the lands.
IDF Clears Several Outposts
Overnight on June 18th, the IDF cleared settlers and their illegal structures from several outposts, including:
- Tel Talpiot near the Shiloh settlement in the northern West Bank;
- Kochav Yehuda, a farming outpost near the Efrat settlement;
- Shaagat Yehuda, a farming outpost established months ago by violent settlers on the lands of Tayasir in the northern West Bank. This is Area A under the Oslo Accords. A CNN news crew was attacked by IDF soldiers when they were attempting to document the violent settler attacks on Palestinians in Tayasir.
- An encampment near the Esh Kodesh settlement.
BONUS READS
- “Government to provide 50-shekel daily stipends for hundreds of hilltop youth – report” (The Times of Israel, 6/15/26)
- “Israel Is Conducting a Systematic Campaign of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in the West Bank” (Ehud Olmert in Haaretz, 6/18/26)
- “Israel Must Choose Life, Not the West Bank Settlements” (Haaretz Editorial, 6/17/26)
- “The Jewish Ku Klux Klan Has a Calculated Plan for the Palestinians” (Haaretz, 6/15/26)
- “The Israeli State Armed Settlers With Thousands of Guns. Now It Can’t Control Them” (Haaretz, 6/16/26)
- “Israel took control of more land from its neighbors since Oct. 7 than it has in decades” (The Times of Israel, 6/18/26)
- “Netanyahu gov’t doubled number of Gush Etzion Jewish communities” (JNS, 6/18/26)