Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.
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**The regular FMEP Settlement & Annexation report is on break, and is planned to return around the first week of August. In the meantime, we are pleased to offer you links to the main settlement-related stories of the past week**
April 14, 2022
- Violence/Terrorism
- Forging Ahead with “Silicon Wadi” in East Jerusalem
- Israel Domestic Politics & Support for Settlements/Outposts/Annexation
- Spotlight on Al Walaja
- Deep Dive with OCHA
Violence/Terrorism
Center for Jewish Nonviolence 4/14/22: “Yesterday morning, at 2 locations in the South Hebron Hills, settlers + army respectively expeled Palestinian shepherds as they were grazing their flocks. Settlers + the army work together toward a common goal: force out Palestinian residents to make way for more Jewish settlers” [with video]
Israeli settlers assault, injure Palestinian American attending to his land (+972 Magazine 4/13/22)
Qaryut, Nablus District: Settlers filmed stealing water pipes from a farming area after driving farmers away in the presence of soldiers (B’Tselem 4/13/22)
PA officer admits to terror attack plan on Israeli settlement – report (Jerusalem Post 4/11/22)
Settlers gather on Tulkarem-Nablus road, attack Palestinian vehicles (WAFA 4/11/22)
Settlers stop Palestinian vehicles travelling on West Bank roads (Middle East Monitor 4/11/22)
Elderly Palestinian man beaten, wounded by Israeli settlers in Tulkarm (WAFA 4/9/22)
Forging Ahead with “Silicon Wadi” in East Jerusalem
Government approves first high-tech hub in east Jerusalem (Israel Hayom 4/10/22)
Background:
- Dozens of Palestinian commercial facilities in Jerusalem receive demolition orders from the Israeli municipality (WAFA 2/7/22)
- Local Planning Committee Advances Controversial “Silicon Wadi” Plan (Ir Amim 10/13/21)
- How Israel is planning to evict Palestinians from East Jerusalem to make way for ‘Silicon Wadi’ (The New Arab 8/20/21)
- ‘Silicon Wadi’ hi-tech park approved in east Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post 11/2/20)
- UAE firms touted to join Israeli ‘Silicon Wadi’ project in East Jerusalem (Middle East Eye 10/22/20)
- Israeli official: Arab East Jerusalem can become regional tech R&D hub (Gulf News 10/11/20)
- ‘Silicon Wadi’: Israel’s latest plans to impose control over Jerusalem’s Old City (Middle East Eye 6/24/20)
- As mammoth high-tech hub is eyed for East Jerusalem, will it benefit locals? (Times of Israel 6/14/20)
- Israel’s ‘Silicon Valley’ to further fragment East Jerusalem (Al-Monitor 6/10/20)
- 200 east Jerusalem businesses to be demolished for ‘Silicon Wadi’ (Jerusalem Post 6/2/20)
Israeli Domestic Politics & Support for Settlements/Outposts/Annexation
Israeli Commander Invokes ‘Promised Land’ in West Bank Op ‘Endangering Troops’ — “We get to restore the honor to this land and the people of Israel,’ regional military commander tells soldiers securing settler-led repair works at vandalized Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank amid rising tensions” (Haaretz 4/13/22)
Pro-boycott academic to donate Israel Prize grant to anti-settlement groups (YNet 4/13/22)
Bennett: It’s Judea and Samaria, not the West Bank (Jerusalem Post 4/12/22)
Israel Okays Connecting Illegal West Bank Outposts to Power Grid (Haaretz 4/12/22)
Justice Ministry greenlights connecting illegal West Bank outposts to power (Times of Israel 4/11/22)
No movement on settlement issues in Orbach’s ultimatum (Jerusalem Post 4/11/22)
Yesha Council launches campaign against Israeli government over silent settlement freeze (Jewish News Syndicate 4/8/22)
Spotlight on Al Walaja
In a Village Divided, Palestinians See Their Hold on Territory Eroding (New York Times 4/10/22) [“…Many of the major events that have shaped this corner of the Middle East have left their mark on Walaja — once a swath of terraced farmland with an ancient olive tree. Today, it serves as a pointed example of how decades of war, diplomatic agreements, Israeli settlement building, laws and regulations have carved up the West Bank and whittled away at territory under Palestinian control.”]
Deep Dive with OCHA
Occupied Palestinian territory: Protection of Civilians Report | 22 March – 4 April 2022 (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 4/11/22)
Settlement-related excerpts:
“…On 29 March, a Palestinian man from Ya’bad (Jenin) shot and killed three Israelis, including a police officer, and two foreigners, and injured others in central Israel. The assailant, who had reportedly entered Israel without a permit, was shot and killed by the abovementioned police officer, who later died of his wounds. The following day, a 30-year-old Palestinian man stabbed and injured an Israeli settler near Gush Etzion settlement block (Bethlehem) and was subsequently shot and killed by another settler. The bodies of both assailants are withheld by the Israeli authorities, as of the end of the reporting period.”
“….Overall, 441 Palestinians, including 84 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, more than twice as many as in the previous reporting period. Most of the injuries (289) were recorded near Beita and Beit Dajan (both in Nablus), and Kafr Qaddum (Qalqiliya), in demonstrations against settlements…”
“On 27 March, Israeli settlers took over the first floor of the Petra Hotel in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli Police facilitated the move, despite court cases pending since 2004. During the incident, verbal and physical confrontations between Palestinians, Israeli settlers, and Israeli forces were reported nearby, and three Palestinians were arrested.”
“Israeli settlers injured five Palestinians, and people known or believed to be settlers damaged Palestinian property in 35 instances, representing a 75 per cent increase compared with the previous reporting period. The injuries occurred in four separate incidents, when settlers physically assaulted a Palestinian man grazing livestock near Jinba (Hebron), and a man farming his land near Kafr ad Dik (Salfit) and after settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles near Huwwara and Deir Sharaf (both in Nablus) injuring three Palestinian men and causing damage to their vehicles. In six other incidents, about 255 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings were uprooted or vandalized near Israeli settlements next to Al Lubban ash Sharqiya (Nablus), Turmus’ayya (Ramallah), Ash Shuyukh (Hebron), and Kafr Qaddum (Qalqiliya). In eleven incidents in Ramallah, Nablus, Jerusalem, Qalqiliya, Salfit and in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers punctured the tires of 83 Palestinian-owned cars and attacked nine homes, causing damage to windows and wrote graffiti on the walls. Nine additional incidents were recorded in Salfit, Hebron, Ramallah, and Qalqiliya where agricultural equipment and livestock were stolen and a well and three water tanks were damaged. In another nine incidents, settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles near Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus causing damage to at least ten vehicles.”
“People known or believed to be Palestinians injured three Israeli settlers and damaged ten Israeli vehicles. Six Israeli settlers were injured by stone-throwing near Nablus, Ramallah and Jerusalem. Israeli-plated vehicles were damaged by stones or Molotov cocktails thrown at them in 13 incidents.”