Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.
June 12, 2026
- WEST BANK: Israel Expediting NIS 1 Billion to 61 Outposts; Israel Allocates Land to Outpost in Beit Sahour; Israel Building Permanent Military Base in Jenin; News on New Outposts; Amnesty Report Alleges Ethnic Cleansing
- STATE BACKED SETTLER VIOLENCE: European Countries Announce New; United Nations Says State is Complicit in Settler Terror
- BONUS READS
WEST BANK
Bibi Slows Push to Expedite Funds for 61 Outposts
Early this week the Israeli press widely reported that the Israeli Cabinet was scheduled to meet on June 11th to approve a $1billion NIS ($337 million) package to fund extensive development projects for 61 outposts, which remain illegal under Israeli law (though the government has already announced its intent to “legalize” these outposts, that process has not been completed). Following significant international attention, Netanyahu moved consideration of the funding to a closed-door Security Cabinet meeting on June 14th.
According to reports, the package would fund the construction of temporary residences at the outpost locations, to include 15 residential caravans and two caravans designated for public-use buildings. It would also fund significant investments into permanent infrastructure for the outposts even before they are legalized, including roads, sewage systems land clearing, and water infrastructure. The package also funds new government positions called “community coordinators” which will work to bring settlers to these locations, assisting them with moving and settling there.
While the specific outposts are not clear, it is reported to be outposts that do not have any significant population size, possibly empty sites. And the package will fund development of these outposts located in Areas A and B of the West Bank, and in strategic areas that carve up the West Bank and establish Israeli contiguity between settlements and through to the Jordan Valley.
Peace Now explains the background and comments:
“Since taking office in December 2022, the government has approved the establishment of 103 new settlements. Some of these already existed as “neighborhoods” of existing settlements, while others were established as unauthorized outposts; the decision is expected to facilitate their formal legalization. The remainder consists of dozens of settlements that have not yet been established or currently contain only agricultural outposts with limited infrastructure. The planned NIS 1 billion investment is intended to support their development. According to one report, the funding relates to 61 new settlements…
It should be noted that under the laws applicable in the West Bank, the construction of buildings—including temporary structures and caravans—requires approved planning schemes and building permits issued by the competent authorities. In the case of the new settlements approved by the government, most currently lack approved planning schemes, and some do not even have available “state land” that could be allocated for planning purposes. Consequently, it appears that the government intends to bypass planning and construction regulations, potentially through the use of military orders that allow permits to be granted for sites deemed to be of “national importance,” or through other legal mechanisms.
Peace Now: The government is on a reckless pre-election sprint to raid the public purse in order to create facts on the ground that will leave a scorched-earth reality for the next government. It is no coincidence that the Chief of Staff warned that the establishment of so many settlements would harm security and could bring the IDF to the point of collapse. October 7 proved that the right-wing approach has failed: the conflict cannot be “managed,” and the Palestinians cannot be “defeated.” Israel must reach a political solution and diplomatic agreement, but instead the government is only sinking us deeper into the mire and condemning us to many more years of bloody conflict.”
Israel Allocates Land for New Settlement in Beit Sahour
The Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) reports that the Israeli government has declared 116 dunams of land to be included in the jurisdiction of the new “Yitzav” settlement, located on land belonging to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. The designated land includes the former military compound that settlers initially (and illegally) first established the Yitzav outpost just four months ago, but it also includes surrounding lands and part of a public park that belongs to the municipality of Beit Sahour
ARIJ estimates about 13 settler families currently live there.
Israel Building a Permanent Military Base on Palestinian Land
Haaretz reports that Israel is building a new permanent miltary base near the Palestinian city of Jenin, marking the first time since the signing of the Oslo Accords that the Israeli has built a permanent military installment in Area A of the West Bank.
Breaking the Silence explains the how this is part and parcel of the settlement movement and Israel’s annexation of the West Bank:
“For more than a year, the IDF has been conducting an operation in the West Bank dubbed “Iron Wall.” As part of the operation, the IDF has repeatedly raided the Palestinian refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams. In many ways, it resembled practices we’ve seen in Gaza.
45,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and, for the most part, are still not allowed to return. The IDF demolished entire residential blocks and loosened rules of engagement, permitting opening fire at anyone who was deemed to be “messing with the ground”…
The operation’s declared goal, as usual, is “strengthening security.” Yet against this backdrop, the Israeli government approved the establishment of new settlements in the Jenin area, some of them planned just a few kilometres from the refugee camp.
Settling civilians near what the IDF considers a terror stronghold while conducting a military operation there is hardly a recipe for their safety. No surprises here. The operational logic in the West Bank mostly works the other way around.
First, a settlement is deliberately established near a Palestinian village or city to fragment the West Bank, disrupt Palestinian life, and grab land. Then, because this settlement must be protected, it draws a heavy military presence into the area.
The planned base in Jenin is another step toward the creeping annexation of the West Bank. The goal is to concentrate Palestinians in shrinking, disconnected enclaves. Working hand in hand with settlers, the IDF advances this apartheid project under the banner of “security.””
Reports on New Outposts
There were several reports regarding new outposts over the past week, including:
- Settlers moved in more caravans to a new outpost recently established on the lands of Taybeh village.
- Settlers moved several mobile homes onto land belonging to the village of Jourat ash‑Sham’ah, south of Bethlehem. This is the second outpost built on lands belonging to this village in the past month.
- Settlers were documented clearing land near an ancient church in the Palestinian village of Aboud.
- A new settler outpost was spotted on the lands of the Deir Abu Meshal northwest of Ramallah.
- Construction work is being done to build a new road to an outpost on the land of Abu Njeim, southeast of Bethlehem.
In addition, the IDF attempted to clear out an outpost near the Ma’ale Amos settlement located south of Bethlehem, but were met with violent settlers attempting to stop the enforcement. Three soldiers were reportedly wounded.
Amnesty International: Israel is Ethnically Cleansing Bedouin & Herding Communities from the West Bank
Amnesty International released a new report entitled, “Erasing Anything Palestinian: Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of West Bank Bedouin And Herding Communities” documenting Israel’s systematic erasure – by settlers and by the state – of Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities from Area C of the occupied West Bank. The report accuses Israel of committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer by uprooting, dispossessing and driving Palestinian communities from their land.
Amnesty writes:
“This report lays bare the scale and severity of the ethnic cleansing campaign targeting these communities, carried out in a context of apartheid and unlawful occupation and against the backdrop of an ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip.
The report also demonstrates—contrary to what too many in the international community suggest—that the campaign is not the product of “rogue” settlers, settlers’ organizations, or “extremist” government ministers.
In other words, settler violence is not an aberration but an integral part of an organized state policy.
The report demonstrates that the ethnic cleansing campaign in Area C is state-sanctioned, state-driven and state-implemented; it seeks to accelerate the Israeli government’s annexation agenda and settlement expansion through war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As such, the report’s conclusions demand that the international community fully confront and name the Israeli state-driven project and act decisively to prevent the destruction of Palestinian communities and the annexation of the West Bank.”
STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERROR
United Nations Accuses IDF of Enabling Settler Terrorism
A new report by the United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory asserts that the Israeli government is complicit in enabling settler terrorism via its financial and military support for settlers. The report specifically documents that Israeli security forces routinely accompany settlers during their attacks and act as a shield for their violence against Palestinians and their property.
France Bans Smotrich; New EU Sanctions Target Entities
Six European countries led by the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions targeting six settler entities and one settler alleged to be involved in illegal outpost activity and violence against Palestinians. In addition, France has banned Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich along with four leaders of settler groups and 21 individual settlers from entering the country. Settlers have said the sanctions are a badge of honor.
The sanctioned entities and individuals are:
- The Farms Union: which provides financial and organizational support to illegal farming outposts and residential outposts linked to violence and the forcible displacement of Palestinians.
- Ahavat Gilad (“Love of Gilead”): serves as a financial conduit for the Farms Union, channelling donations to settler outposts including those associated with violence against Palestinians.
- Ari Yshag: a fundraising organization that supports illegal settler outposts known to be violent, including Hilltop Youth outposts.
- Artzenu (“Our Land”): a group that raises funds for tactical military equipment for armed settler squads. It also deploys volunteers to farm outposts and settlement outposts in the West Bank.
- Shivat Zion Lerigvey Admata (“Return of Zion to its Land,”): the registered legal vehicle through which Artzenu’s financial activities are conducted, channelling donations to outposts linked to serious human rights abuses
- Eyal Hari Yehuda Company: a construction and demolition company that allows settlers to use its equipment to destroy Palestinian land and property, and perpetrate violence against Palestinians. The company is owned by brothers Yinon and Itamar Yehuda Levy. Yinon has previously been sanctioned, and is responsible for the murder of Awdah Hathaleen in Umm al-Khair last year.
- Itamar Yehuda Levi: owner of EYAL HARI YEHUDA COMPANY LTD (also designated).
Bonus Reads
- “Palestinians Attacked in West Bank Say IDF Troops Stood Idly by as Settlers Rampaged” (Haaretz, 6/7/26)
- “Before the Settler Abused the Dog, He Beat the Palestinian Family Who Owns It” (Haaretz, 6/6/26)
- “Importing Occupation: Europe’s Complicity in Palestinian Dispossession through Settlement Agricultural Trade” (Global Echo, June 2026)
- “Welcome to the 60th Year of Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank” (Michael Sfard in Haaretz, 6/10/26)
- “Left-wing U.K. Leaders Slam Israeli Real Estate Event, Alleging West Bank Home Sales” (Haaretz, 6/11/26)