Settlement & Annexation Report: May 8, 2026

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May 8, 2026

  1. EAST JERUSALEM: More Displacement in Silwan
  2. WEST BANK: Demolition Notices Raises Concern E-1 Settlement Construction is Nearing, Plans Advance for 643 New Units, Settlers Plot Return to Ganim Settlement, Spotlight on Agricultural Destruction Wrought by Settlements
  3. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM
  4. BONUS READS

EAST JERUSALEM

May 17th Eviction Date for Two Families in Batan al-Hawa

Peace Now reports Israel recently delivered an eviction notice affecting 42 members of the Palestinian Rajabi family (7 households), ordering the families to vacate their longtime homes by May 17th. The court ruled in favor of the Ateret Cohanim settler organization’s dubious legal claim to the land on which the homes are built. Ateret Cohanim revived a long-dormant Jewish land trust that owned the land at the end of the 19th century. Ateret Cohanim is using its control over the historic Benvenisti Trust to systematically evict approximately 700 Palestinians in Silwan, replacing them with Jewish Israelis.

Zoheir Rajabi, director of the community center in the neighborhood, told Peace Now:

 “I see myself like a candle that is gradually going out. And it’s hard. You see before your eyes, after 12 years of difficult legal and public struggle, how everything ends. This is the second time we are being removed from our homes. The first time was in 1967 from the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, and now from Silwan. This is the work of the government. It is the one acting to expel us from Jerusalem, and there is no one who can stop it or its racist policy against Palestinians in Jerusalem.”

Peace Now said in a statement:

 “This is a real alarm. If the government does not intervene, and if pressure is not applied to make it intervene, we may see within two weeks more entire families thrown into the street and settlers moving in their place. This is a terrible injustice based on discriminatory laws and the exploitation of the vulnerability and ongoing discrimination against residents of East Jerusalem. The dispossession of Palestinians from their homes in Silwan—homes that there is no dispute were legally purchased by them—through the implementation of a ‘right of return’ for Jews is an indelible stain on the State of Israel. The government can and must stop the forced displacement of an entire community, and the responsibility lies on its shoulders.”

WEST BANK

Israel Delivers Demolition Notices to Palestinian Shops in Plan Connected to E-1 Construction

Peace Now reports Israel has delivered demolition notices to a complex of shops owned by Palestinians near the entrance to the village of Al-Eizariya located just east of Jerusalem next to Ma’ale Adumim. There is concern the demolition of the shops is in preparation for the construction of a new road in the area meant to divert Palestinian traffic away from the E-1 settlement area.

 

Israel Advances Plans for 643 New Settlement Units, Including Units in the Sa-Nur Settlement

On April 29th, the High Planning Council met to approve plans for 643 new settlement units. Full reporting is not available but according to Peace Now the plans include:

  • 126 new units in the Sa Nur settlement, which finalizes the statutory planning. Israeli government officials and policymakers joined settlers to celebrate the reestablishment of Sa-Nur weeks ago.
  • 176 settlement units in the Mahane Gadi settlement, which will be legalized as a neighborhood of the Masu’a settlement in the northern Jordan Valley. This outpost was built in 2018 on an abandoned Israeli military camp. The outpost has functioned as an educational campus and pre-military academy. 

 

Settler Leaders Planning to Move Settlers Into Ganim Settlement Area

Ynet reports that Yossi Dagan, head of the settler Yesha Council, is very publicly planning to build a new outpost on the site of the Ganim settlement, which was one of four settlements the Israeli government dismantled in 2005 (along with Sa-Nur, Kadim, and Homesh). Dagan said that he has firm plans to move in a “core group of families made up of graduates of the Bnei David pre-military academy in the settlement of Eli” this summer.  

In May 2024, the head of the Israeli Defense Minister Gallant  lifted military orders barring Israeli citizens from entering the areas where the Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim settlements once stood.

 

Palestinian Agriculture is Being Decimated by the Settlement Enterprise

Settlements, outposts and the system of infrastructure that serves them continues to carve up the West Bank, ruin agricultural harvests, and destroy the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers.

Peace Now reports that the IDF Chief signed a seizure order for land west of the Bethelehm so that Israel can build a new settler-only bypass road to the illegal outpost Nahal Heletz. The road will provide settlers a shorter route bypassing the Palestinian village of Battir. Peace Now shares the history behind the Nahal Heletz outpost – is located on the land of Battir, a Palestinian village known for its ancient terraced hills, which are recorded as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Peace Now explains the situation:

“the outpost already has an existing road that does not pass between Palestinian homes, but it is unpaved, winding, and long. To shorten the route, settlers from the outpost travel through the village of Battir between the houses. Now the IDF seeks to provide them with a separate road from the Palestinian road that will bypass the homes, under the security pretext, in order to save them the longer journey on the alternative road.”…“The government has lost all shame. After establishing an outpost illegally, without valid plans and on land whose status is disputed, it now dares to use the security pretext to take more Palestinian land in order to create an apartheid road for the settlers of the outpost. This outpost has an alternative route that does not pass between village homes, but it is longer, and therefore the government prefers to seize land from others and harm a heritage site—all just to save a few minutes of travel time for settlers close to its heart.”

Drop Site also reports that Israeli bulldozers destroyed 50 acres of farmland and killed thousands of fruit trees east of Hebron in order to expand Route 60, the major north-south artery through the West Bank. The area is the largest grape-producing region in the West Bank. Farmers tell local news sources they did not receive any advance notice from Israel that their lands were to be cleared.

Peace Now reports the Israeli government’s 2026-2028 budget allocatesl $370,523,582 (1,075,000,000 NIS) for settlement road infrastructure. The current government has already allocated NIS 7 billion for settlement roads.

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“The government is using its final months in office to plunder the public coffers and pour funds into the sector closest to its heart. These are roads that lead to the destruction of the State of Israel. Today, after October 7, it is clear to everyone what the cost is of continuing the conflict, and of continuing to invest all security resources in protecting the settlements. The Netanyahu government is condemning us to many more years of bloodshed while simultaneously impoverishing the State of Israel.”

STATE BACK SETTLER TERROR

Documented attacks over the past week include:

    • Duma: On April 25th settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Duma, injuring many including a small child whose face was injured.
    • Al-Mughayir: A boy was shot and killed at school.
  • Jalud: Settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Jalud on April 27th. The settlers assaulted a 14-year old boy and an elderly man, and set fire to at least one house before soldiers urged the settlers to leave the area. Later, one settler was arrested for the attacks. Haaretz reports the IDF escorted the settlers back to the outpost and secured their presence there just one day after the attacks.
  • Al-Aroub refugee camp: On May 1st, an IDF reservist and settler living in a nearby outpost opened fire towards Palestinian homes in the Al-Aroub refugee camp – located south of Bethlehem.

Ynet reports that authority has been transferred from the IDF to the Israeli Border Police for policing settler crime in Areas A & B (the Border Police already operate in Area C). 

Additional selected reports and analysis on settler terrorism:

BONUS READS

  1. “JNF to Cut Back Most of Its Funding of Programs at West Bank Settler Farm Outposts” (Haaretz, 4/26/2026)
  2. “The Palestinian farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli settlers” (Mondoweiss, 4/29/26)
  3. “Israel’s war on the West Bank comes for Palestinian greenhouses” (+972 Magazine, 5/7/2026)
  4. “Israeli maps outline expanded zone of military control in Gaza” (Reuters, 4/29/26)
  5. “Reproductive Injustice and Colonial Violence in the West Bank: Animated” (Visualizing Palestine, April 2026)