Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.
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**The settlement report is on a two-week break, and is planned to return the week of October 18th. In the meantime, we are pleased to offer you links to the main settlement-related stories of the past week**
October 15, 2021
- Palestinian Olive Harvest Under Atttack (as it is every year)
- Settlers vs. IDF/Israeli Police
- Israel Advances Jerusalem-area Settlements — E-1, Givat Hamatos, Atarot, Pisgat Ze’ev
- Sheikh Jarrah “Compromise”
- Apartheid, or Not Apartheid?
- Facts & Figures (OCHA)
Palestinian Olive Harvest Under Attack (as it is every year)
- The New Arab 10/14: Israeli settlers destroy 80 olive trees, assault Palestinian farmer near Ramallah
- Haaretz 10/13: Hateful Graffiti Scrawled, Tires Punctured in West Bank Hate Crime [“The harvest period, which began last week, has become a time of increased settler arson attacks on property and violence against Palestinians. Figures from the nongovernmental organization Yesh Din show that since the start of the current harvest there have been three cases involving a total of 150 trees being cut down, five cases of olives being stolen and one assault on a farmer.”] [Also see: video report from TRT]
- Middle East Monitor 10/13: Israel settlers uproot 900 olive trees in Palestinian farms
- Center for Jewish Non-Violence 10/12: Twitter thread, starting with – “Last night, settlers from the Chavat Maon outpost uprooted and destroyed dozens of trees in the Mothers of Sumud Garden in the village of Tuwani. Some of the trees were eight years old. They also cut water pipes.”
- +972 Magazine 10/12: Israeli soldiers beat, arrest Palestinian activist during olive harvest
- International Committee of the Red Cross 10/12: 2021 Olive harvest season in the West Bank amidst a triple challenge [also see ICRC tweet – “Olive harvest is never easy for Palestinian families living near the West Bank barrier or close to the settlements. We ask for efficient coordination and protection to be put in place to enable free and safe access for the farmers to their olive groves” with accompanying video]
- WAFA 10/12: Israeli settlers uproot dozens of olive trees in Masafer Yatta area [south of Hebron]
- WAFA 10/12: Israeli settlers steal olive harvest, uproot hundreds of saplings from Nablus farmers
- TRT World 10/12: Red Cross urges Israel to ensure safe olive harvest for Palestinians
- Middle East Monitor 10/11: Israel settlers attack Palestinian olive pickers near Nablus
- Al Jazeera 10/11: Palestinian farmers threatened by Israeli settlers as olive harvest approaches (video)
- Al Jazeera 10/11: Beita residents reach lands for first time since settler takeover
- Al Jazeera 10/10: Palestinian village [Kisan] target of settler attacks and land theft
Settlers vs. IDF/Israeli Police
- Times of Israel 10/14: Gantz orders ‘aggressive’ crackdown on settler violence after soldiers attacked
- Haaretz 10/14: West Bank Settler Attacks Two IDF Soldiers With Tear Gas Near Illegal Outpost
- YNet 10/14: IDF troops come under attack from West Bank settlers
- Times of Israel 10/13: IDF troops maced by settlers while responding to alleged attack on Palestinians
- Haaretz 10/12: Israeli Police Go Easy on Violent Settlers ‘Because We Were in a Jewish Community’ [“In a radio interview, Superintendent Hagai Saban said that he did not make extensive use of riot control means because he understood he was in a Jewish community”]
- Jerusalem Post 10/12: Zero tolerance for violence [against Israeli forces] Gantz says after settlers attack police
- Haaretz 10/12: High Court Slams Israel for Allowing Settlers to Enter Evicted West Bank Settlement
- Times of Israel 10/11: Extremist settlers injure cop in clash near flashpoint West Bank settlement
Israel Advances Jerusalem-Area Settlements – E-1, Givat Hamatos, Atarot, Pisgat Ze’ev
- Associated Press 10/14: Israel quietly advances settlements with little US pushback
- Haaretz 10/14: Israel Advances Thousands of Housing Units in East Jerusalem as Biden Remains Silent
- NPR (Radio) Report 10/14: Israel moves ahead with settlements in sensitive locations surrounding Jerusalem
- State Department 10/14: In response to question about whether the Biden Administration’s concern about settlements has increased given these recent developments, State Department spokesman – “We have been clear in public and in private about where we stand on settlement activity, on annexation. We oppose any unilateral steps that put a two-state solution further out of reach…our position on this has remained constant.”
- Al Jazeera 10/14: Israel approves building plan in illegal Jerusalem settlement – The plan would cut off the neighbourhood of Beit Safafa from Palestinian villages while linking Israeli settlements.
- Middle East Eye 10/14: First East Jerusalem settlement in 25 years met with US silence
- Middle East Monitor 10/14: Israel approves thousands of illegal settlement homes in East Jerusalem
- Danny Seidemann/Terrestrial Jerusalem 10/11: Dangerous Developments towards Construction in E-1
- Jerusalem Post 10/9: US: ‘Our position against unilateral Israeli settlement activity is clear’
Sheikh Jarrah “Compromise”
- Miftah 10/13: Israeli settlement proposal in Sheikh Jarrah: solution or evasion?
- Danny Seidemann/Terrestrial Jerusalem 10/11: Important Legal Developments regarding Sheikh Jarrah
Apartheid, or Not Apartheid?
- Haaretz 10/14: After Years of Neighborly Relations, Settlers Try to Foil Recognition of Palestinian Hamlet
- Haaretz 10/11: The Time Has Come to Admit: Israel Is an Apartheid Regime [by Yehudit Karp, former Deputy Attorney General of Israel)
- I24 News 10/10: Israel is not an apartheid state, Pompeo says
Facts & Figures (OCHA)
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): Protection of Civilians Report | 21 September – 4 October 2021, including:
- “Overall, Israeli forces injured 328 Palestinians across the West Bank. Of them, 217 were hit during protests against settlement activities in the Nablus governorate, near Beita (117), Beit Dajan (73) and Deir al Hatab (27).”
- “Twenty-nine Palestinians, including a young child, were injured by Israeli forces or settlers in Umm Fagarah (Hebron). On 28 September, Israeli settlers injured nine Palestinians in this Palestinian community, which is in an Israeli-declared ‘firing zone’. One of those injured, a three-year-old boy, was hit by a stone in his head while in his bed, and was taken to an Israeli hospital. The remaining 20 injured Palestinians were treated for inhaling teargas. Israeli settlers also killed five sheep and damaged ten homes, 14 vehicles and several solar panels and water tanks. During the incident, Palestinians threw stones and Israeli forces fired teargas canisters and arrested three Palestinians who were released later that night. Israeli police have arrested six settlers in connection with the incident, two of whom remain in detention.”
- “Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured eight Palestinians (in addition to the abovementioned nine in Umm Fagarah), and people known or believed to be settlers damaged or stole the harvest from over 180 olive trees. These included four farmers injured while working their land near As Seefer (Hebron), two shepherds near the community of Arab ar Rashayida (Bethlehem), and another farmer in Ein Yabrud (Ramallah) and an activist in Susiya (Hebron). According to eyewitnesses or landowners, settlers vandalized around 160 olive trees in Umm Fagarah (Hebron) and Burin (Nablus), and stole the olives from another 26 trees in Salfit. A number of attacks by settlers in the H2 area of Hebron were recorded, including breaking into a number of houses and stealing agricultural tools, surveillance cameras and water pumps, in addition to stealing olives.”