Israeli settlements

Palestine Monitor factsheet

"Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [... and] have been established in breach of international law."

International Court of Justice Ruling, July 9, 2004

Settlements: The Facts

 There are currently 120 Israeli settlements and 102 Israeli outposts built illegally in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, which is Palestinian land occupied by Israel in 1967. All of these settlements and outposts are illegal under international law and numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions. Israeli outposts are also illegal under Israeli law.
 These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of some 460,000 Israeli settlers.
 Settlements are built on less than 3 percent of the area of the West Bank. However, due to the extensive network of settler roads and restrictions on Palestinians accessing their own land, Israeli settlements dominate more than 40 percent of the West Bank.
 The route of Israel’s Wall has been designed to annex 56 settlements to Israel, incorporating 76 percent of the settler population currently living in the West Bank (including settlements in East Jerusalem).
 The Wall and Israel’s matrix of settlements will sever the West Bank into 4 cantons, fracturing its geographic, political, economic, and social cohesion and totally undermining the possibility of a future, contiguous and independent Palestinian state.

What are Settlements and Outposts?

 Originally used to describe any new Jewish development in Israel, the term ‘settlements’ now refers to Jewish-only housing units built in strategic areas of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, on land occupied by Israel in 1967.
 Since 1967, consecutive Israeli governments have established settlements in violation of international law, colonising Palestinian territories in order to consolidate and secure Israeli control of these areas and prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.
 Most settlements begin as ‘outposts’. These are often composed of just a few families who live in caravans whilst awaiting infrastructure and financial support from the state and other sympathetic communities both inside Israel and abroad.

What are Bypass Roads?

 Settlements are linked to each other and to Israel by an extensive network of “bypass roads”. For each 100 km of by-pass road, about 2,500 acres of West Bank land is confiscated. All bypass roads have a 50–75m buffer zone on each side, where no construction is allowed. These buffer zones have led to a great loss of agricultural and privately-owned Palestinian land.
 Whilst illegally built on confiscated Palestinian land, these roads are forbidden for use by Palestinians. They consolidate Israel’s creation of a system of Apartheid in the West Bank, and fracture communities across Palestine.

Settements and International Law

 Israeli settlements are illegal under every basic reading of international law and several United Nations resolutions:
 Article 46 of the Hague Convention prohibits the confiscation of private property in occupied territory.
 Article 49, paragraph 6 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly stipulates that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
 Article 55 of the same Hague Convention stipulates “the occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.”
 UN Security Council Resolution 465 (1980), which was unanimously adopted, made it clear that “Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants” in the Occupied Territories constitutes “a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”. The Security Council called upon Israel to “dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction or planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.”
 The 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development.”

Settlements and the Myth of the ‘Disengagement’

 In September 2005, as part of its ‘disengagement plan’ Israel evacuated all of its 21 settlements in Gaza with a total population of 8,692. It also evacuated 4 West Bank settlements with a population of 674.
 However, the settler population in the West Bank has since grown by 5.3 percent (14,000 people). 3.5 percent (9,300 people) of the growth has been from natural population growth within the settlements, whilst the other 1.8 percent (4,700 people) have moved from the Gaza Strip or Israel itself. This undermines Israeli claims that the disengagement represented an unprecedented compromise and a move towards peace on its part.

Settlements and Negotiations

 Settlements are one of the most important outstanding issues in negotiations for a “final status” agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organisation/Palestinian Authority and Israel. Palestine has consistently maintained its position that the complete removal of settlements must precede the creation of any future Palestinian state if it is to be contiguous and viable.
 However, by using the Wall to annex major settlement blocks to Israel, the Israeli state is ensuring the outcomes of any such final status negotiation are being permanently prejudiced in its own favor.

Settlements and Natural Resources

 Settlements are the cause of great inequalities in access to natural resources between Israelis and Palestinians. Many settlements are built on prime agricultural land confiscated from Palestinians, or over key water resources such as the Western Aquifer basin, springs and wells. This has resulted in Israeli West Bank settlers being allocated 2400 m3 of water per year compared to 50 m3 for Palestinians. Such inequalities are being consolidated by the Wall, which will annex swathes of Palestinian agricultural land and major vital water resources to Israel.

Settler Violence

 Settlers have killed at least 54 Palestinians since September 2000. On 25 March 2007, a 52 year-old Palestinian shepherd from Aqraba near Nablus was stabbed to death by Israeli settlers from the nearby Itamar settlement.
 Attacks on Palestinian property, and vandalism such as the burning of fields and destruction of agricultural land are among other settler violations. Israeli soldiers often protect settlers, and legal proceedings are rarely brought against them.
 Settlers also routinely attack Palestinians with complete immunity from the Israeli authorities, and inaction on the part of the Israeli military to protect Palestinians civilians from such attacks.
 On 8 April 2007, for example, two Palestinian girls aged 11 and 12 years and a 10-year-old Palestinian boy from the village of Tuba in the Hebron district were injured when a group of Israeli settlers from the settlement of Ma’on beat them and stole their schoolbags whilst they were en route to school. The Israeli military and police were both present at the time, but took no action to prevent or stop the attack.