Settlement Reports

Settlement Stats The West Bank and East Jerusalem are populated by 2.5 million Palestinians and over 430,000 settlers. 20,000 settlers live in the Golan Heights. Settlements and settlement infrastructure cover 40% of the West Bank. There are about 100 settlements not authorised by the Israeli government in the West Bank. Nearly 40% of all settlements sit on privately owned Palestinian land which has been illegally expropriated from its owners. In Area C of the West Bank, 33% of Palestinian structures built without permit are demolished, whereas the corresponding statistic for Israeli settlers is 7%. For every construction permit granted by the Civil Administration to Palestinians, 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued. From 2000 until September 2007, only 91 construction permits were issued to Palestinians, whereas 18,472 housing units were built in the settlements.

March 10: The Israeli Housing Ministry issued tenders for 750 new homes in Givat Ze'ev with the approval of PM Olmert. "[The decision] is consistent with our long-standing position that building within large settlement blocs, which will remain a part of Israel in any final status agreement, will continue," said PMO spokesman Mark Regev. The Shas, a key party in the Olmert coalition, had reportedly threatened to leave the government unless construction was approved.

March 6: Twenty-six unregistered settlement outposts were to be dismantled following a deal between the Yesha settlers' council and Ehud Barak's adviser for settlement affairs Eitan Broshi. The sixty families living in the outposts are to move to other settlement blocs in Jerusalem.

February 24: Israeli officials issued a military order requisitioning 766 dunams of land to the settlement of Eshkolot. The land belongs to the Hebron-based Ramadin clan and the town of Adh-Dhahiriyya.

February 17: Peace Now released a report stating that more than one third of West Bank settlements have been built on private Palestinian land that had been seized by military order for "security purposes".

February 14: Ahmed Qu'rei, who heads the Palestinian negotiating team, called the expansion of settlements in Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev a "declaration of war on the peace process".

February 12: In an interview with Israel Radio, Housing Minister Zeev Boim denied there will be any freeze on settlement expansion, and revealed plans to build 370 new apartments in Har Homa, and another 750 in Pisgat Zeev. Jerusalem city manager Tair Maayan had recently complained to a parliamentary panel that the federal was delaying construction of hundreds of apartments in Jewish areas of East Jerusalem.

January 29: The European Union censured Israeli settlement expansion. "The EU considers that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. This includes Israeli settlements in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank," stated EU foreign ministers in Brussels, who also identified settlement construction as an "obstacle to peace."

January 23: The municipality announced its long-term plans for construction in Jerusalem, saying that it intended to construct 40,000 new housing units over the next decade. It was unclear how many of them would be to the east of the Green Line.

January 22: In an interview with Channel Two television, Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski revealed plans to build 7,300 new housing units in East Jerusalem. The new developments would include 3,00 units in Gilo, 1,700 in Pisgat Zeev, 1,000 in Har Homa, 400 in Newe Yaakov and 1,200 in Ramot. The mayor had reportedly made the decision without consulting the Prime Minister. The issuance of tenders for these new settlements has not yet been reported.
Palestinian Prime Minister deplored Israel's ongoing expansion of settlements, saying, "If Israel does not stop extending Jewish settlements immediately, there will be no peace deal in 11 months. The expansion of Jewish settlements puts at risk the continuation of the peace talks."

January 21: The Housing Ministry pledged that it will stop issuing tenders for settlement construction beyond the Green Line without the approval of the Prime Minister. "All construction beyond the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, requires the housing minister and prime minister's approval," announced Sara Zimmerman of the Housing Ministry. Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky called a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem "illegal" and vowed to continue building there.

January 15: The Palestinian Central Council, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, released a statement demanding that settlement construction freeze while negotiations are taking place.
“Peace and security are impossible under the ongoing Israeli settlement and aggression,” read the press release.

January 14: Tenders for 440 new housing units in the settlement of Talpyot were issued by the Israeli Land Authority.

January 4: The Israeli Settlement Committee stated that Bush's demand that settlements be dismantled will "encourage terrorism". In an interview with Voice of Israel radio, Israel's deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said that the time had come to set a deadline for the evacuation of all settlements east of the Wall. Ramon said he was optimistic that concrete progress would be made on the settlement issue during President Bush's visit later that week.

January 6: 150 settlers demonstrated against the Israeli government's decision to ease restrictions for Palestinians on certain West Bank roads, claiming that it will lead to drive-by shootings against Israeli civilians.

January 1: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni brished off international criticism of ongoing settlement construction. "The world asks us about settlements and sometimes criticizes us. Does the world know about the killing of two Israelis in Hebron last week by Palestinian security officers? We realize that the Palestinian dreams of an independent state should materialize, but on condition that Israeli security becomes a Palestinian interest as it is an Israeli interest," she said.

December 31: The Israeli Land Authority issued tenders for new structures in the settlement of Gilo. The developments will include a number of hotels and businesses.

December 30: The Israeli Committee for Zoning and Construction approved plans for the construction of 630 Palestinian housing units in the Jabal al-Mukkabar area of East Jerusalem.

December 29: Prime Minister Olmert told the Knesset he wants the decision-making process regarding settlement expansion to include the Prime Minister, to ensure that new plans will not "contradict Israel's Road Map commitments.

December 9: Tenders for 307 new housing units in Har Homa were issued by the Ministry of Housing. The announcement, shortly following the Annapolis summit, brought consternation from a number of international diplomats, including US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Prisident George Bush.


Sources: Ma'an News, Peace Now, BBC News, Haaretz, Ynet, AFP, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Reuters, Palestine Media Center