Settlement expansion


Under the Labor government (1992-1996), settlement building in the West Bank did not cease, despite former Prime Minister Rabin’s pledge to freeze settlement expansion. In fact, the Labor government invested 1.4 billion shekels (about $46 million) on a Jewish settler population of about 144,000 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, much more than its Likud predecessor. By 1996, this investment had paid off: the Jewish settler population increased by 48% in the West Bank and by 62% in the Gaza Strip (Settlement Watch Report No. 8, Peace Now, Jerusalem, 31 July 1996).



By the beginning of 1997, the situation had become clear. PM Netanyahu’s announced that the government officially sanctioned settlement expansion, open government spending in the Occupied Territories on the settlements and continued construction of Jewish-only bypass roads within Jerusalem and in the West Bank. The government approved a budget of $4.8 million dollars to settlements, the construction of over 8000 new units in Jerusalem and West Bank settlements, permitted 3000 recently completed units to be inhabited, began construction on Jabal Abu Ghneim of the new settlement of Har Homa, plans the estabilishment of 6 new settlements in the Jerusalem area, granted preferred development status to settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and embarked on a program aimed at encouraging the transfer of over 70,000 Jewish settlers into the West Bank. Over 150 Jahalin Bedouin have been transferred to a site near a garbage dump to make way for the expansion of Ma’aleh Adumim.
As the Israeli government destroys entire neighborhoods of villages which lie in Area C and ethnically cleanse areas to make way for road construction and settlement expansion, exclusively Jewish settlements are enjoying a building boom on confiscated Arab land. As a result, the peace negotiations have been frozen by the Palestinian Authority.

For more information on Israeli settlements please see the following LAW publication:

Back to human rights abuses under the Israeli Occupation

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