Recent Israeli Expansions

Palestinian National Authority Official Website
Settlement

Continuing Israeli Expansion, Land Confiscation, and
Home Demolition in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Since the start of the Middle East Peace Process, the Government of Israel, in contravention of the letter and spirit of international law, the consensus of the international community, and the agreements signed within the context of the Peace Process, has continued and intensified its settlement activity, land confiscation, and home demolition in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Such unilateral measures are liable to preempt or prejudice the outcome of the Permanent Status Negotiations, and as such negate the fundamental agreed-upon principle of reaching an agreement through negotiations. Through demonstrating a grave breach of good faith, they render proceeding with the Final Status Negotiations impossible.

Building New Settlement Outposts

Since the signing of the Oslo Accord, at least 44 settlement outposts have been built.
After the Wye Memorandum, 27 new outposts were built, of which 11 were established since March 1999.
While dubbed as “extensions of existing settlements”, these “outposts” are often located hundreds of meters from, and often out-of-sight of, the existing settlement.
These outposts extend by multiple times the land controlled by the settlements. Map 1 shows how the outposts in the Nablus area have excluded major amounts of land from Palestinian use.

To see the overall map, click on the map

Following negotiations with the settlers’ council (Yesha), Prime Minister Barak informed the settlers of his intention to order the evacuation of 15 such outposts. Immediately afterwards, agreement was reached to freeze the situation in 3 of the 15 outposts, leaving 12 slated for evacuation.
According to Ha’aretz daily (14.10.1999), of the 12 remaining outposts, only 10 will be completely evacuated, while one will be turned into pastural land and one will continue to be inhabited by students of a pre-military academy.
Of the 10 remaining outposts, only five contain inhabited structures.
To date, only one of the five outposts has been partially dismantled and no date has been set for the removal of the other four.
The decision to evacuate the fifteen outposts was used as a pretext to “whitewash” the remainder of the 44 settlement outposts. By attaching the tag of illegality to only a few of the less viable outposts, the current Israeli Government is implying the remaining outposts are legal.

The Expansion of Existing Settlements

While the outposts are the most obvious violation in that they indicate the extent of land seizure, the continued growth of the existing settlements is an equal, if not greater, failure of Israel to respect the Agreements.

Since 1995, Israelis living in the settlements have increased by 70,000.
The rate of increase within the Israeli settlements is almost four times greater than that of Israel itself, discrediting any claim that this increase is due to “natural population growth”. (See Table 1)

Table 1: Population Growth in Settlements

	1998 Population (Year End)	% Change since 1995
West Bank & Gaza	172,000	+25.3
East Jerusalem	175,000	+24.4
TOTAL	347,000	+24.8

Israel (1967 borders)	5,688,700	+ 6.6

Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

Within West Bank and Gaza, Israeli settlement expansion shows large variation as it attempts to create “facts on the ground.” Thus some areas are experiencing phenomenal growth as the Israeli government attempt to cement their control in vital areas. (See Table 2)

Table 2: Areas of Major Settlement Growth

Settlement	Nearest Palestinian Town	Population (end 1998)	Percent Growth (end 94 to end 98)
Givat Zeev	Ramallah	9,700	+51%
Maaleh Adumim	East Jerusalem	25,000	+48%
Betar Ilit	Bethlehem	11,200	Greater than 100%
Efrata	Bethlehem	6,100	+32%
Har Hevron	Hebron	3500	+67%

Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and MOPIC (STU) database

Since the Barak Government came to power, 5,300 new housing units have been approved (in eleven settlements) and tenders published for the construction of 2,600 units.

In Gaza, the current Israeli Government has just announced construction of an additional 22 housing units.

Despite a 25% surplus of housing in the settlements, the Government of Israel continues building housing units so as to create artificial economic incentives for settlement.

“I consider settlement activity in the West Bank, which was always conducted at the behest and with the authorization of the government, very important”.

P.M. Ehud Barak, quoted in Ha’aretz 13/10/99

Bypass Roads

The continued building of new, as well extending, bypass roads to the settlements is a major disruption to the Palestinian society and economy. These bypass roads are built on confiscated Palestinian lands and without regard to environmental, land-use or cultural considerations. A major result is that these roads undermine Palestinian regional and local planning, thereby increasing the costs of development and at times preventing it.

Since the Oslo Accord, both Parties have agreed upon only four new bypass roads. Numerous other bypass roads continue to be built by the Israeli Government. The map below shows an example of bypass roads currently under construction, which have not received joint approval. For example, Map 2 below shows how the bypass road number 45 is currently being illegally built in the Ramallah/Jerusalem area.

in_line_map2.jpg (24455 bytes)

Home Demolitions

According to the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, between 1993 up to July of this year, 968 homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem were demolished by the Government of Israel under various pretences. Despite a much-hyped decision earlier this moth to halt such demolitions, a home of three families, numbering 18 people, was demolished on October 25. This came at the exact time that negotiations with the Yesha Council continue on how to best evacuate a number of uninhabited settlement outposts.

Closed Military Areas

The Barak government renewed the military orders for controlling land as so called “closed military areas.” These areas are not military bases, but areas that the Israeli military has declared off limits to any Palestinians except those with special permits. These closed areas account for 1250 km of West Bank land, which is 22% of the West Bank.

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