The Israeli government financed 68 illegal farms with NIS 15 million in 2023;
An additional NIS 39 Million is earmarked for farms in 2024
Main findings:
– In 2023, the Israeli government financed 68 settler farms in the West Bank with an amount of NIS 15 million. Additional NIS 39 million is allocated for farms in 2024.
– In addition the government funded 33 illegal outposts (that are not farms) with NIS 13 million in 2023. Additional NIS million is allocation for outposts in 2024.
– The funds were used for financing vehicles, drones, cameras, electric generators, electric gates, lamp posts, fences, solar panels and more.
– The IDF and the Central Command were involved in planning and approving the funds, including deciding which farms and outposts would receive funding and which components would be financed in each farm and outpost.
Peace Now: “Not only does the Israeli government allow settlers to take over lands, establish outposts and farms in violation of the law, and attack and displace Palestinians without any response, it also funds and assists them. Settler violence is not a bug; it is a feature. It is part of an ongoing effort by the Israeli government to systematically expel Palestinians from their homes and lands in Area C in the West Bank.”
Koko’s Farm – with lamp posts, January 2024
At a conference held by the Religious Zionism Party about a month ago, with the participation of Ministers Smotrich and Strook (a recording of which was published by Peace Now), there was another part, in which the Director General of the Settlement Division, Hosha’aya Harari, presented the involvement of the Division in funding illegal farms and outposts in the West Bank. According to Harari, in 2023 the Israeli government financed 68 settler farms in the West Bank with NIS 15 million, and 33 other illegal outposts with an additional NIS 13 million.
Hosha’aya Harari, the CEO of the Settlement Division, at the conference, 9/6//24
The funds were allocated to Minister Orit Strook’s Settlement Office and transferred to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization to carry out the financial transfers. The settlement division transferred the funds to the regional councils of the settlements and they financed the operations in the farms and outposts.
As part of the Coalition Funds approved by the government in December 2023, NIS 75 million were allocated for “Security Components for the Young Settlement in the Judea and Samaria” in 2024. In the conference, it was revealed that the funds include:
Farms – NIS 38,776,424
Outposts – NIS 24,787,272
Protected Public Buildings – NIS 4,550,000
Laying New Roads – NIS 7,700,000
Total: approx. NIS 75 million for year 2024.
According to the director general of the Settlement Division, in the coming days or weeks, a call for proposals is expected to be issued for the regional councils of the settlements to submit applications for financing farms and outposts from 2024.
For the recording of Minister Strook and the Head of the Settlement Division – see here.
What did the money go for?
In March 2023, the Settlement Division published a “call for support for security elements” (the name of the call is for the year 2022, but it was published and carried out in 2023). The regional councils of the settlements were invited to submit applications for financing “security components” in “settlement points” within their territories. The annexes to the procedure, including the list of approved security elements and settlement points, were not published on the Settlement Division’s website. The protocols of the support committees that approved the funds were also not published on the Division’s website, unlike the protocols of other supports provided by the Settlement Division.
However, from information that exists in the procedure, from the presentation of the director general of the Settlement Division, and from publications in the media, it appears that these funds were used for: dozens of Rangers (vehicles), drones, solar panels, electric generators, cameras, defense positions, electric gates, 30 km of lighting lines (lamp-posts), radios, fire extinguishers, fences, and more.
Laying New Roads – one of the main and important ways in which settlers take over territory is by laying new dirt roads. Through these roads, settlers can reach large areas and expel Palestinians from them. These roads also allow the establishment of additional farms. In recent months, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of new roads opened in the West Bank with a total length estimated by Peace Now to be tens of kilometers and a cost estimated at millions of NIS.
In the presentation of the CEO of the Settlement Division at the conference, Harari presented a budget of NIS 7.7 Million that is allocated for laying new roads in 2024. It is possible that some of the funding for the roads that were carried out this year came from the funding of “security elements” from 2023. It should be noted that the settlements’ regional councils in the West Bank have received government funding for laying new roads in recent years also from the budget for “Maintaining Area C” (a section that in 2023 included a total of approximately NIS 40 Million and was transferred to the settlements through the Ministry of Settlements).
Settlers in ranger-cars from farms in South Hebron Hills, capture a Palestinian. June 2024. Photo: twitter of @masafering
The farms that received funding
As mentioned, the Settlement Division (as well as the settlement councils) hides the list of farms and outposts that received funding. At the same time, on the ground, it is evident that the majority of the settlers’ farms have components of the type approved by the procedure. Peace Now has documented rangers, electric gates, cameras, generators, and other components at at least 30 farms in recent months.
According to the director general of the Division at the conference, 68 settler farms received funding in 2023. According to Peace Now, at the closing date of the applications at the end of March 2023, there were about 70 farms in the West Bank, so it can be assumed that almost all the farms received some kind of funding. The farms recently sanctioned by various countries likely benefited from that funding. We note that since then, at least 27 more farms have been established, and the funding was approved before any sanctions had been imposed.
At the following farms, which have had international sanctions imposed on them or their owners, Peace Now documented “security components” of the kind financed by the Settlement Division:
Moshe Sharvit’s farm (sanctioned by the US and other countries) – a ranger, solar panels
Zvi Bar Yosef’s farm (sanctioned by the US and other countries) – cameras
Neriya Ben Pazi’s farm (sanctioned by the US and other countries) – solar panels
Shuvi Eretz Farm (its owner, Eden Levy, was sanctioned by the UK) – a ranger
Issachar Mann’s Farm (sanctioned by the US and other countries) – electric gate
Solar Panels at Neriya Ben Pazi’s farm, February 2024
The amounts transferred to the various councils
An examination of the approvals of the Non-Recurring Expenses (NRE) in the six regional councils of the settlements, revealed that out of the NIS 28 million, about NIS 9 million were transferred to the settlements in the Bethlehem, South Hebron Hills, and the Valley areas:
Gush Etzion Regional Council – about NIS 3,000,000
Mount Hebron (Har Hevron) Regional Council – NIS 3,789,500
Jordan Valley Regional Council – NIS 1,803,808
Dead Sea Scrolls Regional Council – NIS 284,411 (for the Kedem Arava and Beit Hogala outposts).
The additional NIS 19 million were apparently divided between the Binyamin and Shomron regional councils (in the center and north of the West Bank) which did not publish their NRE’s and where most of the outposts and farms are located and between the Settlement Division which, according to the procedure, purchases some of the security components itself and not through the councils.
Involvement of the IDF and Central Command
The procedure for funding “security components” published by the Settlement Division emphasizes that the IDF, particularly the Central Command, is involved in approving the various components and the sites and farms that are funded under the procedure. Even for moving a component from one outpost to another, the approval of the Central Command is required (section 13d of the procedure). The Central Command must also approve the exact coordinates where lamp-posts, cameras, gates, or defense positions are requested to be erected (section 7a(6)).
This is how Hosha’aya Harari, the director general of the Settlement Division, describes it:
“This entire work plan was done in cooperation with the councils, their security officers, representatives from the farms, in full cooperation with the Central Command. The Central Command signed off on this plan; without it, we could not have done it. Every component here and every settlement has a map that shows where it can be.”
Minister Strook praised the Central Command and General Yehuda Fox in a quote to “Israel Hayom“:
“We work in full coordination with the army, hand in hand … we talk with the regional defense officer of the Central Command on a daily basis and coordinate everything.” According to her, the outgoing commanding general, Yehuda Fox, is one of the most significant factors in the matter: “There is criticism of him on various issues, but it should be said that in security, he goes above and beyond, as does the Deputy Attorney General, Carmit Yulis. General Fox is determined to solve problems, some of which are not simple.”
In his farewell speech, the outgoing Commander of Central Command Yehuda Fox harshly criticized two weeks ago the rise in settler violence. However, it seems now that while in office, he cooperated with the farms, which are one of the main sources of settler violence in recent years.
Cameras in a farm, July 2024