{"id":16202,"date":"2011-05-20T00:02:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T21:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/?p=16202"},"modified":"2016-05-13T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T11:48:45","slug":"interim-report-settlement-activity-since-the-end-of-the-moratorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/interim-report-settlement-activity-since-the-end-of-the-moratorium","title":{"rendered":"Interim Report: Settlement Activity since the End of the Moratorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 26th of September 2010, the 10 months settlement moratorium<\/a> came to an end. Since then, the settlers have managed to \u201ccatch up\u201d with the construction freeze and erase its effect, starting construction of some 2,000 housing units <\/strong>in 75 different settlements and outposts, one third of them<\/strong> in settlements east of the Separation Barrier (this number is higher than the yearly average for the last few years). Meanwhile the Israeli Government has approved the planning and marketing of at least 800 new units in 13 settlements<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Following is a summary of the settlement activity in the West Bank (not including East Jerusalem) in the 8 months since the end of the moratorium.<\/p>\n

1. Intensive Construction \u2013 Mainly at Isolated Settlements<\/strong><\/p>\n

As soon as the freeze order expired, the Israeli government adopted a policy allowing any previously approved construction, as well as approving some new construction projects. According to Peace Now\u2019s count, there are 13,000 units<\/a> that can be built without need for any further approval of the government. Since the end of the moratorium the settlers started construction on at least 1,976 housing units<\/strong>, of which:<\/p>\n

\u2022 21% are in settlements west of the built-up Separation Barrier<\/strong> (420 units);<\/p>\n

\u2022 33% are in settlements east of the Separation Barrier<\/strong> (659 units). As a point of comparison, in the past few years construction east of the barrier made up only 20% of the total construction;<\/p>\n

\u2022 46% are in settlements West of the planned route of the Barrier<\/strong> that hasn\u2019t been built yet (897 units).<\/p>\n

\"ConstructionAfterFreezeMay2011eng-small\"<\/p>\n

2. New Approvals by the Government<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 8 months since the moratorium the government approved at least 800 new units<\/strong> in 13 settlements.<\/p>\n

Following the Itamar killing, the government announced the approval of some 390 new units as follows:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Modi\u2019in Illit \u2013 200 units<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ariel \u2013 100 units<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ma\u2019ale Adumim \u2013 40 units<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Kfar Eldad (a settlement east of Bethlehem that when established was officially declared only a temporary site) \u2013 50 units.<\/p>\n

Other approvals that we know of:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Bietar Illit<\/a> \u2013 on 28\/4\/11 the Minister of Defense approved the marketing and construction of 294 units in Beitar Illit.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Efrat<\/a> \u2013 on 28\/4\/11 the Minister of defense approved the marketing and construction of an establishment for the elderly and a commercial center in Efrat.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0A Yeshiva campus south of Efrat<\/a> \u2013 plan no. 495 for a new campus of over 60 dunams for a Yeshiva school was deposited on January 2011.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Kiryat Netafim<\/a> \u2013 plan no. 129\/2 for the construction of 86 units in Kiryat Netafim (near Qalqilya) was deposited on April 2011 (approx. 75 of these units are already built and are being retroactively approved following Peace Now\u2019s petition).<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Halamish<\/a> \u2013 plan no. 203\/2\/2 for the construction of a new neighborhood in Halamish (at least 24 units) was approved for depositing on April 13, 2011. The approval was given retroactively, following Peace Now\u2019s petition against the illegal construction that started without approvals.<\/p>\n

\u2022 According to the press<\/a>, the government approved plans in the existing settlements of Rotem, Hemdat, Nofim and Sansana, retroactively approving the illegal construction there.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Ministry of Housing started planning procedures for 800 units south of the Givat Zeev settlement, that are meant to connect the settlement with Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The Minister of Defense\u2019s approvals (of plans or to start marketing) are not public, and therefore there might be more approvals of which we haven\u2019t heard.<\/p>\n

3. Illegal Construction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the end of the moratorium there is a dramatic increase in the number of illegal buildings constructed in the settlements. In most cases the construction is proceeding according to plans that were never approved by the Minister of Defense. At least 507 illegal housing units<\/strong> are currently being built in 29 settlements (9 of which are \u201cillegal Outposts,\u201d where there are 35 illegal structures or trailers under construction).<\/p>\n

Most of this construction is on what the Israeli Government defines as \u201cState Land\u201d<\/a>. It seems that the settlers got the government\u2019s message: if they build illegally \u2013 nobody will do anything to enforce the law and stop it. This message was extended in court in numerous petitions against the illegal construction (see below), in which the government declared its intention to retroactively approve the illegal construction. In this manner the settlers are de-facto setting the policy of the government, by establishing facts on the ground to which the government will give its retroactive approve.<\/p>\n

4. The State\u2019s Declarations in Court on Intentions to Approve Outposts<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last few months, the government declared in the High Court of Justice its intention to endorse a new general policy<\/a>, according to which illegal construction that was built on \u201cState Land\u201d (or on land that could be declared as \u201cState Land\u201d) will be retroactively approved, while construction on private Palestinian registered land will be demolished and evicted within one year. In one case, at Yesh Din\u2019s<\/a> petition against the outpost of Amona, which is built on private land, the state declared that the issue depends on political considerations and therefore refrained from promising its eviction.<\/p>\n

It is important to mention that any approval of an outpost would require the plenary of the cabinet to convene and to decide on the establishment of a new settlement in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Here are the most recent state declarations regarding Peace Now\u2019s petitions:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Haresha and Hayovel<\/a> \u2013 intention to retroactively approve the two outposts.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u201cThe 6 Outposts\u201d<\/a> (\u201cThe delimitation orders\u201d) \u2013 intention to retroactively approve those outposts that can be approved and to remove the outposts that are on private lands. This probably means that there is a plan to approve the 5 outposts of: Mitzpe Lachish, Haroeh, Ramat Gilad, Ma\u2019ale Rehavam and Mitzpe Yitzhar that are on \u201cState Land\u201d or only partially on private land, while the outpost of Givat Assaf, which is fully on private Palestinian land, will be demolished within on year.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a015 illegal houses under construction in Kiryat Netafim<\/a> \u2013 the government is promoting a plan for the approval of the houses in the center of the petition as well as other illegal buildings in Kiryat Netafim.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a024 illegal homes under construction in Halamish<\/a> \u2013 the government announced the promotion of a plan to retroactively approve the houses.<\/p>\n

\u2022 20 illegal houses under construction in the outpost of Shvut Rachel<\/a> – the government announced the promotion of a plan to retroactively approve the houses together with the entire outpost.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a040 illegal homes under construction in Shilo<\/a> \u2013 the state argued that the petition was premature and did not address the issue of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Migron<\/a> \u2013 there is no change to the State\u2019s promise to remove the outpost after building an alternative site for the settlers in the settlement of Adam. However, because of the long time that has passed since the state has made its promises while nothing changed on the ground, Peace Now asked the court to give a final decision in the case, especially following the fact that the settlers continue to build new houses in the outpost on private Palestinian land, and that two of land owners, who were among the petitioners, have passed away and didn\u2019t get a chance to see their land returned to them. The court has yet to give a decision on the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 26th of September 2010, the 10 months settlement moratorium came to an end. Since then, the settlers have managed to \u201ccatch up\u201d with the construction freeze and erase its effect, starting construction of some 2,000 housing units in 75 different settlements and outposts, one third of them in settlements east of the Separation… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2511,16],"tags":[2523,1353,1335],"class_list":["post-16202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports-en","category-settlement-watch","tag-construction","tag-israeli-government","tag-legalization"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16202"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16245,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202\/revisions\/16245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacenow.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}