(English translation of the Hebrew article in Ynet)

“Young Settlement” is a cover name used to obscure the settler movement’s construction of ten illegal outposts a year. These masters of the land understand, without a doubt, that there is no problem in breaking the law, and the results of this understanding are evident in their demonstrations.

For about two weeks now, the Hilltop Youth have been raging without restraint and the government remains silent. Why? Because above every rolled-over police car, bleeding policeman and shattered glass shines the headline “Young Settlement.”

In response to a series of actions taken by the Netanyahu-Gantz government in recent weeks, including home demolitions, forced evictions and new settlement approvals in Givat Hamatos and E-1 meant to secure “facts on the ground” and prevent the successful pursuit of a two-state future for Israelis and Palestinians, the Progressive Israel Network, in which APN is a member, issued the following statement:

We are alarmed by the recent set of moves by the government of Israel to initiate settlement projects and take other provocative and harmful actions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, including home demolitions and forced evictions, which further damage the possibility of a negotiated future two-state solution. It is clear that the Netanyahu government is trying to exploit the outgoing Trump Administration’s wholehearted embrace of Israel’s settlement enterprise in order to further erase the distinction between Israel and the territory it occupies. The recent announcement of the Israeli government’s approval of tenders for new construction in the planned settlement of Givat Hamatos and statutory approval for the construction of E-1 are particularly harmful. These settlement projects have the strategic objective of cutting off Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, seriously undermining the prospects of establishing a contiguous Palestinian state alongside Israel. 

A BBC News investigation has disclosed that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who was granted Israeli citizenship in 2018, controls companies that have donated $100 million to Elad, the East Jerusalem settlers' organization. 

For years, Elad has worked to "Judaize" Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem, such as Silwan, causing disruption to the Palestinian residents, and in some cases, the eviction of families from their homes. 

WATCH this important report, which includes both information provided to the BBC by Peace Now and comments from Hagit Ofran, Peace Now Settlement Watch director.

A new report by Peace Now’s Settlement Watch team looks at Israel's application of the "Absentees' Property Law." This law is used to evict and/or restrict Palestinians from living in their East Jerusalem properties in area annexed by Israel after the war in 1967.

The experience of the annexation in Jerusalem demonstrates the real concern that the law will be similarly applied to any areas in the West Bank that Israel annexes, potentially depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their property. 

Go HERE for a summary of the report

Go HERE for the full report

Go HERE to view and download Peace Now's map of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Go HERE for an interactive map of the settlements

Last week, the Sabagh family received a notice from the Execution Office stating that it had to vacate its home in Kerem Ja'ouni in Sheikh Jarrah until January 23. If the family does not vacate the house by then, it will face eviction by force.

The eviction lawsuit against the Sabagh family was filed by a company called “Nahalat Shimon”, which represents settlers seeking to build a large settlement in Sheikh Jarrah. The settlers purchased the land from two Jewish associations, the Sephardi Community Committee and the Knesset Israel Committee, which in turn claimed to have purchased the land at the end of the 19th century.

In 1948 the land, which was then without structures, was transferred to the Jordanian rule. The Jordanians designated the land for the resettlement of dozens of Palestinian refugee families who exchanged their refugee statues for homes in the newly-built neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah. After 1967, the Jewish organizations recovered the ownership rights on the land and began to demand that the refugee families vacate their homes. To that extent, the associations were exercising the "right of return" of Jews to assets taken in 1948 (a right not afforded to Palestinians).

Peace Now: "This is part of an organized and systematic campaign of settlers, with the assistance of government agencies, to expel entire communities in East Jerusalem and to establish settlements in their stead. Dozens of other families face the risk of eviction by legal proceedings in which settlers and government officials exploit discriminatory laws that allow Jews to return to pre-1948 assets yet forbid Palestinians from doing the same. In this way, settlers seek to create a buffer inside the Palestinian neighborhood and make it difficult to reach a territorial compromise in Jerusalem so essential to a two-state solution.

The state announced this week to court that the Lahav 433 police anti-fraud organization, as well as the State Prosecutor's Office, will be “examining” Peace Now’s complaints of two cases of illegal construction in the Binyamin Region Council area of the West Bank. The announcement came following two petitions that Peace Now filed to the High Court demanding that the Police and the State Prosecutor open investigations against the heads of the Binyamin Regional Council, the Amana settlement movement and other bodies that were involved in big projects of illegal construction in settlement outposts. One petition was about the establishment of the illegal outpost of Kerem Reim (west of Ramallah), and the other petition was against the construction of 21 housing units in the illegal outpost of Hayovel (south of Nablus).
 
The hearing of the petition concerning Hayovel will take place this Monday (7/1/19).
 
Peace Now: For 50 years now, a handful of settlers have been using public funds through the settlement councils and Amana to put facts on the ground that affect the future of all of us in violation of the law and of the government's decisions. The hesitation of the State Prosecutor's Office and the police to investigate the organized crime of illegal construction in the settlements is tantamount to granting immunity to the offenders and shows a lack of respect for the rule of law. The message the government is sending to the settlers is that they are above the law.

• The Higher Planning Committee approved today and yesterday construction plans for 2,191 housing units in the settlements. Another plan for 68 new housing units in Givat Ze'ev was discussed but no decision has yet been made.
• 87% of the units approved can be found in the isolated settlements that Israel will likely need to evacuate within the framework of a two-state agreement: 1,908 units east of the proposed route of the Geneva Initiative; 283 units west of it.
• 1,159 housing units have been approved for validation (the final major hurdle before it is possible to issue building permits) and 1,032 housing units approved for deposit (the first stage of the planning process after which the deposit of the plan is published).
• Two plans are designed to regulate illegal outposts, giving them legal status - Ibei Hanahal and Gvaot.
• One plan establishes a new settlement adjacent to the Mitzpeh Danny outpost in the form of an educational institution with boarding schools and residential units.
• Three plans for new settlements in the form of new industrial zones.
• In 2018 in total, the amount of units in plans advanced came to 5,618 units, of which 83% (4,672) are in the isolated settlements east of the Geneva Initiative line.

The full list of settlement plans advanced can be found here.

Peace Now: In 2018, the government advanced thousands of housing units, including most which can be found in isolated settlements deep inside the West Bank that Israel will eventually have to evacuate. Those who build these places have no intention of achieving peace and a two-state solution. The latest announcement, which as an aside was cynically passed on Christmas while most Western governments are on holiday, shows that Netanyahu is willing to sacrifice Israeli interests in favor of an election gift to the settlers in an attempt to attract a few more votes from his right-wing flank.

Significant Plans

Regulating the outpost of Ibei Hanahal (Plan No. 413/4/1) for the construction of 98 housing units in the outpost of Ibei Hanahal was approved. The outpost was established in 1999 without permission or building permits in a remote area southeast of Bethlehem. The plan defines the settlement as a "neighborhood" of the Ma'ale Amos settlement, enabling the government to avoid having to formally declare the establishment of a new settlement.