After receiving many requests from scholars and from the media for information on the population growth of West Bank Jewish settlers, we are publishing a table based on data collected by Israel’s Peace Now movement. The table shows the population growth in Israel and in West Bank settlements since 1967. While the data shows the rapid growth of the settlers’ population, it also points out what a small minority the settlers are out of Israel’s overall population.
Xinghua: July 6, 2017
"Jerusalem Municipality to build 800 new settlement homes in East Jerusalem," Peace
Now says the Israeli government intends to construct about 1,000 new homes in East Jerusalem settlements.
Times of Israel: July 3, 2017
"1,800 East Jerusalem homes slated for approval," Peace Now poised to file
objection to new settlement construction plans in East Jerusalem.
The Guardian: July 3, 2017
"Emboldened by Trump, Israel pushes on with East Jerusalem settlement plans," Peace
Now criticizes Israeli government's plans for more settlement homes in East Jerusalem
The Times (UK): July 3, 2017
"Israel defiant with first settlement since the 1990s," Peace Now says new
construction in the West Bank has soared by 70 percent between April 2016 and March 2017
Haaretz: July 2, 2017
"Plans to build Jewish housing in East Jerusalem require Palestinians'
eviction," Peace Now criticizes plans for more Jewish settlements inside East Jerusalem Palestinian
neighborhoods.
Washington Post: July 1, 2017
"A new Jewish settlement begins to rise in the West Bank," Peace Now criticizes
establishment of the new settlement.
Carmi Gilon, the former chief of Israel’s secret service, Shin Bet, for years helped run Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Like many other Israeli former senior security officials, he became an anti-occupation peace advocate when he finish his service. If you watched the documentary The Gatekeepers, which features Carmi Gilon among six past heads of Israel’s Shin-Bet, you understand why.
Episode 16 of PeaceCast features a conversation with Gilon, who today is the executive chair of Cytegic, an Israeli cyber security company.
News from Peace Now:
In the coming weeks the Jerusalem regional planning committee will discuss new plans for East Jerusalem, in
both Israeli neighbourhood settlements beyond the Green Line and within Palestinian neighbourhoods. (See a full
list of plans at the bottom of the report.)
Peace Now: “ The government is brutally attempting to destroy the possibility of the two-state solution, and
this time it is by establishing a new settlement at the heart of a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and
promoting nearly 1,800 housing units beyond the Green Line. The eviction of 5 Palestinian families, which are
protected tenants, in order to establish a new settlement in Sheikh Jarrah shows that nothing will get in the way
of settler groups and a pro-settler government from preventing a future compromise in Jerusalem."
A. A new settlement in Sheikh Jarrah
On July 16, the Jerusalem regional planning committee is intended to discuss several plans for settlements
within Palestinian neighbourhoods. Of those, 4 plans will be discussed for the Um Haroun neighbourhood (located
within Sheikh Jarrah). This is the first time in recent years that new housing units are being planned for settlers
within a Palestinian neighbourhood. Furthermore, two of the plans include the demolition of homes of 5 Palestinian
families.
Plan
14151: A three story building for 3 housing units. Construction entails the demolition of a home of a
Palestinian family.
Plan
14029: A five story building for 10 housing units. Construction entails the demolition of homes of 4
Palestinian families.
Plan 68858: A nine story (seven above ground) Yeshiva campus named, “Or Shameach” that includes student
accommodation.
Plan 499699: A six story office building.
The two plans for 13 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah will be established on properties in which 5 Palestinian
families currently reside. These properties are under a legal battle through which settlers seek the evacuation of
these Palestinian families. Although the Palestinian families are legally regarded as protected tenants they reside
in properties that prior to 1948 were Jewish owned, and the Israeli law enables Israeli citizens to return to
properties that were owned by Jews prior to 1948. Hence, settlers and settler groups actively attempt to get hold
of rights to Jewish owned properties from before 1948. In the cases of the five Palestinian families, the legal
actions taken by settlers for their eviction have yet to be materialize. Nevertheless, the law enables landowners
to destroy and restructure a new building whilst protected tenants do not lose their legal rights, hence the
advancement of these plans.
Click to download the official July 16 agenda (Hebrew).
Click to read background on settlements at Sheikh Jarrah.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses Israeli government decisions regarding conversion and egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, boycotts, withholding funds and cancelling visits - What factors are at work here; What is the role of the rise to power in Washington of a president who is not beholden to liberal American Jews and their values; what he means by "ignorance of America and US Jewry at the strategic level;" Netanyahu's supposed understanding of the United States and the American Jewish community better than almost anyone in Israel; how this connects to Israeli politics; where this will all lead; what Israel will look like if it really loses a significant portion of the support of the American Jewish community; and what's the bottom line?