- The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Israeli settlements are Jewish communities in areas under Israeli control
as a result of the 1967 Six Day War. The term does not distinguish
between communities established before 1948, subsequently destroyed by the Arabs, and communities newly established after
1967.
Background
After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel built new settlements (occasionally on the sites of Jewish communities destroyed between 1929 and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War) in
the areas they captured from Jordan, Egypt, and
Syria (see West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan). The United Nations has many times in the past strongly condemned Israel for
constructing and expanding its settlements. But some still claim there is a dispute whether these settlements are illegal under
international law or not. The United Nations makes no distinction between reestablished communities and newly established
ones.
As of November 2000, just under 400,000
Israelis lived in the occupied territories, according to Israeli government statistics. The size of this number is controversial,
as it includes a large number of Israeli citizens who live within East Jerusalem,
which the United Nations once planned as international zone (former
compromise proposal, Resolution
181 (II) of 29 November 1947, which
the Arab states rejected). Maps of these settlements [1] , [2] . Since the Oslo Accords 1993 the settlers' number on the
West Bank and Gaza (excluding East Jerusalem) has almost doubled, from 115,000 to
230,000.
1996 Map of Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and West Bank
Reestablished Communities
partial listing only
Land grab accusations
Israel claims that the majority of the land currently taken by the new settlements was either vacant, belonging to the state
(from which it was leased) or bought fairly from the Palestinians, arguing on these three bases that there is nothing illegal about the settlements.
Further it argues that these lands were conquered in a defensive war and therefore legitimate reparation. Opponents dispute at least one of these bases, saying that vacant land had either belonged to Arabs
who had fled or was communal land, that had belonged collectively to an entire village. That practice had formed under Ottoman rule, although the British and the Jordanians have unsuccessfully tried
to stop it since the late 1920s. B'Tselem
(the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) claims that the Israeli government used the absence
of modern legal documents for the communal land as an excuse to seize it. Altogether, around 42% of the area of the West Bank
(total of about 2,400 km²) is controlled by Israeli settlers (see Map , MS
Word format report .
International and Legal background
The Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids an
occupying country from moving its citizens into the territory, is frequently cited as establishing the illegality of the
settlements. Israel, in return, argues that West Bank and Gaza do not legally constitute occupied territories and hence denies
the de-jure applicability of the Geneva conventions to them.
The establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been declared illegal by the
UN Security Council many times, for example in resolutions
446, 452, 465 and 471.
Since resolutions 446 and 465 were not made under Chapter VI or VII of the United Nations Charter, Israel argues that it is purely an advisory request, and chose not to
fulfill it. The issue of the legal status of resolutions of the UN Security Council not made under Chapters VI or VII of the
Charter is controversial in international law -- some accept Israel's argument, others reject it, and consider the resolution to
be legally binding on Israel.
Armistice agreements in effect at the time of the 1967 Six-Day War were
violated by the Arab states when they declared war, rendering the existing cease fire lines meaningless. Thus there is no
effective border between Israel and the former Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian territories within the former Palestine mandate.
The settlements are not within an occupied territory. However, for this region alone this view is not accepted de-jure by the
international community, even though in similar cases across the globe this view is accepted as normative. The current
international consensus is that there should be new borders, defined by multilateral negotiations (see UN Security Council Resolution 242);
this supports the Israeli's viewpoint.
Egypt never attempted to annex the Gaza Strip (although they did establish a military government there), and Jordan's
annexation of the West Bank was recognised by only two nations. Moreover, Jordan withdrew its claim in 1988, leaving Israel as
the only state holding a claim to the area. Therefore Israel holds that it is impossible to define these lands as "occupied", and
denies the de-jure applicability of the Geneva Conventions to them. Palestinians reason that Jordan withdrew its claims so that a
Palestinian Arab state could be established there -- not for Israeli settlements. To that, Israel replies that the stance of both
Jordan and Egypt on this issue was that it was to be resolved bilaterally by Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel further points out that in the Oslo accords, the Palestinians
accepted at least the temporary presence of Israeli settlements; therefore the violent attacks carried out by Palestinians
against settlements are not only wrong because of settlers' being civilians, but also are in fact breach of a mutual agreement
put down in the form of Oslo Accords. Some moderate Palestinians agree that violence is unacceptable. However, all but a tiny
minority support the right of self defense against the heavily armed Jewish settlers a minority of which have attacked
Palestinians.
Tensions, mistrust and accusations
The settlements have on several occasions been a source of tension between Israel and the U.S. In 1991 there was a clash between the Bush administration and Israel, where the U.S. delayed a subsidized loan in order
to pressure Israel not to proceed with the establishment of settlements for instance in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem corridor. Jimmy
Carter has said that the settlements consitute a major obstacle to peace. The current Bush administration, while generally being
supportive of Israel, has said that settlements are "unhelpful" to the peace process. Generally, these U.S. efforts have at most
temporarily delayed further expansion of Israeli settlements. It should also be noted that U.S. public opinion is divided. The
strongest support for the Israeli position can be found among the evangelical Christians. Public opinion outside the U.S. and
Israel strongly opposes the settlements.
Palestinians argue that Israel has violated the Oslo accords by
continuing to expand the settlements after the signing of the accords. Israel argues that the PLO instead violated the Oslo accords by not dismantling the
terrorist organisations and by inciting their population to hate. Palestinians
and other Arab states regularly accuse Israel of attacking refugee camps and villages in an attempt to scare off Palestinians and
claim the land as theirs. Israel justifies that it only fights against those terrorist organisations, and if there would be no
terrorists, there wouldn't be any military operations.
Israel previously also had settlements in the Sinai, but these where withdrawn as a result of the peace agreement with Egypt.
Most proposals for achieving a final settlement of the Middle East conflict involve Israel dismantling a large number of
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza strip. A poll conducted by Peace Now in
July 2002 indicates that up to two-thirds of the settler population would agree to evacuate, provided that it is done as a result
of a democratically-made and accepted decision by the Israeli government, while the rest would refuse to leave peacefully.
Most Israeli and US proposals for final settlement have also involved Israel being allowed to retain settlements near Israel
proper and in East Jerusalem (the majority of the settler population is near the
Green Line), with Israel annexing the land on which the settlements are located. This would result in a transfer of roughly 5% of
the West Bank to Israel, with the Palestinians being compensated by the transfer of a similar share of Israeli territory (i.e.
territory behind the Green Line) to the Palestinian state.
Palestinians complain that the land offered in exchange is situated in the Judean desert, while the areas that Israel seeks to
retain are considered to be among the West Bank's most fertile areas; to this Israel replies that if the current Green line is
fully retained, Israel would have at some points no more than 17 kilometers from the border to the sea, which is widely
considered an immense security risk. However, this is an issue that is separate from the discussion of settlements. For more
details about the issues at stake, see Proposals for a Palestinian state.
On April 30, 2003 the details of the Roadmap for Peace in
the Middle East were released. The "roadmap" is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a set of
milestones, with the ultimate result being the creation of an independent Palestinian State and a safe and secure Israel. The
plan was proposed by a "quartet" of international entities: the United
States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations.
Topics that need more discussion
- the origin of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai.
- the historical, social and political context in which these settlements were created.
- The political and religious motivations of the settlers. Note that many people simply move to settlements for tax
purposes.
- The willingness of Israel to remove all settlements in the Sinai once a peace treaty with Egypt was signed.
- the radical side of the settler movement, and also the more moderate side
the population, location, extent of the settlements and time of settlement- the motivation of suicide bombers
Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank
Cost estimations
The Israeli government provides massive financial incentives to Jewish settlers in these disputed territories. The budget from 2001 shows that
204,000 settlers lived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a figure that represents just under 3% of all Israeli residents; the
money spent on this fragment of the Jewish populace that year was $533.6 million. The big-ticket financial compensation comprised
transfers to local authorities ($195.6 million), income tax reductions ($48.7 million), housing subsidies ($136.5 million), and
transportation mainly of bypass roads ($96.5 million) (these figures do not include investments for military defense). A report
published by Ha'aretz on September 26, 2003, claimed that the non-military expenditure on the
settlements was conservatively $560 million per year in excess of the usual expenditure on a similar number of ordinary Israeli
citizens. Since they were not able to determine the cost of some large budget items such as land acquisition, the newspaper
concluded that "the real figure is apparently much higher". The newspaper estimated the total unusual civilian
expenditure since 1967 to be at least $10 billion. It said that the military cost was
impossible to estimate but may be about the same. Settler organizations responded that in fact the budget discriminated against
them. [3]
In May 2004, the Israeli State Comptroller revealed that
millions of dollars had been spent on settlements that did not have official government approval (those called "illegal" in
Israeli terminology). The settlements thus funded even included some whose removal had been publicly promised by the government.
[4] (http:/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=423998)
Population Statistics
- Israeli Settlement in the Gaza Strip
- Israeli Settlement in the West Bank
- Historical Israeli Settler Population in Gaza Strip and West Bank
External links
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