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Israeli settlements are residential areas established by Israel in the territories occupied following the 1967 Six-Day War that are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish ethnicity,[1][2] Israel currently maintains settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, and in the Golan Heights. Israel, in acts internationally condemned, effectively annexed both East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and does not consider its civilian localities in either East Jerusalem or in the Golan Heights to be settlements, however the international community continues to consider both territories occupied and the communities established in them as settlements. The international community considers settlements illegal under international law as violating the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition of on the transfer of civilians in to or out of occupied territory by the occupying power, though Israel disputes this.

Such settlements within Palestinian territories currently exist in Area C of the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and within Syrian territory in the Golan Heights.

Following the 1967 war, Israeli settlements also existed within Egyptian territory in the Sinai Peninsula, and within the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip; however, Israel evacuated the Sinai settlements following the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace agreement and from the Gaza Strip in 2005 under Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. Israel dismantled 18 settlements in the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, while in 2005[3] all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled, but only four in the West Bank. In the West Bank, however, Israel continues to expand its remaining settlements as well as settling new areas,[4][5][6][7][8] despite pressure from the international community to desist. According to the Israeli investigative reporter Uri Blau, settlements received funding by private tax-exempt U.S. NGOs of $220 million for 2009–2013, suggesting that the U.S. is indirectly subsidizing their creation.[9]

The international community considers the settlements in occupied territory to be illegal,[10] and the United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[11][12]

The Israeli-occupied area known as East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are also considered settlements by the international community despite Israel having enacted domestic Israeli legislation declaring territorial annexation to Israel, which is also not recognised by the international community.[13] The International Court of Justice also says these purportedly annexed settlements are illegal in a 2004 advisory opinion.[14][15][16]

In April 2012, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, in response to moves by Israel to legalise Israeli outposts, reiterated that all settlement activity is illegal, and "runs contrary to Israel's obligations under the Road Map and repeated Quartet calls for the parties to refrain from provocations."[17] Similar criticism was advanced by the EU and the US.[18][19] Israel disputes the position of the international community and the legal arguments that were used to declare the settlements illegal.[20] In December 2016 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 confirmed the illegality of the settlement enterprise and renders Israeli citizens involved with settling the West Bank vulnerable to lawsuits throughout the world.[21]

The presence and ongoing expansion of existing settlements by Israel and the construction of settlement outposts is frequently criticized as an obstacle to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process by the Palestinians,[22] and third parties such as the OIC,[23] the United Nations,[24] Russia,[25] the United Kingdom,[26] France,[27] the European Union,[28] and the United States have echoed those criticisms.[24]

Settlement has an economic dimension, much of it driven by the significantly lower costs of housing for Israeli citizens living in Israeli settlements compared to the cost of housing and living in Israel proper.[29] Government spending per citizen in the settlements is double that spent per Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while government spending for settlers in isolated Israeli settlements is three times the Israeli national average. Most of the spending goes to the security of the Israeli citizens living there.[30]

On 30 June 2014, according to the Yesha Council, 382,031 Israeli citizens lived in the 121 officially recognised Israeli settlements in the West Bank, almost exclusively Jewish citizens of Israel. A number of Palestinian non-Israeli citizens (as opposed to Arab citizens of Israel) also reside in Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem,[31] however, over 300,000 Israeli citizens (both Jewish citizens of Israel and Arab citizens of Israel) lived in settlements in East Jerusalem, and over 20,000 Israeli citizens lived in settlements in the Golan Heights.[32][33][34] In January 2015 the Israeli Interior Ministry gave figures of 389,250 Israeli citizens living in the West Bank and a further 375,000 Israeli citizens living in East Jerusalem.[35]

Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.

  1. ^ Haklai, Oded (14 October 2015). Loizides, Neophytos; Haklai, Oded (eds.). Settlers in Contested Lands: Territorial Disputes and Ethnic Conflicts. Stanford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8047-9650-7. the Israel settlers reside almost solely in exclusively Jewish communities (one exception is a small enclave within the city of Hebron).
  2. ^ Dumper, Michael (17 June 2014). Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City. Columbia University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-231-53735-3. This is despite huge efforts by successive governments to fragment and encircle Palestinian residential areas with exclusively Jewish zones of residence – the settlements.
  3. ^
  4. ^ Anthony Cordesman, Jennifer Moravitz, The Israeli–Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere, Greenwood Publishing Group, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2005 p. 432: 'Between 1993 and 1999, settlers established 42 "unofficial" settlements, only four of which were subsequently dismantled. More than a dozen new settlements were established between the 1998 Wye Accord [sic: it's the Wye River Memorandum, but Oslo Accords] and the outbreak of war, although former Prime Minister Netanyahu supposedly promised Clinton that he would halt expansion.'
  5. ^ Zeev Maoz Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security & Foreign Policy, University of Michigan Press, 2006 p. 472: 'As can be seen from the table, in 1993 there were about 110,000 settlers in the occupied territories. In 2001 there were 195,000 (Note that the number of settlers increased by 18 percent during the Al Aqsa Intifada). This was an increase of 73 percent'
  6. ^ Marwan Bishara, Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid Zed Books, 2003 p. 133: 'The settlement expansion has continued unabated...and accelerated after the launch of the peace process.' p. 133.
  7. ^ Baylis Thomas, The Dark Side of Zionism: Israel's Quest for Security Through Dominance Lexington Books, 3011 p. 137:'Six years after the agreement there were more Israeli settlements, less freedom of movement, and worse economic conditions." Settlement building and roads for Jewish settlers proceeded at a frenetic pace under Barak – the classic Zionist maneuver of creating of facts on the ground to preclude a Palestinian state.' p. 137.
  8. ^ Barahona, Ana (2013). Bearing Witness: Eight weeks in Palestine. London: Metete. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-908099-02-0.
  9. ^ Uri Blau, 'Haaretz Investigation: U.S. Donors Gave Settlements More Than $220 Million in Tax-exempt Funds Over Five Years,' Haaretz, 7 December 2015.
  10. ^
    • Roberts, Adam (1990). "Prolonged Military Occupation: The Israeli-Occupied Territories Since 1967". The American Journal of International Law. 84 (1). American Society of International Law: 85–86. doi:10.2307/2203016. JSTOR 2203016. S2CID 145514740. The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law. General Assembly resolutions have condemned the deportations since 1969, and have done so by overwhelming majorities in recent years. Likewise, they have consistently deplored the establishment of settlements, and have done so by overwhelming majorities throughout the period (since the end of 1976) of the rapid expansion in their numbers. The Security Council has also been critical of deportations and settlements; and other bodies have viewed them as an obstacle to peace, and illegal under international law.
    • Pertile, Marco (2005). "'Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory': A Missed Opportunity for International Humanitarian Law?". In Conforti, Benedetto; Bravo, Luigi (eds.). The Italian Yearbook of International Law. Vol. 14. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 141. ISBN 978-90-04-15027-0. the establishment of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been considered illegal by the international community and by the majority of legal scholars.
    • Barak-Erez, Daphne (2006). "Israel: The security barrier—between international law, constitutional law, and domestic judicial review". International Journal of Constitutional Law. 4 (3). Oxford University Press: 548. doi:10.1093/icon/mol021. The real controversy hovering over all the litigation on the security barrier concerns the fate of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Since 1967, Israel has allowed and even encouraged its citizens to live in the new settlements established in the territories, motivated by religious and national sentiments attached to the history of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. This policy has also been justified in terms of security interests, taking into consideration the dangerous geographic circumstances of Israel before 1967 (where Israeli areas on the Mediterranean coast were potentially threatened by Jordanian control of the West Bank ridge). The international community, for its part, has viewed this policy as patently illegal, based on the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibit moving populations to or from territories under occupation.
    • Drew, Catriona (1997). "Self-determination and population transfer". In Bowen, Stephen (ed.). Human rights, self-determination and political change in the occupied Palestinian Hkterritories. International studies in human rights. Vol. 52. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-90-411-0502-8. It can thus clearly be concluded that the transfer of Israeli settlers into the occupied territories violates not only the laws of belligerent occupation but the Palestinian right of self-determination under international law. The question remains, however, whether this is of any practical value. In other words, given the view of the international community that the Israeli settlements are illegal under the law if belligerent occupation...
    • International Labour Organization (2005). "The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories" (PDF). p. 14. The international community considers Israeli settlements within the occupied territories illegal and in breach of, inter alia, United Nations Security Council resolution 465 of 1 March 1980 calling on Israel "to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem".
    • Civilian and military presence as strategies of territorial control: The Arab-Israel conflict, David Newman, Political Geography Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 3, July 1989, Pages 215–227
  11. ^ "UN Security Council Resolution 465". Archived from the original on 19 September 2015.
  12. ^
    • "What next for Gaza and West Bank?". BBC. 30 August 2005. Retrieved 5 January 2010. Most Israelis support the pullout, but some feel the government has given in to Palestinian militant groups, and worry that further withdrawals will follow. Palestinian critics point out that Gaza will remain under Israeli control, and that they are being denied a political say in the disengagement process.
    • Yearbook of the United Nations 2005. United Nations Publications. 2007. p. 514. ISBN 9789211009675. The Israeli Government was preparing to implement an unprecedented initiative: the disengagement of all Israeli civilians and forces from the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of four settlements in the northern West Bank.
    • Yael Yishai (1987). Land Or Peace. Hoover Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780817985233. During 1982 Israel's government stuck to its territorial policy in word and deed. All the settlements in Sinai were evacuated in accordance with the Camp David Accords, but settlement activity in the other territories continued uninterrupted. A few days after the final withdrawal from Sinai had been completed, Begin announced that he would introduce a resolution barring future governments from dismantling settlements, even as a result of peace negotiations.
  13. ^ Donald MacIntyre, The Big Question: What are Israeli settlements, and why are they coming under pressure?, The Independent 29 May 2009
  14. ^ "Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004" (PDF). International Court of Justice. 9 July 2004. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 August 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  15. ^ fco.gov.uk Archived 30 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Regarding international organizations and courts of law, see "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link); regarding the UN, see UN General Assembly resolution 39/146, 14 December 1984; UN Security Council Resolution 446, 22 March 1979; and International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, 9 July 2004, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, para 120; Regarding the European Union position, see The Syrian Golan
  17. ^ Natasha Mozgovaya, Reuters and The Associated Press, Palestinians call on UN to stop Israeli settlement legalization, at Haaretz, 26 April 2012.
  18. ^ Michal Shmulovich (24 April 2012). "World leaders blast legalization of three West Bank outposts". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  19. ^ Michal Shmulovich (26 April 2012). "EU urges Israel to reverse its authorization of three West Bank outposts". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  20. ^ "Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to frequently asked questions". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. November 2007. Are Israeli settlements legal?
  21. ^ 'Ramifications of UNSC resolution: Sanctions, boycotts and ICC lawsuits,' Ynet 24 December 2016.
  22. ^ "Palestinians condemn settlements plan". The Financial Times. 20 May 2011.
  23. ^ "OIC Secretary General hails EU decision on Israeli settlements" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine - OIC Statement to UN. Accessed March 14, 2015.
  24. ^ a b "Israeli settlement plan denounced". BBC. 8 November 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  25. ^ "Russia urges Israel to halt settlement construction". RIA Novosti. 2 November 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  26. ^ "Britain: Israeli settlements are 'illegal' and 'obstacle' to peace". Haaretz. 4 November 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  27. ^ "France condemns Israel over settlement building decision". Business Standard. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  28. ^ "EU's Ashton SAYS Israeli settlement plans hurt peace moves". Reuters. 15 March 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  29. ^ 'The economics at the heart of Israel's illegal settlements,' Ma'an News Agency 7 January 2015.
  30. ^ Jodi Rudoren, Jeremy Ashkenas,'Netanyahu and the Settlements,' The New York Times, 12 March 2015: 'the government spent about $950 supporting each West Bank resident in 2014, more than double its investment in people living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem; in isolated settlements, it was $1,483 per capita.'
  31. ^ Williams, Dan Leave or let live? Arabs move in to Jewish settlements Reuters. 7 Dec 2014
  32. ^ "Israel okays 2,610 homes for Jews and Arabs in E. Jerusalem".
  33. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (26 July 2012). "Population of Jewish settlements in West Bank up 15,000 in a year". The Guardian. London.
  34. ^ "Facts About Jewish Settlements in the West Bank".
  35. ^ "Jewish Population in Judea & Samaria Growing Significantly".
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