353
6.L
AND
&S
ETTLEMENTS
Background
Since 1967
, all Israeli governments have pursued an expansionist settlement policy. The
first settlement
, Kfar Etzion, wasestablished near Bethlehem in late 1967; by the end of 1968 there were some 30 settlements, housing about 5,000 settlers,mostly in the eastern West Bank. In the 1970s, the official policy followed the plan of Yigal Allon, head of the MinisterialCommittee for Settlements, and in 1977, when Likud came to power, the focus shifted to the western areas in the West Bank.With the signing of the
Oslo Accords
the Palestinians agreed to defer all difficult issues, incl. settlements, to a later stage inexchange for an Israeli commitment to disengage from the OPT and preserve the territorial integrity of the WBGS. This,although the Oslo Accords include a broad range of protective measures for the settlements and settlers – such as theirexclusion from Palestinian jurisdiction, blanket limitations on Palestinian land use near settlements as well as Israeli controlover land registration, zoning and security. Israel has continued to take unilateral actions, all of which are aimed at creatingmore irreversible facts on the ground in violation of international law.Settlements, under the protection of the Israeli army, take up land for housing, roads, infrastructure and cultivation, as wellas water. Settlements
breach international law (e.g.,
Art. 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “TheOccupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”) and
various
UNSC resolutions
(e.g., Res. 465 of 1 March 1980 calling on Israel “to dismantle the existing settlements and in particularto cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupiedsince 1967, including Jerusalem”). Likewise, the Road Map of 30 April 2003 called for the “freezing” of all settlementexpansion, including natural growth of settlements. However, fact is that despite the commitments under the Road Map andat
Annapolis
, Israeli settlements continue to expand and very few outposts have been removed.The
Palestinian position
remains that Israeli settlements are illegal, threaten the viability of a two-state solution andtherefore must be evacuated, incl. those in East Jerusalem.
SettlerPopulation
•
The Israeli CBS records 282,500
“Israelis” in ”Jewish localities” in the West Bank (in the first half of 2008, excl.Jerusalem), the PCBS counts a total of 475,760
settlers
(2007), and OCHA 450,000.
•
According to the
Israeli CBS
, the settlers’ annual
growth rate
was 5.8% in 2007 (as opposed to the general Israeligrowth rate of only 1.8%) and 4.6% in the first half of 2008.
•
The settler population
is equivalent to 3.85% of
Israel’s total population
, or 5.1% of Israel’s
Jewish population
.
•
3% of
immigrants
to Israel settle in the West Bank and 19% settle in Jerusalem (East & West)
(
Ha’aretz,
25 Feb. 2008).
•
The separation barrier effectively incorporates over 414,000 illegal settlers i.e., keeps them
west of the
wall
.
(PLO-NAD
,Barrier to Peace: Assessment of Israel’s Wall Route
, July 2008).
•
The
PCBS
put the total settler population in 2006 at 475,760, 259,712 of which in the
Jerusalem Governorate
(and201,239 of those within Israel’s municipal boundaries). Accordingly, settlers make up 16.1% of the total population livingin the West Bank.
(PCBS,
Statistical Report about Israeli Settlements,
2007).
050,000100,000150,000200,000250,000300,000
1 9 7 2 1 9 8 2 1 9 8 3 1 9 8 4 1 9 8 5 1 9 8 6 1 9 8 7 1 9 8 8 1 9 8 9 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7
Growth
of Israel's Settler Population (excl. East Jerusalem)
(Source: Israeli Ministry of Interior, and Israeli
Leave a Comment