Settlement Monitor
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SETTLEMENT MONITOR EDITED BY GEOFFREY ARONSON This section covers items—reprinted articles, statistics, and maps—pertaining to Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Unless otherwise stated, the items have been written by Geoffrey Aronson for this section or drawn from material written by him for Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories (hereinafter Settlement Report), a Washington-based bimonthly newsletter published by the Foundation for Middle East Peace. JPS is grateful to the foundation for permission to draw on its material. “Madrid’s Legacy—Build Settlements, Weaken the PLO” . 205 Settler Violence, the IDF, and West Bank Expansion “The Settlers and the Army Are One” .............................. 208 “What’s All the Fuss over Migron?” by Peace Now (excerpts) . 211 Democracy and the “Return” of the Jews to the West Bank, by Karin Laub (excerpts) ................................... 215 The “Concrete Embrace” of Bethlehem “Settlement Expansion Encircling Bethlehem” ....................... 216 “A New Outpost is to be Established South of Bethlehem,” by Peace Now (excerpts) ................................... 217 “MADRID’S LEGACY—BUILD and East Jerusalem has only gone from SETTLEMENTS, WEAKEN THE PLO” strength to strength as the settler pop- ulation exploded from 231,000 when From Settlement Report, November– Madrid convened to more than half a December 2011. million today. Israel’s “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip in 2005 only high- The Madrid Peace Conference con- lighted the critical role of complete vened two decades ago in a spirit of settlement evacuation as a key element great optimism. However it was Prime signaling a change in Israeli policy. Minister Yitzhak Shamir, dragged to American leadership, so critical to the meeting by President George H. W. bringing hesitant and suspicious lead- Bush, who offered the most prescient ers to the negotiating table at Madrid, is commentary on Madrid’s troubled legacy. more notable today for its shortcomings. “I would have carried out autonomy The initial effort of the Obama admin- talks for ten years,” he remarked in June istration to end occupation and create a 1992, “and meanwhile we would have Palestinian state has been abandoned in reached one half a million people in favor of a “full court press” against UN Judea and Samaria.” recognition of a Palestinian state, con- After twenty years of negotiations demned by Washington as an unaccept- the occupation is as !rmly entrenched able “short-cut to statehood.” (The PLO as ever. Settlements have always been leadership turned to the United Nations a key barometer of Israel’s intentions. only after Washington’s diplomatic ef- According to this standard, Israel’s com- fort to win a settlement freeze collapsed manding presence in the West Bank in mid-2009.) Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XLI, No. 3 (Spring 2012), pp. 205–218, ISSN: 0377-919X; electronic ISSN: 1533-8614. © 2012 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: jps.2012.XLI.3.205. JPS4103_13_Settlement Monitor.indd 205 6/5/12 10:31 AM 206 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES Palestinians Are Not Finns a unity government with Hamas. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilat- Quartet envoys come and go without eral determination to break with all of noticeable impact. The president’s in- Oslo’s conventions in 2005 led in Gaza advertently public remarks to President to the !rst evacuation of settlements Nicolas Sarkozy betrayed his long-ev- since Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt ident frustration with Prime Minister in 1979 and the empowerment of the Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet administration PLO’s nemesis, the Islamic Resistance of!cials, not to mention leading !gures Movement—Hamas. Dov Weisglas ne- in Congress, openly convey a desire to gotiated the text of an April 2005 let- “punish” PLO chairman Mahmoud Ab- ter from President George W. Bush to bas and the Palestinian Authority for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offering what the State Department derided as U.S. support for the Gaza withdrawal. an effort to “establish statehood through He later explained that the backdoor” via the United Nations, rather than confront Netanyahu’s op- we effectively agreed . with the Americans . position to U.S. policy. U.S. funding to that part of the [West Bank and East Jerusalem] Palestinians through the Agency for In- settlements [blocs] would not be dealt with at ternational Development (AID) has been all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns. That is the signi!- curtailed or stopped. The U.S.-trained cance of what we did. The signi!cance is the Palestinian security forces have had U.S. freezing of the political process. This whole funding of $197 million reluctantly re- package that is called the Palestinian state, stored after a cut off sparked by Abbas’ with all that it entails, has been removed from UN campaign, but continuing budget our agenda inde!nitely. And all this with shortfalls have forced massive cuts in authority and permission. All with a presidential PA police and security budgets. blessing and the rati!cation of both houses of Washington’s disaffection with Ne- Congress. What more could have been antici- tanyahu is shared by Europe’s top politi- pated? What more could have been given to the settlers? cians. After the recent announcement of construction of 1,100 units in the East Commenting recently on the freezing Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of of the diplomatic process that he did so Gilo, German chancellor Angela Merkel much to encourage, Weisglas soberly allowed that Netanyahu “is not seri- observed that, “the Palestinian street is ous and he does not intend to promote liable to deduce that violence pays off. the basic and necessary conditions for Hamas’s approach currently appears renewal of the talks with the Palestin- to be far more bene!cial than the PA’s ians.” Sarkozy, in inadvertently public policy of zero violence and zero terror- remarks to Obama, simply described ism. In addition to other failures by the Netanyahu as a “liar.” Palestinian Authority, such as the com- plications their UN bid has run into, the Weaken the PA, Settle the Hilltops deadlocked negotiations with the Ne- The PLO, excluded from the Madrid tanyahu government and continued Is- process, stepped onto center stage in raeli construction outside the settlement September 1993 at Oslo as the recog- blocs—it is no wonder that its standing nized representative of the Palestinian has been so badly degraded.” people. But Oslo also accommodated Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement or Obama’s Retreat to support Palestinian statehood, griev- There is no questioning the Obama ous conditions that have haunted all administration’s retreat from active and subsequent diplomacy. Indeed, Oslo determined diplomatic engagement to played a key role in enabling the expan- end occupation and create a Palestinian sion of settlement that continues to this state. U.S. policy has been reduced to day and in subjecting Palestinians to half-hearted suggestions from the State an endless progression of demands that Department about “quiet” and “partial” have enfeebled the Palestinian Author- settlement freezes. Bill Burns, the U.S. ity by failing to reduce Israel’s grip on undersecretary of state, was in Israel the West Bank and East Jerusalem. during November to promote negotia- International law proscribes all civil- tions and to prevent Fateh from forming ian settlement in occupied territory. One JPS4103_13_Settlement Monitor.indd 206 6/5/12 10:31 AM SETTLEMENT MONITOR 207 of the enduring myths of Israel’s settle- concerned about effective pressure from ment efforts is that private Palestinian Washington to constrain settlement ex- land is off limits for settlement. Israel’s pansion. He remains opposed to the High Court of Justice in 1979 ruled that discussion of borders and security out- privately owned Palestinian lands could lined by the Quartet. Pressed by market be con!scated for security-related pur- forces and public demands to increase poses but not simply to establish civil- housing construction throughout Israel, ian settlements. Nevertheless, private and ever-present settler demands, he is lands continued to be stolen from Pal- presiding over a new wave of relentless estinian owners by settlers and the IDF settlement expansion, particularly along after the ruling. Beginning in 1996, the the southern ring of East Jerusalem— !rst Netanyahu government embarked Gilo, Har Homa and most notably at on a still-continuing effort to “claim the Givat Hamatos (Airplane Hill), the !rst hilltops” by establishing more than 100 new large-scale settlement in East Je- new settlement outposts, many of them rusalem since the development of Har on private Palestinian land. In some iso- Homa by the !rst Netanyahu govern- lated cases, Israel’s High Court, relying ment in 1996. Political pressure contin- on its earlier rulings, has ordered a few ues to advance large-scale settlement of these outposts dismantled. plans at the site of the now defunct Je- YESHA [settlers’] Council chairman rusalem airport at Atarot and in the E-1 Danny Dayan has lead a campaign to area. legalize the land theft, most notably in Settlers feel stronger today than at the new settlement outposts. In a let- any time since Madrid. The United Na- ter to government ministers and MKs, tions has noted that the weekly average Dayan noted that more than 150 dwell- of attacks by settlers against Palestin- ings in which 1,000 Israelis, including ians increased by 40 percent in 2011 serving IDF of!cers, reside, are sched- compared to 2010, and by 165 percent uled for demolition in coming months.