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. Undiplomatic Settlement Expansion “Settlement Thrives as Diplomacy Stalls” ........................... 146 Judaizing Beit Hanina with American Backing, by Jeff Halper . 147 Israeli Government Approves the Establishment of New Settlements for the First Time since 1990, by Peace Now (excerpts) . 149 The Settlers and the IDF “Don’t Shoot, We’re Settlers” .................................... 150 “Legalizing” Settlement Outposts “As the Illegal Outpost of Migron Goes, So Goes All of Israel” by Lara Friedman ......................................... 152 “Under the Guise of Legality: Israel’s Declarations of State Land in the West Bank,” by B’Tselem (excerpts) ....................... 154 UNDIPLOMATIC SETTLEMENT administration’s initial demand for a EXPANSION settle ment freeze has long passed. Re- cent !gures published by Israel’s Central “SETTLEMENT THRIVES AS DIPLOMACY Bureau of Statistics show a complete STALLS” recovery from the limited and short- lived effects of the U.S. policy. The Jew- From Settlement Report, March–April ish population in the West Bank soared 2012 to 342,414 last year, representing an annual increase of 4.3 percent. Not in- “There is no need to look any fur- cluded in this !gure are more than ther,” crows a newspaper advertisement 200,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem. jointly published by Israel’s Land Au- Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- thority and the Ministry of Housing and yahu has succeeded in setting a dip- Construction. “More land, More apart- lomatic agenda that de"ects effective ments, More possibilities.” Permits for diplomacy aimed at curb ing Israel’s 6,000 dwelling units are listed, includ- settlement drive and continuing occu- ing 500 in the settlements of Har Homa pation. Months before the Arab Spring (East Jerusalem), 180 in Givat Ze’ev, and and the U.S. election season presented 351 in Betar Illit. a ready explanation for U.S. inac tion, The threat to Israeli settlement ex- the White House was out of ideas about pansion posed by the Barack Obama how to proceed in the aftermath of the Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XLI, No. 4 (Summer 2012), pp. 146–157, 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.4.146. JPS4104_11_Settlement Monitor.indd 146 09/08/12 10:53 AM SETTLEMENT MONITOR 147 settlement freeze !asco. Today, concern building in Hebron that they claim to about Iran has pushed everything else have purchased legally from a Palestin- from senior-level U.S.-Israeli bilateral ian owner. The area where the building discussions. is located has been all but emptied of Netanyahu’s ability to stymie nego- Palestinian residents, and owner ship of tiations and continuing Pal estinian divi- building itself is mired in a Palestinian sion have convinced many in Israel and family dispute. the international community, if not the “Four-thousand years after Abraham, Palestinians themselves, that there is no our forefather, bought the Tomb of the point today in trying to resolve the con- Patriarchs, we are coming to continue "ict. The Israeli public is overwhelm- in his path and are building the city of ingly complacent about continuing our forefa thers,” said Shlomo Levinger, occupation. In the absence of interna- who moved into the building in Hebron tional leadership, incrementalism domi- along with his wife and seven children. nates. The diplomatic course pursued Levinger’s parents were among the by the Quartet and the European Union founders of the settle ment movement focuses on self-limited, tactical !xes to in Hebron and Elon Moreh almost !ve the occupation—for example, trying to decades ago. Their Passover Seder at curb Israel’s pow ers over Palestinian the Park Hotel in 1968 marked the be- development in Area C, comprising 60 ginning of the Jewish re-settlement of percent of the West Bank. Even if suc- Hebron. cessful, such advances amount only to Levinger told Walla! News that “the tinkering with the status quo. police have received all of the neces- Settlers have their own response to sary documents, and we have no doubt such half-measures. As Ha’Aretz reports, that once they have examined them, “Naftali Bennett, the former head of the they will authorize our continued pres- Yesha Council of settlers, is proposing ence here. We hope that, just as we did a temporary diplomatic plan for manag- last night, the Israeli government will ing the con"ict. Bennett’s idea sounds continue to buy and build houses here logical: Since it’s impossible to solve the in the city of our forefathers and will con"ict or annex the West Bank as it is, continue to populate all parts of Hebron Israel must unilaterally annex Area C and the Land of Israel.” and give the 55,000 Palestinians living In a display of uncharacteristic de- there full Israeli citizenship.” termination, the Netan yahu government Reuters, quoting a Palestinian source, peacefully removed the settlers on 4 reported that in informal discussions April 2012. earlier this year in Jordan, the Israeli “We are determined to make sure team had suggested that any solution that the rule of law and the author- creating a Palestinian state needs to ity of the state of Israel over all its citi- “preserve the social and economic fab- zens will be assured. When there is a ric of all com munities, Jewish or Pal- violation, it will be put back to track,” estinian.” In other words, Israel wants Defense Minister Ehud Barak told re- settlement interests to be acknowledged porters shortly after the operation, ex- and preserved as part of a !nal status plaining that “the house was taken over agreement. by citizens against the law.” “The only negotiations that Netan- yahu implemented was the Hebron JUDAIZING BEIT HANINA WITH AMERICAN agreement [of 1996],” explained Pal- BACKING estinian negotiator Nabil Sha’ath. “He didn’t do anything after this. I don’t The following report by Jeff Halper believe that Netanyahu is ideologically was originally posted on Mondoweiss a radical. He is pragmatic. He believes on 31 March 2012 with the title “‘Juda- that one day he will need to return to izing’ Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, the peace process, but until then he will with Backing from Americans.” The take as much land as possible in order original text can be obtained at http:// to establish facts on the ground.” mondoweiss.net/2012/03/judaizing-beit- On 28 March 2012, more than hanina-in-east-jerusalem-with-backing- 100 settlers moved into a three-story from-americans.html. JPS4104_11_Settlement Monitor.indd 147 09/08/12 10:53 AM 148 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES Driving Palestinians out of their Hotel and Sheikh Jarrah, now renamed homes in “east” Jerusalem is, as you can Shimon Hatzadik; a plot in the vil- imagine, a dirty business. But it’s not lage of Anata to the east of the Hebrew terribly dif!cult. The Palestinians are a university; and now the homes in Beit vulnerable population, poor (70% sub- Hanina. sist on less than $2 a day), completely While King, Moskowitz and other unprotected by the law or Israeli courts, organized settler groups frame their and targeted by determined Jewish set- taking of Palestinian homes as “reclaim- tlers with all the money and political ing” Jewish properties from before backing in the world—much of its com- 1948, Palestinians are legally prevented ing, of course, from the United States, from even approaching the courts to mainly from orthodox Jews and Chris- reclaim their lost properties in “west” tian Zionists. Jerusalem—the homes, businesses and Over the past few days settlers led by lands that once comprised 40% of the Arieh King have been harassing Pales- now all-Jewish part of the city. King tinian residents of Beit Hanina where, works through a company called The according to King, settlers will “very Israel Land Fund [ILF] that, according to soon” take over four houses, plus an ad- its website, “is dedicated to enable all ditional two houses in the Palestinian Jews (Israeli and non-Israeli citizens) to neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where own a part of Israel. It strives to ensure violent nighttime evictions aided by the that Jewish land is once again reclaimed Israeli police have become common- and in Jewish hands. House by house, place. The immediate target of window- lot by lot, the Israel Land Fund is ensur- breaking, curses, violent encounters and ing the land of Israel stays in the hands now a police search of the home “for of the Jewish people forever.” weapons” is the Natche family of Beit Just how sleazy the settlement racket Hanina. is can be gleaned from The Israel Land King is the front-man for Irving Mos- Fund’s website. It employs, we learn, kowitz, a wealthy owner of bingo casi- three full-time employees who “are well nos in Hawaiian Gardens, a poor Latino versed in Arabic, and all served as of!- community near Los Angeles, who is cers in the Israel Defense Force.” It adds bankrolling some 17 settlements around menacingly and tellingly: “These skills East Jerusalem to “buffer” the Old City are frequently called into play in their and “Judaize” East Jerusalem (see the dealings with Arab sellers and with the StopMoskowitz website).