what are the settlements in israel

Types of settlement

• Cities/towns: Ariel, Betar Illit, Modi'in Illit and Ma'ale Adumim.
• Urban suburbs, such as Har Gilo.
• Block settlements, such as Gush Etzion and settlements in the Nablus area.
• Frontier villages, such as those along the Jordan River.
• Outposts, small settlements, some authorized and some unauthorized, often on hilltops. ...

Full Answer

Why does Israel build settlements in Palestine?

You will find a lot of false historical statements in many other answers, but the real reasons are that Israel builds settlements in the West Bank because they want to, because no one cares about the fact that it is pure Palestinian land, because due to many political and economical reasons, some powerful countries support them.

What are the Israeli settlements?

Israeli settlements are Israeli civilian communities in the Israeli-occupied territories (lands that were captured from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War). Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The latter two areas are governed under Israeli civil law but are considered to be under military occupation by the ...

Are there any Palestinian settlements in Israel?

on MYTH: There are no Palestinian settlements. An international furor erupted when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if he won the election he would assert Israeli sovereignty over parts of Area C where the Oslo Accords already grants Israel full administrative control.

Does Israel have rights to settlements in the West Bank?

Settlements on “state land” often expand into surrounding, privately owned, Palestinian land. As an occupying power, Israel does not own the West Bank and is not permitted under international law to seize land in this manner. Based on the law in the West Bank, a state is only allowed to expropriate private land for public Palestinian needs.

What types of settlements are there in Israel?

Types of settlement Urban suburbs, such as Har Gilo. Block settlements, such as Gush Etzion and settlements in the Nablus area. Frontier villages, such as those along the Jordan River. Outposts, small settlements, some authorized and some unauthorized, often on hilltops.

How many settlements are there in Israel?

From 1967 through 2017, over 200 Israeli settlements were established in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem); their current population is almost 620,000.

How do Israeli settlements work?

According to the Israeli government, settlements are built on land not registered to Palestinians at the time of the 1967 war, unlike outposts, which are built on land that was registered to Palestinians (and are therefore illegal). Some outposts have been cleared while others were later legalized [source: Simons].

What is a settlement in Palestine?

Settlements are Jewish communities in historic Palestine built by the Zionist movement pre-1948 and thereafter by the state of Israel. These communities can range in size from single-person outposts to entire cities. One of the first settlements built by Zionists was Tel Aviv in the early 20th century.

Where are Israeli illegal settlements?

Nearly 700,000 Israeli settlers are now living in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, they stated. In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have approved plans for more than 1,700 new housing units in two settlements in East Jerusalem, Givat Hamatos and Pisgat Zeev, the experts reported.

Has Israel stolen land?

Israel has declared at least 26 percent of the West Bank as “state land”. Using a different interpretation of Ottoman, British and Jordanian laws, Israel stole public and private Palestinian land for settlements under the pretext of “state land”.

Why is Israel entitled to the land?

Jewish religious belief defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and excludes territory where it was not applied. It holds that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people based on the Torah, particularly the books of Genesis and Exodus, as well as on the later Prophets.

Are Israeli settlements a war crime?

Lynk said the Israeli settlements violate the absolute prohibition against the transfer by an occupying power of parts of its civilian population into an occupied territory. The international community designated this practice as a war crime when it adopted the Rome Statute in 1998.

What was Israel before 1948?

The region was ruled under the British Mandate for Palestine until 1948, when the Jewish State of Israel was proclaimed in part of the ancient land of Israel. This was made possible by the Zionist movement and its promotion of mass Jewish immigration.

Does Israel have settlements in Gaza?

Until 2005, more than 9,000 Israeli settlers were illegally residing in Gaza. In recent months, Israel has accelerated settlement expansion. The government has announced plans for thousands of new homes in existing settlements, as well as the establishment of two new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Does Israel occupy Palestinian land?

“There is today in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 a deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system that privileges the 700,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in the 300 illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the ...

What happened to Israeli settlements in Gaza?

The Israeli disengagement from Gaza (Hebrew: תוכנית ההתנתקות, Tokhnit HaHitnatkut) was the unilateral dismantling in 2005 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Israeli settlers and army from inside the Gaza Strip.

How many Israeli settlements are in the West Bank?

As of 2022, there are 140 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem. In addition, there are over 100 Israeli illegal outposts in the West Bank.

Who were the first settlers in Israel?

3,000 to 2,500 B.C. — The city on the hills separating the fertile Mediterranean coastline of present-day Israel from the arid deserts of Arabia was first settled by pagan tribes in what was later known as the land of Canaan. The Bible says the last Canaanites to rule the city were the Jebusites.

Why Israel build settlements?

Though there may be specific political reasons for specific settlement projects, the overarching reason Israel promotes settlement growth is security. Under the armistices lines, Israel was cut off by the West Bank, and enemy borders were close to population centers.

What is the names of the 12 tribes of Israel?

Whatever happened to the 12 Tribes of Israel mentioned in the Bible, and what were they called? The tribes were named after Jacob's sons and grandsons. They were Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun, Judah and Benjamin.

Where are the Israeli settlements?

This is a list of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Israel had previously established settlements in both the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, however the Gaza settlements were dismantled in the Israeli disengagement ...

What happened to East Jerusalem?

Following the capture and occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli government effectively annexed the formerly Jordanian occupied territory and extended the Jerusalem municipality borders by adding 70,500 dunams of land with the aim of establishing Jewish settlements and cementing the status of a united city under Israeli control. The Jerusalem Master Plan 1968 called for increasing the Israeli population of Arab East Jerusalem, encircling the city with Israeli settlements and excluding large Palestinian neighborhoods from the expanded municipality. Jerusalem was effectively annexed by Israel in 1980, an act that was internationally condemned and ruled "null and void" by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 478. The international community continues to regard East Jerusalem as occupied territory and Israel's settlements there illegal under international law.

When did Israel start building settlements in the Golan Heights?

Golan Heights. Construction of Israeli settlements began in the portion of the Golan Heights held by Israel in 1967, which was under military administration until Israel passed the Golan Heights Law extending Israeli law and administration throughout the territory in 1981.

What resolution did the UN adopt in 2008?

In 2008, a plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly voted by 161–1 in favour of a motion on the "occupied Syrian Golan" that reaffirmed support for UN Resolution 497. ( General Assembly adopts broad range of texts, 26 in all, on recommendation of its fourth Committee, including on decolonization, information, Palestine refugees, United Nations, 5 December 2008.)

Is the Golan Heights a Syrian settlement?

Israel in effect annexed the Golan Heights with the Golan Heights Law and does not consider the localities established there to be settlements. The United Nations Security Council ruled that act "null and void" in United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 and the international community continues to view the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli occupation.

Is the Israeli settlement illegal?

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention 's prohibition on the transfer of a civilian population to or from occupied territory, though Israel disputes this.

Did Israel have settlements in the Sinai Peninsula?

Israel had previously established settlements in both the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, however the Gaza settlements were dismantled in the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and the Sinai settlements were evacuated with the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty and the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. This list does not include West Bank ...

How many people lived in settlements in 1993?

Settlements continued to expand in the decades that followed, and by 1993 there were more than 280,000 people living in settlements (130,000 if East Jerusalem is excluded).

What was the Six Day War?

Six-Day War, brief war that took place June 5–10, 1967, and was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel’s decisive victory included the capture of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and Golan Heights; the…

What was the purpose of the settlements in the Jordan Valley?

Israel’s political and defense establishments, meanwhile—inspired in part by the peace plan of Yigal Allon, the deputy prime minister (1967–77)—spurred the development of settlements in strategic locations such as the Jordan Valley that would bolster Israel’s security and strengthen its hand in negotiations .

When were the settlements in the Sinai Peninsula evacuated?

Settlements in the Sinai Peninsula were either dismantled or evacuated in 1982, and settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled in 2005. It is disputed, moreover, whether communities in the formally annexed territories of East Jerusalem (part of the West Bank territory under Jordanian rule from 1949 to 1967) and the Golan Heights constitute ...

What is an Israeli settlement?

Israeli settlement. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Israeli settlement, any of the communities of Israeli Jews built after 1967 in the disputed territories captured by Israel in ...

How many settlers were there in 2019?

Despite the agreement, settlement building proliferated, especially in the West Bank, and in 2019 the number of settlers reached nearly 630,000 (413,000 if East Jerusalem is excluded). Most of these newer settlers were motivated less by reasons of ideology or recovering lost property, however, than by cheaper housing and financial incentives ...

What is the West Bank?

West Bank, area of the former British-mandated (1920–47) territory of Palestine west of the Jordan River, claimed from 1949 to 1988 as part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan but occupied from 1967 by Israel. The territory, excluding East Jerusalem, is also known within…

Can Israelis And Palestinians Change Their Minds?

Israel declared the entire city to be Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital.

What are some interesting facts about Israeli settlements?

7 Things To Know About Israeli Settlements : Parallels West Bank settlements have expanded under every Israeli government over the past half-century. Nearly 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population now lives on land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Where is the capital of Israel?

A Palestinian man walks near a construction site for new Israeli housing in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa in September. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as a capital of a future state and object to Israeli building in the eastern part of the city and throughout the West Bank. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital.

How many Israelis live in East Jerusalem?

Around 200,000 Israelis now live in East Jerusalem. Combined with the roughly 400,000 settlers in the West Bank, about 600,000 Israelis now live beyond the country's 1967 borders. That's nearly 10 percent of Israel's 6.3 million Jewish citizens.

What is settlement in Israel?

The term "settlements" may conjure up images of small encampments or temporary housing, and many have started that way. But they now include large subdivisions, even sizable cities, with manicured lawns and streets full of middle-class villas often set on arid hilltops. Israel is constantly building new homes and offers financial incentives for Israelis to live in the West Bank.

What was the impact of the evacuation of the settlements?

The evacuation of the settlements was deeply divisive within Israel, and Israel's security forces had to drag some settlers from their homes kicking and screaming. The episode demonstrated that Israel could remove settlers, but it also showed how much friction it creates inside Israel.

Why did the Jewish people live in the West Bank?

The settlers and their supporters cite the Jewish Bible, thousands of years of Jewish history, and Israel's need for "strategic depth" as reasons for living in the West Bank.

What are settlements?

Settlements are Israeli cities, towns and villages in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. (We will deal with East Jerusalem a bit later.) They tend to be gated communities with armed guards at the entrances. Why are they settlements and not simply Israeli residential areas? Because Israel is widely considered to be an occupying force in the territories. It is land that Palestinians, along with the international community, view as territory for a future Palestinian state.

Why are the West Bank and East Jerusalem considered occupied territory?

Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six-Day War. Seeing a military buildup in the surrounding Arab countries, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, after which Jordan, in turn, attacked Israel. Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly thereafter, unifying the city under Israel’s authority. But Israel has never annexed the West Bank, part of which remains under military law.

Who are the settlers?

This is a very broad question, and requires a fair amount of generalization.

Why are the settlements controversial?

The settlements are built on land the Palestinians and the international community, along with some in the Israeli community, see as a future Palestinian state. Some of the settlements – especially the blocs – may be a part of Israel in a two-state solution through land swaps between Israelis and Palestinians. One concern, expressed by the European Union, and in the past by the US State Department, is that settlement expansion may make a contiguous, whole Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible.

What is the legal status of settlements?

The settlements are illegal under international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention, which concerns civilian populations during a time of war, states in Article 49 that, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

What about East Jerusalem? And what is East Jerusalem anyway?

From 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was divided by the Green Line, which is the cease-fire line of 1948 between Israel and Jordan. Although the city is now under Israeli governance, the distinction remains.

What about the Golan Heights?

But the West Bank has become the focal point of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Golan has, to a large extent, fallen off the agenda.

What was the West Bank settlement plan?

Known as the Allon Plan, after its initiator Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, the settlement blueprint was a minimalist one aimed at constructing a line of agricultural settlements along the new eastern border in the Jordan valley. This was part of a concept that assumed that

Why were civilian settlements necessary?

civilian settlements contributed to the defensive posture of the country and that it was necessary to ensure defensible borders between Israel and Jordan. The Allon Plan also proposed the establishment of additional settlements around Jerusalem and in close proximity to the Green Line border as a means of ensuring future territorial changes in favor of Israel. The rest of the West Bank region was deemed unsuitable for settlement because of the dense concentration of Palestinian population, unlike the Jordan valley, which was sparsely populated. Allon envisaged a situation in which the rest of the West Bank would eventually be part of an autonomous area under Jordanian administration and linked to the Kingdom of Jordan by means of a territorial corridor running from Ramallah via Jericho (the only major Palestinian population center in the Jordan Valley) to the border crossings on the Jordan River.

What is the issue of settlements?

The issue of settlements has been a major point for discussion in all negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the conflict. Most observers agree that any future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians based on territorial compromise will necessitate the evacuation and removal of most, if not all, of these settlements. The inconclusive territorial negotiations that accompanied the Oslo Accords either ignored the settlement issue altogether or attempted to redraw the borders in such a way as to include as many settlements on the Israeli side of the border — whether in exchange for territory elsewhere or as out-and-out annexation. The building of a unilaterally imposed security wall begun in 2002 in effect implemented this policy on the ground.

When did the Israeli government freeze settlements?

Following the first National Unity government of 1984, the Israeli cabinet announced a freeze on all new settlement activity. But, despite this and similar announcements by subsequent governments, settlement activity continued unabated, even under the pro-peace administrations of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. At the most, there were periods in which no new settlements were constructed, but the expansion and consolidation of existing communities to allow for "natural growth" never ceased. Under the Ariel Sharon administration after February 2001, militant settlers constructed new settlement outposts on their own initiative. These were deemed illegal by the government as a means to differentiate them from the so-called "legal" settlements and were forcibly removed in an attempt to appease international criticism of settlement activity.

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Why are settlements so controversial?

In short, because they are Jewish communities on a land that many want to become part of a future Palestinian state.

What do you mean by ideological settlers?

Ideological settlers are people who choose to live in the West Bank because they believe it is part of the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants in the Bible. These settlers generally believe in the notion of “Greater Israel” — that is, that all of the land extending from the Mediterranean sea to the Jordan River, north to the borders with Lebanon and Syria, and south to the Red Sea, constitutes a Jewish inheritance.

Where did this belief come from?

The ideology of the religious settler movement draws significantly from the messianic beliefs of religious Zionism — specifically, the teachings of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook and his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook about active redemption.

What are “facts on the ground”?

This is a term coined to refer to settlements meant to establish a permanent Israeli presence that would make the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible.

How many Palestinians live in the West Bank?

As of writing this in 2019, over 3 million people live in the West Bank; 87% are Palestinians and 13% are settlers. Excluding Eastern Jerusalem, there are 132 “official” settlements — those recognized by the Israeli government — and 106 illegal outposts, or settlements established since the 1990s without government approval.

What is the name of the plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 war?

Golan Heights. Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is a plateau captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 war. It was effectively annexed by Israel in 1981. . Typically, when people talk about Israeli settlements, they’re talking about the West Bank.

How many people were in the last time Israel removed settlers?

The last time Israel forcibly removed settlers, it took about 8,000 people from two dozen small settlements in Gaza and it was a national trauma.

What Is a Settlement?

Cranes hover at a construction site in the Israeli settlement of Ramot, built in a suburb of mostly Arab East Jerusalem. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images

Why are there settlements in the West Bank?

Opponents see the settlements as part of an intentional Israeli strategy to take over the West Bank permanently. To them, the settlements' presence throughout the area gives the Israeli military a justification for being there as well, and makes it impossible for the Palestinians to ever really have an independent nation. They see the settlements rising in the hills around Palestinian cities — and the security buffers of empty land around them —as evidence that their chance for independence is fading. Additionally, they see the hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks that the Israelis have created to thwart terror attacks on the settlements as restricting Palestinians' freedom of movement [source: BBC News ].

What does the settlements represent?

To the Israeli government and supporters of the movement, including many people in the U.S., the settlements represent Israelis returning to live in places that once were part of ancient Israel, and where Jews lived in the centuries that followed. But to the Palestinians and much of the rest of the world — including 14 nations belonging to the U.N. Security Council who voted in December 2016 to condemn the settlements — they violate international law and are a major obstacle to the long-elusive vision of a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution.

How many Israelis live in East Jerusalem?

Add to that another 200,000 Israelis who live in East Jerusalem and about 20,000 in the Golan Heights — areas also seized in the 1967 war that Israel eventually annexed — and you've got roughly 600,000 Israelis or 10 percent of Israel's 6.3 million Jewish citizens living outside Israel's pre-war borders [sources: Myre and Kaplow, BBC News ].

What was the Israeli government's goal after the 1967 war?

In 1968, they drove from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Hebron, where Jews had been driven away by Arab armies in 1929; checked into a hotel and didn't leave. As the group's leader, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, told an interviewer years later, the objective was to reclaim land that was part of biblical Israel: "Jews are entitled to have it," he said.

What is the holiest site in Judaism?

This shot of Jerusalem shows the Wailing Wall in the foreground, the holiest site in Judaism, with the gold Dome of the Rock in the background, the third most-sacred site in Islam. Daniel Zelazo/Getty Images

Where are the settlements in Israel?

Most of the settlements are in the West Bank, an area that Israel controls but never has formally annexed.

What is the two state solution?

The two-state solution envisions a Palestinian state made up of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem existing alongside an Israeli one. It has been the government of Israel's stated policy, but Palestinians accuse the government of negotiating it in bad faith because it has allowed settlements to grow.

What do Palestinians say about Israel?

Every time a settlement is built, Palestinians say, a little more is taken away from a future Palestinian state. The possibility of peace seems to grow less and less likely, and Palestinians accuse Israel of confiscating lands and taking away resources from the areas that Palestinians want for their statehood.

Why did Israel build a separation barrier?

Israelis say the barrier is to keep them safe. Palestinians say it amounts to nothing but a land grab and that the Israelis are taking water and other resources from Palestinian land.

What are the security measures in the settlements?

The settlements have a lot of security measures including Jewish-only roads and restrictions that split up Palestinian territory, often making it difficult for people to get to work, visit family or even go to the hospital when they are sick.

What is the U.N. resolution condemning Israel for building Jewish settlements on disputed land?

A controversial U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for building Jewish settlements on disputed land has ripped open old wounds. Secretary of State John Kerry warned in his last major Mideast speech Wednesday that Israel was abandoning its chance for a two-state solution if it did not stop its settlement practices in ...

When did Israel withdraw from Gaza?

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and later placed a blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory. Israel has since fought two wars there. The West Bank and East Jerusalem are still in Israeli hands, although they are nominally governed by the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah.

Where are the settlements in Israel?

What are these settlements? They are Jewish communities built in Gaza, the West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel during the 1967 war with neighboring Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

What Are Settlements?

See more on cnn.com

Why Are The West Bank and East Jerusalem Considered Occupied Territory?

Where Are The Settlements?

Who Are The Settlers?

What’s The Difference Between Settlements and Outposts?

Why Are The Settlements Controversial?

What Does President Donald Trump Think of The Settlements?

What Is The Legal Status of Settlements?

What About East Jerusalem? and What Is East Jerusalem Anyway?

What About The Golan Heights?