Israeli settlements were erected for a variety of reasons. In some cases, Israelis sought to recover property lost in the 1948 war and the hostilities leading up to it, such as the core settlements of Gush Etzion between Jerusalem and Hebron.
What are the Israeli settlements and why do they matter?
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.
What are the Israeli settlements in the West Bank?
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. According to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, at least 125 Israeli settlements are “authorized” by the Israeli state.
Why is Israel building homes for Jews on land belonging to Palestinians?
Tel Aviv announced a plan to build thousands of homes for Jewish settlers on land belonging to Palestinians. Despite extending a hand of friendship to the Arab states, Israel this week said it is pushing ahead with a plan to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, which Palestinians hope will one day become part of their country.
Why do Palestinians want a freeze on Israeli settlement construction?
Palestinians have long claimed that the expansion of settlements is a way for Israel to de facto seize the land, and that Israel is creating “facts on the ground” that will be very difficult to undo. For this reason, Palestinians demand a freeze to settlement construction before they are willing to resume negotiations.
Why is Israel allowed to have settlements?
Israel has justified its civilian settlements by stating that a temporary use of land and buildings for various purposes appears permissible under a plea of military necessity and that the settlements fulfilled security needs.
Why are there Israeli settlements in the West Bank?
Settlements are communities of Jews that have been moving to the West Bank since it came under Israeli occupation in 1967. Some of the settlers move there for religious reasons, some because they want to claim the West Bank territory as Israeli land, and some because the housing there tends to be cheap and subsidized.
Is Israel building illegal settlements?
Israel advanced plans for the construction of more than 4,000 homes in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a rights group has said, a day after the Israeli army demolished homes in an area where hundreds of Palestinians face the threat of expulsion.
Is Israel illegally taking land?
For the last 50 years, Israel has been forcing thousands of Palestinians off their land, occupying and illegally using it to create settlements that exclusively house Jewish Israeli settlers. Entire Palestinian communities have been displaced by these settlements.
How much land has Israel taken from Palestine?
Shortly after Israel declared statehood, units of the neighbouring Arab country armies came in to fight for the Palestinian nation. The 1948 war ended with Israeli forces controlling approximately 78 percent of historical Palestine. The remaining 22 percent fell under the administration of Egypt and Jordan.
What human rights has Israel violated?
Israel's continued policies and practices had resulted in flagrant human rights violations and abuses, including brutalisation of children, torture, forcible transfers, and colonisation of land.
How many UN rules has Israel violated?
SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS: Laws Violated: Israel has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (which are legally binding on member-nations U.N.
How many Israeli settlers are in the West Bank?
450,000 Israeli settlersNumber of settlements and inhabitants In total, over 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, with an additional 220,000 Jewish settlers residing in East Jerusalem. Additionally, over 20,000 Israeli citizens live in settlements in the Golan Heights.
What is wrong with Israeli 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.
Does Israel control the West Bank?
Presently, most of the West Bank is administered by Israel though 42% of it is under varying degrees of autonomous rule by the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority. The Gaza Strip is currently under the control of Hamas.
When did Israel occupy the West Bank?
1967During the 1967 war, Israel occupied the West Bank and established a military administration throughout the area, except in East Jerusalem, which Israel incorporated into itself, extending Israeli citizenship, law, and civil administration to the area.
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.
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 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.
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.
Is settlement activity illegitimate?
Washington, along with most of the world’s governments, continues to consider settlement activity illegitimate.
Why is annexation of Palestinian territory condemned?
Internationally, any annexation of Palestinian territory is widely condemned as it erodes the possibility of Palestinians having a country of their own in the future. It also means that Jewish settlements illegally built on occupied Palestianian land officially become a part of Israel. Netanyahu is facing a crisis at home.
What countries did Israel normalize relations with?
Israel last month struck deals to normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain against a promise to postpone annexation of the Palestinian lands in the West Bank. Construction of new homes for the Jewish settlers in existing settlements such as Geva Binyamin and Nili, are not covered in the normalisation deals.
How many Arabs live in the West Bank?
Over the years, more than 700,000 Jewish settlers have built homes and businesses on the occupied Palestinian lands. The West Bank is home to 2.5 million Arabs.
What is Netanyahu's political agenda?
Nevertheless, expansion of the settlements is part of Netanyahu's political agenda. “He wants to build new homes in existing communities without building new settlements. His argument is that people are having babies, that they need kindergarten schools and new homes.”.
Is Netanyahu trying to please his political base?
Netanyahu is also desperately trying to please his political base especially after barely surviving an election earlier this year. “He is just cautious about the right-wing political party Yamina, which is rising in the polls and he doesn’t want to give them ammunition to attack him.”.
Is Israel expanding the Jewish settlements?
Despite extending a hand of friendship to the Arab states, Israel this week said it is pushing ahead with a plan to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territory , which Palestinians hope will one day become part of their country.
Does expanding settlements mean new housing units will be built?
Generally, any plan to expand the size of a settlement goes through multiple phases - an announcement to this effect does not necessarily mean that new housing units will be built, says Goren.
How many Israeli settlements are there in the West Bank?
There are 126 Israeli settlements in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), according to the September 2016 report from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Geographically, these settlements are all across the West Bank. The West Bank is broken down into Areas A, B, and C, according to the Oslo Accords, ...
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 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.
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.
Why is Israel building new cities in the West Bank?
Israel is building new cities in the territory referred to as the West Bank because people want to live there and you can't just have a bunch of people sleeping on the ground. Guy Soffer. , lives in Israel.
Why was someone acquitted of importing drugs into Israel?
Just the other day someone was acquitted of "importing drugs into Israel" because they had their drugs delivered to a settlement, which is not "into Israel" under the law. That's Jews, who get tried at civilian Israeli courts. Palestinians from the West Bank are subject to Israeli military law. Tziyona Kantrowitz.
What are the parts of Jerusalem?
Continue Reading. Let’s divide the answer into 3 parts: “eastern” jerusalem, gaza, and the west bank. Jerusalem, israel’s capital was captured by Jordan in 1948 and won back in 1967. Israel then passad a law making these Jerusalem areas a part of the country.
How many times did Israel declare the state of Israel?
The Israeli provisional government declared the establishment of the State of Israel on the land allocated to the “Jewish state” mentioned in UNGAR 181 (Partition of Palestine) 30 times.
What was the name of the land that was left to the Arabs after the 1948 war?
When the Arabs lost the 1948 war, they had in their power the ability to create a Palestinian state on the land remaining, i.e. the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
When did Israel's borders become international?
Until about 1977 , none of Israel's borders were internationally recognized. This was true before the occupation of the West-Bank as well as after. Since 1977 peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan mean that Israel's Southern borders are valid international boundaries.
Is Israel our homeland?
Israel is our homeland. Judea and Samaria (sometimes called "The West Bank") is the heartland of our homeland. For the past ~2000 years, we have had very little opportunity to return to our homeland. Now that we have such oppurtunity, we want to build homes and raise our families in Israel.
What is the resolution condemning Israel for its settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank?
However, the resolution was nothing but a formal statement of what most nations in the world already believed about the settlements.
Why did Israel occupy the West Bank?
Israel suffered an unprovoked attack and occupied those territories in order to better defend itself from future attacks. Biblically speaking, Israel has every right to possess, occupy, and build homes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, Gaza, and far more.
What war did Israel fight in 1948?
This conflict became known as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, and Israel defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. After fighting ended, the nation of Israel stayed within the borders designated for it by the United Nations in 1948. Nineteen years later, in 1967, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq attacked again, ...
Which territories did Israel control?
After this conflict, however, Israel seized control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem (from Jordan), the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza (from Egypt), and the Golan Heights (from Syria). Ever since, Israel’s occupation of those territories has been a matter of international debate. Israel gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in 1979 as part ...
What happens when a nation seizes territory from the nations that attacked it?
When a nation seizes territory from the nations that attacked it, the action is normally seen as a justifiable way for that nation to solidify its defense. In any situation not involving Israel, there would be universal recognition of the nation’s right to control the seized territories.
When did Israel give Egypt the Sinai Peninsula back?
Israel gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in 1979 as part of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, but it still retains control of the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. Israel has been building settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1972, although the building of settlements has been greatly expanded in recent years.
When did Israel become a sovereign nation?
Israel and its relationship to its neighbors and the West Bank (and Gaza) is a complicated issue. Here is a brief history: Israel became a sovereign nation in 1948 when the United Nations officially recognized its existence.
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 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 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.
When did Israel remove the settlers from the Gaza Strip?
Yes, on a few occasions, most notably in 2005, when it removed all 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip. Israel decided these small, isolated settlements were too difficult to defend in a territory where the Jewish residents accounted for less than 1 percent of the population.
What’s Important?
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. According to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, at least 125 Israeli settlements are “authorized” by the Israeli state. Related: Jerusalem Cancels Settlement Vote Ahead of Kerry Speech In addition, th…
What Are Palestinian Territories?
- 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.
How Many Israelis and Palestinians Live there?
- At least 570,000 Israelis and more than 2.6 million Palestinians are estimated to live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
What Is The Impact to Those Living on The Ground?
- Israel has built a separation barrier around East Jerusalem, sometimes splitting up neighborhoods and encroaching into Palestinian territory. 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. The settlements have a lot of security measures includin…
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. Every time a settlement is built, Palestinians say, a little more is taken awa…
What's Next?
- President-elect Donald Trump’s moves indicate that he will hew much more closely to Netanyahu’s policies after he is sworn in on Jan. 20. He has supported the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, named a hardliner to be U.S. ambassador to Israel and on Wednesday criticized Obama for his stance on the issue. "We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with su…
What Are Settlements?
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…
Where Are The Settlements?
- There are 126 Israeli settlements in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), according to the September 2016 report from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Geographically, these settlements are all across the West Bank. The West Bank is broken down into Areas A, B, and C, according to the Oslo Accords, a series of peace agreements made in the 1990s. Area C make…
Who Are The Settlers?
- This is a very broad question, and requires a fair amount of generalization. According to the YESHA Council, which is the organization that represents West Bank settlements, there are approximately 420,000 settlers in the West Bank. Each of these people has their own reasons for choosing to live in the West Bank, but we can break them down into four broad categories: 1. Re…
What’s The Difference Between Settlements and Outposts?
- Settlements are authorized by the Israeli government. Some were retroactively authorized, meaning they were initially built illegally but later recognized by the Israeli military. By contrast, outposts are illegally built Israeli villages which have not been recognized or authorized by the Israeli government. In the past, Israel’s High Court has ordered some outposts evacuated and ra…
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 th…
What Does President Donald Trump Think of The Settlements?
- President Trump’s administration warned on February 2 that new Israeli settlement activity could potentially hamper the peace process, a new stance for a White House that has remained adamant in its support for Netanyahu. Despite the shift in language, the White House said it hadn’t taken an official position on Israeli settlements, saying it would wait until Trump meets with Neta…
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.” United Nations Security Council resolution 2334, which the United States did not veto, and was passed …
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. Under international law, settlements in East Jerusalem are no different than settlements in the West Bank. So why consider them separately? Because Jerusalem has always held a spe…
What About The Golan Heights?
- The Golan Heights is also considered occupied territory, taken from Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967 as well. 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. Unlike the West Bank, Israel has applied Israeli law to the Golan, effectively annexing it. The international community does not recognize this annexati…