Map of Jewish settlements in controlled territories. 2004
These settlements currently exist in Judea and Samaria, which is under Israeli control.
The total population of these settlements, amounting to only 1520 people in 1972, and 23.7 thousand people in 1983, exceeded 250 thousand people by the end of 2004. At the same time, in 1982, by government decision, more than 5,000 residents of Yamit and other settlements of the Sinai Peninsula were evacuated, and in 2005, more than 8,000 residents of settlements in the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria. In both cases, settlers' homes were destroyed.
The Arabs did not favor the Jews who had previously lived there, and they reacted to the appearance of representatives of the Chabad movement with unprecedented hostility. Continuous persecution and pogroms united both Hebron Jewish communities - Sephardic and Ashkenazi. In 1865, E. Mani became the head of the Sephardic community, who facilitated the move of dozens of families from Iraq to Hebron, created a synagogue and other community buildings and institutions for them. The Hasidic community also managed to build two synagogues, despite Arab opposition and the hostility of the Turkish authorities.
Settlements in Judea
About two months after the settlement of Kfar Etzion, on the initiative of the Tel Aviv poet I. Ben-Meir (born 1941), the second settlement site in Judea, Har Gilo, was founded.
The first settlers, initially renting space at the Park Hotel, moved into the city's military commandant's office building, and four years later settled into permanent homes in Kiryat Arba, a new Jewish neighborhood immediately adjacent to Hebron. (In the Torah, Hebron is sometimes also called Kiryat Arba). One of the residents of Kiryat Arba, B. Tavger, who came to Israel from Novosibirsk, cleared the landfill that the Arabs had set up on the site of the Avraham Avinu synagogue they destroyed; the synagogue was subsequently restored, and then the Jewish cemetery was also cleared.
A more serious initiative for Jewish settlement of Samaria arose before the War doomsday, however, was brought to life only after it. By the Yom Kippur War (1973), there were 12 settlements in the Jordan Valley, 4 in Gaza and 3 in Judea rural settlements in the Gush Etzion area. There were no Jewish settlements in Samaria yet. After the fighting stopped, a group of young women from circles close to the religious-Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav arrived at the head of the government, Golda Meir, and asked her for permission to establish a Jewish settlement near Nablus; Golda Meir refused their request.
Six months after this, the same women, together with their husbands, made a “guerrilla” attempt to establish a settlement near Nablus. They began to call the "Elon-More Core" of the movement Gush Emunim. The army evacuated them, but they arrived again and were again forcibly evacuated. Only for the eighth time, during Chanukah 1975, on the old railway station Sebastia, through the efforts of the poet H. Guri and the Minister of Defense S. Perez, who drew up an agreement between the parties, a compromise was reached, and permission was received to found the settlement of Kdumim. At the beginning of 2014, the settlement of Kdumim consisted of ten microdistricts located on the tops of hills. 4,187 Jews lived there.
In 1975, a settlement of Ofra was founded by a group of workers who arrived to build a fence around a military base nearby and stayed overnight in one of the buildings abandoned by the Jordanians 25 kilometers north of Jerusalem. In December 2007, 2,600 Jews lived there. The leaders of Gush Emunim saw the settlement of Jews in the entire territory of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip as a most important religious and patriotic mission.
As part of the operation to double the size of the Jewish settlements, which was announced by the Gush Emunim organization in the fall of 1978, when there were only twenty settlements in the entire territory of Judea and Samaria, families who had only recently settled in Ofra were sent to form the nucleus of a new settlement. It was created within a year and was named Kochav HaShahar; the Nahal base was also created there. Since there were fertile lands around, agricultural sectors became an important area of economic development. In 1981, caravans arrived for occupancy and plans for the first stages of permanent construction began to be drawn up.
Approximately simultaneously with the creation of the Ofra settlement, the then government led by I. Rabin decided to found Maale Adumim (now the largest Jewish settlement in Judea). The decision was made in response to UN recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as due to pressure exerted by Minister I. Galili. In December 2007, 32.8 thousand people lived in it. The government of I. Rabin also decided to establish the Elkana settlement in Western Samaria two weeks before the 1977 elections; He also decided to found the city of Ariel - now the largest Jewish settlement in Samaria.
In July 1977, after the government of M. Begin came to power, the leaders of Gush Emunim presented a twenty-five-year settlement plan, according to which by the end of the 20th century. The Jewish population of Judea (including Jerusalem) and Samaria was to increase to a million people, for which it was proposed to establish two big cities- near Hebron (Kiryat Arba) and near Nablus (with a population of 60 thousand people each), several medium-sized cities (15–20 thousand people each) and a dense network of so-called communal settlements (yishuvim kehilatiim).
As soon as M. Begin formed a cabinet, the leaders of the Gush Emunim movement - H. Porat, U. Elitzur, B. Katzover and Rabbi M. Levinger submitted to him a program for the founding of twelve new settlements beyond the “green line”. After much hesitation, M. Begin approved this program. “Many more Elon More will be founded,” M. Begin promised during his first visit to Kdumim after winning the elections. Soon the settlements of Beit El, Shilo, Neve Tzuf, Mitzpe Yericho, Shavei Shomron, Dotan, Tkoa and others arose. At first, settlement groups were located at some military garrisons in Judea and Samaria, which later turned into settlements.
A group of residents of the Beit El settlement. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Bureau print. Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister I. Shamir in the house of the widow of Y. Faraj, who was killed by Arab terrorists near the settlement of Braha. 1989 Photo by Maggi Ayalon. State Press Bureau. Israel.
Prime Minister M. Begin speaks to the residents of Yammit. 1977 Photo by M. Milner. State Press Bureau. Israel.
General view of Yamit. December 1981, four months before the evacuation. Photo by J. Saar. State Press Bureau. Israel.
Destruction of Yamit. April 1982. Photo by B. Tel Or. State Press Bureau. Israel.
At school in Kfar Darom. Summer 2005. Photo by M. Milner. State Press Bureau. Israel.
Celebrating Lag Ba'omer in Hebron near the Machpelah Cave. 1987 Photo by Maggi Ayalon. State Press Bureau. Israel.
Outskirts of Kiryat Arba; in the background is Hebron. 1995. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Press Bureau. Israel.
Kiryat Arba (bird's eye view), 1998. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Press Bureau. Israel
Evacuation of settlers barricaded in a synagogue in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. August 2005. Photo by G. Asmolov. Press service of the Israel Defense Forces.
The policy of intensive Jewish settlement of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip caused heated debate in Israeli society. Along with supporters of the Allon plan, which assumed that in the future most of territories of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) will be returned to Jordan, many public figures spoke out against the policy of creating Jewish settlements in densely populated Arab areas, demanding that the funds spent on settling the controlled territories be used for the development of the peripheral regions of the Galilee and the Negev, industrial and social infrastructure development cities, etc.
Settler movement
This situation changed at the beginning of the 21st century. As of 2015, Likud deputies are settlers Y. Edelstein (chairman of the Knesset), Ze'ev Elkin, Oren Hazan. Although Likud remains the largest right-wing party, the presence of settlement residents among deputies from other parties is no less important.
Living conditions in the new settlements were very difficult, primarily due to the lack of necessary infrastructure, as well as pressure from representatives of the left camp and the international media, who protested against each new prefabricated house in the territories. In 1978, an appeal was filed to the Supreme Court against the establishment of the Beit El settlement, which was founded on land expropriated from Palestinian Arabs, and the expropriation was motivated not by housing needs, but by security considerations.
The court issued an interim order to stop the development work of the new settlement, including the laying of sewerage systems. After several months the appeal was rejected. However, in the winter of 1980 Supreme Court accepted the appeal filed jointly by Palestinians and leftist activists. According to the court decision, a group of settlers had to leave the land of the village of Rujaib in Samaria, since it was private Palestinian land. From then on, new settlements arose almost exclusively on land that was not in private Arab ownership.
Paradoxically, as a result of this, the moral and legal foundation of the activities of the settlers in the controlled territories became almost stronger than that of the residents of Israel within the Green Line, where many moshav and kibbutzim were founded on land abandoned by Arab refugees during the War of Independence. with not properly registered property rights.
Development of Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula
In parallel, the development of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula took place, usually at the initiative and with the permission of the government. Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were first occupied by Israel during the Sinai Campaign of 1956, but returned to Egypt less than six months later; At that time, Jewish settlements were not created in these territories.
The government of I. Rabin-Sh., which came to power in June 1992. Peres announced a freeze on construction in Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line. At the same time, in order to prevent friction between the settlers and the residents of the newly created Palestinian Authority, new bypass highways were built, increasing the safety of the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
With the coming to power of B. Netanyahu's government in May 1996, decisions to freeze the construction of settlements were canceled, as a result of which the influx of new residents into them resumed. The period when the center-left government of E. Barak, who expressed his readiness to agree to the mass evacuation of Jewish settlements beyond the “Green Line”, was in power, was one of the most prosperous for the settlement project. In order to ensure coalition support from the National Religious Party and center-right circles, E. Barak did not oppose the growth of settlements in the controlled territories and new construction in them.
Contrary to expectations, it was the center-right government led by A. Sharon, where the post of Minister of Finance was successively occupied by ministers from the Likud bloc S. Shalom and B. Netanyahu, that imposed strict restrictions on construction in Jewish settlements (which was everywhere limited by the needs of their natural growth, and exclusively within existing geographical boundaries), and were also abolished tax benefits, which were provided to settlers as residents of priority development areas.
Arab terror against settlers
Almost from the beginning, settlers in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza faced hostility from their Arab neighbors. In the early years, settlers were still able to move freely throughout Arab settlements and even shop and open bank accounts in Ramallah or Nablus, but over time, such freedom of movement became literally fraught with danger to their lives.
Since the late 1970s. Jewish cars began to be stoned. In the early 1980s. local Arabs had already begun to use firearms against Jewish settlers. The first victim was a yeshiva student from Kiryat Arba, I. Salome, who was killed by pistol shots in a market in Hebron in early 1980. A few months later, six Jews were killed in a terrorist attack near Beit Hadassah.
In the summer of 1982, a resident of the Tkoa settlement was killed in Herodion; in response to this, the settlement of Nokdim (El-David) was founded at the site of the murder. Since then, the practice has arisen of creating new settlements in those places where Jewish residents were killed by Arab terrorists. The symbolic significance of this policy was obvious: the settlers were clearly demonstrating to the Arabs that they would not be intimidated, that the Jewish settlement of Judea, Samaria and Gaza would continue, no matter the cost.
The development of Jewish settlements on lands occupied by Israel in 1967 led to acute conflicts and led to a further escalation of interethnic tensions. Jews (in the vast majority of cases, with the consent and support of the official authorities of Israel) created more and more cities and towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; Arabs protested against the seizure of lands that they considered and consider theirs, and this protest often resulted in acts of violence and terror.
Contradictory trends in the development of the settlement movement in the context of the unsettled legal status of controlled territories
From the beginning of the settlement movement to the present day, it has been influenced by the unsettled legal status of the controlled territories, and, as a consequence, the constant possibility that the Israeli authorities may, for one reason or another, decide to evacuate settlers and destroy (or transfer to control another country) the cities and villages they built.
Israel's right to create civilian settlements in controlled territories is not recognized by UN structures and member states of the organization; calls for the evacuation of all settlements already established on these lands are repeated in numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the status of these territories is not regulated in Israeli legislation.
Yamit was destroyed on April 23, 1982. During the evacuation, about two hundred right-wing activists barricaded themselves on rooftops, using sandbags and fire extinguisher foam to confront soldiers and security forces. Several protesters and several soldiers were injured and hospitalized. The evacuation of the residents of Yammit and the destruction of the city's infrastructure were carried out strictly according to the original plan and without delay.
The operation to destroy Yamit and other Jewish settlements established on the Sinai Peninsula was led by then Defense Minister A. Sharon, who noted: “Let these ruins be eternal proof that we have done everything and even the impossible in order to fulfill our obligations for peaceful agreement - so that our children do not blame us for missing such a chance. It was not the Arab army - they would never succeed - that destroyed the city. Only we, with our own hands, destroyed Yamit. We were forced to wipe this city off the face of the earth in order to fulfill the terms of the peace treaty, so that Jewish blood would not be shed.”
On December 18, 2003, in his speech at a conference in Herzliya, A. Sharon, who by that time had become Prime Minister, stated that “Israel will initiate ... a unilateral disengagement,” in which “some of the settlements will be moved.” In that speech, A. Sharon did not name the settlements that would be “relocated” (that is, destroyed), limiting himself to the phrase that we are talking about those settlements “which, in any possible scenario of the future final agreement, will not be included in the territory of Israel.”
A few months later, A. Sharon announced the details of his program, from which it followed that it was planned to evacuate all Jewish settlements created in the Gaza Strip (their number had reached 21 by that time), as well as four Jewish settlements from the Northern Samaria region. This was not about the evacuation of settlements as part of a peace treaty with a neighboring Arab country or with the Palestinians, but about a unilateral initiative of the Israeli government, agreed exclusively with the US administration.
Numerous protests led by the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Settlement Council did not affect government policy, and in August 2005 the so-called “disengagement program” was fully implemented, ending Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. After the departure of the Israeli settlers and troops, all the synagogues located in the area (from which Torah scrolls and prayer books were removed in advance) were destroyed and burned by local Arabs with the connivance of the authorities of the Palestinian Authority.
Demographic changes taking place in West Bank(in Judea and Samaria) - despite differences in their assessment - are a factor that will play a significant role in the decision-making process about the future status of the controlled territories and the settlements created on them. Contrary to what seemed obvious earlier, these decisions will not necessarily be the result of negotiations between Israel and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and neighboring Arab countries.
It is quite possible that these decisions will be made by the Israeli leadership and agreed only with the US administration as the main foreign policy and military ally of the Jewish state. The construction by Israel, starting in 2003, of the so-called “security fence” actually means the unilateral determination of the contours of the future eastern borders of the Jewish state.
Settlements from the perspective of international law
Proponents of the view that the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are illegal settlements usually refer to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and its Article 49, which states: “The Occupying Power will not be able to deport or transfer part of its own civilian population to the territory it occupies" and a number of UN Security Council resolutions based on this article of the Geneva Convention.
Israel believes that the 1949 Geneva Convention and its Article 49 do not apply to Judea and Samaria, since the concept of “occupation” implies the existence of a state whose territory is occupied. Judea and Samaria have never been part of any state since the Ottoman Empire.
Demographic and socio-economic indicators in settlements in the 2000s
As of 2010, the number of residents of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria exceeded 300 thousand people, and if we include annexed territories, then 500 thousand people. (approximately 6.5% of the total Israeli population). In 2015, the number of Jews in Judea and Samaria was about 400 thousand.
The table shows how population growth occurred in Israeli settlements by year:
| Jewish population | 1948 | 1966 | 1972 | 1983 | 1993 | 2004 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judea and Samaria (without Jerusalem) | 480 (see Gush Etzion) | 0 | 1,182 | 22,800 | 111,600 | 234,487 | 276,462 |
| Gaza Strip | 30 (see Kfar Darom) | 0 | 700 1 | 900 | 4,800 | 7,826 | 0 |
| Golan Heights | 0 | 0 | 77 | 6,800 | 12,600 | 17,265 | 18,692 |
| East Jerusalem | 2300 (see Atarot, Neve Yaakov) | 0 | 8,649 | 76,095 | 152,800 | 181,587 | 189,708 |
| Total | 2,810 | 0 | 10,608 1 | 106,595 | 281,800 | 441,165 | 484,862 |
The population of the settlements is growing due to internal migration, aliyah (an average of 1,000 Jewish foreign citizens arrive in the settlements per year), as well as due to the high birth rate (in the settlements the birth rate is approximately three times higher than in Israel as a whole. Which is related with a high percentage of religious settlers).
Socio-economic state of settlements
The largest Jewish settlement in the controlled territories - the city of Maale Adumim (founded in 1976) - is located a few kilometers east of Jerusalem, on the road to the Dead Sea. Secular residents make up about two-thirds of the city's population; the majority of the religious population is concentrated in the Mitzpe Nevo area and in the quarter created in the early 1990s. Russian-speaking repatriates - activists of the Mahanaim organization. In 1999, a large shopping mall, and in 2003 - a two-story library. Intensive housing construction continues in the city.
The majority of the inhabitants of the Jewish settlements in the controlled territories were and are adherents of religious Zionism, in whose families the birth rate is, as a rule, significantly higher than the national average (34 children are born per thousand settlers per year, while the national average is 21) . As of the end of 2003, average age of residents of Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza was 20.3 years old, while for the country as a whole it was 27.7.
Level of participation of settlement residents in labor activity very tall; 64% of settlers aged 15 and older are employed - 10% more than the national average. Settlers work both in the service sector and in educational institutions, as well as in agriculture and industry. Agricultural settlements are concentrated mainly in the Jordan Valley (vegetable growing, horticulture, field crops) and in Gush Etzion (field crops - cotton, grains, sunflowers; horticulture, dairy farming, poultry farming). In Judea and Samaria, where land suitable for agricultural use is cultivated by Arab peasants, agricultural settlements are few (viticulture, horticulture, sheep and poultry farming).
Many settlements also contain small electronics, electrical and metalworking factories and laboratories. Significant industrial zones exist next to Maale Adumim (Mishor Adumim industrial zone, about 50 enterprises, including the Taasiya Avirit plant, Kiryat Arba (metal, wood, building materials, plastics and electronics) and - Institute for Research in Technology and Halakha, in Kdumim - Midreshet Eretz Israel (National Zionist educational center), and in Ariel - Ariel University.
It was founded in 1982 with the active participation and under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, although it subsequently acquired academic independence. There you can get academic degrees in biotechnology and chemical engineering, electronics, engineering and management, physiotherapy, civil engineering, architecture, economics and business management, social work and management medical institutions. In 1990, a department for scientific research was created, in 1992, under the auspices of the college, the so-called “Technological Greenhouse” arose; since 1994, scientific periodicals in the field of natural sciences and humanities have been published. The university has a large library.
.Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in Gaza Strip- these are settlements created after 1967 in territories occupied by Israel during the course of the war, the inhabitants of which are Israeli citizens, mostly Jews.
Currently, these settlements exist in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under both Israeli control and administration.
There is broad consensus in the international community that the existence of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories is contrary to the Geneva Convention.
International intergovernmental organizations such as the Conference of the Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the UN and the EU have repeatedly stated that these settlements are serious violation international law.
Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also described the settlements as a violation of international laws.
As of 2007, the number of residents of Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including areas of Jerusalem located east of the 1948 division line, such as Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zeev, Gibeah Tsarfatit, Gilo, Ar-Homa) was 484 thousand Human.
Terms
In Hebrew, a settlement outside is typically called "hitnakhlut" (התנחלות). The term means “heritage,” that is, a settlement founded on land inherited from the ancestors who lived on it during the times of the kingdoms of Israel.
In the Torah it is mentioned in relation to the Jewish settlement of Hannan after the exodus from Egypt. This term began to be used after the first election victory and the Likud party coming to power in 1977.
Gradually, the term hitnakhlut acquired a negative connotation, and now residents of the settlements and their supporters use the term “hityashvut,” which actually means “settlement.”
Palestinians refer to Israeli settlements as “mustamaraat” (مستعمرات), which literally means colonies.
The Israeli government officially adheres to the historical names of Judea and Samaria in relation to the territory named in the 2nd half of the 20th century. West Bank of the Jordan River.
Unlike representatives of the Israeli right camp, representatives of the left camp, opponents of the full or partial annexation of this territory by Israel, do not agree with this term.
Review of the history of Judea and Samaria
- Until the 13th century. BC e. On the territory of the western bank of the Jordan River there were several different city-states.
- During the XIII-XII centuries. BC e. these territories were captured by Jewish tribes and have since become part of the Land of Israel. The name “Judea” was given to the territory ceded by Yehuda.
- In the 11th century BC e. this territory became part of the united kingdom of Israel, the capital of which was first the city, and then became Jerusalem.
- After the collapse of the united Kingdom of Israel in the 10th century. BC e. on his former territory two kingdoms were created - and. The Israeli kings founded the new capital of their kingdom - the city of Samaria. The territory adjacent to the new capital began to be called Samaria.
- Jewish statehood was finally destroyed by the Roman Empire during the period of Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. e. The land of Israel was renamed by the Romans into the province of Palestine, after the name of one of the Sea Peoples () who lived in it in the past.
- Over the next 18 centuries, this territory was alternately part of the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Arab Caliphate, Crusader states, Mameluke states, Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate.
- At the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Jewish repatriates created a number of settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza region. During 1947-49. Judea and Samaria were occupied and unilaterally annexed by Transjordan (Jordan), which gave it the name "West Bank" to distinguish it from the eastern bank, which was its main territory before the war. Residents of the few Jewish settlements in the territories captured by Transjordan fled or were expelled by Transjordan to Israel.
- The territories of Judea and Samaria came under the control of the State of Israel in 1967, as a result.
History of modern Israeli settlements
- In 1967, as a result of the Six Day War, Israel gained control over a number of new territories.
- From Jordan, the West Bank of the Jordan River, including the eastern part of Jerusalem, which was located within Jordan before the war, came under Israeli control.
- The Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip passed from Egypt to Israeli control.
- They passed from Syria to Israeli control. In 1981 they were annexed by Israel.
- In 1967, the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem were expanded to include East Jerusalem. Residents of the former Jordanian part of the city were offered the choice of Israeli citizenship (with some exceptions) or a residence permit (if they wished to retain Jordanian citizenship). Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by any country in the world.
- Sinai, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank received the status. Their residents were not offered Israeli citizenship or residency. Although initially, they de facto had the opportunity to work in Israel and cross the Green Line.
- In 1967, by decision of the Israeli government, the first Israeli military settlements were created in the Golan Heights and settlements in the West Bank.
Wrote about the creation of settlements -
“In areas from which we do not want to leave, and which are part of the new territorial map State of Israel, facts must be created by creating urban, agricultural and industrial settlements and army bases... I view settlements as the most important thing that has the most heavy weight from the point of view of creating political facts. This is based on the assumption that we will remain in any location where we establish an outpost or settlement."
Population
During for long years, the Israeli government encouraged Israelis and new Jewish immigrants from other countries to move to the settlements. Those who moved there had tax benefits (7% on monthly income up to 10 thousand shekels, the benefit was canceled in 2002, subsidies and preferential loans for the purchase of housing.
The table shows how population growth occurred in Israeli settlements:
1 including Sinai
The population continues to grow due to internal migration, external migration (an average of 1,000 Jewish foreign citizens arrive in the settlements per year), as well as due to the high birth rate (in the settlements the birth rate is approximately 3 times higher than in Israel as a whole, which associated with a high percentage of religious settlers).
Status of the Settlements from the point of view of Orthodox Judaism
The situation in which the legality of the Jews' liberation of the Land of Israel and its settlement would be contested by the peoples of the world was described by Rashi, a famous Jewish commentator on the TaNaKh and Talmud, back in the 11th century. n. e., 900 years before the Jews returned to their land.
In a commentary on the first words of the Torah, “In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth,” Rashi writes: “Rabbi Isaac said: “It would be appropriate to begin the Torah with (the verse) “This month is for you the head of months” [Exodus 12, 2], which is the first commandment given (to the children of) Israel. Why does (it) begin with the creation of the world? Because “He showed the power of His works to His people, to give them possession of the tribes” [Psalms 111, 6].
For if the nations of the world say to Israel: “You are robbers, who have seized the lands of seven nations,” then (the sons of Israel) will say to them: “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever pleased Him. According to His will He gave it to them (for a time), according to His will He took it away from them and gave it to us.”
Status of Settlements from the point of view of international law
Article 49 of the “Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War” states
The occupying power will not be able to deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
UNSC Resolutions 446, 452, 465 and 471, adopted in 1979–80, stated that Israel's establishment of settlements in the occupied territories was illegal and demanded that Israel stop building settlements.
(UN Security Council) Decides that Israel's policy and practice of establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab occupied territories since 1967 has no legal grounds and represents a serious obstacle to the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East. (UN Resolution 446, Article 1)
Israel's position
Israel does not agree that its actions are a violation of international law and that in this case the norms of the Geneva Convention cannot be applied, since “these territories did not previously belong to any state.”
ISRAELI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Attempts to portray Jewish settlements in the West Bank (ancient Judea and Samaria) as illegal and “colonial” in nature ignore the complexity of the issue, the history of the land, and the unique legal circumstances of the case.
Historical context
Jewish settlement in the territory of ancient Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is often presented only as a modern phenomenon. In fact, the Jewish presence in this territory has existed for thousands of years, and was recognized as legitimate in the Mandate for Palestine, adopted by the League of Nations in 1922. This Mandate provided for the creation of a Jewish state on the territory of the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.After recognizing the "historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine" and the "grounds for the restoration of their national home", the Mandate specifically stipulates special condition in Article 6 as follows:
"The Palestinian Authority, while ensuring impartially the rights and conditions of other sections of the population, should facilitate Jewish immigration to suitable conditions and shall encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency referred to in Article 4, the dense settlement of lands by Jews, including public lands not claimed for public use."Some Jewish settlements, such as Hebron, existed throughout centuries of Ottoman rule, and some settlements, like Neve Yaakov north of Jerusalem, Gush Etzion in southern Judea, and communities north of the Dead Sea, were established under the British Mandate administration before the establishment of the State of Israel and in accordance with the Mandate of the League of Nations.
Many modern Israeli settlements have actually been re-created on sites that were home to Jewish communities in previous generations, carrying out deep historical connections Jewish people with this land - the cradle of Jewish civilization and the location of key events in the Hebrew Bible. A significant number of them are located in places from which previously Jewish communities were forcibly displaced by Arab armies or brutally murdered, as was the case of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron in 1929.
For more than a thousand years, the only administration that prohibited Jewish settlement in these areas was the Jordanian occupation administration, which, during its nineteen years of rule (1948-1967), declared the sale of land to Jews a capital crime. death penalty. The right of Jews to establish houses in these areas and the legal right to private ownership of the acquired land cannot be legally abrogated by the Jordanian occupation, as a result of its illegal armed invasion of Israel in 1948, which was never internationally recognized as legal, and such rights remain in force to this day.
The attempt to portray Jewish communities in the West Bank as a new form of “colonial” settlement of the lands of another sovereign is both hypocritical and politically motivated. At no point in history were Jerusalem and the West Bank under Palestinian Arab sovereignty. The right of Jews to live in their ancient homeland, along with Palestinian Arab communities, as an expression of the bond of both peoples to this land is a matter up for debate.
International humanitarian law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC) prohibit the movement of segments of a state's population into the territory of another state that it has occupied as a result of the use of armed force. This principle, reflected in Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), was formulated immediately after the Second World War, in response to certain events that occurred during the war.As the official commentary to the Convention of the International Red Cross confirms, this principle was intended to protect local populations from displacement, including that threatening their existence as a race, as happened with the forced displacement of the population of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary before and during the war.
Quite apart from the question of whether the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure to a territory such as the West Bank, which does not belong to any previous legitimate state, cases in which Jews voluntarily establish their homes and communities in their ancient homeland, adjacent to Palestinian communities, do not comply with forced population transfers provided for in Article 49(6).
As Professor Yuri Rostow, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, writes:
“The right of the Jews to inhabit the territory is at least equivalent to the right of the local population to live there” (Ajil, 1990, Vol. 84, p. 72).The provisions of Article 49(6) regarding forced transfers of populations to occupied sovereign territories should not be construed as prohibiting the voluntary return of persons to towns and villages from which they or their ancestors were forcibly removed. Nor do they prohibit the movement of persons onto land that was not under the legal sovereignty of any state and does not constitute private property.
In this regard, it should be noted that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were established only after an exhaustive investigative process, led by the Israeli Supreme Court, and were confirmed not to be illegally established on private land.
Just as the settlements do not violate the terms of Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, they do not constitute " gross violation" of the Fourth Geneva Convention or "war crimes" as some have argued. In fact, even though these settlements were considered to be contrary to Article 49(6), the observation that such contradictions constituted a "gross violation" or "war crime" was introduced (as a result of political pressure from Arab states) only in the Additional Protocols to the 1977 Geneva Conventions, to which the leading states, including Israel, are not bound, and which therefore do not reflect customary international law.
From a legal perspective, the West Bank is better viewed as a territory that has mutual claims, and those claims should be resolved through peace negotiations. In fact, both the Israeli and Palestinian sides have pledged to follow this principle. Israel has valid claims to the name of this territory, based not only on historical Jewish ties to the land and long-term residence on it, its designation as part of the Jewish state under the League of Nations Mandate and Israel's legally recognized right to secure borders, but also on the fact that this territory was not previously under the legal sovereignty of any state and came under Israeli control in a defensive war. At the same time, Israel recognizes that the Palestinians also have claims to the area. It is for this reason that both sides agreed to resolve all outstanding issues, including the future of the settlements, in direct bilateral negotiations, the need for which Israel continues to affirm.
Israeli-palestinianagreements
Bilateral agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinians governing their relations do not contain a ban on the construction or expansion of settlements. On the contrary, they specifically provide that the settlement issue is reserved for permanent status negotiations, reflecting the understanding on both sides that the issue can only be resolved in conjunction with other permanent status issues such as borders and security. Indeed, the parties expressly agreed in the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement that the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction or control over the settlements or the Israelis, and that the settlements are subject to Israel's exclusive jurisdiction pending the conclusion of a permanent status agreement. Point out that the prohibition of unilateral steps contained in Interim Agreement(Article 31 (7), which change the “status” of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, implies a ban on settlement activities. This provision is unfounded. This ban was adopted in order to prevent any steps by the parties that would be aimed at changing the legal status of this territory (for example, by annexation or unilateral declaration of statehood), pending the outcome of permanent status negotiations. If this prohibition were applied to construction, given that the provision is worded equally for both parties, it would lead to a dubious interpretation that neither either side is not allowed to build houses to benefit their communities until permanent status negotiations are successfully concluded.
In this regard, Israel's decision to dismantle all of its settlements in the Gaza Strip and some settlements in the northern West Bank in the context of the 2005 disengagement were unilateral Israeli steps and not compliance with legal obligations.
conclusions
- Attempts to portray Jewish settlements in ancient Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as inherently illegal and "colonial" ignore the complexity of the issue, the history of the land, and the unique legal circumstances of the case.
- Jewish communities in this territory have existed since time immemorial and express the deep connection of the Jewish people with the land that represents the cradle of their civilization, as confirmed by the Mandate for Palestine of the League of Nations, and from which the Jews or their ancestors were forcibly expelled.
- The prohibition on the forced transfer of civilians into the territory of an occupied State, in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention, is inconsistent with the circumstances of voluntary Jewish settlement in the West Bank on legally acquired lands that did not belong to the former legitimate State, and which were intended to be part of the Jewish State. according to the Mandate of the League of Nations.
- The Israeli-Palestinian bilateral agreements specifically emphasized the fact that settlements are subject to the agreed and exclusive Israeli jurisdiction, pending the outcome of peace negotiations, and they do not prohibit settlement activity.
- Israel remains committed to peaceful negotiations without preconditions in order to resolve all outstanding issues and mutual claims. He continues to ask the Palestinian side to respond in kind. He expresses the hope that such negotiations will lead to a negotiated, secure and peaceful settlement that will give legitimate expression to the ties of both Jews and Palestinians to this ancient land.
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UN No. 2334, which demanded that Tel Aviv immediately stop settlement activities in the West Bank, the problem of the occupied Palestinian territories remains unresolved. Of the 3 million people living in the West Bank today, including East Jerusalem, approximately 20% are Israeli citizens. And this number continues to grow. TASS recalls the history of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories and explains why the actions of the UN and the international community cannot put an end to expansion and the conclusion of a peace treaty between Israelis and Palestinians.
How it all began
From 1922 to 1948, what is now Israel and Palestine was under the British Mandate. However, then, against the background of the aggravation of the Arab-Jewish conflict in this territory, it was decided to divide the lands, creating two states: Israel for the Jews and Palestine for the Arabs. On November 29, 1947, the newly created United Nations (UN) adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine, and the creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed on the end of its mandate, May 14, 1948.
However, Israel's neighbors, the Arab states, who viewed the emergence of this country as another manifestation of European colonial policy, were dissatisfied with this decision. Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen declared war on Israel. It lasted until 1949, and during this time Israeli troops managed to occupy more territory than provided for in the original UN plan. During peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, a ceasefire line was drawn. Green paint was used to draw it, so the border was called the “green line”. Subsequently, the so-called separation barrier ran along its contour - a 703-kilometer fence separating Israel from the West Bank.
The fragile ceasefire lasted until 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out. In the short period from June 5 to 10, Israeli troops captured not only the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but also East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel was faced with the question of what to do with the West Bank:
annex him, by granting Israeli citizenship to the 1.1 million Arabs living there at the time;
return back under the control of his enemy - Jordan;
allow local residents create their own autonomous state - Palestine.
This issue has become the subject of widespread debate in Israel. Many citizens viewed the victory in the Six-Day War as a sign that Jews were destined to reclaim the territory where the history of the Jewish people began - we are talking about Judea and Samaria, which makes up most of the West Bank. Amid these discussions, thousands of Israelis began to move into the West Bank without any permission from the state or international organizations. However, it was no longer possible to stop them, and from then on any political discussions about the ownership of the West Bank had to take into account the Israeli presence in these territories.
The UN called the settlements illegal, which was recorded in 1979 in the corresponding Security Council resolution No. 446, which read: “Israel’s policy and practice of establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab occupied territories since 1967 has no legal basis and represents a serious obstacle to the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East." As a result, two points of view regarding settlements were formed: the Israeli one, according to which Jews are only moving to previously uninhabited lands that they conquered during the war and are of great spiritual significance to them; and international, according to which Israel is expanding and colonizing territory that does not belong to it.
Divide and populate
In subsequent decades, more and more branches state power in Israel began to support the settlement of the West Bank, mobilizing public opinion on their side. The country's Ministry of Construction, together with the Ministry of Defense, developed and implemented a plan for the development of the region, one of the main points of which was the creation of road infrastructure to connect settlements into one transport network. Thus, from several scattered settlements, the Israeli settlers became an institutionalized group, fully supported by Tel Aviv. Of course, this state of affairs did not suit the Palestinians, who protested against expansion, including using force.
To end the violence, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, a document that established Palestinian self-government and divided the West Bank into three zones:
A, where Palestine has full political and military control (this is approximately 19% of the West Bank);
B, where Palestine has political but not military control (22%);
C- a zone under full political and military control of Israel (59–60% of the territory). It is in Area C that Israeli settlements are located, connected to the rest of the country by a road network. Water reserves and mineral resources, as well as most suitable for Agriculture land. Palestinians have limited access to all these resources, which greatly impacts their economic potential.
Another wave of resettlement sentiment swept the country in August 2005, when Israel evacuated 8.5 thousand Jews from Gaza and the northern part of the West Bank (northern Samaria). As the number of settlers grew, the infrastructure in the colonized territories also improved: new houses and schools, hospitals and even their own university appeared. In the 50 years since Israel gained control of the West Bank in 1967, Israel has built some 120 settlements in the area. They are considered one of the main obstacles to the resumption of the peace process. In addition to these 120 settlements, there are about 100 more illegal, even according to the Israeli authorities, outposts and buildings in the West Bank, which occupy a total of 800 hectares of private Palestinian land and represent 4 thousand housing units.
The current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also consistently taking steps to continue the construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is also why he reacted so emotionally to the UN resolution demanding that Israel immediately stop settlement activities. “According to the information we have, this resolution was, without a doubt, initiated by the Obama administration, which stood behind the scenes, prepared the language and demanded its adoption,” the prime minister said. “The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel from this conspiracy at the UN, but also entered into it behind the scenes." At the vote on December 23, 2016, the document was supported by 14 members of the UN Security Council, including Russia (the US representative abstained from voting).
American factor
After the 2016 resolution, Israel stated that it would not comply with the provisions of the UN resolution: settlement activities would continue, and existing settlements would not be evacuated. Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to do “everything possible to ensure that Israel is not harmed by this shameful resolution.” In particular, it was announced that the country would reconsider its relations with the UN: first of all, regarding the size of Israel’s contributions to the UN and the activities of its units in the country. According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, the first concrete act of reaction to the resolution was the cancellation of the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman to Israel (Kyiv also supported the resolution).
Much in the future will depend on the behavior of Israel's main ally, the United States. The anti-settlement resolution was passed during the administration of President Barack Obama, whose relationship with Netanyahu was frosty. Decision to abstain from voting at the UN The White house explained by the fact that Netanyahu’s settlement policy did not lead to progress in the negotiation process.
Donald Trump is considered to be a supporter of a more pro-Israel position: even during the election race, he promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, whose status within the UN is disputed by the vast majority of Islamic countries. The views of Trump and the current leadership of Israel also coincide in the fact that they both have mistrust regarding the Iran nuclear deal (the Israeli prime minister spoke in the US Congress in March 2015 against the agreement on the Iran nuclear program, which was promoted by the Obama White House). At the same time, Trump intends to make peace in the Middle East by resuming negotiations between Israel and Palestine. UN sanctions, according to the politician, hinder the peace process.
"Yesterday's big defeat for Israel at the UN will make peace negotiations much more difficult. It's sad, but we will get there anyway."
Settlement activity received a new impetus after Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state on December 6, 2017. Just a month later, the human rights organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) reported that the Planning Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank, a special agency of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, had approved plans for the construction of 1,122 apartments and single-family houses in 20 settlements, and also published tenders for the construction of 651 housing units in the West Bank. In addition, the Israeli government announced its intention to legalize the status of the illegal settlement outpost of Havat Gilad in the West Bank in response to the January 9 killing of its resident Rabbi Raziel Shevach.
So it is possible that under the “pro-Israeli” President Donald Trump, the expansion of the Palestinian territories will continue from new strength, which means that the conclusion of a peace treaty will be delayed again.
"Deal of the Century"
The road map for a Middle East settlement (or the “deal of the century,” as the Americans call it) states that the US administration approves the annexation of large Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank and Jerusalem. At the same time, according to available data, Netanyahu proposed to include 15% of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, Trump insists on only 10%. The White House intends to officially unveil these plans by April. On Tuesday, February 20, the United States notified the UN Security Council that a draft Palestinian-Israeli settlement was under development.
In the meantime, there are fierce international discussions surrounding the situation with Israeli settlements. In January 2018 permanent representative US at the UN Nikki Haley accused the Palestinian leadership of insufficient commitment to a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In response, the official representative of the State of Palestine in negotiations with Israel, Saeb Erekat, demanded that she “shut up<...>and realize that the problem is the Israeli occupation and the policy that it [Israel] will continue to pursue." To this, the US permanent representative to the UN stated that she would continue to "tell the harsh truth", the meaning of which: only the path of compromise that allowed Egypt and Jordan making peace with Israel in 1994 and returning its occupied territories would lead to a resolution of the conflict.
However, the intransigence of positions prevents the achievement of this compromise. The Palestinians are ready for a minor exchange of territories with Israel, but at the same time they demand full recognition of the state with its capital in East Jerusalem. The Israelis are not going to cede the occupied territories, and also reject the possibility of dividing Jerusalem. According to the special coordinator of the Middle East peace process, Nikolai Mladenov, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians are unequal, since the latter are under military occupation.
In these conditions, Russia could play a mediating role between all parties to the conflict, Nabil Shaath, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is convinced. But, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia does not have a ready-made recipe for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Moscow believes that Israeli settlement activity in the Palestinian territories is illegal, and the chances of achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East are becoming less and less every day.
Arthur Gromov
The Israeli Knesset in its first reading passed a law legalizing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, built without the sanction of the Israeli government. From the point of view of international law, such actions are a violation, since the land on which they are built is the territory of the future Palestinian state.
As a rule, the construction of such settlements begins with a few huts, but after some time they expand significantly and receive protection israeli army, provide electricity, gas and water and introduce more centralized management, although formally they remain outside the legal framework. However, the Palestinian leadership regularly accuses the Israeli government of condoning and actually encouraging the construction of such settlements. Currently, about 800 thousand Israeli citizens live in them, approximately 350 thousand of whom live in populated areas that do not have official registration. The situation is complicated by the fact that settlements are scattered throughout almost the entire territory of the West Bank (which in Israel is called “Judea and Samaria”), which makes the creation of a unified political state much more difficult.
The bill to legalize the settlements was jointly developed by deputies from the ruling Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and their colleagues from the ultra-conservative Jewish Home party. The reason was a trial in the Supreme Court, which ordered the demolition of the settlement in the city of Amona, in which more than 40 Jewish families live on Palestinian soil, by December 25.
"For those who still do not understand: this law gives green light annexation of territories,” Tzipi Livni, leader of the opposition Zionist Union party, wrote on Twitter about the adoption of the law, which, despite the votes of her party, passed by 58 votes to 50. “Welcome to the state of two nations.”
The state of two nations in Israel is usually called an option in which the territory of the state of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are united into one state, and its residents receive equal rights, regardless of their nationality and religion. Although there is some support for this option, most Israeli political parties reject it, adhering to the formula of a “Jewish state” in which Jews play a leading role.
Most countries, including the United States, consider Israeli settlements illegal. Some observers believe that the settlement law was passed in such a hurry not because of the proceedings over the fate of Amona, but because of Barack Obama's intention to introduce a resolution to the UN Security Council banning the construction of new settlements.
Although the bill needs to go through several more readings for the bill to enter into legal force, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who voted for the law along with her Jewish Home party, has already asked the Supreme Court to “reconsider its position,” since after the parliament’s decision “ the rules of the game have changed." According to estimates by the leader of the Jewish Home, Naftali Bennett, the law will help legalize from 2 to 3 thousand settlements, which are home to about 15 thousand people. Theoretically, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could refuse to sign the law at the last moment, but such an outcome is extremely unlikely, given that it was he who gave the Cabinet of Ministers the order to develop it.
In Palestine, the legalization of settlements has caused expected disappointment: one of the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hanan Ashrawi, called it a “mockery of the law,” adding that it is a direct violation of international law and a blow to the peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The illegal Israeli occupation is helping to steal Palestinian lands, both public and private,” Ashrawi said. “This law allows for the expansion of settlement projects [implying the creation of an independent Palestine] and at the same time gives Israel the opportunity to further expand into the territories of historical Palestine.” .
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