The Incessant Expansions of the Illegal Israeli Settlements Puts the Peace Process at Stake

General Glance

When Israel and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) signed the Declaration of Principles DOP back in 1993, Israel adopted a policy to inflict realities on the ground to undermine final status issues. Since then, Israel has increased all settlements related activities and during the last years, dramatic increase occurred in the status of illegal Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, which affected the surrounding Palestinian communities, who lost additional areas of their cultivated lands and lands reserved for future expansions of their built-up areas, as the lands were confiscated to expand the illegal Israeli settlements.

An analysis performed by the Geographic Information System (GIS) unit at the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ), indicated the extensive expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank specifically from January 2003 – June 2006. Tens of thousands of housing tenders were issued by the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing for new housing unitsin the West Bank illegal Israeli settlements, most of which occurring in the governorates of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Salfit and Jerusalem; whereby, the settlements of Modi'n Illit, Betar Illit, Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim were the four settlements with the highest number of new housing units.

A Step toward a Dead End

The Local Housing Committee at the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem submitted on early January 2007, a new controversial plan to build 1,000 new housing units in Har Homa settlement that lies on southeastern edge of the city of Jerusalem. The new constructions falls within the settlement's master plan at its northeastern side on lands confiscated from Sur Baher, north of Har Homa settlement. See Map 1

The successive Israeli plans to expand the illegal Israeli settlements around Jerusalem, will not only limit the Palestinians existence in East Jerusalem but also the surrounding Palestinian communities located nearby the Settlements. More than that, the new expansion of Har Homa will bring closer plans to connect the settlement with its neighboring Har Gilo & Gilo settlements at its northwestern side, all of which falls within the Israeli plan to create settlements belt along the southern boundary of Jerusalem city. 

Again, in mid January 2007, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing releases a new tender to build an additional 44 housing units in the Illegal Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim northeast of Jerusalem. See map 2

The expansion of Ma'ale Adumim settlement comes as a part of the Israelis' consecutive governments to cut off and isolate East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and to fortify the settlements belt surrounding Jerusalem city with settlements blocs and the Segregation Wall. Moreover this will block the Palestinian development in Jerusalem particularly eastwards, which is the only available space for the city to expand, but more importantly, the effect of Ma'ale Adumim is that it will severe the territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank districts, more than that, it will manipulate the demographic balance of East and all of Jerusalem in favor of the Israelis.

The Table1 below details the Israeli tenders and plans issued for new housing units in
Har Homa & Ma'ale Adumim Illegal Israeli Settlements between January 2003- June 2006

Source: ARIJ Monthly Reports 2003-2006

Table 2: Details the status of the Israeli illegal settlements of Ma�¢ï¿½ï¿½ale Adumim & Har Homa

 Chart 1 & 2: Show the housing units built in the two Illegal Settlements between the years 2003-2006

Legal & International Status

It became clear that the Israeli government is insisting on violating all the International agreements, conventions, and International law rules, by expanding the illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territory horizontally and vertically; neglecting and violating the political commitments and pledges toward the International legitimacy and the Quartet and toward its Palestinian partner in peace process.

The Israeli plans and expansions in the West Bank Settlements clearly contradict the following:

• UNSC Resolution 452:'Calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab occupied Territory since 1967, including Jerusalem.'

• Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949:'the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the Territory it occupies.'

• The Forth Geneva Convention in Article 174 also prohibits the 'extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.'

• Article XXXI, Oslo II, 1995: 'Neither side shall take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

• The Roadmap signed on April 30, 2003, between Israel and the Palestinians (originally developed by the United States, in cooperation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations (the Quartet)) under which the Israeli Government agreed to freeze all settlement.

The '[Government of Israel] immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001, [and] consistent with the Mitchell Report, [Government of Israel] freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).'

Related Links:

• The Har Homa Settlement and the Uprooting of Abu Ghnaim Forest.

• Jerusalem: the strangulation of the Arab Palestinian city.  

• New Expansion at Abu Ghnaim Mountain … Har Homa Israeli Settlement

Prepared by
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
ARIJ