Innovative Plans for the Interest of the Israeli Colonial Project in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

1- Geva’ot: A Military Base to become an Illegal Settlement

The Israeli daily newspaper Ma’ariv revealed on February, 11, 2012, that the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved a plan to build a new settlement in the place of Geva’ot military base nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc west of Bethlehem Governorate. The first part of the plan, which includes the building of 60 housing units, had been approved by the defense minister in his aforementioned decision.

According to the newspaper, the defense minister decision came as a result to the request of the interim head of Gush Etzion settlement bloc, Ya’ier Wolf, submitted in January 2012, to change the status of the lands from military base to be used for a new settlement specified for settlers ‘with special needs’.

The newspaper added that the aim to reconstruct an adjacent road to link Gush Etzion settlement block mainly with Beit Shemesh city and with the other Israeli communities inside the Green Line (Armistice Line of 1949), thus creating a geographical contiguity between Israeli settlements inside the occupied West Bank Territory and those inside the Green Line, while at the same time, disconnecting Palestian communities from each other and from their lands which were illegally seized and confiscated by Israel following it occupation of the Palestinian Territory back in 1967.

Geva’ot Israeli Military Base

Established in the year 1982 as a military base for the Israeli Army. During early 90^s the Israeli soldiers in the base replaced by Yeshiva students occupying 30 caravans in the site. Later on July 1, 1998, an order issued by the Israeli regional commander in the West Bank stated that amendment of the jurisdiction of the illegal Israeli settlement of Alon Shuvut¹ (one of the Israeli settlements of Gutsh Etzion bloc) to include the Geva’ot military base which is located 3.5 kilometers to the northwest of Alon Shevut settlement.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli intention to build ‘Geva’ot’ settlement in the site of the military base is not an emerging plan, where in March 23, 2011, the Israeli daily newspaper ‘Haaretz’ published about an Israeli plan to build 2,000 housing units, as a part of a broader project to build 6,000 housing units in what it would be Geva’ot religious settlement. See Video of Geva’ot Military Base

Migron The Outpost

The story of the illegal outpost of Migron started in April, 20, 1999, when two young settlers set up a container on a hilltop adjacent to Deir Dibwan and Burka villages east of Ramallah Governorate. The outpost located about 7 kilometers east of the city of Ramallah and 2.5 kilometers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Kockav Yaakov ².

An antenna for Orange cellular company was installed in Migron site in May 2011. The company hired a security guard to safeguard the antenna, who later connected his cabin with water and electricity, and moved with his wife to live in the area. Then in March 2002 five more Jewish families joined the security guard and his family in the place where he lives and contributed to the emerging of the outpost.

Currently, and after a support from the Israeli occupation authorities, several public institutions and offices are operative in Migron outpost, including a Le’umit Health Fund clinic, a branch of the Binyamin Council Library, three nurseries, a game center, and a synagogue.

Chronology of the Maneuvering and Manipulation

In the year 2006, the peace now movement along with six Palestinian residents petitioned to the Israeli High Court of Justice, demanding the eviction of the Israeli settlers from the site, since 100 dunums from the lands the outpost installed on, are owned by them (80 dunums from Deir Dibwan and 20 dunums from Burka village), where they have ownership documents for these lands.
December 2006: the Israeli High Court of Justice responded to the Palestinian petitions and called for the dismantling of Migron outpost because it was built on ‘private Palestinian lands’ and the settlers did not get an authorization for building the outpost, where the Israeli Ministry of Defense have 60 days to voluntary evacuate the outpost from the Israeli settlers.
May 2007: the Israeli PM at that time, Ehud Olmert, claimed for the Israeli Supreme Court, his intention to evacuate the outpost, demanding additional two months to prepare for the dismantling of the outpost in coordination with the Defense Ministry.
July 2007: Ehud Olmert asked for additional three months to discuss the outpost issue with his new appointed Defense Minister ‘Ehud Barak’.
January 2008: Olmert informed the Supreme Court his government intention to dismantle the outpost within 6 months.
August 2008: What is so-called ‘State Monitoring Committee’ in the Israeli legislative council -Knesset- indicated that the government will evacuate and dismantle 4 outposts, where Migron was the first one to be evicted. Meanwhile and in the same month, a new electronic fence installed at the outpost’s gate and funded by ‘Benjamin Settlements Regional Council’ despite the Israeli government ban on diverting funds for illegal outposts.
August 2008: The Israeli government decided to expand the nearby illegal settlement of Adam to absorb the evicted settlers of Migron after dismantling the outpost. The expansion plan included the construction of 1450 new housing units in Adam settlement for that purpose.
October 2008: The Palestinian owners of the lands occupied by the settlers of Migron submitted to the Israeli court calling for 1.5 million NIS as a compensation for their lands, in addition to getting back their lands from the occupying settlers.

It is worth pointed that According to what is called Sasson report³(official Israeli government report prepared by the former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department, Talia Sasson, and published on March 8, 2005), Migron outpost was one upon 95 outpost that classified illegal ( according to the Israeli measures) and must be dismantled. More than that, the report revealed that the ‘Israeli Ministry of Housing & Construction’ spent 4.5 million NIS as expenses for building and supporting the outpost. See Video of Migron Outpost

Netanyahu, the Pioneer of Bargaining

The illegal outpost of Migron was a controversial issue for several Israeli governments, where in the time they considered it as illegal and therefore it must be dismantled, they didn’t take serious steps toward resolving its issue, but on the contrary they support it directly and indirectly, directly: when they fund its installation and processing the outpost site with infrastructure to facilitate the living conditions for the settlers, while indirectly: when they didn’t evict it after the Israeli Supreme Court decision concerning its illegality.

On August 2, 2011, the Israeli Supreme Court issued again a final decision calling Netanyahu government to evict Migron outpost during six months after the court decision, which supposed to be by the end of March 2012.

The Israeli PM Netanyahu, and according to his long history of maneuvers and manipulation, realized that he has to finalize Migron issue, but of course for the interest of the Israeli settlers and for the interest of his colonial behavior based on the ultimate support of the illegal settlements and outpost in all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, wherefore he decided to move forward with a ‘compromise’ deal with the settlers of Migron in which Migron outpost (which is illegal according to the Israeli government) would be a legal settlement after two years!!

Ma’ariv daily Israeli newspaper revealed on February 13, 2012, that the Israeli minister -without portfolio- Ze’ev Beni Begen, had succeeded to reached a compromise, after long negotiations with the settlers’ leaders in which the settlers of Migron outpost will stay in their houses in the outpost for two coming years, and after this period the Israeli government will build a new settlement for them located 3 kilometers away from the current site of the outpost.

According to the newspaper the Israeli Supreme Court will ratify the deal that will end to the building of a new settlement in return for an illegal outpost.

Of course, the aforementioned deal between Netanyahu government and the leaders of the Israeli settlers had been praised by the Israeli extremist right wing members in the Knesset, where the head of Land of Israel lobby Knesset member (Likud party) Ze’ev Elkin, and the KM Arieh Eldad (National Union party) welcomed the agreement: ‘It is a victory for Zionism and Jewish settlement over the left wing attempts to sabotaging the settlement in Israel land’.

Legal & International Status

Netanyahu’s attempts to legitimize the Israeli settlements and outposts in the oPt is a deliberate manipulation to deceive the International community by suggesting that there are ‘legal’ settlements and outposts’ and others illegal, while the absolute fact is that all of the Israeli settlements and outposts built after the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territory on June 4, 1967 is defiantly illegal and void and that the Israeli PM, Netanyahu, must comply with the international law rules and conventions and to the decisions of the International legitimacy represented by the UNSCRs to dismantle the outposts instead of expanding them.

The existence of the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem and their expansions are Illegal and contradict with the international law rules, United Nations Security Council Resolutions such as 237 (1967), 271 (1969), 446 (1979), 452 (1979) ,465 (1980).

UNSC Resolution 452 of 1979:‘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 of Peace 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, indicated that: 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).
In May 2001, the head of the International Red Cross delegation to Israel and the Occupied Territories said that settlements are ‘equal in principle to war crimes’. (Note: ‘The transfer, the installation of population of the occupying power into the occupied territories is considered as an illegal move and qualified as a ‘grave breach.’ It’s a grave breach, formally speaking, but grave breaches are equal in principle to war crimes’, Rene Kosirnik, head of the ICRC delegation to Israel and the OPT, press conference 17 May 2001.)