• The official PLO position on Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, has been and continues to be based on principles of international law and legitimacy. Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Settlement activity in the OPT violates this and other international laws, including the prohibition against acquiring territory by force and the right of self-determination. The United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the overwhelming majority of states share this view.

• Israeli settlement activity is fundamentally incompatible with the “land for peace” formula contained in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, on which all Arab-Israeli negotiations have been based, and severely prejudices permanent status negotiations. Whereas the “land for peace” formula calls on Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967 in exchange for full peace and recognition from its neighbors, the goal of Israel’s settlement enterprise is to deliberately and artificially alter the status of the OPT, both physically and demographically, so as to prevent its eventual return to Palestinians.
• The ongoing creation and expansion of Israeli settlements in the OPT represent the single greatest threat to the establishment of a thriving, independent and contiguous Palestinian state and, hence, to a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Yet despite the Road Map’s call for a freeze on “all settlement activity”, Israel is intensifying its colonization of the West Bank, particularly in and around occupied East Jerusalem, threatening the Quartet’s vision of two states living side-by-side in peace.
• The evacuation of Israeli settlements remains the most appropriate means of satisfying Palestinian rights and needs. The Gaza ‘disengagement’ of 2005 demonstrated that Israeli “facts on the ground” are not permanent, and, with sufficient political will, can be removed even faster than they were established. There may also be other ways of resolving the settlements issue, for example, by exchanging land equal in both size and value. The PLO will assess their suitability according to Palestinian rights and needs.

Impact of Israeli Settlements

• In addition to their illegality and incompatibility with the principles of the peace process, the presence of some 160 Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) has led to the economic and social marginalization of more than 2.4 million Palestinians on their own land in order to benefit the 440,000 Israeli settlers illegally living there.
• Israel’s settlement enterprise severely impedes both short- and long-term Palestinian development and state-building. Israeli settlements and settlement-related infrastructure, including the Wall, bypass roads and movement restrictions, deny Palestinians access to and control of vital parts of their land and water resources, and reduce the rest to isolated cantons and enclaves, impeding Palestinian access to markets, jobs and essential services.
• Israeli settlements and settlers are a primary source of instability, militancy and violence. Israeli land confiscations, home demolitions, restrictions on Palestinian movement, and other harsh and discriminatory measures, all of which are aimed at safeguarding and facilitating Israel’s settlement enterprise at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population, constitute ongoing provocations against Palestinians. At the same time, Palestinians routinely are subjected to attacks and humiliation by armed Israeli settlers and by the soldiers charged with guarding them. The connection between settlement activity and violence was noted in the Mitchell Report, which stated that “a cessation of Palestinian-Israeli violence will be particularly hard to sustain unless the GOI freezes all settlement construction activity.”

Need for Genuine Settlement Freeze

• A full and immediate settlement freeze, such as the one called for in the Road Map, remains the best way to ensure Israeli good faith and to minimally ensure that no further harm is done to the viability of the two-state solution prior to (or in the absence of) actual negotiations. Indeed, nearly all efforts to move Israelis and Palestinians toward peace, from the 1991 Madrid Conference to the 1993 Declaration of Principles to the 2003 Road Map, have recognized that no meaningful negotiations between the parties can proceed whilst Israel continues building and expanding its settlements on Palestinian land.
• Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, both parties agreed that “[n]either side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” [Art. XXXI(7)] Moreover, the Quartet Road Map, which all parties have accepted as the most effective path to peace negotiations, explicitly requires Israel to “freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)” as a preliminary step prior to negotiations.
• The PLO/NAD has identified four essential elements to implementing a genuine settlement freeze:
1. Ending all settlement-related construction, including construction of housing units, industrial/commercial projects, bypass roads, the Wall and other infrastructure;
2. Ending all government and private financing and incentives for Israeli settlements and settlers, including direct and indirect budget transfers, tax incentives, low-cost loans and government subsidies for agricultural, industrial or commercial projects in the settlements;
3. Ending all development planning for new and existing settlements, including planning activities by governmental and quasi-governmental bodies (Israeli Ministry of Defense, Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction, Israel Lands Administration, World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, YESHA Council, etc.), and permit and tender issuance; and
4. Ending all land confiscations, home demolitions and other property destruction, regardless of the pretext.

Lastly, for a settlement freeze to be meaningful and effective, it must apply to all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem, as well as be immediate, in accordance with the Road Map, and remain in place until implementation of a permanent status agreement.

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