"Settlement is part
of the regional conflict between us and the Arab world and between us and
international parties like the United States. For me, settlement is not
a big issue- it's a normal process. If we establish a settlement here or
expand a settlement there, this is only natural. We are operating according
to our understanding that the land belong to us".
Israeli Prime Minster Yitzhak Shamir
in an interview with Ma'ariv, translated in Al-Quds,
9 September 1991.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Government sponsorship of settlement
- 2.a. Funding Construction
- 2-b. Free Land, Financial Incentives for Developers
- 2-c. Industrial Incentives
- 2.d. Provision of Infrastructure
- 2-e. Incentives for Settlers
3. Mass immigratio and the push for settlement
4. Footing the settlement bill
5. Settlement strategy for the1990's
- 5.a. West Bank
- 5.b. Gaza Strip
- 5.c. The Highway system
6. Aparthm - Israeli style
Case Studies:
- West Bank: Beit Aryeh
- East Jerusalem: Umm Touba
- Gaza Strip: Gush Katif
Appendices
Introduction
From the end of the Gulf war through the month of August,
a period during which US Secretary of State Baker visited the Middle East
five times in an effort to initiate peace negotiations, Israel appropriated
over 100,000 dunams of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank (see
Appendix A), established four new settlements, conferred official "city"
status for the first time on a West Bank settlement, announced plans for
"greater" Jerusalem, and began construction of seventeen new
roads serving settlements.
Israel's seizure and settlement of Palestinian land is
not a new governmental policy, nor is it simply the initiative of selected
government ministers currently in power. Since the start of its military
occupation in 1967, Israel has steadily appropriated Palestinian lands
and sponsored the settlement of its citizens within the occupied territories,
in direct contravention of internationally recognised laws governing the
administration of occupied territories.1 By 1991, Israel had seized an
estimated 65% of Palestinian land in the West Bank and 42% of the Gaza
Strip. 2
Land takeovers are executed using a complex network of
military orders which illegally alter the laws in force at the time of
the occupation. 3 (See box, p. 2, for methods of land takeover. )4 Much
of the land appropriated from Palestinians has been used for the establishment
of civilian settlements and their supporting infrastructure. Approximately
230,000 Israeli settlers have thus taken up permanent residence in the
occupied territories, 5 where they enjoy the same rights and protection
as resident citizens of Israel, while over two million Palestinians, legally
stateless, live under foreign military occupation.
While numerous private and quasi-governmental agencies
are involved in settlement, settlement development has been a fundamental
component of every government programme from the start of the occupation
to date; the government has always been responsible for final approval
of all settlement activity. It was only a short time after the occupation
began in 1967 that the Labour party first put forward a plan for control
of the West Bank through settlement, and it was under a Labour-led government
that the first settlements were established. 6 As recently as 8 August,
director-general of Prime Minister Shamir's office Yossi Ben-Aharon defended
the current escalation in settlement construction as government policy,
saying "any decision on the actual starting of a new settl&nent
.. goes through this office. This has always been the
case."7
