Following that, the group then drove further into Palestinian territory to the settlement of Ofra, one of the largest in the West Bank. The settlement is particularly significant because it was once used as an army base, but then the soldiers asked to bring their wives and family, and before long, Ofra became an entirely civil settlement under Begin’s watch.  The matter is further complicated by the fact that while the Israeli government insists that no settlement is built on private Palestinian land, thereby differentiating settlements from outposts, it has since emerged that Ofra is indeed built over such land.  This, therefore, would make Ofra illegal even under Israeli law.  After a ride through magnificent scenery, the coach stopped by the small settlement of Halamish (population 975) where continued settlement expansion can be seen.

For many, the highlight of the tour was the stop at the Palestinian village of Ni’lin.  Ni’lin has risen in prominence due to the most successful peaceful demonstrations that have taken place in the West Bank against the barrier.  For almost 18 months, its inhabitants have been staging protests every Friday against the barrier which cuts off a third of the village’s fertile land for Hashmonaim and Modi’in Ilit, Israeli settlements.  Despite intentions, the demonstrations have often turned violent after provocations by the IDF, and a number of unarmed Palestinians have been killed by live fire, such as the 10 year old Ahmed Moussa, who was shot as he tried to cut the razor wire of the fence.  The fence has since been replaced with a concrete wall.  The leader of the movement, whose own nephew had been killed, stated his intention to fight for peace, justice and coexistence, while declaring that the Palestinians are the last people in the world to be under occupation.  Teenagers displayed their gun wounds, smoke canisters littered the ground and an eight year old boy, whose mother was killed by soldiers, shamefully posed for photos by some cacti plants.  The Ni’lin tour concluded with a visit to a recently built museum, adorned with pictures of the riots, the names of villages depopulated during the Nakba, and slogans like  “Stop ethnic cleansing” and “Merkel, why should we Palestinians continue to pay for the Holocaust?”.

The tour finished with a brief stop to Modi’in Ilit, the largest West Bank settlement, (population 41,900) which was granted city status last year.  Yet again, construction work of a new neighbourhood was visible in open defiance of international calls for a freeze.  The Haredi ‘city’ had a remarkably different feel to the  isolated, hilltop settlements that had been seen earlier.

Go now to Peace Now‘s Facebook page to see photos of the event

According to a Peace Now inspection, construction within the “settlement blocs” continues as usual, with no freeze to be seen on the ground. Conversely, construction at isolated settlements continues through various settlement-freeze “bypass” tracks:

a. Actualizing old plans – some of the new construction seen in the last months, especially in the isolated settlements, is construction based on old plans that were approved years ago. This is meant to bypass the “settlement freeze,” without needing to approve a new plan that must receive the defense minister’s approval.
It is important to explain that it is within the power of the government to prevent construction that was approved in the past However, it is politically easier for the government to allow the construction while turning a blind eye, with direct or indirect encouragement, and continue claiming there is a “settlement freeze,” when it comes to actualizing an old plan.
Presently new neighborhoods are under construction on the basis of old plans in Kochav Ha’shachar (plan from 1995), Matityahu (plan from 1984), Ma’ale Michmash (plan from 1999), Tqoa (plan from 1997), Elkana (plan from 2001), Na’ale (plan from 1999), Kfar Etzion (plan from 1993), and Barkan (plan from 2003).
According to the Spiegel Report, an official report by the Defense Ministry, there are more than 40,000 housing units in plans that were approved in the past but have not yet been actualized. Some of those plans are not relevant or need further approvals before being implemented. Theoretically, it is possible to double the number of settlers in the settlements without approving a single new plan. A real settlements freeze must include a freeze on actualizing construction and not only on planning procedures.

b. Illegal construction – another way to bypass the freeze is by building illegally. Some of the new construction is illegal, sometimes based on old plans that did not go through all of the licensing processes and sometimes without any plans. Examples are Halamish, Kiryat Netafim, Kochav Ya’akov and Kedar (in Kedar there is construction in the area of an approved plan but based on the provisions of a new plan but has not yet been approved). The government is showing no determination to stop the illegal construction despite warnings made to the law enforcement agencies. See for example at Halamish.

The main findings
General (in settlements, outposts and industrial areas):
• The building of 596 new structures began in the first half of 2009, of which 96 were in outposts.
• 35% of the structures were built east of the route of the separation fence (208 structures) while 65% (388 structures) started to be built west of the fence.
• A rise in the number of permanent structures and a drop in the number of caravans. The number of permanent structures that started to be built rose 8% in the first half of 2009 (372 compared to 344 new structures in the second half of 2008), and the number of caravans dropped 43% (204 compared to 361 new caravans). Most of the decline was recorded in the settlements and outposts east of the route of the separation fence (a 35% drop in the general number of structures compared to only a 6% decline in construction west of the fence).

In settlements (without outposts and industrial areas)
• The construction of 492 new structures began in settlements, including 351 permanent structures, 131 caravans and 10 industrial structures. 124 structures were built east of the separation fence route and 368 west of it.
• In addition, groundwork began for at least another 60 structures.
• Significant construction sites:
o Tqo’a — groundwork for a new neighborhood and continued construction in the neighborhood near the entrance to the settlement.
o Elkana — groundwork for a new neighborhood and continued construction in the northern neighborhood
o Halamish — 12 duplex buildings (construction was stopped by a court order)
o Kedar — groundwork for a new neighborhood (42 housing units)
o Na’ale — groundwork for a new neighborhood and beginning of construction of nine structures
o Kfar Etzion — groundwork for a new neighborhood
o Barkan — groundwork for a new neighborhood (62 housing units)
o Matityahu — groundwork for a new neighborhood
o Tzufin — groundwork for a new neighborhood

• Additional sites:

o Continued construction in large construction sites in Beitar Illit, Modi’in Illit, Givat Ze’ev Illit, Oranit and Ma’ale Adumim

o Yitzhar — 3 permanent structures and 13 new caravans

o Beit Arye – 26 new structures

o Kiryat Netafim — 15 new structures

o Kfar Adumim — 25 permanent structures and 21 caravans

o Revava — continued construction in the new neighborhood and addition of 11 caravans

o Kochav Ya’akov — new caravan neighborhood

o Nokdim — groundwork for 10 new houses.

In outposts
• Not a single real outpost was evacuated.
• At least 96 new structures were built, including 73 caravans, 19 permanent structures and 4 agricultural/industrial structures.
• 15 structures were built in outposts west of the fence route compared to 81 in outposts east of it (85%).
• Additionally, groundwork was undertaken for the construction of at least 20 new structures in the outposts.
• In 60 outposts there was some kind of construction.
• In 10 of the 23 outposts slated for immediate evacuation according to the Defense Ministry list there was construction and expansion:
o Avigayil – 3 new caravans
o Bnei Adam – 5 new caravans
o Gilad Farm — at least 6 new structures, groundwork and road building.
o Yitzhar South (hill 725) — a new structure and groundwork.
o Migron — a new structure, road works and expanding an existing structure.
o Ma’ale Rehav’am – 2 new caravans
o Mitzpe Lachish – 2 caravans and 2 new permanent structures.
o Kida – 3 new structures and groundwork.
o Neve Daniel North — new permanent structure.
o Nofei Nehemiah — 3 new caravans.

Please click here, to view this report on our website.

So let us try and understand:

What does “freezing new tenders” mean?
About 40 percent of the construction in the settlements in the last few years was initiated by the government; the rest was done privately. Currently, 40 percent percent of the public construction is carried out through tenders. When the government initiates a large construction project it sells it by tender, or bidding, in which it offers the building rights to the highest bidder. The rest of the construction is done without bidding. The last tender for new construction in the settlements and East Jerusalem was nine months ago, in November 2008. Ultimately, even if the government freezes all new tenders, it only applies to part of 40 percent of the construction. The rest is not stopped.

What is the situation on the ground now?
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of March 2009 (before the Netanyahu government took office) there were 3,073 housing units under construction in the settlements, not including construction in East Jerusalem. Even if some of those buildings have been completed by now, this still means that a couple of thousands of housing units are under construction at this moment. The government has not frozen this construction. 
It is very hard to know if there is a freeze on other new projects. In many cases the settlers can rely on old permits they were given. There are about 45,000 housing units in the settlements that can theoretically be built on the basis of old building plans that were approved in the past (practically, some of them are not relevant for execution and sometimes additional permits are needed besides approval of the building plan).

It looks as if the government has for the meantime chosen a passive freeze, namely, merely avoiding initiating new projects. But in order to really prevent construction in the settlements an active freeze is needed, which is a stop of construction that has already begun and a halt on projects that were approved in the past but have not been carried out yet.

So, should we be optimistic?
As someone who lives in Israel and sees her future here in Israel I have no choice but to be optimistic and always look for the opportunity even when it seems dim. But even pessimists are allowed to be at least a little encouraged. President Obama is trying to bring the sides to start negotiations on a permanent status agreement, in order to finally put an end to the conflict and arrive at a two state solution. In order to begin the process, both sides need to show willingness and seriousness. On the Israeli side this means to stop building in the settlements (because ultimately as part of the two-state solution we will have to evacuate them).

The Netanyahu government has a paradox:
On one hand it is the most right wing government Israel has had in many years. The cabinet ministers compete with each other on who will say something more extreme. On the day after the report on the freeze of tenders was published, three cabinet ministers visited the site of the settlement of Homesh, near Nablus, which was evacuated by Israel in the Disengagement, and declared that the settlement should be rebuilt. It is hard to believe that anybody in the Israeli mainstream is really interested in rebuilding the evacuated settlement. The extreme statements were meant only to attract attention.

On the other hand, it has been four months since the government was established and not a single new tender has been published, nor do we know of the approval of any new plans (except one). Netanyahu knows that none of the right-wing ministers in his government have any alternatives. If they decide to quit the coalition he will bring Kadima into his government and all those ministers will remain without influence. Therefore, despite the extreme statements, Netanyahu is definitely vulnerable to pressure and his coalition is pretty stable.
Therefore, even though there is not a real freeze yet, I am cautiously optimistic.

This is not the first time the settlement Kochav Yaakov, found 7.7 km over the green line, has illegal erected structures.  There are currently more than 50 illegal permanent houses that are already inhabited which sit on private land owned by the Palestinian villages Akeb and Barke.

While Ehud Barak plays hide and seek with the top hill youth, the settler’s old guard continues to build and expand neighborhoods that pose an immediate threat to the two state solution.

Peace Now calls to immediately demolish the new trailer neighborhood!

For Ynet News report on the illegal construction please click here. 

Trying to avoid a clash, he was stalling. He sent Barak time and again, with such or other compromise formula on the settlement freeze, hoping that in the meantime, his friends in the US Congress and media will manage to somewhat shake President Obama’s determined stand and the extensive support he has. That too is not working all that well.

One of the first rules of negotiations, as well as politics, says: Try to pull the discussion to a field that is convenient for you. A crisis with the Americans in view of construction for the settlers’ children on some Samaria hill would be very uncomfortable for Netanyahu. He knows perfectly well that the world would not tolerate the continued settlement expansion, and that construction in the settlements is no longer popular even in Israel. For example, a public opinion poll that Yedioth Ahronoth carried in June 2009, showed that even some 60% of Lieberman’s voters feel he must not quit the coalition if the settlements are frozen.

This is why Netanyahu decided to take the crisis to a field that he finds convenient: Jerusalem. Now, this is a different story altogether. Jerusalem is a symbol. The Israeli public and perhaps even the US public opinion treat it differently. If there is a crisis with the American concerning sovereign Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem, Netanyahu has better chances of winning the support of the Israeli public, and perhaps even the Americans too.

Pulling a “brilliant stunt,” Netanyahu decided to leak to senior Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth reporters that Israel’s ambassador in Washington had been summoned for a conversation about the intention to build 20 housing units for Jews in Shepherd Hotel in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Thus Netanyahu created the “crisis” with the Americans singlehandedly.

But then, something went awry. The trick was too obvious. The New York Times reported that the story was leaked to the media by Netanyahu himself, while the Israeli media stopped discussing the “crisis” with the Americans and started dealing with the leak. They started asking why Netanyahu bothered to turn a routine conversation with the Israeli ambassador in Washington into a crisis with America. The Israeli right has already started complaining that Netanyahu decided to focus on Jerusalem so that he could freeze construction in other settlements (see Makor Rishon, 20 July 2009).

Netanyahu is hard-pressed. Clearly the leak affair did not serve him well. The little credit he may have had when he first started is running out. His attempts to mislead the public (and the Americans) with old tricks – showing an alleged willingness to freeze the settlement while expanding them in practice – were not well-received by the Americans. The attempt to manipulate the US Administration and drive it into a public, head-on clash over Jerusalem is, as far as the administration is concerned, is unsportsmanlike, foul play.

Still, Netanyahu will lose in this debate too. Shepherd Hotel is not some innocent construction project. Millionaire Irwin Moskowitz, patron of the East Jerusalem settlers, bought that site many years ago. His request to allow construction there has been submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality long ago, but even when Sharon and Olmert were prime ministers, they did not dare raise it for discussion. Cooperating with new Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Netanyahu decided to bring up that which his predecessors avoided.

Building 20 new apartments in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood is meant to prevent the option of attaining a peace arrangement. Today, everyone is clear that the Jerusalem solution will have to be based on dividing it so that the Arab neighborhoods are part of the Palestinian capital, while the Jewish neighborhoods remain Israel’s capital. In recent years, the settlers have been making concentrated efforts to bring Jews to visit and move into the Arab neighborhoods, which should make a compromise deal there impossible, and thus prevent a permanent arrangement.

If Netanyahu was serious when he declared there is “a national consensus on the two-state issue,” he must make sure that it could also materialize. Building in Shepherd Hotel and in East Jerusalem might deny the chance of attaining the two-state solution.

The assault took place at the settlement of Dolev. The incident was captured on video and reported by Israel’s Channel 2 Television, whose news team were documenting Peace Now’s work, and were also assaulted.

The news segment above was broadcast on Channel Two’s evening news broadcast.  Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran filed a police complaint against the assailant, which resulted in an arrest being made.

The violence perpetrated by settlers is unforgivable, unfortunate and occurs all to regularly.  It is dangerous and diminishes any possibility of stability and peace. 

Peace Now is the best resource for information about settlements in the West Bank, and violence like this shall not deter its activists from completing the important job of reporting the real facts on the ground.  

For the article in APN’s site
For the report in Haaretz

We just ended Peace Now’s tour in the West Bank. We coordinated the rout of the tour with the Israeli police, and it was approved in advance, however the policemen in the field prevented us from entering any settlement and we had to look at them from afar. Settlers started to approach our group and shout at us to spoil the tour, and the line of settlers’ cars following our buses became longer after each stop. The police escorted us and suddenly, near the settlement of Shilo we were stoned. The stone hit the window and smashed it, luckily no one was injured. Some of our activists managed to see the throwers, who were young men, wearing Kipa, probably settlers from the area. We gave the police their detail description, and the policemen said: “ah, we know them”.
Now we only need to wait and see if the police catches and punishes them or, maybe, the police would rather prevent us from have future tours in the West Bank, like what was done in Hebron: the settlers attacked our tours and the police decided not to let us in Hebron again.

There may have been “mitigating circumstances” for the shooting.  Stones may have been thrown by the Palestinians during the taunting, and maybe, the soldiers felt threatened (after all, stones can kill and therefore are “considered dangerous”) and instead of “defending themselves” as the policemen in Yitzhar did, or distancing the settlers from the place of danger, they decided to defend themselves by firing live ammunition in the direction of the young Palestinians. 
These three stories are only three of many others that occur almost every day in the land of settlers and occupation. 
Interim conclusions:
1. The rocks thrown by the settlers at the police in Yitzhar led to the injury of five police persons, to the fact that police personnel had to “defend themselves” from the stones by shields, and to the arrest of 8 suspects, who were detained less than 24 hours and released on a 1,000 NIS bail.
2. The rocks which apparently were not thrown in Hebron led to an arrest that lasted 11 days, the release of one person on 2,000 NIS bail and a trial which is still going on today.  We do not know of any court proceedings opened against the settler who fired the shots.
3. The rock which might have been thrown by Palestinians at Immatin led to shots being fired by soldiers and to one young Palestinian being wounded.  No investigation was carried out regarding the shooting, since, according to the IDF, the shots were aimed in the air and no one was reported wounded.
It seems that the stones in the Land of Israel are special.  They can kill, but the question is – kill who?

There was a long line of Palestinians at the entrance to the Ofer Army Base.  Men and women, young and old, sitting under the awning or standing at the side, waiting for their names to be called to attend the session of the Military Court or to visit a relative in the prison.  This was my first time here.  It is forbidden to bring anything in, no purse, no telephone.  A careful inspection and body search – and I’m inside.  I pass through the fences and reach the caravan, the courtroom, where there is a discussion about extending the remand of a 50 year old Palestinian and his 19 year old son suffering from mental retardation.  The charge: throwing stones near their home in Hebron.

A week earlier, a settler coming from Giv’at Ha-avot in Hebron fired in the direction of Palestinians herding their sheep near their home.  The shepherds’ father heard the shooting and came out.  The policemen at the Hebron police station, located approx. 50 meters from there, heard the shots and came to the site.  The settler declared:  the Palestinians threw stones at me.  Soldiers (who arrived a few minutes after the shooting) testified that they had seen stones being thrown and that the shooting was a reaction.  The policemen asked the father to go with them to the police station to file a complaint against the settler who had fired in the direction of his house.  The father went with the policemen, and as they reached the station – they informed him that he and his son were under arrest for throwing stones.
Activists from “The Children of Abraham” who happened to have been there saw what had happened.  All attempts to convince the policemen that it was a matter of a false charge, and that the one who had been the attacker was actually the settler, did not help.  The father and his son were put under arrest.  “The Children of Abraham” decided to try to help and that’s how I happened to arrive for the remand to help translate what was being said for the accused (I felt so helpless and disgust by what I saw in the “Military Court” – but on that I should write in another time).
The father and the son were sitting hunched over, saying nothing.  After a week under arrest, they looked tired, sad and not in very good health.  The judge tried to stick to the point, the session is about extending remand and not about the guilt.  The military prosecutor asked that they be bound over until the end of the proceedings.  The defense, attorney Gabi Lasky, demanded that they be released immediately.  In the end, the judge decided that since there was evidence which raised doubts about the involvement of the father, he would be released on bail of 4,000 NIS (which was reduced to 2,000 NIS at his attorney’s request because of the family’s difficult economic situation).  However, the son remained under arrest, bound over until the end of the proceedings, since the offense of stone throwing is “considered dangerous”.  A stone can kill, and therefore the suspicion must be treated very seriously. 
In the end, the father was only released four days later, because the military prosecutor had asked for a 72-hour extension to decide whether or not to appeal the release.  A few days later, the son was also released.  Today, over a year later, their trial has yet to be concluded.

The Place: the Pale

stinian village of Bidu, northwest of Jerusalem, 8/7/08.

Last week Muhammad Abu Id celebrated his 14th birthday. One week before, he was released from the Israeli Jail. According to the Military Attorney he was caught throwing stones at the Separation Fence. The Military Court sentenced him for four and a half months in jail, 1000 NIS fine and 5 years suspended sentence. “There were many children with me in jail. I was in three different jails: Ofer, Tel Mond and Damun”. “All this because you threw stones on soldiers”? I asked. “Not on people. I was sentenced for throwing stones on the fence”.