Israeli Settlement

The phrase "Israeli settlement" has different meanings depending on historical period, geography, and legal or political context.[1][2] In a broad historical usage, it encompasses organized Jewish settlement in Palestine and the Land of Israel from the nineteenth century onward, including urban neighborhoods, agricultural colonies, kibbutzim, and moshavim associated with the Zionist national enterprise.[1] This usage overlaps with the historical distinction between the Old Yishuv, the Jewish population before 1882, and the New Yishuv, which included the modern agricultural settlements and residential communities established after 1882.[3]

A narrower historical usage refers to Jewish rural communities developed within the borders of what became the State of Israel, especially kibbutzim, moshavim, and communal settlements that performed agricultural, immigrant-absorption, and security functions.[1] The currently dominant political usage applies the term to Israeli civilian communities built after 1967 in territories captured during the Six-Day War, especially the West Bank and, under some definitions, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.[2] Israel generally describes Jewish communities in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as neighborhoods or localities within annexed Israeli territory, while most international usage classifies them as settlements.[2]

The roots of the modern Jewish settlement enterprise reach back to the nineteenth century, when Jewish neighborhoods were built outside Jerusalem's Old City walls and agricultural activity began at sites including Petah Tikva and Rosh Pina, which the cited account dates to 1872.[1] The agricultural school at Mikveh Israel was established in 1870, while Jewish settlement initiatives in Jerusalem and Tiberias are recorded as early as 1700.[1] Hovevei Zion was established in 1881, and the First and Second Aliyot from 1882 to 1914 brought approximately 65,000 Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel, establishing foundations for new urban and rural Hebrew settlement.[4]

The dominant settlement type of that first era was the moshavah, a pioneer settlement based on private land ownership, single-family agricultural homesteads, and free patterns of marketing and economic organization. It was the principal form of Jewish settlement in Palestine between 1882 and 1914.[3] Hadera, founded in 1891, was one such colony.[4] Institutional innovation accelerated in the early twentieth century: Degania, founded in 1910, became the first kvutza or kibbutz in the Land of Israel, while Nahalal, founded in 1921, was the first moshav ovdim, or workers' moshav.[4][1] During the 1920s, kibbutzim and moshavim spread through the Jezreel Valley, which became associated with land acquisition, swamp drainage, agricultural labor, and nation-building.[4]

The Jerusalem Center for Foreign and Security Affairs argues that agricultural settlement—especially kibbutzim and moshavim—was central in the pre-state period to building Jewish communities throughout the country, developing agriculture, helping delineate borders, promoting a labor-oriented national ethos, preparing an army, and supporting transportation, electricity, water, education, and research networks.[1] After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the government pursued a plan to build hundreds of communities, most of them moshavim, partly to absorb immigrants and settle areas along the armistice borders.[1]

Israeli government materials describe several community forms that emerged from this tradition. A kibbutz is a social and economic unit in which members make decisions collectively and property and means of production are communally owned; 267 kibbutzim housed approximately 1.7 percent of Israel's population at the time of publication, although many had undergone privatization and diversification into industry, tourism, and services.[5] A moshav is a rural settlement in which each family maintains its own farm and household; 441 moshavim and moshavim shitufi'im comprised approximately 3.5 percent of Israel's population and supplied much of its agricultural produce.[5] A yishuv kehilati, or community settlement, consists of economically independent households whose residents maintain collective institutions such as a general assembly and volunteer committees.[5] The term "settlement" has also been used inside Israel proper: in 2002, the cabinet approved 14 new yishuvim kehilatiim in the Galilee, Negev, Gilboa, and Arava, initially planned for 200–500 families each and eventually for as many as 9,000 families.[6]

The first West Bank settlements were constructed after Israel captured Judea and Samaria, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel initially justified them as residential areas connected to personnel involved with the military occupation.[7] Only five sparsely populated settlements existed beyond the Green Line in 1968.[8] The first wave included settlements established under the Allon Plan, which shaped Labor government policy from 1967 to 1977 and emphasized Israeli security while avoiding settlement in heavily Arab-populated areas.[1] During this period, approximately 25 settlements were built on the Golan Heights, 15 were founded in the Jordan Valley, and 10 religious moshavim were established in the Gaza Strip.[1]

A pivotal early episode came in 1968, when Rabbi Moshe Levinger, his wife Miriam, and 30 families occupied the Park Hotel in Hebron. The government relocated the group to Kiryat Arba in 1971, and followers of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and Gush Emunim established the settlement there in 1972.[8] After the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Gush Emunim arose in opposition to greater governmental flexibility toward territorial compromise and sought settlement throughout the West Bank, especially in the densely Arab-populated highlands of Judea and Samaria.[9]

Following Menachem Begin's Likud electoral victory in 1977, financial incentives encouraged settlement in areas not necessarily considered strategically important.[8] By 1981, the movement had expanded to a network of approximately 20 settlements.[9] The Institute for National Security Studies describes three broad stages in settlement policy since 1967: an initial phase aimed at shaping Israel's future borders, strengthening control, and preventing transfer of the West Bank to another party; a later phase distinguishing between blocs intended for possible annexation and isolated settlements that could serve as bargaining chips; and a more recent phase in which settlements also serve domestic social purposes, particularly housing for the ultra-Orthodox sector.[10]

Contemporary usage distinguishes several categories of Israeli settlement by legal status, size, and geographic position. An Israeli administrative definition reported by the Jerusalem Post describes settlements as communities beyond the Green Line and outside East Jerusalem that received legal status from the Israeli government, usually through a cabinet decision. Under this definition, the communities were established between 1967 and 1999 and fall under Defense Ministry jurisdiction.[11]

Settlement outposts form a separate category: communities beyond the Green Line and outside Jerusalem constructed without government authorization, generally with less infrastructure and official support than authorized settlements.[11] The Washington Institute for Near East Policy describes outposts as typically containing only a few dozen homes, initially established in a makeshift manner, and often later receiving military protection and connections to Israeli utility networks. It reports that many were built on private Palestinian land and that proposed legislation sought to legalize some retroactively.[12] The Congressional Research Service distinguishes approximately 132 official residential communities in the West Bank from approximately 141 unauthorized outposts and separately identifies roughly 14 main residential areas in East Jerusalem.[7]

Large settlement blocs are distinguished from more isolated communities. The Jewish Virtual Library identifies Ma'ale Adumim, Modi'in Illit, Ariel, Gush Etzion, and Givat Ze'ev as major blocs.[8] The Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports that most West Bank settlers lived in large blocs such as Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel, adjacent to Israel's 1967 borders.[13] The Anti-Defamation League reported that approximately 80 percent of settlers lived in major blocs around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with the remainder in more remote communities deeper in the West Bank.[14]

Academic analysis has also examined settlements as an integrated spatial system. A 2014 study introduced the concept of the "settlement complex" to describe the combined system of West Bank settlements, roads, military legislation, spatial design, and movement restrictions. It argued that the communities should not be understood merely as an aggregate of approximately 124 communities classified by the study as "legal" and a similar number of "illegal outposts," but as a connected system affecting Palestinian population centers and mobility.[15]

Estimates of the settler population vary by date, geographic definition, and whether East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are included. The Anti-Defamation League reported approximately 400,000 Israelis living in about 131 West Bank settlements and 97 outposts, with approximately 80 percent concentrated in major blocs around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.[14] Official Israeli data for 2017 recorded 126 West Bank settlements and 414,400 Jewish Israeli residents, while approximately 215,000 Jews lived in East Jerusalem in the same general period.[13]

The Congressional Research Service placed the combined figure at approximately 660,000 Israelis living in residential neighborhoods or settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: approximately 432,000 Jewish residents in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem and 227,100 in East Jerusalem.[7] It also reported that 77 percent of Israeli settlers excluding East Jerusalem, and 84 percent including East Jerusalem, lived within the perimeter of Israel's separation barrier.[7]

Golan Heights communities add a further dimension. My Jewish Learning reported approximately 20,500 Jews in the Golan Heights in 2016.[2] A ynet analysis using 2009 figures reported approximately 440,000 residents in East Jerusalem, 290,000 in West Bank settlements, and 41,000 in the Golan Heights. It stated that between 1997 and 2009 the East Jerusalem population grew by 40 percent and the settlement population by almost 100 percent, compared with 2.2 percent annual growth inside the Green Line.[16]

Community profiles differ markedly. A ynet analysis described established middle-class communities around East Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, religious and ideological communities such as Karnei Shomron, and predominantly Haredi communities such as Beitar Illit, where it reported lower workforce participation and higher poverty.[17] A 2010 Jerusalem Post account reported that 303,900 people lived in 122 West Bank settlements, of which 71 had fewer than 1,000 residents, 24 had between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, and five had more than 10,000 residents.[11]

All West Bank settlements and outposts are located in Area C, which under the Oslo framework comprises approximately 60 percent of the West Bank and is under Israeli civilian and security control. Area C also encompasses IDF bases, major traffic arteries, and other strategically important sites.[18]

The settler population is not politically or socially uniform. The Anti-Defamation League describes it as including secular Israelis, new immigrants, ultra-Orthodox Israelis, and people motivated primarily by affordability or convenience, alongside those who believe there is a religious or political obligation to settle the territory.[14] Many settlers and supporters view the communities as a security "first line of defense" against Palestinian or other Arab attack.[14]

The Institute for National Security Studies notes that settlements have increasingly served domestic social purposes, particularly the provision of affordable housing for the ultra-Orthodox sector.[10] This has produced communities with substantially different social and economic profiles from the ideologically motivated settlements of the Gush Emunim era. Jewish historical continuity also shapes some communities: several of the first renewed settlements were established at places where Jews had lived before 1948, including Hebron and Kfar Etzion. The Anti-Defamation League notes that descendants of residents of Kfar Etzion and nearby villages were among the first to return after the 1967 war.[14]

Israeli settlements formerly existed in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, making them part of the historical scope of the term even though none remain there today.[2] Ten religious moshavim were established in Gaza after 1967 as part of the initial settlement enterprise.[1] Following Israel's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, the Sinai settlements were dismantled and their residents resettled in Israel; Yamit was the most notable evacuated community.[2]

In August and September 2005, Israel withdrew all civilians and military personnel from all 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan.[19] The Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports that more than 9,000 Israelis living in 25 settlements were removed, while the Anti-Defamation League states that all Israeli settlements in Gaza were uprooted.[13][14] A ynet account states that 23 settlements containing 9,400 residents were evacuated during the main two-week operation, while Ganim and Kadim in the West Bank were evacuated voluntarily before it began.[20]

The disengagement was politically contested within Israel. In a Likud referendum on May 2, 2004, 59.5 percent of voters opposed the plan, but Sharon's government approved an amended version in early June by a vote of 14–7. Approximately 142,000 IDF soldiers, Border Guard personnel, and police officers participated in the August 2005 operation.[20]

Jewish communities in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights occupy a distinct terminological category because Israel regards those territories as annexed rather than occupied.[2] Israel applied its sovereignty to East Jerusalem in 1967 and to the Golan Heights in 1981; accordingly, it describes Jewish communities there as neighborhoods, towns, or cities rather than settlements. Most of the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over either area and classifies Jewish communities built there as settlements.[2]

The Congressional Research Service identifies roughly 14 main residential areas in East Jerusalem that are referred to variously as settlements or neighborhoods depending on the speaker's legal and political framework.[7] Palestinians and some international actors classify Jewish neighborhoods built in areas acquired in 1967 as settlements, while Israel disputes that Jewish neighborhoods and construction in East Jerusalem constitute settlement activity.[14]

Israel's stated legal position, as summarized by the Congressional Research Service, is that the West Bank is disputed territory rather than occupied territory and that building civilian settlements or applying Israeli law there does not violate international law.[7] Israeli defenders of the settlements cite combinations of legal, historical, strategic, nationalistic, and religious arguments, and some use the biblical terms "Judea and Samaria" to emphasize the territory's Jewish history.[7]

The 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine required the Mandatory administration to facilitate Jewish immigration and settlement while safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants.[21] The Oslo agreements later reserved settlements for permanent-status negotiations rather than requiring their dismantlement.[21] On Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Israeli legal argument holds that its prohibition concerns forced deportation or transfer and does not prohibit voluntary movement by individuals who do not displace local inhabitants.[8]

The Israeli government's stated criteria for authorized settlements required construction on state land or land legally acquired from private individuals, government approval, and compliance with planning and zoning regulations; developments that failed those requirements were subject to evacuation.[13] A study cited by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that 15 unauthorized outposts were located on privately owned Palestinian land.[13]

Settlements have been integrated into Israel's political, legal, economic, transportation, and communications systems, although formal administration in the West Bank involves Israeli military authority and Palestinian Authority administration in different zones.[7] Some Israeli legal norms apply to settlers through personal jurisdiction and military decrees. Some observers describe this integration, together with restrictions on Palestinian building and land use, as "creeping annexation" or "de facto annexation."[7]

The legal and political status of post-1967 Israeli settlements is extensively debated in international law and diplomacy. Palestinians, United Nations organs, and the European Union regard the settlements as contrary to Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."[21][7] A United Nations report states that General Assembly Resolution 70/89 reaffirmed the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.[22]

UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted in December 2016 with the United States abstaining and no country voting against, described settlements in "Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem" as a "flagrant violation under international law" and a "major obstacle" to a two-state solution and a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace.[7]

The Jerusalem Institute publication describes the Oslo agreements as leaving settlements for permanent-status negotiations rather than declaring them illegal or requiring their dismantlement. It outlines possible future arrangements including incorporating areas containing large concentrations of settlers into Israel with territorial compensation to Palestinians, returning some settlers to Israel proper, or permitting continued residence under Palestinian jurisdiction.[21]

The opposing Israeli legal position maintains that voluntary Jewish settlement is not prohibited by the relevant Geneva Convention provisions and that the Oslo agreements reserved the issue for permanent-status negotiations.[8] Most international bodies reject that interpretation and apply Article 49(6) more broadly.[7]

Several dimensions of the settlement issue remain contested across political, legal, and scholarly lines. The geographic scope of the term is disputed: whether East Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods and Golan Heights communities count as settlements depends on differing positions regarding Israeli sovereignty and annexation.[2][7] Population statistics also vary substantially by source, date, and whether East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and unauthorized outposts are included.[14][7]

The legal status of outposts is contested even under Israeli law. Although outposts lack initial government authorization, they have frequently received military protection and utility connections, while legislation has sought retroactive legalization of some.[12] The distinction between an authorized settlement and an outpost is therefore not always clearly reflected in practice.[12]

The motivations attributed to settlement policy are also varied and not mutually exclusive. Sources identify security considerations, religious and Zionist ideology, domestic housing needs, and territorial bargaining as important at different times.[10][1] The history of policy—from Labor's strategic Allon Plan, to Gush Emunim's religious nationalism, to Likud's financial incentives and the later Haredi housing rationale—reflects shifting purposes rather than a single consistent agenda.[10][9]

The phrase "Israeli settlement" consequently carries different historical and political connotations. Israeli and pro-Israel accounts often connect it to Jewish historical continuity, return to communities lost before 1948, and national renewal.[14] Palestinian and much international usage emphasizes military administration, effects on Palestinian movement and territorial claims, and the settlements' implications for a prospective Palestinian state.[7] These differences reflect unresolved disagreements about history, law, security, and permanent-status arrangements.