Israeli settlement

Certain observers and Palestinians occasionally use the term "Israeli colonies" as a substitute for the term "settlements".{{Cite journal |last=Matar |first=Ibrahim |date=1981 |title=Israeli Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=93–110 |doi=10.2307/2536048 |issn=0377-919X |jstor=2536048 |quote=The pattern and process of land seizure for the purpose of constructing these Israeli colonies...}}{{Cite journal |last1=Isaac |first1=Jad |last2=Hilal |first2=Jane |date=2011 |title=Palestinian landscape and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict |journal=International Journal of Environmental Studies |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=413–429 |doi=10.1080/00207233.2011.582700 |bibcode=2011IJEnS..68..413I |issn=0020-7233 |s2cid=96404520 |quote=The continuous construction of Israeli colonies and bypass roads all over the Palestinian land...}}{{Cite journal |last=Thawaba |first=Salem |date=2019 |title=Building and planning regulations under Israeli colonial power: a critical study from Palestine |journal=Planning Perspectives |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=133–146 |doi=10.1080/02665433.2018.1543611 |bibcode=2019PlPer..34..133T |issn=0266-5433 |s2cid=149769054 |quote=Moreover in 1995 38,500 housing units were built in Jewish settlements (colonies)...}}{{cite book |last1=Abu-Laban |first1=Yasmine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Meq-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT243 |title=Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race: Exploring Identity and Power in a Global Context |last2=Bakan |first2=Abigail B. |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-83860-879-8 |quote=The ongoing occupation has been heavily shaped by the issues of land confiscation and the building of Israeli Jewish settlements (or what Palestinians often refer to less euphemistically as "colonies").}} Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.

Settlement has an economic dimension, much of it driven by the significantly lower costs of housing for Israeli citizens living in Israeli settlements compared to the cost of housing and living in Israel proper.[http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=752421 'The economics at the heart of Israel's illegal settlements,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107231439/http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=752421 |date=7 January 2015 }} Ma'an News Agency 7 January 2015. Government spending per citizen in the settlements is double that spent per Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while government spending for settlers in isolated Israeli settlements is three times the Israeli national average. Most of the spending goes to the security of the Israeli citizens living there.Jodi Rudoren, Jeremy Ashkenas,[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/12/world/middleeast/netanyahu-west-bank-settlements-israel-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 'Netanyahu and the Settlements,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308150413/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/12/world/middleeast/netanyahu-west-bank-settlements-israel-election.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 |date=8 March 2021 }} The New York Times, 12 March 2015: 'the government spent about $950 supporting each West Bank resident in 2014, more than double its investment in people living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem; in isolated settlements, it was $1,483 per capita.'

{{Main|List of Israeli settlements}}

As of January 2023, there are 144 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem. In addition, there are at least 196 Israeli illegal outposts (not sanctioned by the Israeli government) in the West Bank. In total, over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem,{{cite news |title=Jewish settler population in the West Bank surpasses half a million |url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2 February 2023 |access-date=10 October 2023 |archive-date=9 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109170930/https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Far-right Israeli Minister Lays Groundwork for Doubling West Bank Settler Population |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-18/ty-article/.premium/far-right-israeli-minister-lays-groundwork-for-doubling-west-bank-settler-population/00000188-2de6-d6e4-ab9d-ede74a3e0000 |work=Haaretz |date=18 May 2023 |access-date=10 October 2023 |archive-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609150935/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-18/ty-article/.premium/far-right-israeli-minister-lays-groundwork-for-doubling-west-bank-settler-population/00000188-2de6-d6e4-ab9d-ede74a3e0000 |url-status=live }} with an additional 220,000 Jewish settlers residing in East Jerusalem.

Additionally, over 20,000 Israeli citizens live in settlements in the Golan Heights.{{cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-okays-2610-homes-for-jews-and-arabs-in-e-jerusalem/|title=Israel okays 2,610 homes for Jews and Arabs in E. Jerusalem|website=The Times of Israel|access-date=1 October 2014|archive-date=2 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141002181840/http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-okays-2610-homes-for-jews-and-arabs-in-e-jerusalem/|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Population of Jewish settlements in West Bank up 15,000 in a year |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/26/jewish-population-west-bank-up |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Harriet |last=Sherwood |date=26 July 2012 |access-date=14 December 2016 |archive-date=10 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710015149/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/jewish-population-west-bank-up |url-status=live }}

{{See also|Israeli settlement timeline}}

Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied a number of territories.{{cite web |url=http://www.fmep.org/reports/special-reports/special-report-on-israeli-settlement-in-the-occupied-territories/PDF |title=Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories |publisher=Foundation for Middle East Peace |access-date=2012-08-05 }}{{dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} It took over the remainder of the Palestinian Mandate territories of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, from Jordan which had controlled the territories since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, which had held Gaza under occupation since 1949. From Egypt, it also captured the Sinai Peninsula and from Syria it captured most of the Golan Heights, which since 1981 has been administered under the Golan Heights Law.

As early as September 1967, Israeli settlement policy was progressively encouraged by the Labor government of Levi Eshkol. The basis for Israeli settlement in the West Bank became the Allon Plan,[https://www.hrw.org/en/node/95059/section/5 Separate and Unequal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214012536/http://www.hrw.org/en/node/95059/section/5 |date=14 December 2014 }}, Chapter IV. Human Rights Watch, 19 December 2010Akiva Eldar, [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988828.html "A matter of a few dozen meters"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122050804/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988828.html |date=22 November 2008 }}. Haaretz, 1 June 2008 named after its inventor Yigal Allon. It implied Israeli annexation of major parts of the Israeli-occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and the Jordan Valley.Ian S. Lustick, [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/lustick/lustick13.html For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722235336/https://www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/lustick/lustick13.html |date=22 July 2021 }}, chapter 3, par. Early Activities of Gush Emunim. 1988, the Council on Foreign Relations The settlement policy of the government of Yitzhak Rabin was also derived from the Allon Plan.Knesset Website, [https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/gush_em_eng.htm Gush Emunim] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927142607/https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/gush_em_eng.htm |date=27 September 2020 }}. Retrieved 27-02-2013

The first settlement was Kfar Etzion, in the southern West Bank,Donald Macintyre, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080611213726/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-memo-shows-israel-knew-six-day-war-was-illegal-450410.html "Secret memo shows Israel knew Six Day War was illegal"]. Independent, 26 May 2007. (on web.archive) although that location was outside the Allon Plan. Many settlements began as Nahal settlements. They were established as military outposts and later expanded and populated with civilian inhabitants. According to a secret document dating to 1970, obtained by Haaretz, the settlement of Kiryat Arba was established by confiscating land by military order and falsely representing the project as being strictly for military use while in reality, Kiryat Arba was planned for settler use. The method of confiscating land by military order for establishing civilian settlements was an open secret in Israel throughout the 1970s, but publication of the information was suppressed by the military censor.{{cite web|last=Berger|first=Yotam|date=2016-07-28|title=Secret 1970 document confirms first West Bank settlements built on a lie|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-document-confirms-first-settlements-built-on-a-lie-1.5416937|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112161204/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-document-confirms-first-settlements-built-on-a-lie-1.5416937|archive-date=2019-11-12|access-date=2021-05-24|website=Haaretz|language=en|quote=In minutes of meeting in then defense minister Moshe Dayan's office, top Israeli officials discussed how to violate international law in building settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron […] The system of confiscating land by military order for the purpose of establishing settlements was an open secret in Israel throughout the 1970s}}{{cite news |newspaper=Haaretz |title=Israel Used Military Censor to Conceal First Settlements From Public, Document Reveals |date=7 September 2016 |author=Yotam Berger |url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.740778 |quote='The seizure for military needs can easily be defended from a legal point of view,' Ben Horin writes. 'Civilian enterprises are another thing entirely.' |access-date=8 September 2016 |archive-date=14 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314053738/http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.740778 |url-status=live }}

In the 1970s, Israel's methods for seizing Palestinian land to establish settlements included requisitioning for ostensibly military purposes and spraying of land with poison.{{cite news|last=Aderet|first=Ofer|date=23 June 2023|title=Israel Poisoned Palestinian Land to Build West Bank Settlement in 1970s, Documents Reveal|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-to-build-west-bank-settlement-in-1970s-documents-reveal/00000188-e8aa-df52-a79d-fcabdd200000|work=|location=Haaretz|access-date=24 June 2023|archive-date=23 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230623175116/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-to-build-west-bank-settlement-in-1970s-documents-reveal/00000188-e8aa-df52-a79d-fcabdd200000|url-status=live}}

The Likud government of Menahem Begin, from 1977, was more supportive to settlement in other parts of the West Bank, by organizations like Gush Emunim and the Jewish Agency/World Zionist Organization, and intensified the settlement activities.Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR), [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/B658E2F2D24BC43885256C780054B750 Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, Part II] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203123155/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/B658E2F2D24BC43885256C780054B750 |date=3 December 2013 }}, chapter III. "The magnitude of settlements". 1 July 1984. [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/B795B2D7FE86DA4885256B5A00666D70 Part I] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309145732/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/B795B2D7FE86DA4885256B5A00666D70 |date=9 March 2012 }}Ian S. Lustick, [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/lustick/lustick13.html For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722235336/https://www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/lustick/lustick13.html |date=22 July 2021 }}, chapter 3, par. "Gush Emunim and the Likud". 1988, the Council on Foreign Relations In a government statement, Likud declared that the entire historic Land of Israel is the inalienable heritage of the Jewish people and that no part of the West Bank should be handed over to foreign rule.Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1977-1979/23%20Government%20statement%20on%20recognition%20of%20three%20se 23. "Government statement on recognition of three settlements"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925205750/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1977-1979/23%20Government%20statement%20on%20recognition%20of%20three%20se |date=25 September 2020 }}. 26 July 1977 Ariel Sharon declared in the same year (1977) that there was a plan to settle 2 million Jews in the West Bank by 2000.Robin Bidwell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KKrCgxsRBkEC&pg=PA442 Dictionary Of Modern Arab History], Routledge, 2012 p. 442 The government abrogated the prohibition from purchasing occupied land by Israelis; the "Drobles Plan", a plan for large-scale settlement in the West Bank meant to prevent a Palestinian state under the pretext of security became the framework for its policy.Division for Palestinian Rights/CEIRPP,

[https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/76B24E9B635C44C185256D5C004C5C4C SUPR Bulletin No. 9-10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203122735/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/76B24E9B635C44C185256D5C004C5C4C |date=3 December 2013 }} (letters of 19 September 1979 and 18 October 1979).
Original UNGA/UNSC publication of the "Drobles Plan" in pdf: [http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N79/268/98/pdf/N7926898.pdf?OpenElement Letter dated 18 October 1979 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People addressed to the Secretary-General] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926034551/https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N79/268/98/pdf/N7926898.pdf?OpenElement |date=26 September 2020 }}, see ANNEX (doc.nrs. A/34/605 and S/13582 d.d. 22-10-1979).Citations from the Drobles Plan (October 1978): [http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N79/268/98/pdf/N7926898.pdf?OpenElement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926034551/https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N79/268/98/pdf/N7926898.pdf?OpenElement|date=26 September 2020}}

"Settlement throughout the entire Land of Israel is for security and by right. A strip of settlements at strategic sites enhances both internal and external security alike, as well as making concrete and realizing our right to Eretz Israel."

"The disposition of the settlements must be carried out not only around the settlements of the minorities, but also in between them."

[Note: "minorities" refers to the Arab population in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The West Bank had some 98% Arabs in 1978.]

"New settlements will be established only on State-owned land, and not on private Arab-owned land which is duly registered. We should ensure that there is no need for the expropriation of private plots from the members of the minorities."

"As is known, it is the task of the land settlement department to initiate, plan and implement the settlement enterprise according to the decisions of the Government and of the joint Government-World Zionist Organization Committee for Settlement."

"This will enable us to bring about the dispersion … to the presently empty areas of J&S."

The "Drobles Plan" from the World Zionist Organization, dated October 1978 and named "Master Plan for the Development of Settlements in Judea and Samaria, 1979–1983", was written by the Jewish Agency director and former Knesset member Matityahu Drobles. In January 1981, the government adopted a follow-up plan from Drobles, dated September 1980 and named "The current state of the settlements in Judea and Samaria", with more details about settlement strategy and policy.UNGA/UNSC, [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3E5D731750EEB69E8525696600663AD0 Letter dated 19 June 1981 from the Acting Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to the Secretary-General] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203121935/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3E5D731750EEB69E8525696600663AD0 |date=3 December 2013 }} (A/36/341 and S/14566 d.d.19-06-1981).
Citations from the Matityahu Drobles follow-up plan (September 1980): [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3E5D731750EEB69E8525696600663AD0] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203121935/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3E5D731750EEB69E8525696600663AD0|date=3 December 2013}}

THE SETTLEMENT STRATEGY IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA

"In light of the current negotiations on the future of Judea and Samaria, it will now become necessary for us to conduct a race against time. During this period, everything will be mainly determined by the facts we establish in these territories and less by any other considerations. This is therefore the best time for launching an extensive and comprehensive settlement momentum, particularly on the Judea and Samaria hilltops which are not easily passable by nature and which preside over the Jordan Valley on the cast and over the Coastal Plain on the west."

"It is therefore significant to stress today, mainly by means of actions, that the autonomy does not and will not apply to the territories but only to the Arab population thereof. This should mainly find expression by establishing facts on the ground. Therefore, the state-owned lands and the uncultivated barren lands in Judea and Samaria ought to be seized right away, with the purpose of settling the areas between and around the centers occupied by the minorities so as to reduce to the minimum the danger of an additional Arab state being established in these territories. Being cut off by Jewish settlements the minority population will find it difficult to form a territorial and political continuity."

"There mustn't be even the shadow of a doubt about our intention to keep the territories of Judea and Samaria for good. Otherwise, the minority population may get into a state of growing disquiet which will eventually result in recurrent efforts to establish an additional Arab state in these territories. The best and most effective way of removing every shadow of a doubt about our intention to hold on to Judea and Samaria forever is by speeding up the settlement momentum in these territories."

SETTLEMENT POLICY IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA

"Thus, it is necessary to establish additional settlements near every existing settlement in Judea and Samaria, so as to create settlement clusters in homogenous settlement regions ..."

"Over the next 5 years it is necessary to establish 12–15 rural and urban settlements per annum in Judea and Samaria, so that in five years from now the number of settlements will grow by 60–75 and the Jewish population thereof will amount to between 120,000 and 150,000 people."

File:2012.01.16.HebronGilbertCheckpoint.2.JPG, 2012]]

Since 1967, government-funded settlement projects in the West Bank are implemented by the "Settlement Division" of the World Zionist Organization.[http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Cabinet-seeks-to-limit-Baraks-say-on-settlements "Cabinet seeks to limit Barak's say on settlements"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225202657/http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Cabinet-seeks-to-limit-Baraks-say-on-settlements |date=25 February 2021 }}. Tovah Lazaroff and Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, 20 June 2011 Though formally a non-governmental organization, it is funded by the Israeli government and leases lands from the Civil Administration to settle in the West Bank. It is authorized to create settlements in the West Bank on lands licensed to it by the Civil Administration. Traditionally, the Settlement Division has been under the responsibility of the Agriculture Ministry. Since the Oslo Accords, it was always housed within the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). In 2007, it was moved back to the Agriculture Ministry. In 2009, the Netanyahu Government decided to subject all settlement activities to additional approval of the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister. In 2011, Netanyahu sought to move the Settlement Division again under the direct control of (his own) PMO, and to curtail Defense Minister Ehud Barak's authority.

At the presentation of the Oslo II Accord on 5 October 1995 in the Knesset, PM Yitzhak Rabin expounded the Israeli settlement policy in connection with the permanent solution to the conflict. Israel wanted "a Palestinian entity, less than a state, which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank". It wanted to keep settlements beyond the Green Line including Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev in East Jerusalem. Blocs of settlements should be established in the West Bank. Rabin promised not to return to the 4 June 1967 lines.Presentation of the Oslo II Accord in the Knesset by Rabin: MFA, [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1995/pages/pm%20rabin%20in%20knesset-%20ratification%20of%20interim%20agree.aspx Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: Ratification of the Israel–Palestinian Interim Agreement—The Knesset October 5, 1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127133431/http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1995/pages/pm%20rabin%20in%20knesset-%20ratification%20of%20interim%20agree.aspx |date=27 November 2020 }}.

In June 1997, the Likud government of Benjamin Netanyahu presented its "Allon Plus Plan". This plan holds the retention of some 60% of the West Bank, including the "Greater Jerusalem" area with the settlements Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh Adumim, other large concentrations of settlements in the West Bank, the entire Jordan Valley, a "security area", and a network of Israeli-only bypass roads.[https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3DF99D9DCCB3B21F85257C62004B782F The origins and evolution of the Palestine problem] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421064330/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/3DF99D9DCCB3B21F85257C62004B782F |date=21 April 2014 }}, Part V (1989–2000), chap. III, E. CEIRPP, 2014.[http://www.fmep.org/reports/archive/vol.-7/no.-4/PDF "Netanyahu Presents His 'Allon-Plus' Final Status Map"]{{dead link|date=July 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}. Settlement Report, Vol. 7 No. 4, July–August 1997. On [https://archive.today/20140420134644/http://www.fmep.org/reports/archive/vol.-7/no.-4/netanyahu-presents-his-allon-plus-final-status-map]

File:OfraPurim8291.JPG settlement, Israeli-occupied West Bank, 2012]]

In the Road map for peace of 2002, which was never implemented, the establishment of a Palestinian state was acknowledged. Outposts would be dismantled. However, many new outposts appeared instead, few were removed. Israel's settlement policy remained unchanged. Settlements in East Jerusalem and remaining West Bank were expanded.

While according to official Israeli policy no new settlements were built, at least some hundred unauthorized outposts were established since 2002 with state funding in the 60% of the West Bank that was not under Palestinian administrative control and the population growth of settlers did not diminish.

In 2005, all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank were forcibly evacuated as part of Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, known to some in Israel as "the Expulsion". Nevertheless, the total settler population continued to rise.

After the failure of the Roadmap, several new plans emerged to settle in major parts of the West Bank. In 2011, Haaretz revealed the Civil Administration's "Blue Line"-plan, written in January 2011, which aims to increase Israeli "state-ownership" of West Bank land ("state lands") and settlement in strategic areas like the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area.Akiva Eldar, [http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-civil-administration-pushing-for-land-takeover-in-west-bank-1.374564 "IDF Civil Administration pushing for land takeover in West Bank"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924222701/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-civil-administration-pushing-for-land-takeover-in-west-bank-1.374564 |date=24 September 2015 }} Haaretz, 22 July 2011 In March 2012, it was revealed that the Civil Administration over the years covertly allotted 10% of the West Bank for further settlement. Provisional names for future new settlements or settlement expansions were already assigned. The plan includes many Palestinian built-up sites in the Areas A and B.Akiva Eldar, [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-ministry-plan-earmarks-10-percent-of-west-bank-for-settlement-expansion-1.421589 "Israel Defense Ministry plan earmarks 10 percent of West Bank for settlement expansion"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825034254/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-ministry-plan-earmarks-10-percent-of-west-bank-for-settlement-expansion-1.421589 |date=25 August 2015 }}. Haaretz, 30 March 2012.

{{See also|Proposed Israeli resettlement of the Gaza Strip}}

File:Gaza Strip 1999.jpg

Land in the Gaza Strip available to its Palestinian inhabitants has historically been limited as a result of Israeli land confiscation and the establishment of settlements. Settlement growth in the Gaza Strip before 1977 was limited, as the Israeli labor party's policy of containment preferred the establishment of a collection of settlements along the border of the Strip. At this point, 6 settlements in the Strip existed, Kfar Darom, Netzarim, Morag, Eretz, Katif, and Netzer Hazani. With the Likud party's revisionist Zionist policies entering with Begin's government, the scale of settlement expansion increased, although the basic policies relating to the settlements did not change. By 1978, 13 settlements had been built as part of a buffer zone along Gaza's southern border in Rafah.{{cite book |author=Sara M. Roy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |title=The Gaza Strip |publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Incorporated |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-88728-321-5 |pages= |access-date=23 January 2024 |archive-date=11 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311045308/https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |url-status=live }}

The discussions at Camp David that year surrounding the idea of potential future Palestinian autonomy would trigger an increase in settlement expansion in the Gaza Strip, following the Israeli policy of establishing "facts on the ground". Political economist Sara Roy described this as a policy intended to make the establishment of an independent Palestinian state more difficult. The locations and size of these new settlements would contribute to geographically isolating Palestinian communities from each other.

In the seven years between 1978 and 1985, 11,500 acres of land were confiscated by the Israeli government for the establishment of settlements. By 1991, the settler population in Gaza would reach 3,500 and 4,000 by 1993, or less than 1% of Gaza's population. The land available for use by the Jewish settler community exceeded 25% of the total land in Gaza. The ratio of dunams to people was 23 for Jewish settlers, and 0.27 for Palestinians. Comparing the available built-up area available to each of the two groups in 1993, the ratio is 115 people per square mile for Jewish settlers and over 9,000 people per square mile for Palestinians. Sara Roy estimates the increase in Palestinian population density in Gaza due to Israeli policies alone to be an increase of almost 2,000 people per square mile in 1993.

All the settlements were surrounded by electric fences or barbed wire.Geoffrey Aronson, “Gaza Settlement—Building a Dream World,” Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories 3, no.5 (September 1993): 4-5.

While the settlements maintained an isolated economic system, they affected the Gazan economy via land confiscation, the disproportionate consumption of local resources such as water, by overwhelmingly denying work opportunities and through the large disparities in funding (both private and governmental) for economic development.

[[File:Westbankjan06-modiin-jerusalem-etzion.jpg|right|thumb|

{|class="wikitable"

|-

|Upper left: Modiin bloc||Upper middle: Mountain ridge settlements outside barrier||rowspan="2"|Right: Jordan Valley

|-

|L above center: Latrun salient||Center: Jerusalem envelope, Ma'ale Adumim at right

|-

|Lower L of center: Etzion bloc||Lower center: Judean Desert||Lower right: Dead Sea

|}

]]

[[File:Westbankjan06-samaria.jpg|right|thumb|

{|class="wikitable"

|-

|Upper L: 3 are outside barrier||Top L of center: part of Israel's unilateral disengagement||rowspan="3"|Whole right: Jordan Valley

|-

|L: W. Samaria bloc to Kedumim||Center: hills around Nablus/Shechem

|-

|Lower L: W. Samaria bloc to Ariel||Lower middle: E. Trans-Samaria Hwy outside barrier

|}]]

Some settlements are self-contained cities with a stable population in the tens of thousands, infrastructure, and all other features of permanence. Examples are Beitar Illit (a city of close to 45,000 residents), Ma'ale Adumim, Modi'in Illit, and Ariel (almost 20,000 residents). Some are towns with a local council status with populations of 2,000–20,0000, such as Alfei Menashe, Eli, Elkana, Efrat and Kiryat Arba. There are also clusters of villages governed by a local elected committee and regional councils that are responsible for municipal services. Examples are Kfar Adumim, Neve Daniel, Kfar Tapuach and Ateret. Kibbutzim and moshavim in the territories include Argaman, Gilgal, Na'aran and Yitav. Jewish neighborhoods have been built on the outskirts of Arab neighborhoods, for example in Hebron. In Jerusalem, there are urban neighborhoods where Jews and Arabs live together: the Muslim Quarter, Silwan, Abu Tor, Sheikh Jarrah and Shimon HaTzadik.

Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into three separate parts designated as Area A, Area B and Area C. Leaving aside the position of East Jerusalem, all of the settlements are in Area C which comprises about 60% of the West Bank.

• Cities/towns: Ariel, Betar Illit, Modi'in Illit and Ma'ale Adumim.
• Urban suburbs, such as Har Gilo.
• Block settlements, such as Gush Etzion and settlements in the Nablus area.
• Frontier villages, such as those along the Jordan River.
• Outposts, small settlements, some authorized and some unauthorized, often on hilltops. The Sasson Report, commissioned by Ariel Sharon's administration, found that several government ministries had cooperated to establish illegal outposts, spending millions of dollars on infrastructure.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE2DF163CF93AA35750C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|title=Israeli Report Condemns Support for Settlement Outposts|first=Steve|last=Erlanger|date=9 March 2005|work=The New York Times|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=29 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229094715/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990DE2DF163CF93AA35750C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|url-status=live}}

Some settlements were established on sites where Jewish communities had existed during the British Mandate of Palestine or even since the First Aliyah or ancient times."Twenty-three Jewish settlements werde destroyed during the 1948 fighting. Arab forces ... held onto the remains ... and the land on which they had stood was incorporated into the West Bank and Gaza after the war. These were ..." A list of these settlements follows. ({{Cite book|last=Fischbach|first=Michael R.|title=Jewish Property Claims against Arab Countries|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press, New York|isbn=978-0-231-13538-2|page=109}} (= Fischbach)) (Another list at p. 84.)

• Golan Heights – Bnei Yehuda, founded in 1890,{{Cite book|last=Gilbert|first=Martin|title=The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict|year=1996|publisher=Routledge London|isbn=978-0-415-15130-6|page=3 ("Jewish Settlement in Palestine 1880–1914")}} (= Gilbert) abandoned because of Arab attacks in 1920, rebuilt near the original site in 1972.
• Jerusalem – Jewish presence alongside other peoples since biblical times, various surrounding communities and neighborhoods, including Kfar Shiloah, also known as Silwan—settled by Yemenite Jews in 1884, Jewish residents evacuated in 1938, a few Jewish families move into reclaimed homes in 2004.{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/silwan-settlers-plan-passover-festival-in-bid-to-curry-favor-with-public-1.265181|title=Silwan settlers plan Passover festival in bid to curry favor with public|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|date=23 March 2010|last1=Hasson|first1=Nir|last2=Kyzer|first2=Liel|archive-date=13 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413120946/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/silwan-settlers-plan-passover-festival-in-bid-to-curry-favor-with-public-1.265181|url-status=live}} Other communities: Shimon HaTzadik, Neve Yaakov and Atarot which in post-1967 was rebuilt as an industrial zone.
• Gush Etzion – four communities, established between 1927 and 1947, destroyed 1948, reestablished beginning 1967.{{cite journal |jstor=4283758|title=Symbolism and Landscape: The Etzion Bloc in the Judean Mountains|first1=Yossi|last1=Katz|first2=John C.|last2=Lehr|date=1 January 1995|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=31|issue=4|pages=730–743|doi=10.1080/00263209508701077}}
• Hebron – Jewish presence since biblical times, forced out in the wake of the 1929 Hebron massacre, some families returned in 1931 but were evacuated by the British, a few buildings resettled since 1967.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/issues/1683017.stm|title=The hostility of Hebron|date=18 February 2003|work=BBC News|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=18 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618203415/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/issues/1683017.stm|url-status=live}}
• Dead Sea, northern area – Kalia and Beit HaArava – the former was built in 1934 as a kibbutz for potash mining. The latter was built in 1943 as an agricultural community. Both were abandoned in 1948, and subsequently destroyed by Jordanian forces,Gilbert, p.45 ("The Arab Invasion of the State of Israel") and resettled after the Six-Day War.
• Gaza City had a Jewish community for many centuries that was evacuated following riots in 1929.Gilbert, p.2 ("The Jews of Palestine 636 A.D. to 1880), p.3 ("1880 – 1914") and p.17 ("Riots in Palestine 1921 – 1947") After the Six-Day War, Jewish communities weren't built in Gaza City, but in Gush Katif in the southwestern part of the Gaza Strip, f.e. Kfar Darom – established in 1946, evacuated in 1948 after an Egyptian attack,Fischbach, p.87 resettled in 1970, evacuated in 2005 as part of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/seventeen-gaza-settlements-evacuated|title=Seventeen Gaza Settlements Evacuated|date=18 August 2005|publisher=Fox News|access-date=28 July 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026105301/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,166162,00.html|archive-date=26 October 2012}}

{{See also|List of Israeli settlements|Population statistics for Israeli West Bank settlements}}

File:IsraeliSettlementGrowthLineGraph.png, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights 1972–2007{{cite web|url=http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/israeli-settler-population-1972-2006 |title=Israeli Settler Population 1972–2006 |publisher=Foundation for Middle East Peace |access-date=15 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118071827/http://fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/israeli-settler-population-1972-2006 |archive-date=18 November 2008 }}{{cite web|publisher=B'Tselem |url=http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/Settlement_population.xls |title=Population by year in West Bank settlements |access-date=14 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223172806/http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/Settlement_population.xls |archive-date=23 February 2010 }}]]

At the end of 2010, 534,224 Jewish Israelis lived in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 314,132 of them lived in the 121 authorised settlements and 102 unauthorised settlement outposts on the West Bank, 198,629 were living in East Jerusalem, and almost 20,000 lived in settlements in the Golan Heights.

By 2011, the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem had increased to 328,423 people.{{cite web|title=Comprehensive Settlement Population 1972–2010 |url=http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/comprehensive-settlement-population-1972-2006 |publisher=Foundation for Middle East Peace |access-date=18 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100315123847/http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/comprehensive-settlement-population-1972-2006 |archive-date=15 March 2010 }}

In June 2014, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem had increased to 382,031 people, with over 20,000 Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights.{{cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-okays-2610-homes-for-jews-and-arabs-in-e-jerusalem/|title=Israel okays 2,610 homes for Jews and Arabs in E. Jerusalem|first=T. O. I.|last=staff|website=www.timesofisrael.com|access-date=1 October 2014|archive-date=2 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141002181840/http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-okays-2610-homes-for-jews-and-arabs-in-e-jerusalem/|url-status=live}}

In January 2015, the Israeli Interior Ministry gave figures of 389,250 Israeli citizens living in the West Bank outside East Jerusalem.{{cite web|url=https://www.israel365news.com/26966/jewish-population-in-judea-and-samaria-growing-significantly/|title=Jewish Population in Judea, Samaria Growing Significantly – Israel News|first=Ahuva|last=Balofsky|date=5 January 2015|website=Israel365 News | Latest News. Biblical Perspective.|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=28 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328165728/https://www.israel365news.com/26966/jewish-population-in-judea-and-samaria-growing-significantly/|url-status=live}}

By the end of 2016, the West Bank Jewish population had risen to 420,899, excluding East Jerusalem, where there were more than 200,000 Jews.{{cite web|url = https://apnews.com/0e766a7f9aba4f929b659c15feadbf06|title = Settler leader: Population growth is end of 2-state solution|website = Associated Press|date = 26 March 2017|access-date = 28 July 2017|archive-date = 27 March 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170327050607/https://apnews.com/0e766a7f9aba4f929b659c15feadbf06|url-status = live}}

In 2019, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem had risen to 441,600 individuals, and the number of Israeli settlers in the Golan Heights had risen to 25,261.{{Israel populations|reference}}

In 2020, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem had reportedly risen to 451,700 individuals, with an additional 220,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem.

Based on various sources,{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Housing-minister-sees-50-percent-more-settlers-in-West-Bank-by-2019-352501|title=Housing minister sees 50% more settlers in West Bank by 2019|work=Haaretz|date=16 May 2014|access-date=10 September 2015|archive-date=16 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516165458/http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Housing-minister-sees-50-percent-more-settlers-in-West-Bank-by-2019-352501|url-status=live}}Israel Central Bureau of Statistics: [http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2007/table3.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009114131/http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2007/table3.pdf|date=9 October 2018}} {{cite web |title=Oops, Something is wrong |url=http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton57/st02_07x.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614005531/http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton57/st02_07x.pdf |archive-date=14 June 2007 |access-date=2007-06-04}} [http://www.cbs.gov.il/archive/shnaton47/st02-07.gif] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407205855/http://www.cbs.gov.il/archive/shnaton47/st02-07.gif|date=7 April 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jiis.org.il/|title=מכון ירושלים לחקר ישראל|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=12 December 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981212030145/http://www.jiis.org.il/|url-status=live}}[http://www.fmep.org/about/overview.html Foundation for Middle East Peace] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208065623/http://www.fmep.org/about/overview.html |date=8 December 2007 }}: {{cite web |url=http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/stats_data/settler_populations/settler_population_1972_2005.html |title=Foundation for Middle East Peace -- Settler Population 1972-2005, Graph |access-date=2007-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201021615/http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/stats_data/settler_populations/settler_population_1972_2005.html |archive-date=1 December 2007}} {{cite web |url=http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/stats_data/settler_populations/Israeli_settler_population_in_occupied_territories.html |title=Foundation for Middle East Peace -- Israeli Settler Population 1972-2006 |access-date=2007-12-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111170039/http://fmep.org/settlement_info/stats_data/settler_populations/Israeli_settler_population_in_occupied_territories.html |archive-date=11 November 2007}}{{cite web|url=http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=254|title=Palestine-Israel Journal: Settlements: A Geographic and Demographic Barrier to Peace|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=9 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109003408/http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=254|url-status=live}}[http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf By Hook and by Crook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417103250/http://www.btselem.org/download/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook_eng.pdf |date=17 April 2014 }}, pp. 9–10. B'Tselem{{cite web|url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/golan-heights-residents-fear-creeping-israeli-presence-587458799|title=Residents in occupied Golan Heights fear creeping Israeli presence|work=middleeasteye.net|access-date=10 September 2015|archive-date=7 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907084014/http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/golan-heights-residents-fear-creeping-israeli-presence-587458799|url-status=live}} population dispersal can be estimated as follows:

{|class="wikitable"

|-

! Settler population

! 1948

! 1972

! 1977

! 1980

! 1983

! 1993

! 2004

! 2007

! 2010

! 2014

! 2018

! 2019

! 2020

! 2022

|-

|West Bank (excluding Jerusalem)

|480 (see Gush Etzion)||1,182||3,200{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6956B6BC3E956094852563B7005AC2BD|title=S/14268 Report of the Security Council Commission Established Under Resolution 446 (1979)|publisher=United Nations|at=para. 164|access-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131028045849/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/6956B6BC3E956094852563B7005AC2BD|archive-date=28 October 2013}}

-4,400[http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333660 Largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407093614/http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333660 |date=7 April 2014 }}. Maan, 14 November 2010

||17,400||22,800||111,600||234,500||276,500{{cite web|url=http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/comprehensive-settlement-population-1972-2006 |title=Comprehensive Settlement Population 1972–2008—FMEP |publisher=Fmep.org |access-date=9 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100315123847/http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/comprehensive-settlement-population-1972-2006 |archive-date=15 March 2010 }}||314,100||400,000||427,800{{cite web|url=https://fmep.org/resource/settlement-report-october-11-2019/|title=Settlement Report: October 11, 2019|publisher=Foundation for Middle East Peace|date=11 October 2019|access-date=9 December 2019|archive-date=14 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214192236/https://fmep.org/resource/settlement-report-october-11-2019/|url-status=live}}||441,600{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/growth-rate-of-settlements-plummets-to-all-time-low-678817|title=Growth rate of settlements plummets to all-time low|publisher=Jerusalem Post|date=5 September 2021|access-date=30 October 2021|archive-date=22 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422172930/https://www.jpost.com//arab-israeli-conflict/growth-rate-of-settlements-plummets-to-all-time-low-678817|url-status=live}}||451,700||503,000{{Cite news |last=Parker |first=Claire |date=2023-03-01 |title=Jewish settler population in West Bank passes half a million |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/02/jewish-settlers-west-bank-half-million/ |access-date=2023-10-09 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=31 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331102155/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/02/jewish-settlers-west-bank-half-million/ |url-status=live }}

|-

|Gaza Strip ²

|30 (see Kfar Darom)||700 ¹|| colspan="2" |–||900||4,800||7,826|| colspan="7" |0

|-

|East Jerusalem

|2,300 (see Jewish Quarter, Atarot, Neve Yaakov)||8,649|| colspan="2" |–||76,095||152,800||181,587||189,708||198,629||–||218,000|| –||220,000{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EUSETTLERPT_120321.pdf|title=Six-Month Report on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem Reporting period January–July 2020|publisher=Jerusalem Post|date=8 March 2021|access-date=31 October 2021|archive-date=31 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031114950/https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EUSETTLERPT_120321.pdf|url-status=live}}||230,000{{Cite web|title=2022 Report on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem|url=https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/One-Year%20Report%20on%20Israeli%20Settlements%20in%20the%20occupied%20West%20Bank%2C%20including%20East%20Jerusalem%20%28Reporting%20period%20January%20-%20December%202022%29.pdf|date=15 May 2023|publisher=EU|access-date=22 August 2023|archive-date=16 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816213634/https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/One-Year%20Report%20on%20Israeli%20Settlements%20in%20the%20occupied%20West%20Bank%2C%20including%20East%20Jerusalem%20%28Reporting%20period%20January%20-%20December%202022%29.pdf|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230215-what-are-israeli-settlements-and-outposts|title=What are Israeli settlements and outposts?|date=15 February 2023|website=France 24|access-date=22 August 2023|archive-date=22 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822151203/https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230215-what-are-israeli-settlements-and-outposts|url-status=live}}

|-

! Total

! 2,810

! 10,531

!

!

! 99,795

! 269,200

! 423,913

! 467,478

! 512,769

!

! 645,800

!

! 671,700

! 733,000

|-

|Golan Heights

|0||77|| colspan="2" |–||6,800||12,600||17,265||18,692||19,797||21,000||–

|25,261{{Israel populations|reference}}

|–

|}

: ¹ including Sinai

: ² Janet Abu-Lughod mentions 500 settlers in Gaza in 1978 (excluding Sinai), and 1,000 in 1980[http://www.palestine-studies.org/files/Special%20Focus/Israeli%20Settlers/Israeli%20Settlements%20in%20Occupied%20Arab%20Lands%20Conquest%20to%20Colony.pdf Israeli Settlements in Occupied Arab Lands: Conquest to Colony]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, p. 29. Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Winter, 1982), pp. 16–54. Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies

In addition to internal migration, in large though declining numbers, the settlements absorb annually about 1000 new immigrants from outside Israel. The American Kulanu organization works with such right-wing Israeli settler groups as Amishav and Shavei Israel to settle "lost" Jews of color in such areas where local Palestinians are being displaced.[https://books.google.com/books?id=n2n9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT15 Noah Tamarkin, Genetic Afterlives:Black Jewish Indigeneity in South Africa], Duke University Press 2020 {{isbn|978-1-478-01230-6}} p.6: 'Nadia Abu El-Haj writes about how the American liberal multicultural Jewish organization Kulanu has partnered with right-wing Israeli groups like Amishav and Shavei Israel to settle "lost" Jews of color in the illegal settlements that have continued to displace Palestinians in recent decades. As Abu El-Haj explains, "Nonwhite Jews become the site for discussions of Jewish racism, which is viewed as an entirely internal Jewish problem. The question of Palestine, the realities of a colonial present, and its very violent forms of racism in a state structured around the distinction between Jew and non-Jew, subject and citizen, and movement and enclosure are displaced". In the 1990s, the annual settler population growth was more than three times the annual population growth in Israel.[http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/sources-of-population-growth-total-israeli-population-and-settler-population-1991-2003 Sources of Population Growth: Total Israeli Population and Settler Population, 1991–2003] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826051148/http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/sources-of-population-growth-total-israeli-population-and-settler-population-1991-2003 |date=26 August 2013 }}, Foundation for Middle East Peace. Population growth has continued in the 2000s.[http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/population-growth-east-and-west-of-the-barrier Settler Population Growth East and West of the Barrier, 2000–2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090818012349/http://www.fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/population-growth-east-and-west-of-the-barrier |date=18 August 2009 }}, Foundation for Middle East Peace. According to the BBC, the settlements in the West Bank have been growing at a rate of 5–6% since 2001.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8379868.stm|title=Palestinians shun Israeli settlement restriction plan|date=25 November 2009|publisher=BBC|access-date=10 December 2009|archive-date=24 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224210800/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8379868.stm|url-status=live}} In 2016, there were sixty thousand American Israelis living in settlements in the West Bank.{{cite news |last=Tobin |first=Andrew |date=2 November 2016 |title=Home > Jewish Times World Series ignites old passions among West Bank's American Jews |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/world-series-ignites-old-passions-among-west-banks-american-jews/ |work=The Times of Israel |access-date=9 May 2017 |archive-date=10 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510023247/http://www.timesofisrael.com/world-series-ignites-old-passions-among-west-banks-american-jews/ |url-status=live }}

The establishment of settlements in the Palestinian territories is linked to the displacement of the Palestinian populations as evidenced by a 1979 Security Council Commission which established a link between Israeli settlements and the displacement of the local population. The commission also found that those who remained were under consistent pressure to leave to make room for further settlers who were being encouraged into the area. In conclusion the commission stated that settlement in the Palestinian territories was causing "profound and irreversible changes of a geographic and demographic nature".{{cite book|author=Mélanie Jacques|title=Armed Conflict and Displacement: The Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons Under International Humanitarian Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQlt588JmeYC|access-date=8 April 2013|date=20 September 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00597-6|pages=77–124}}

{{Main|Judea and Samaria Area}}

File:Palestine Map 2007 (Settlements).gif and the Gaza Strip with Israeli Settlements, 2007]]

File:PikiWiki Israel 18561 Geography of Israel.JPG in the Sinai, between 1975 and 1980, evacuated by Israel in 1982]]

File:Gush Katif-N-Dekalim02.jpg, Gaza Strip, evacuated by Israel in 2005]]

The Israeli settlements in the West Bank fall under the administrative district of Judea and Samaria Area. Since December 2007, approval by both the Israeli Prime Minister and Israeli Defense Minister of all settlement activities (including planning) in the West Bank is required.{{cite news|title=Olmert curbs WBank building, expansion and planning|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL31349948|work=Reuters|date=31 December 2007|access-date=31 December 2007|first=Adam|last=Entous|archive-date=3 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080103050544/http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL31349948|url-status=live}} Authority for planning and construction is held by the Israel Defense Forces Civil Administration.

The area consists of four cities, thirteen local councils and six regional councils.

• Cities: Ariel, Betar Illit, Maale Adumim, Modi'in Illit;
• Local councils: Alfei Menashe, Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, Beit El, Efrat, Elkana, Giv'at Ze'ev, Har Adar, Immanuel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Kiryat Arba, Ma'ale Efraim, Oranit;
• Regional councils: Gush Etzion (Ezion Bloc), Har Hebron (Mount Hebron), Matte Binyamin (Staff of Benjamin, named after the ancient Israelite tribe that dwelled in the area), Megilot (Scrolls, named after the Dead Sea scrolls, which were discovered in the area), Shomron Regional Council (Samaria), Biq'at HaYarden (Jordan valley).

The Yesha Council ({{langx|he|מועצת יש"ע}}, Moatzat Yesha, a Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza) is the umbrella organization of municipal councils in the West Bank.

The actual buildings of the Israeli settlements cover only 1 percent of the West Bank, but their jurisdiction and their regional councils extend to about 42 percent of the West Bank, according to the Israeli NGO B'Tselem. Yesha Council chairman Dani Dayan disputes the figures and claims that the settlements only control 9.2 percent of the West Bank.CBS News, 2010 Jul 6, [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/06/world/main6650897.shtml "Group: Israel Controls 42% of West Bank: Settlements Occupy Land Seized from Palestinians in Defiance of 1979 Court Ban, Israeli Human Rights Group Says"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104142432/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/06/world/main6650897.shtml |date=4 November 2013 }}

Between 2001 and 2007 more than 10,000 Israeli settlement units were built, while 91 permits were issued for Palestinian construction, and 1,663 Palestinian structures were demolished in Area C.Phoebe Greenwood, [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/14/palestinians-prepare-to-lose-solar-panels 'Palestinians prepare to lose the solar panels that provide a lifeline,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809145504/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/14/palestinians-prepare-to-lose-solar-panels |date=9 August 2020 }} at The Guardian, 14 March 2012.

West Bank Palestinians have their cases tried in Israel's military courts while Jewish Israeli settlers living in the same occupied territory are tried in civil courts.[https://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/emails/W1506EACHN1.html Detained, interrogated, beaten: Demand protection for Palestinian children (Amnesty USA, June 2015)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222143948/https://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/emails/W1506EACHN1.html |date=22 December 2015 }} "While Palestinian children and adults face Israeli military courts, Jewish Israeli settlers benefit from Israeli civil law. Israel gives Jewish settlers a different system of justice – even though they are living illegally in the very same occupied Palestinian territories." The arrangement has been described as "de facto segregation" by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.[http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.ISR.CO.14-16.pdf Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Israel) (9 March 2012)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718223839/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.ISR.CO.14-16.pdf |date=18 July 2014 }} (paragraph 24)

A bill to formally extend Israeli law to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank was rejected in 2012.{{cite web| url= http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/in-about-face-israeli-ministers-block-bill-to-annex-west-bank-settlements.premium-1.430144| title= In about-face, Israeli ministers block bill to annex West Bank settlements| author= Jonathan Lis| date= 13 May 2012| work= Haaretz| access-date= 8 June 2012| archive-date= 14 May 2012| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120514011905/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/in-about-face-israeli-ministers-block-bill-to-annex-west-bank-settlements.premium-1.430144| url-status= live}} The basic military laws governing the West Bank are influenced by what is called the "pipelining" of Israeli legislation. As a result of "enclave law", large portions of Israeli civil law are applied to Israeli settlements and Israeli residents in the occupied territories.{{sfn|Ben-Naftali|Sfard|Viterbo|2018|p=52}}

On 31 August 2014, Israel announced it was appropriating 400 hectares of land in the West Bank to eventually house 1,000 Israel families. The appropriation was described as the largest in more than 30 years.{{cite news|title=Israel launches massive new West Bank settlement plans|url=http://www.israelherald.com/index.php/sid/225274007|date=31 August 2014|access-date=1 September 2014|work=Israel Herald|archive-date=3 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903124155/http://www.israelherald.com/index.php/sid/225274007|url-status=live}} According to reports on Israel Radio, the development is a response to the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers.

In March 2024 and during the Gaza war, it was announced that Israel was planning on building more than 3,300 new homes in the Kedar and Ma'ale Adumim settlement in the West Bank. The settlement expansion was announced by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after three Palestinians opened fire near the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, killing one and wounding five, and drew criticism from the US due to increasing tensions.{{Cite web |last=Frankel |first=Julia |date=2024-02-23 |title=Israel plans to build 3,300 new settlement homes. It says it's a response to a Palestinian attack |url=https://apnews.com/article/israel-settlements-hamas-gaza-war-netanyahu-smotrich-1d2306d55c24c8559b630d9f20db30e2 |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=AP News |language=en |archive-date=4 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304144216/https://apnews.com/article/israel-settlements-hamas-gaza-war-netanyahu-smotrich-1d2306d55c24c8559b630d9f20db30e2 |url-status=live }} During the Israel-Hamas war, the lines between settlers and the military were described as having become "indistinguishable".{{cite web |last1=Killing |first1=Alison |last2=Campbell |first2=Chris |last3=Andringa |first3=Peter |last4=Shotter |first4=James |title=How extremist settlers in the West Bank became the law |url=https://ig.ft.com/west-bank/ |website=Financial Times |access-date=14 October 2024|url-access=subscription}}

East Jerusalem is defined in the Jerusalem Law of 1980 as part of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. As such it is administered as part of the city and its district, the Jerusalem District. Pre-1967 residents of East Jerusalem and their descendants have residency status in the city but many have refused Israeli citizenship. Thus, the Israeli government maintains an administrative distinction between Israeli citizens and non-citizens in East Jerusalem, but the Jerusalem municipality does not.

The Golan Heights is administered under Israeli civil law as the Golan sub-district, a part of the Northern District. Israel makes no legal or administrative distinction between pre-1967 communities in the Golan Heights (mainly Druze) and the post-1967 settlements.

{{See also|Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula|Category:Former Israeli settlements in Sinai}}

After the capture of the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War, settlements were established along the Gulf of Aqaba and in northeast Sinai, just below the Gaza Strip. Israel had plans to expand the settlement of Yamit into a city with a population of 200,000,The Arab–Israeli Dilemma (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East), Syracuse University Press; 3rd edition (August, 1985 {{ISBN|978-0-8156-2340-3}} though the actual population of Yamit did not exceed 3,000.{{cite web |url=http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.689861/k.7BC5/Israels_Withdrawal_from_Sinai_19791982.htm/ |title=Kintera.org—The Giving Communities |access-date=10 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060301091150/http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.689861/k.7BC5/Israels_Withdrawal_from_Sinai_19791982.htm |archive-date=1 March 2006 }} The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in stages beginning in 1979 as part of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. As required by the treaty, in 1982 Israel evacuated the Israeli civilian population from the 18 Sinai settlements in Sinai. In some instances evacuations were done forcefully, such as the evacuation of Yamit. All the settlements were then dismantled.

{{See also|Population statistics for Israeli Gaza Strip settlements}}

Before Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in which the Israeli settlements were evacuated, there were 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip under the administration of the Hof Aza Regional Council. The land was allocated in such a way that each Israeli settler disposed of 400 times the land available to the Palestinian refugees, and 20 times the volume of water allowed to the peasant farmers of the Strip.Jean-Pierre Filiu, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vPhzBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 Gaza: A History], Oxford University Press, 2014 p. 196.

{{Main|International law and Israeli settlements}}

File:Gilocrossing.jpg, East Jerusalem]]

File:PisgatzeevS.jpg, East Jerusalem]]

File:Katzrinlibrary.jpg, Golan Heights]]

The International Court of Justice delivered a landmark advisory opinion in July 2024 that Israel's occupation of West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip was illegal, that Israel had "an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers" from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and that Israel should "make reparation for the damage caused to all" the people of such lands.{{cite news |title=Palestinians Hail ICJ Ruling, Condemnation In Israel |url=https://www.barrons.com/news/palestinians-hail-icj-ruling-condemnation-in-israel-7f58dabe |access-date=20 July 2024 |work=Barron's |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=19 July 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Berg |first1=Raffi |title=UN top court says Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjerjzxlpvdo |access-date=20 July 2024 |work=BBC News |date=19 July 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Jacob |first1=Sarah |title=Israel's Palestinian Territories Occupation Unlawful: UN Court |url=https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/07/19/israels-palestinian-territories-occupation-unlawful-un-court/ |access-date=20 July 2024 |work=BNN Bloomberg |date=19 July 2024}}

The consensus view[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/31/israel-must-withdraw-settlers-icc Israel must withdraw all settlers or face ICC, says UN report (The Guardian, 31 January 2013)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801213035/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/31/israel-must-withdraw-settlers-icc |date=1 August 2020 }} "Israel (...) was in violation of article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention, which forbids the transfer of civilian populations to occupied territory (...) The UNHRC report broadly restated international consensus on the illegality of Israeli settlements" in the international community is that the existence of Israeli settlements in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights is in violation of international law.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8404850.stm|title=Jewish settlers in West Bank building curb protest|date=9 December 2009|publisher=BBC|access-date=12 December 2009|archive-date=13 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213074726/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8404850.stm|url-status=live}} The Fourth Geneva Convention includes statements such as "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".[http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/380-600056 GC4 Part III : Status and treatment of protected persons #Section III : Occupied territories] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416122535/https://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/380-600056 |date=16 April 2016 }} "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" International Committee of the Red Cross. On 20 December 2019, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced an International Criminal Court investigation in Palestine into alleged war crimes committed during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.{{cite news |last1=Ahren |first1=Raphael |title=The Hague vs. Israel: Everything you need to know about the ICC Palestine probe |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-hague-vs-israel-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-icc-palestine-probe/ |access-date=10 July 2020 |work=Times of Israel |date=23 December 2019 |archive-date=19 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619091152/https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-hague-vs-israel-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-icc-palestine-probe/ |url-status=live }} At present, the view of the international community, as reflected in numerous UN resolutions, regards the building and existence of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as a violation of international law.{{cite book|editor=Emma Playfair |title=International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1992|location=USA|page=396|isbn=978-0-19-825297-9

}}{{cite book|author=Cecilia Albin|title=Justice and Fairness in International Negotiation|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2001|location=Cambridge|page=150|isbn=978-0-521-79725-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2DG8tFHtQAC&pg=PA150}}{{cite book|author=Mark Gibney|author2=Stanlislaw Frankowski|title=Judicial Protection of Human Rights: Myth or Reality?|publisher=Praeger/Greenwood|year=1999|location=Westport, CT|page=72|isbn=978-0-275-96011-7}} UN Security Council Resolution 446 refers to the Fourth Geneva Convention as the applicable international legal instrument, and calls upon Israel to desist from transferring its own population into the territories or changing their demographic makeup. The reconvened Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions has declared the settlements illegal{{cite web| url = http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5FLDPJ| title = Point 12 icrc.org| date = 3 October 2013| access-date = 14 December 2010| archive-date = 28 February 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070228014958/http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5FLDPJ| url-status = live}} as has the primary judicial organ of the UN, the International Court of Justice.{{cite web|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706021237/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf|title=paragraphs 95–101 and 120|archive-date=6 July 2010}}

The position of successive Israeli governments is that all authorized settlements are entirely legal and consistent with international law.{{cite book|author=Gregory S. Mahler|title=Politics and government in Israel: the maturation of a modern state|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkqYGYVLs_4C&pg=PA314|year=2004|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-1611-3|page=314}} In practice, Israel does not accept that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies de jure, but has stated that on humanitarian issues it will govern itself de facto by its provisions, without specifying which these are.Gerson, Allan. Israel, the West Bank, and International law, Routledge, 28 September 1978, {{ISBN|978-0-7146-3091-5}}, p. 82.Roberts, Adam, "Decline of Illusions: The Status of the Israeli-Occupied Territories over 21 Years" in International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944–), Vol. 64, No. 3. (Summer, 1988), pp. 345–359., p. 350 The scholar and jurist Eugene RostowRostow, Eugene V., The New Republic 23 April 1990 The Historical Approach to the Issue of the Legality of Jewish Settlement Activity has disputed the illegality of authorized settlements.

Under Israeli law, West Bank settlements must meet specific criteria to be legal.Peace Now, Hagit Ofran and Dror Etkes, [http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Jurisdiction2007.pdf "And Thou Shalt Spread ..." Construction and development of settlements beyond the official limits of jurisdiction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113221410/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/sites/default/files/Jurisdiction2007.pdf |date=13 January 2013 }}; pp. 3–5. June 2007 In 2009, there were approximately 100 small communities that did not meet these criteria and are referred to as illegal outposts.[http://www.fmep.org/documents/opinion_OLA_DOS4-21-78.html fmep.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200123/http://www.fmep.org/documents/opinion_OLA_DOS4-21-78.html |date=27 September 2007 }}. Retrieved 13 May 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://www.btselem.org/Download/20051104_Modiin_Ilit_Letter_Eng.pdf|title=7|access-date=10 September 2009|archive-date=24 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100224005025/http://www.btselem.org/Download/20051104_Modiin_Ilit_Letter_Eng.pdf|url-status=live}}

In 2014 twelve EU countries warned businesses against involving themselves in the settlements. According to the warnings, economic activities relating to the settlements involve legal and economic risks stemming from the fact that the settlements are built on occupied land not recognized as Israel's.{{cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2014/06/28/la-france-durcit-sa-position-face-a-la-colonisation-israelienne_4447341_3218.html|title=La France durcit sa position face à la colonisation israélienne|first=Hélène|last=Sallon|date=28 June 2014|access-date=28 July 2016|via=Le Monde|newspaper=Le Monde.fr|archive-date=28 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828080036/http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2014/06/28/la-france-durcit-sa-position-face-a-la-colonisation-israelienne_4447341_3218.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://euobserver.com/foreign/124873|title=EU states promote settler boycott amid Israel crisis|date=4 July 2014|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307022154/https://euobserver.com/foreign/124873|url-status=live}}

The consensus of the international community – the vast majority of states, the overwhelming majority of legal experts, the International Court of Justice and the UN – is that settlements are in violation of international law.'The charge that Israeli settlements violate international law is widely accepted in the international community. The UN, the ICJ, almost every state in the world, and the vast majority of legal experts all consider Israeli settlements to be illegal and, in fact, a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention (specifically article 49, paragraph 6). The Israeli government and a small number of legal experts dispute this, arguing that the Geneva Convention is not applicable to the West Bank because Israel is not an occupying power there (since the territory had no legitimate sovereign and that, even if the Geneva Convention does apply, it only prohibits forcible population transfers (like the mass deportations..)'. Dov Waxman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wTCPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179 The Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know,] Oxford University Press, 2019, {{isbn|978-0-190-62534-4}}, p. 179.*{{cite journal|title=Prolonged Military Occupation: The Israeli-Occupied Territories Since 1967|last=Roberts|first=Adam|author-link=Adam Roberts (scholar)|journal=The American Journal of International Law|volume=84|issue=1|publisher=American Society of International Law|pages=85–86|quote=The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law. General Assembly resolutions have condemned the deportations since 1969, and have done so by overwhelming majorities in recent years. Likewise, they have consistently deplored the establishment of settlements, and have done so by overwhelming majorities throughout the period (since the end of 1976) of the rapid expansion in their numbers. The Security Council has also been critical of deportations and settlements; and other bodies have viewed them as an obstacle to peace, and illegal under international law.|doi=10.2307/2203016|jstor=2203016|year=1990|s2cid=145514740}}

• {{cite book|title=The Italian Yearbook of International Law|volume=14|year=2005|editor1-last=Conforti|editor1-first=Benedetto|editor2-last=Bravo|editor2-first=Luigi|first=Marco|last=Pertile|chapter='Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory': A Missed Opportunity for International Humanitarian Law?|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=978-90-04-15027-0|page=141|quote=the establishment of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been considered illegal by the international community and by the majority of legal scholars.}}
• {{cite journal|journal=International Journal of Constitutional Law|title=Israel: The security barrier—between international law, constitutional law, and domestic judicial review|publisher=Oxford University Press|volume=4|last=Barak-Erez|first=Daphne|author-link=Daphne Barak Erez|year=2006|page=548|quote=The real controversy hovering over all the litigation on the security barrier concerns the fate of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Since 1967, Israel has allowed and even encouraged its citizens to live in the new settlements established in the territories, motivated by religious and national sentiments attached to the history of the Jewish nation in the land of Israel. This policy has also been justified in terms of security interests, taking into consideration the dangerous geographic circumstances of Israel before 1967 (where Israeli areas on the Mediterranean coast were potentially threatened by Jordanian control of the West Bank ridge). The international community, for its part, has viewed this policy as patently illegal, based on the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibit moving populations to or from territories under occupation.|issue=3|doi=10.1093/icon/mol021|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite book|chapter=Self-determination and population transfer|last=Drew|first=Catriona|title=Human rights, self-determination and political change in the occupied Palestinian Territories|volume=52|series=International studies in human rights|editor-last=Bowen|editor-first=Stephen|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=1997|isbn=978-90-411-0502-8|pages=151–152|quote=It can thus clearly be concluded that the transfer of Israeli settlers into the occupied territories violates not only the laws of belligerent occupation but the Palestinian right of self-determination under international law. The question remains, however, whether this is of any practical value. In other words, given the view of the international community that the Israeli settlements are illegal under the law if belligerent occupation...}}
• {{cite web|title=The situation of workers of the occupied Arab territories|author=International Labour Organization|year=2005|url=http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc93/pdf/rep-i-ax.pdf|page=14|quote=The international community considers Israeli settlements within the occupied territories illegal and in breach of, inter alia, United Nations Security Council resolution 465 of 1 March 1980 calling on Israel "to dismantle the existing settlements and in particular to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem".|author-link=International Labour Organization|access-date=8 January 2012|archive-date=16 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616221959/http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc93/pdf/rep-i-ax.pdf|url-status=live}}
• Civilian and military presence as strategies of territorial control: The Arab-Israel conflict, David Newman, Political Geography Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 3, July 1989, Pages 215–227

After the Six-Day War, in 1967, Theodor Meron, legal counsel to the Israeli Foreign Ministry stated in a legal opinion to the Prime Minister,

"My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention."Gorenberg, Gershom. "The Accidental Empire". New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2006. p. 99.

This legal opinion was sent to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. However, it was not made public at the time. The Labor cabinet allowed settlements despite the warning. This paved the way for future settlement growth. In 2007, Meron stated that "I believe that I would have given the same opinion today."{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-memo-shows-israel-knew-six-day-war-was-illegal-450410.html|title=Secret memo shows Israel knew Six Day War was illegal|website=The Independent|access-date=1 September 2017|archive-date=11 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611213726/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/secret-memo-shows-israel-knew-six-day-war-was-illegal-450410.html}}

In 1978, the Legal Adviser of the Department of State of the United States reached the same conclusion."Letter of the State Department Legal Advisor, Mr. Herbert J. Hansell, Concerning the Legality of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories", cited in [http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c22541,459bab0b2,3b00f4404,0.html Progress report—The human rights dimensions of population transfer including the implantation of settler] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015185514/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c22541,459bab0b2,3b00f4404,0.html |date=15 October 2012 }} prepared by Mr. Awn Shawhat Al-Khasawneh.{{cite web |url=http://www.fmep.org/reports/special-reports/a-guide-to-israeli-settlements-in-the-occupied-territories/the-carter-administration-view-settlements-are-inconsistent-with-international-law |title=The Carter Administration View: "Settlements are Inconsistent with International Law" |access-date=17 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413031650/http://www.fmep.org/reports/special-reports/a-guide-to-israeli-settlements-in-the-occupied-territories/the-carter-administration-view-settlements-are-inconsistent-with-international-law |archive-date=13 April 2009 }}

The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion, has since ruled that Israel is in breach of international law by establishing settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The Court maintains that Israel cannot rely on its right of self-defense or necessity to impose a regime that violates international law. The Court also ruled that Israel violates basic human rights by impeding liberty of movement and the inhabitants' right to work, health, education and an adequate standard of living."Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", para 120, 134, and 142 {{cite web |url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf |title=Cour internationale de Justice – International Court of Justice |access-date=2010-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706021237/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2010}} and PAUL J. I. M. DE WAART (2005) International Court of Justice Firmly Walled in the Law of Power in the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process. Leiden Journal of International Law, 18, pp 467–487, {{doi|10.1017/S0922156505002839}}

International intergovernmental organizations such as the Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention,Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention: Declaration, GENEVA, 5 December 2001 [https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/8FC4F064B9BE5BAD85256C1400722951] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211112456/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/8FC4F064B9BE5BAD85256C1400722951|date=11 December 2014}} major organs of the United Nations,See UN General Assembly resolution 39/146, 14 December 1984; UN Security Council Resolution 446, 22 March 1979; and International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, 9 July 2004, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, para 120 the European Union, and Canada,{{cite web|title=Canadian Policy on Key Issues in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict| work=GAC |url=http://www.international.gc.ca/name-anmo/peace_process-processus_paix/canadian_policy-politique_canadienne.aspx?lang=eng|publisher=Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade|access-date=16 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218143423/http://www.international.gc.ca/name-anmo/peace_process-processus_paix/canadian_policy-politique_canadienne.aspx?lang=eng|archive-date=18 February 2018}} also regard the settlements as a violation of international law. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination wrote that "The status of the settlements was clearly inconsistent with Article 3 of the Convention, which, as noted in the Committee's General Recommendation XIX, prohibited all forms of racial segregation in all countries. There is a consensus among publicists that the prohibition of racial discrimination, irrespective of territories, is an imperative norm of international law."See CERD/C/SR.1250, 9 March 1998 Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have also characterized the settlements as a violation of international law.

In late January 2013 a report drafted by three justices, presided over by Christine Chanet, and issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council declared that Jewish settlements constituted a creeping annexation based on multiple violations of the Geneva Conventions and international law, and stated that if Palestine ratified the Rome Accord, Israel could be tried for "gross violations of human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law." A spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry declared the report 'unfortunate' and accused the UN's Human Rights Council of a "systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel."Nick Cumming-Bruce, [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/world/middleeast/un-panel-says-israeli-settlement-policy-violates-law.html?hp 'U.N. Panel Says Israeli Settlement Policy Violates Law,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313030001/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/world/middleeast/un-panel-says-israeli-settlement-policy-violates-law.html?hp |date=13 March 2017 }} at The New York Times, 31 January 2013

The Supreme Court of Israel, with a variety of different justices sitting, has repeatedly stated that Israel's presence in the West Bank is in violation of international law.Tomer Zarchin, [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/legal-expert-if-israel-isn-t-occupying-west-bank-it-must-give-up-land-held-by-idf-1.449909 If Israel is not occupying the West Bank it must give up land held by the IDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709144128/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/legal-expert-if-israel-isn-t-occupying-west-bank-it-must-give-up-land-held-by-idf-1.449909 |date=9 July 2012 }} at Haaretz, 9 July 2012: 'For 45 years, different compositions of the High Court of Justice stated again and again that Israel's presence in the West Bank violates international law, which is clearly opposed to Levy's findings.'

Four prominent jurists cited the concept of the "sovereignty vacuum" in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War to describe the legal status of the West Bank and Gaza:Howard Grief, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel Under International Law, Mazo Publishers, p. 662. cf. p. 191. Yehuda Zvi Blum in 1968,The Missing Reversioner: Reflections on the Status of Judea and Samaria, in Israel Law Review,3 1968 pp. 279–301. Elihu Lauterpacht in 1968,Jerusalem and the Holy Places, Anglo-Israel Association, London 1968. Julius Stone in 1969Julius Stone,No Peace-No War in the Middle East, Maitland Publications, Sydney 1969. and 1981,Julius Stone, Israel and Palestine:Assault on the Law of Nations, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1981. and Stephen M. Schwebel in 1970.Stephen M. Schwebel, What Weight to Conquest, in American Journal of International Law, vol.64, 1970 pp. 344–347. Eugene V. Rostow also argued in 1979 that the occupied territories' legal status was undetermined.Palestinian Self-Determination: Possible Futures for the Unallocated Territories of the Palestine Mandate, Yale Studies in World Public Order, 147 (1978–1979) vol.5 1978 pp. 147–172.

• Stephen M. Schwebel{{cite book|title=Justice in International Law: Selected Writings (What Weight to Conquest?)|pages=[https://archive.org/details/justiceininterna0000schw/page/521 521–526]|author=Stephen M. Schwebel|author-link=Stephen M. Schwebel|isbn=978-0-521-46284-6|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|url=https://archive.org/details/justiceininterna0000schw/page/521}} made three distinctions specific to the Israeli situation to claim that the territories were seized in self-defense and that Israel has more title to them than the previous holders.
• Julius Stone also wrote that "Israel's presence in all these areas pending negotiation of new borders is entirely lawful, since Israel entered them lawfully in self-defense."{{cite book|title=Israel and Palestine: Assault on the Law of Nations|author=Julius Stone|isbn=978-0-9751073-0-0|page=52|year=1982|publisher=Dashing|author-link=Julius Stone}} He argued that it would be an "irony bordering on the absurd" to read Article 49(6) as meaning that the State of Israel was obliged to ensure (by force if necessary) that areas with a millennial association with Jewish life shall be forever "judenrein".[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/ Illegal-Settlements Myth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127225831/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-illegal-settlements-myth/ |date=27 January 2012 }}, Commentary magazine

Professor Ben Saul took exception to this view, arguing that Article 49(6) can be read to include voluntary or assisted transfers, as indeed it was in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which had expressed this interpretation in the Israeli Wall Advisory Opinion (2003).Ben Saul, Director, Sydney Centre for International Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Sydney, [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1485056## Julius Stone and the Question of Palestine in International Law p. 11. Retrieved 23 December 2011]

Israel maintains that a temporary use of land and buildings for various purposes is permissible under a plea of military necessity and that the settlements fulfilled security needs.Kretzmer, David The occupation of justice: the Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories, SUNY Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-5337-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-5337-7}}, page 83 Israel argues that its settlement policy is consistent with international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, while recognising that some settlements have been constructed illegally on private land.{{cite news|last=Harel|first=Amos|title=Settlements grow on Arab land, despite promises made to U.S.|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/settlements-grow-on-arab-land-despite-promises-made-to-u-s-1.203258|work=Haaretz 24 October 2006|publisher=Haaretz|access-date=14 September 2010|date=24 October 2006|archive-date=22 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522073205/http://www.haaretz.com/news/settlements-grow-on-arab-land-despite-promises-made-to-u-s-1.203258|url-status=live}} The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the power of the Civil Administration and the Military Commander in the occupied territories is limited by the entrenched customary rules of public international law as codified in the Hague Regulations.{{Cite book|last=Kretzmer|first=David|title=The occupation of justice: the Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories|year=2002|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5337-7|page=87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Thjg-0dut0C&pg=PA87}}{{Cite SSRN |title=Israel Chapter for Book Entitled 'The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement: A Comparative Study'|first=David|last=Kretzmer|date=27 October 2008|ssrn=1290714}}*Helmreich, Jeffrey. [http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm Diplomatic and Legal Aspects of the Settlement Issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614213710/http://jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm |date=14 June 2006 }}, Jerusalem Issue Brief, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 16, 19 January 2003.

• [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/2/DISPUTED+TERRITORIES-+Forgotten+Facts+About+the+We.htm Disputed territories – Forgotten facts about the West Bank and Gaza strip] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402122906/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/2/DISPUTED+TERRITORIES-+Forgotten+Facts+About+the+We.htm |date=2 April 2010 }}, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 February 2003. Retrieved 29 January 2008. In 1998 the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs produced "The International Criminal Court Background Paper".{{cite web| url = http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/1990_1999/1998/7/the%20international%20criminal%20court%20-%20background%20pape| title = 30 July 1998, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs produced "The International Criminal Court Background Paper" Retrieved 13 May 2007| access-date = 4 September 2010| archive-date = 24 May 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110524025919/http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/1990_1999/1998/7/the%20international%20criminal%20court%20-%20background%20pape| url-status = live}} It concludes

  International law has long recognised that there are crimes of such severity they should be considered "international crimes." Such crimes have been established in treaties such as the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions... The following are Israel's primary issues of concern [i.e. with the rules of the ICC]: The inclusion of settlement activity as a "war crime" is a cynical attempt to abuse the Court for political ends. The implication that the transfer of civilian population to occupied territories can be classified as a crime equal in gravity to attacks on civilian population centres or mass murder is preposterous and has no basis in international law.

A UN conference was held in Rome in 1998, where Israel was one of seven countries to vote against the Rome Statute to establish the International Criminal Court. Israel was opposed to a provision that included as a war crime the transfer of civilian populations into territory the government occupies.{{cite news| url = http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/warcrimes/icc1.html| title = The International Criminal Court (CBC News (Canada), 9 July 2004)| access-date = 30 October 2011| archive-date = 29 July 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110729192227/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/warcrimes/icc1.html| url-status = live}} Israel has signed the statute, but not ratified the treaty.{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/6/Israel%20and%20the%20International%20Criminal%20Court|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516021101/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/6/Israel%20and%20the%20International%20Criminal%20Court|title=Israel and the International Criminal Court (Office of the Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel), June 2002)|archive-date=16 May 2007}}

File:Elon Moreh.jpg, West Bank]]

A 1996 amendment to an Israeli military order states that land privately owned can not be part of a settlement unless the land in question has been confiscated for military purposes. In 2006 Peace Now acquired a report, which it claims was leaked from the Israeli Government's Civil Administration, indicating that up to 40 percent of the land Israel plans to retain in the West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/world/middleeast/21land.html?hp&ex=1164171600&en=2e03da87b76e6581&ei=5094&partner=homepage|work=The New York Times|title=Israeli Map Says West Bank Posts Sit on Arab Land|first=Steven|last=Erlanger|date=21 November 2006|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=7 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907000057/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/world/middleeast/21land.html?hp&ex=1164171600&en=2e03da87b76e6581&ei=5094&partner=homepage|url-status=live}} Peace Now called this a violation of Israeli law.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6168752.stm|work=BBC News|title=Settlements 'violate Israeli law'|date=21 November 2006|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=23 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623072540/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6168752.stm|url-status=live}} Peace Now published a comprehensive report about settlements on private lands.Peace Now, [http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/settlement-are-built-private-palestinian-land Breaking the Law in the West Bank – One Violation Leads to Another: Israeli Settlement Building on Private Palestinian Property] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304183233/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/settlement-are-built-private-palestinian-land |date=4 March 2016 }}. October 2006{{cite web|url=http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/reports?page=3|title=Reports|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024402/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/content/reports?page=3|archive-date=5 March 2016}} In the wake of a legal battle, Peace Now lowered the figure to 32 percent, which the Civil Administration also denied.{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/837656.html|title=דו"ח: 32% מההתנחלויות – על שטח פלשתיני פרטי|first=נדב|last=שרגאי|date=14 March 2007|access-date=28 July 2016|via=Haaretz|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165458/http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/837656.html|archive-date=29 June 2011}} The Washington Post reported that "The 38-page report offers what appears to be a comprehensive argument against the Israeli government's contention that it avoids building on private land, drawing on the state's own data to make the case."{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100482_pf.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=West Bank Settlements Often Use Private Palestinian Land, Study Says|first=Scott|last=Wilson|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=28 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628223509/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100482_pf.html|url-status=live}}

In February 2008, the Civil Administration stated that the land on which more than a third of West Bank settlements was built had been expropriated by the IDF for "security purposes."{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954967.html|title=Haaretz – Israel News – Haaretz.com|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=28 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091128150323/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954967.html|url-status=live}} The unauthorized seizure of private Palestinian land was defined by the Civil Administration itself as 'theft.'{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964843.html|title=Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab West Bank lands|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=12 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212122408/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964843.html|url-status=live}} According to B'Tselem, more than 42 percent of the West Bank are under control of the Israeli settlements, 21 percent of which was seized from private Palestinian owners, much of it in violation of the 1979 Israeli Supreme Court decision.

File:Neve Danyal entrance.jpg, West Bank]]

In 1979, the government decided to extend settlements or build new ones only on "state lands".

A secret database, drafted by a retired senior officer, Baruch Spiegel, on orders from former defense minister Shaul Mofaz, found that some settlements deemed legal by Israel were illegal outposts, and that large portions of Ofra, Elon Moreh and Beit El were built on private Palestinian land. The "Spiegel report" was revealed by Haaretz in 2009. Many settlements are largely built on private lands, without approval of the Israeli Government.[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060150.html "Stop the deceit and whitewashing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417093802/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060150.html |date=17 April 2009 }}. Haaretz, 30 January 2009
Haaretz, Uri Blau, [http://www.haaretz.com/secret-israeli-database-reveals-full-extent-of-illegal-settlement-1.266936 "Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118232020/http://www.haaretz.com/secret-israeli-database-reveals-full-extent-of-illegal-settlement-1.266936 |date=18 January 2017 }}. 30 January 2009.
The published document (in Hebrew): {{cite web |url=http://www.fmep.org/analysis/reference/israeli-defense-ministry-database-on-illegal-construcion-in-the-territories |title=Israeli Defense Ministry Comprehensive Settler Database — FMEP |access-date=2013-02-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322232438/http://www.fmep.org/analysis/reference/israeli-defense-ministry-database-on-illegal-construcion-in-the-territories |archive-date=22 March 2010 }}. Part of it was translated in English by Yesh Din: [http://www.fmep.org/analysis/reference/SpiegelDatabaseEng.pdf "Spiegel Database" of West Bank settlements and outposts developed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} According to Israel, the bulk of the land was vacant, was leased from the state, or bought fairly from Palestinian landowners.

Invoking the Absentees' Property Laws to transfer, sell or lease property in East Jerusalem owned by Palestinians who live elsewhere without compensation has been criticized both inside and outside of Israel.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4226497.stm|work=BBC News|title=Jerusalem land seizures 'illegal'|date=1 February 2005|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=9 November 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109052407/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4226497.stm|url-status=live}} Opponents of the settlements claim that "vacant" land belonged to Arabs who fled or collectively to an entire village, a practice that developed under Ottoman rule. B'Tselem charged that Israel is using the absence of modern legal documents for the communal land as a legal basis for expropriating it. These "abandoned lands" are sometimes laundered through a series of fraudulent sales.{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-court-orders-settlers-to-return-land-to-palestinian-owners.premium-1.513829 |title=Israeli court orders settlers to return land to Palestinian owners |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=28 July 2016 |date=7 April 2013 |last1=Levinson |first1=Chaim |archive-date=12 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512222627/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-court-orders-settlers-to-return-land-to-palestinian-owners.premium-1.513829 |url-status=live }}

According to Amira Hass, one of the techniques used by Israel to expropriate Palestinian land is to place desired areas under a "military firing zone" classification, and then issue orders for the evacuation of Palestinians from the villages in that range while allowing contiguous Jewish settlements to remain unaffected.Amira Hass, [http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/a-proper-zionist-live-fire-zone.premium-1.459329 'A proper Zionist live fire zone,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821005603/http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/a-proper-zionist-live-fire-zone.premium-1.459329 |date=21 August 2012 }} Haaretz, 20 August 2012

File:Settlements allocated land, January-2012.png

Amnesty International argues that Israel's settlement policy is discriminatory and a violation of Palestinian human rights.[http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150212005?open&of=ENG-ISR Israel/Occupied Territories: Removing unlawful Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories: Time to act] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213041740/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150212005?open&of=ENG-ISR |date=13 February 2006 }} Amnesty International, 2005 B'Tselem claims that Israeli travel restrictions impact on Palestinian freedom of movement{{cite book| last=Barahona| first=Ana|title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine| publisher=Metete| location=London|isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|page=128}} and Palestinian human rights have been violated in Hebron due to the presence of the settlers within the city.{{cite web| url=https://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement| title=Restrictions on Movement| website=B'Tselem| access-date=11 September 2019| archive-date=5 June 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605022611/http://www.btselem.org/English/Freedom_of_Movement/Closure.asp| url-status=live}}{{cite web| url=http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Reports/2005/G0511608.pdf| title=Report| access-date=18 April 2006| archive-date=24 May 2006| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524125053/http://www.miftah.org/Doc/Reports/2005/G0511608.pdf| url-status=live}}{{cite book| last=Barahona| first=Ana| title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine| publisher=Metete| location=London|isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|page=106}} According to B'Tselem, over fifty percent of West Bank land expropriated from Palestinians has been used to establish settlements and create reserves of land for their future expansion. The seized lands mainly benefit the settlements and Palestinians cannot use them.{{cite web|url=https://www.btselem.org/settlements/land_takeover|title=Land Expropriation and Taking Control of the Land|website=B'Tselem|access-date=11 September 2019|archive-date=3 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703204947/https://www.btselem.org/settlements/land_takeover|url-status=live}} The roads built by Israel in the West Bank to serve the settlements are closed to Palestinian vehicles'{{cite web| url=http://www.btselem.org/download/200408_Forbidden_Roads_Eng.pdf| title=Forbidden Roads| publisher=B'Tselem| access-date=19 April 2006| archive-date=26 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326021132/http://www.btselem.org/download/200408_Forbidden_Roads_Eng.pdf| url-status=live}}{{cite book |last=Barahona |first=Ana|title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine| publisher=Metete|location=London|isbn=978-1-908099-02-0 |year=2013| page=31}} and act as a barrier often between villages and the lands on which they subsist.{{cite book |last=Barahona |first=Ana |title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine| publisher=Metete|location=London|isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|page=42}}

Human Rights Watch and other human rights observer volunteer regularly file reports on "settler violence", referring to stoning and shooting incidents involving Israeli settlers.{{cite book| last=Barahona|first=Ana|title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine| publisher=Metete| location=London|isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|pages=98 and following}} Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and Hebron have led to violent settler protests and disputes over land and resources. Meron Benvenisti described the settlement enterprise as a "commercial real estate project that conscripts Zionist rhetoric for profit."{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974891.html|title=Who lost? The people of Israel|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=10 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610033253/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974891.html|url-status=live}}

The construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier has been criticized as an infringement on Palestinian human and land rights. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 10% of the West Bank would fall on the Israeli side of the barrier.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456944/html/nn2page1.stm| title=Guide to the West Bank barrier| work=BBC News| access-date=5 January 2010| archive-date=16 April 2006| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060416021033/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456944/html/nn2page1.stm| url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3111159.stm|title=Q&A: What is the West Bank barrier?|work=BBC News|date=15 September 2005|access-date=5 January 2010|archive-date=1 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001112737/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3111159.stm|url-status=live}}

In July 2012, the UN Human Rights Council decided to set up a probe into Jewish settlements. The report of the independent international fact-finding mission which investigated the "implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory" was published in February 2013.[http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettlements.pdf Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190610230053/https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettlements.pdf |date=10 June 2019 }} (PDF; 538 kB). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, February 2013

In February 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a list of 112 companies linked to activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51477231|title=UN lists 112 businesses linked to Israeli settlements|publisher=BBC|access-date=12 February 2020|archive-date=12 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212212128/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51477231|url-status=live}}{{cite news| url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/issues-report-firms-active-illegal-west-bank-settlements-200212162025947.html| title=UN lists firms linked to illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank| publisher=Al Jazeera| access-date=12 February 2020| archive-date=12 February 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212195859/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/issues-report-firms-active-illegal-west-bank-settlements-200212162025947.html| url-status=live}}

File:Ma'ale adumim 01.jpg work in Mishor Adumim industrial park]]

Goods produced in Israeli settlements are able to stay competitive on the global market, in part because of massive state subsidies they receive from the Israeli government. Farmers and producers are given state assistance, while companies that set up in the territories receive tax breaks and direct government subsidies. An Israeli government fund has also been established to help companies pay customs penalties. Palestinian officials estimate that settlers sell goods worth some $500 million to the Palestinian market.[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE64Q136.htm Q&A-Palestinians boycott Israeli settler goods], Reuters, 27 May 2010 Israel has built 16 industrial zones, containing roughly 1000 industrial plants, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on acreage that consumes large parts of the territory planned for a future Palestinian state. According to Jodi Rudoren these installations both entrench the occupation and provide work for Palestinians, even those opposed to it. The 16 parks are located at Shaked, Beka'ot, Baran, Karnei Shomron, Emmanuel, Barkan, Ariel, Shilo, Halamish, Ma'ale Efraim, Sha'ar Binyamin, Atarot, Mishor Adumim, Gush Etzion, Kiryat Arba and Metarim (2001).Jodi Rudoren, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/palestinians-work-in-west-bank-for-israeli-industry-they-oppose.html?hpw&rref=world 'In West Bank Settlements, Israeli Jobs Are Double-Edged Sword,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309084938/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/palestinians-work-in-west-bank-for-israeli-industry-they-oppose.html?hpw&rref=world |date=9 March 2014 }} New York Times, 10 February 2014.

In spite of this, the West Bank settlements have failed to develop a self-sustaining local economy. About 60% of the settler workforce commutes to Israel for work. The settlements rely primarily on the labor of their residents in Israel proper rather than local manufacturing, agriculture, or research and development. Of the industrial parks in the settlements, there are only two significant ones, at Ma'ale Adumim and Barkan, with most of the workers there being Palestinian. Only a few hundred settler households cultivate agricultural land, and rely primarily on Palestinian labor in doing so.{{Cite news| url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-settlement-enterprise-has-failed-1.5421498| title=The Settlement Enterprise Has Failed| newspaper=Haaretz| date=17 November 2015| access-date=19 July 2019| archive-date=19 July 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719075200/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-settlement-enterprise-has-failed-1.5421498| url-status=live}}

Settlement has an economic dimension, much of it driven by the significantly lower costs of housing for Israeli citizens living in Israeli settlements compared to the cost of housing and living in Israel proper. Government spending per citizen in the settlements is double that spent per Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while government spending for settlers in isolated Israeli settlements is three times the Israeli national average. Most of the spending goes to the security of the Israeli citizens living there.

According to Israeli government estimates, $230 million worth of settler goods including fruit, vegetables, cosmetics, textiles and toys are exported to the EU each year, accounting for approximately 2% of all Israeli exports to Europe.{{cite news|last=Sydow|first=Christoph|title=Activists Seek Ban on Trade with Israeli Settlers|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eu-activists-demand-an-end-to-imports-from-israeli-settlements-a-864355.html|access-date=2012-11-02|newspaper=Spiegel|date=2012-10-30|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126032414/https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eu-activists-demand-an-end-to-imports-from-israeli-settlements-a-864355.html|url-status=live}} A 2013 report of Profundo revealed that at least 38 Dutch companies imported settlement products.Profundo, [http://www.profundo.nl/files/download/Cord-ICCO-IKV0413.pdf Dutch economic links with the occupation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621170906/http://www.profundo.nl/files/download/Cord-ICCO-IKV0413.pdf |date=21 June 2013 }}. 20 April 2013. [http://www.profundo.nl/page/show/themes#mensenrechten Available on] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621115244/http://www.profundo.nl/page/show/themes#mensenrechten |date=21 June 2013 }}

European Union law requires a distinction to be made between goods originating in Israel and those from the occupied territories. The former benefit from preferential custom treatment according to the EU-Israel Association Agreement (2000); the latter don't, having been explicitly excluded from the agreement. In practice, however, settler goods often avoid mandatory customs through being labelled as originating in Israel, while European customs authorities commonly fail to complete obligatory postal code checks of products to ensure they have not originated in the occupied territories.

In 2009, the United Kingdom's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued new guidelines concerning labelling of goods imported from the West Bank. The new guidelines require labelling to clarify whether West Bank products originate from settlements or from the Palestinian economy. Israel's foreign ministry said that the UK was "catering to the demands of those whose ultimate goal is the boycott of Israeli products"; but this was denied by the UK government, who said that the aim of the new regulations was to allow consumers to choose for themselves what produce they buy.{{Cite news|author1=Ian Black |author2=Rory McCarthy |title=UK issues new guidance on labelling of food from illegal West Bank settlements|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/10/guidance-labelling-food-israeli-settlements|newspaper=The Guardian|location=United Kingdom|date=10 December 2009|access-date=5 January 2012}}] Denmark has similar legislation requiring food products from settlements in the occupied territories to be accurately labelled. In June 2022, Norway also stated that it would begin complying with EU regulation to label produce originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Golan Heights as such.{{cite news |publisher=Times of Israel |title=Israel bristles as Norway mandates labels for produce from West Bank, Golan |date=11 June 2022 |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bristles-as-norway-mandates-labels-for-produce-from-west-bank-golan/ |access-date=13 June 2022 |archive-date=13 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613090739/https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bristles-as-norway-mandates-labels-for-produce-from-west-bank-golan/ |url-status=live }}

On 12 November 2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union in a ruling{{Cite web |date=12 November 2019 |title=Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin, accompanied, where those foodstuffs come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, by the indication of that provenance |url=https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2019-11/cp190140en.pdf |access-date=9 October 2023 |website=Court of Justice of the European Union |archive-date=21 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121085809/https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2019-11/cp190140en.pdf |url-status=live }} covering all territory Israel captured in the 1967 war decided that labels on foodstuffs must not imply that goods produced in occupied territory came from Israel itself and must "prevent consumers from being misled as to the fact that the State of Israel is present in the territories concerned as an occupying power and not as a sovereign entity". In its ruling, the court said that failing to inform EU consumers they were potentially buying goods produced in settlements denies them access to "ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law".{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-court-israel-settlements/eu-court-rules-goods-from-israeli-settlements-must-be-labeled-idUSKBN1XM1WU|title=EU court rules goods from Israeli settlements must be labeled|publisher=Reuters|date=12 November 2019|access-date=12 November 2019|archive-date=12 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112161845/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-court-israel-settlements/eu-court-rules-goods-from-israeli-settlements-must-be-labeled-idUSKBN1XM1WU|url-status=live}}

In January 2019 the Dail (Ireland's lower house) voted in favour, by 78 to 45, of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill.{{Cite web |title=Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 |url=https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2018/6/eng/initiated/b0618s.pdf |access-date=9 October 2023 |website=data.oireachtas.ie |archive-date=30 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130044321/https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2018/6/eng/initiated/b0618s.pdf |url-status=live }} This piece of legislation prohibits the purchasing of any good and/or service from the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem or West Bank settlements. The Bill made no further progress until 2024 when the then government sought legal advice from the Attorney General in response to the International Court of Justice's ruling on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.{{cite web | url=https://www.thejournal.ie/occupied-territories-bill-could-come-before-dail-next-week-6515572-Oct2024/ | title=Plan to progress Occupied Territories Bill could go to Cabinet as early as next week, says O'Gorman | date=15 October 2024 }} Following the Attorney General's advice the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin confirmed on 22 October 2024 that the Bill would be "reviewed and amendments prepared in order to bring in into line with the Constitution and EU Law".{{cite web | url=https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/dad83-statement-by-tanaiste-micheal-martin-on-the-occupied-territories-bill/ | title=Statement by Tánaiste Micheál Martin on the Occupied Territories Bill | date=22 October 2024 }} On 31 October 2024, it was reported that a technical blockage of the Bill would be removed to allow it to proceed to committee stage, however the Bill was not passed before the Dáil was suspended sine die on the 7 November 2024 marking the end of the 33rd Dáil.

A petition under the European Citizens' Initiative, submitted in September 2021, was accepted on 20 February 2022. The petition seeks the adoption of legislation to ban trade with unlawful settlements. The petition requires a million signatures from across the EU and has received support from civil society groups including Human Rights Watch.{{cite web|url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-petition-calls-europe-ban-trade-illegal-settlements|title=Citizen-led petition calls on Europe to ban trade with Israeli settlements|website=Middle East Eye|access-date=22 February 2022|archive-date=22 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222155004/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-petition-calls-europe-ban-trade-illegal-settlements|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://euobserver.com/world/154397|title=Petition seeks EU ban on Israeli settler products|website=EUobserver|date=21 February 2022|access-date=22 February 2022|archive-date=22 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222155006/https://euobserver.com/world/154397|url-status=live}}{{cite web | url=https://www.courthousenews.com/court-takes-up-bid-for-boycott-over-israels-occupation-of-palestine/ | title=Court Takes up Bid for Boycott over Israel's Occupation of Palestine | access-date=22 February 2022 | archive-date=22 February 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222155005/https://www.courthousenews.com/court-takes-up-bid-for-boycott-over-israels-occupation-of-palestine/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/21/europe-ban-trade-illegal-settlements|title=Europe: Ban Trade with Illegal Settlements|date=21 February 2022|access-date=22 February 2022|archive-date=22 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222155004/https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/21/europe-ban-trade-illegal-settlements|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2021/000008_en|title=Initiative detail | European Citizens' Initiative|website=europa.eu|access-date=22 February 2022|archive-date=21 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221060836/https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2021/000008_en|url-status=live}}

A Palestinian report argued in 2011 that settlements have a detrimental effect on the Palestinian economy, equivalent to about 85% of the nominal gross domestic product of Palestine, and that the "occupation enterprise" allows the state of Israel and commercial firms to profit from Palestinian natural resources and tourist potential.{{Cite news|author=Harriet Sherwood|title=Israeli occupation hitting Palestinian economy, claims report|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/29/israeli-occupation-hits-palestinian-economy|newspaper=The Guardian|location=United Kingdom|date=29 September 2011|access-date=9 January 2012}}] A 2013 report published by the World Bank analysed the impact that the limited access to Area C lands and resources had on the Palestinian economy. While settlements represent a single axis of control, it is the largest with 68% of the Area C lands reserved for the settlements. The report goes on to calculate that access to the lands and resources of Area C, including the territory in and around settlements, would increase the Palestinian GDP by some $3.5 billion (or 35%) per year.{{cite journal|last=World Bank|title=West Bank and Gaza:Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy|journal=Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department|date=2 October 2013|issue=Report No. AUS2922|url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/st/inter/Hheb/images/worldbankctar.pdf|access-date=10 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413145555/http://www.haaretz.co.il/st/inter/Hheb/images/worldbankctar.pdf|archive-date=13 April 2014}}

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that Israeli companies are entitled to exploit the West Bank's natural resources for economic gain, and that international law must be "adapted" to the "reality on the ground" of long-term occupation.{{Cite news|author=Harriet Sherwood|title=Israeli companies can profit from West Bank resources, court rules|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/03/israeli-companies-west-bank-resources|newspaper=The Guardian|location=United Kingdom|date=3 January 2011|access-date=9 January 2012}}]

Due to the availability of jobs offering twice the prevailing salary of the West Bank ({{As of|2013|8|lc=y}}), as well as high unemployment, tens of thousands of Palestinians work in Israeli settlements.{{cite web|title=A Palestinian contradiction: working in Israeli settlements|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/settlements-palestinians-occupation-israel-sodastream.html|publisher=Al-Monitor|author=Jihan Abdalla|date=18 February 2014|access-date=12 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312213911/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/settlements-palestinians-occupation-israel-sodastream.html|archive-date=12 March 2014}} According to the Manufacturers Association of Israel, some 22,000 Palestinians were employed in construction, agriculture, manufacturing and service industries.Harriet Sherwood, [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/29/palestinian-boycott-israeli-settlement-goods Palestinian boycott of Israeli settlement goods starts to bite] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201235959/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/29/palestinian-boycott-israeli-settlement-goods |date=1 December 2016 }}, The Guardian, 29 June 2010 An Al-Quds University study in 2011 found that 82% of Palestinian workers said they would prefer to not work in Israeli settlements if they had alternative employment in the West Bank.

Palestinians have been highly involved in the construction of settlements in the West Bank. In 2013, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released their survey showing that the number of Palestinian workers who are employed by the Jewish settlements increased from 16,000 to 20,000 in the first quarter.{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/20000-Palestinians-working-in-settlements-survey-finds-323222|title=20,000 Palestinians working in settlements, survey finds|date=15 August 2013|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=23 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723233155/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/20000-Palestinians-working-in-settlements-survey-finds-323222|url-status=live}} The survey also found that Palestinians who work in Israel and the settlements are paid more than twice their salary compared to what they receive from Palestinian employers.

In 2008, Kav LaOved charged that Palestinians who work in Israeli settlements are not granted basic protections of Israeli labor law. Instead, they are employed under Jordanian labor law, which does not require minimum wage, payment for overtime and other social rights. In 2007, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that Israeli labor law does apply to Palestinians working in West Bank settlements and applying different rules in the same work place constituted discrimination. The ruling allowed Palestinian workers to file lawsuits in Israeli courts. In 2008, the average sum claimed by such lawsuits stood at 100,000 shekels.{{cite web|url=http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/media-view_eng.asp?id=2356|title=Palestinian workers in Israeli West Bank settlements – 2008|publisher=Kav LaOved|access-date=29 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716233329/http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/media-view_eng.asp?id=2356|archive-date=16 July 2011}}

According to the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 63% of Palestinians opposed PA plans to prosecute Palestinians who work in the settlements. However, 72% of Palestinians support a boycott of the products they sell.{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=178679|title=Palestinians oppose settlement labor ban|date=13 August 2012|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=21 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021180415/http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=178679|url-status=live}} Although the Palestinian Authority has criminalized working in the settlements, the director-general at the Palestinian Ministry of Labor, Samer Salameh, described the situation in February 2014 as being "caught between two fires". He said "We strongly discourage work in the settlements, since the entire enterprise is illegal and illegitimate...but given the high unemployment rate and the lack of alternatives, we do not enforce the law that criminalizes work in the settlements."

{{Main|Israeli settler violence}}

File:Gas the Arabs painted in Hebron.jpg, 2008]]

File:VandalisedOliveTree.jpg in November 2009]]

Gush Emunim Underground was a militant organization that operated in 1979–1984. The organization planned attacks on Palestinian officials and the Dome of the Rock.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/world/middleeast/26settlers.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=middleeast&pagewanted=all|title=Radical Settlers Take on Israel|work=The New York Times|date=25 September 2008|first=Isabel|last=Kershner|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-date=7 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107061313/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/world/middleeast/26settlers.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=middleeast&pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=http://jta.org/news/article/2008/10/08/110707/jextreme|title=Radical settlers using violence against Jews|date=8 October 2008|first=Dina|last=Kraft|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509235507/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2008/10/08/110707/jextreme|archive-date=9 May 2012}} In 1994, Baruch Goldstein of Hebron, a member of Kach carried out the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, killing 29 Muslim worshipers and injuring 125. The attack was widely condemned by the Israeli government and Jewish community. The Palestinian leadership has accused Israel of "encouraging and enabling" settler violence in a bid to provoke Palestinian riots and violence in retaliation.{{cite web|url=http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=278297|title=Erekat: Settler violence reflects Israeli policy|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=27 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827204156/http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=278297|url-status=dead}} Violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians constitutes terrorism according to the U.S. Department of State, and former IDF Head of Central Command Avi Mizrahi stated that such violence constitutes "terror."{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/u-s-settler-violence-is-terror-1.5286369|title=U.S. State Department defines settler violence as terrorism|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=13 July 2021|archive-date=13 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713145602/https://www.haaretz.com/u-s-settler-violence-is-terror-1.5286369|url-status=live}}

In mid-2008, a UN report recorded 222 acts of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and IDF troops compared with 291 in 2007.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7647991.stm|title='Hundreds join' settler violence|date=2 October 2008|access-date=28 July 2016|via=bbc.co.uk|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234333/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7647991.stm|url-status=live}} This trend reportedly increased in 2009.[http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/top-idf-officer-warns-settlers-radical-fringe-growing-1.5787 Top IDF officer warns: Settlers' radical fringe growing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924231013/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/top-idf-officer-warns-settlers-radical-fringe-growing-1.5787 |date=24 September 2015 }} Haaretz 20 October 2009 Maj-Gen Shamni said that the number had risen from a few dozen individuals to hundreds, and called it "a very grave phenomenon." In 2008–2009, the defense establishment adopted a harder line against the extremists. This group responded with a tactic dubbed "price tagging", vandalizing Palestinian property whenever police or soldiers were sent in to dismantle outposts.{{Cite news|last=Hider|first=James|date=15 October 2009|title=West Bank settlers use 'price tag' tactic to punish Palestinians|work=The Times|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6875304.ece|access-date=16 October 2009|location=London|archive-date=16 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716091837/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6875304.ece|url-status=dead}} From January through to September 2013, 276 attacks by settlers against Palestinians were recorded.Amira Hass, [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.549558 'Gambling on Blair's Palestinian casino,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001071228/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.549558 |date=1 October 2013 }} at Haaretz 1 October 2013. The statistics included 527 residential demolitions and 862 Palestinians uprooted from their homes.

Leading religious figures in the West Bank have harshly criticized these tactics. Rabbi Menachem Froman of Tekoa said that "Targeting Palestinians and their property is a shocking thing, ... It's an act of hurting humanity. ... This builds a wall of fire between Jews and Arabs."{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3725186,00.html |title=Rabbi slams Jewish 'hooligans' – Israel News, Ynetnews |newspaper=Ynetnews |publisher=Ynetnews.com |date=1995-06-20 |access-date=2016-06-10 |last1=Weiss |first1=Efrat |archive-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028075534/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3725186,00.html |url-status=live }} The Yesha Council and Hanan Porat also condemned such actions.Israel – Rabbi Harshly Condemns Violence by Jewish Hooligans Against Arabs, 2 June 2009 Other rabbis have been accused of inciting violence against non-Jews.{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article497358.ece|title=Login|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=31 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100531224258/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article497358.ece|url-status=dead}} In response to settler violence, the Israeli government said that it would increase law enforcement and cut off aid to illegal outposts.[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html "Israel Acts to Cut Off Funds to Illegal Settlements"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105173014/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html |date=5 January 2018 }} article by Isabel Kershner in The New York Times 2 November 2008. Some settlers are thought to lash out at Palestinians because they are "easy victims."{{Cite news|url=http://www.coxwashington.com/hp/content/reporters/stories/2008/07/8/17/2008/08/25/ISRAEL_SETTLERCRIME17_COX.html|title=Settlers Increase Attacks on Palestinians in West Bank|first=Robert W.|last=Gee|date=25 August 2008}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The United Nations accused Israel of failing to intervene and arrest settlers suspected of violence.{{cite web |url=http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settler_violence_fact_sheet_2009_11_15_english.pdf |title=ISRAELI SETTLER VIOLENCE AND THE EVACUATION OF OUTPOSTS (UN OCHAOPT, November 2009) |access-date=21 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706020109/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settler_violence_fact_sheet_2009_11_15_english.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2010 }} In 2008, Haaretz wrote that "Israeli society has become accustomed to seeing lawbreaking settlers receive special treatment and no other group could similarly attack Israeli law enforcement agencies without being severely punished."{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031614.html|title=Defeat settler terror|newspaper=Haaretz|date=27 October 2008|access-date=19 March 2010|archive-date=27 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427075708/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031614.html|url-status=live}}

In September 2011, settlers vandalized a mosque and an army base. They slashed tires and cut cables of 12 army vehicles and sprayed graffiti.[http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-settlers-vandalize-idf-base-in-first-price-tag-act-against-army-1.383068 Israeli settlers vandalize IDF base in first 'price tag' act against army] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908053947/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-settlers-vandalize-idf-base-in-first-price-tag-act-against-army-1.383068 |date=8 September 2011 }}, Haaretz In November 2011, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) in the Palestinian territories published a report on settler violence that showed a significant rise compared to 2009 and 2010. The report covered physical violence and property damage such as uprooted olive trees, damaged tractors and slaughtered sheep. The report states that 90% of complaints filed by Palestinians have been closed without charge.United Nations, November 2011, [http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settler_violence_FactSheet_October_2011_english.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124181820/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settler_violence_FactSheet_October_2011_english.pdf|date=24 November 2011}}. Retrieved 8 November 2011

According to EU reports, Israel has created an "atmosphere of impunity" for Jewish attackers, which is seen as tantamount to tacit approval by the state. In the West Bank, Jews and Palestinians live under two different legal regimes and it is difficult for Palestinians to lodge complaints, which must be filed in Hebrew in Israeli settlements.{{cite web|url=http://euobserver.com/24/115593|title=EU report notes huge increase in Jewish settler attacks|date=14 March 2012|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=3 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503233154/http://euobserver.com/24/115593|url-status=live}}

The 27 ministers of foreign affairs of the European Union published a report in May 2012 strongly denouncing policies of the State of Israel in the West Bank and denouncing "continuous settler violence and deliberate provocations against Palestinian civilians."{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/eu-israel-s-policies-in-the-west-bank-endanger-two-state-solution-1.5155104|title=EU: Israel's policies in the West Bank endanger two-state solution|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=13 July 2021|archive-date=8 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408142847/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eu-israel-s-policies-in-the-west-bank-endanger-two-state-solution-1.430421|url-status=live}} The report by all EU ministers called "on the government of Israel to bring the perpetrators to justice and to comply with its obligations under international law."

In July 2014, a day after the burial of three murdered Israeli teens, Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was forced into a car by 3 Israeli settlers on an East Jerusalem street. His family immediately reported the fact to Israeli Police who located his charred body a few hours later at Givat Shaul in the Jerusalem Forest. Preliminary results from the autopsy suggested that he was beaten and burnt while still alive.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-muhammad-abu-khdeir.html?_r=0 |title=Suspects Arrested in Death of Palestinian Youth, Israeli Police Say |last=Kershner |first=Isabel |work=The New York Times |date=6 July 2014 |access-date=6 July 2014 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714132330/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-muhammad-abu-khdeir.html?_r=0 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=710089 |title=Official: Autopsy shows Palestinian youth burnt alive |publisher=Ma'an News Agency |date=5 July 2014 |access-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708195202/http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=710089 |archive-date=8 July 2014 }}{{cite news |url=http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=709299 |title=Palestinian teen abducted, killed in suspected revenge attack |publisher=Ma'an News Agency |date=2 July 2014 |access-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140707041441/http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=709299 |archive-date=7 July 2014 }}{{cite news |url = http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-teen-said-found-dead-in-jerusalem-forest/ |title = Arab teen killed in capital; revenge attack suspected |last1 = Ben Zion|first1 = Ilan|date = 2 July 2014 |newspaper = The Times of Israel |access-date = 2014-07-04 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140702184325/http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-teen-said-found-dead-in-jerusalem-forest/ |archive-date = 2014-07-02 |last2 = Berman |first2 = Lazar}} The murder suspects explained the attack as a response to the June abduction and murder of three Israeli teens.Assaf Sharon, [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/sep/25/failure-gaza "Failure in Gaza"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919042513/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/sep/25/failure-gaza/ |date=19 September 2015 }}, New York Review of Books, 25 September 2014, pp. 20–24.{{Cite news|url = http://www.kcra.com/news/family-of-slain-palestinian-teen-lives-in-sacramento/26792470#!8p7a7|title = Family of slain Palestinian teen lives in Sacramento|last = Hoff|first = Mallory|date = 3 July 2014|work = KCRA Television Sacramento|access-date = 4 July 2014|archive-date = 14 July 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140714221415/http://www.kcra.com/news/family-of-slain-palestinian-teen-lives-in-sacramento/26792470#!8p7a7|url-status = live}} The murders contributed to a breakout of hostilities in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/world/middleeast/israel-steps-up-offensive-against-hamas-in-gaza.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/world/middleeast/israel-steps-up-offensive-against-hamas-in-gaza.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=Israel and Hamas Trade Attacks as Tension Rises | work=The New York Times | date=8 July 2014 | access-date=13 November 2014 |author1=Eranger, Steven |author2=Kershner, Isabel }}{{cbignore}}

In July 2015, a similar incident occurred where Israeli settlers made an arson attack on two Palestinian houses, one of which was empty; however, the other was occupied, resulting in the burning to death of a Palestinian infant; the four other members of his family were evacuated to the hospital suffering serious injuries.{{cite news |last=Heruti |first=Tali |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.668871 |title=Palestinian Infant Burned to Death in West Bank Arson Attack; IDF Blames 'Jewish Terror' – Israel |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2015-07-31 |access-date=2016-06-10 |archive-date=2 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150802171636/http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.668871 |url-status=live }} These two incidents received condemnation from the United States, European Union and the IDF.{{cite news |last=Heruti |first=Tali |url=http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.668911 |title=EU, U.S. State Department Condemn 'Vicious' West Bank Arson Attack – Diplomacy and Defense |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2015-07-31 |access-date=2016-06-10 |archive-date=28 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928222516/http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.668911 |url-status=live }} The European Union criticized Israel for "failing to protect the Palestinian population".

While the economy of the Palestinian territories has shown signs of growth, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that Palestinian olive farming has suffered. According to the ICRC, 10,000 olive trees were cut down or burned by settlers in 2007–2010.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8519921.stm Israel makes life very hard for Palestinians, says ICRC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100220212243/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8519921.stm |date=20 February 2010 }} (BBC, 17 February 2010){{cite web|url=http://www.btselem.org/english/Settler_Violence/20061029_Olive_Harvest.asp|title=29 October 06: B'Tselem Urges the Security Forces to Prepare for the Olive Harvest|publisher=B'Tselem|date=29 October 2006|access-date=11 March 2010|archive-date=17 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317064617/http://www.btselem.org/english/Settler_Violence/20061029_Olive_Harvest.asp|url-status=live}} Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the report ignored official PA data showing that the economic situation of Palestinians had improved substantially, citing Mahmoud Abbas's comment to The Washington Post in May 2009, where he said "in the West Bank, we have a good reality, the people are living a normal life."

Haaretz blamed the violence during the olive harvest on a handful of extremists.{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5123070|title=Palestinians: Settlers attacked our olive trees|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=13 July 2021|archive-date=13 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713145607/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5123070|url-status=live}} In 2010, trees belonging to both Jews and Arabs were cut down, poisoned or torched. In the first two weeks of the harvest, 500 trees owned by Palestinians and 100 trees owned by Jews had been vandalized.[http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/current-olive-harvest-most-violent-in-years-defense-document-reveals-1.319892 Current olive harvest most violent in years, defense document reveals] Haaretz 19 October 2010. In October 2013, 100 trees were cut down.{{cite web|url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/19/israeli-settlerschopdown100treesinwestbankvillage.html|title=Israeli settlers accused of destroying Palestinian olive trees|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=23 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923160738/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/19/israeli-settlerschopdown100treesinwestbankvillage.html|url-status=live}}

Violent attacks on olive trees seem to be facilitated by the apparently systematic refusal of the Israeli authorities to allow Palestinians to visit their own groves, sometimes for years, especially in cases where the groves are deemed to be too close to settlements.{{cite book|last=Barahona|first=Ana|title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine|publisher=Metete|location=London |isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|pages=23, 26}}

Israeli civilians living in settlements have been targeted by violence from armed Palestinian groups. These groups, according to Human Rights Watch, assert that settlers are "legitimate targets" that have "forfeited their civilian status by residing in settlements that are illegal under international humanitarian law."{{cite book|last=Human Rights Watch|author-link=Human Rights Watch|title=Erased in a moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians|year=2002|chapter=Civilian Residents of Illegal Settlements as "Legitimate Targets"|chapter-url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/isrl-pa/ISRAELPA1002-04.htm#P663_145772|url=https://archive.org/details/erasedinmomentsu00stor|isbn=978-1-56432-280-7|url-access=registration}} Both Human Rights Watch and B'tselem rejected this argument on the basis that the legal status of the settlements has no effect on the civilian status of their residents. Human Rights Watch said the "prohibition against intentional attacks against civilians is absolute." B'tselem said "The settlers constitute a distinctly civilian population, which is entitled to all the protections granted civilians by international law. The Israeli security forces' use of land in the settlements or the membership of some settlers in the Israeli security forces does not affect the status of the other residents living among them, and certainly does not make them proper targets of attack."{{cite web|url=http://www.btselem.org/english/Israeli_Civilians/Index.asp|title=Attacks on Israeli Civilians by Palestinians|publisher=B'Tselem|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=4 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604184529/http://www.btselem.org/English/Israeli_Civilians/index.asp|url-status=live}}

Fatal attacks on settlers have included firing of rockets and mortars and drive-by shootings, also targeting infants and children. Violent incidents include the murder of Shalhevet Pass, a ten-month-old baby shot by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron,{{Cite news|first=Deborah |last=Sontag |title=Israeli Baby's Funeral Becomes Focus of Settler Militancy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/world/02MIDE.html |work=The New York Times |date=2 April 2001 |access-date=17 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114204746/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/02/world/02MIDE.html |archive-date=14 November 2013}} and the murder of two teenagers by unknown perpetrators on 8 May 2001, whose bodies were hidden in a cave near Tekoa, a crime that Israeli authorities suggest may have been committed by Palestinian terrorists.{{cite news|title=Casualties of war|url=http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2001_05_09.html|last=Dudkevitch|first=Margot|author2=Herb Keinon|date=5 May 2001|work=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=15 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713122209/http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2001_05_09.html|archive-date=13 July 2011}} In the Bat Ayin axe attack, children in Bat Ayin were attacked by a Palestinian wielding an axe and a knife. A 13-year-old boy was killed and another was seriously wounded.[http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3696287,00.html Teen killed in West Bank terror attack] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923062123/https://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3696287,00.html |date=23 September 2018 }}, Ynet News, 4 February 2009 Rabbi Meir Hai, a father of seven, was killed in a drive-by shooting.[http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364500139&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Father of seven shot dead in West Bank terror attack]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Jerusalem Post, 25 December 2009Ethan Bronner, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html Israeli Military Kills 6 Palestinians] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614203339/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html |date=14 June 2018 }}, New York Times, 26 December 2009 In August 2011, five members of one family were killed in their beds. The victims were the father Ehud (Udi) Fogel, the mother Ruth Fogel, and three of their six children—Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, the youngest, a three-month-old infant. According to David Ha'ivri,{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=211991|title=Rallies held around country in response to Itamar attacks|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=2 May 2012|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=23 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023064741/http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=211991|url-status=live}} and as reported by multiple sources,{{cite web|url=http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/fogel-suspects.php|title=Fogel Family Murderers Arrested|work=World Jewish Daily|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306225108/http://worldjewishdaily.com/fogel-suspects.php|archive-date=6 March 2016}} the infant was decapitated.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8402973/A-family-slaughtered-in-Israel-doesn%27t-the-BBC-care.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130114014719/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8402973/A-family-slaughtered-in-Israel-doesn%27t-the-BBC-care.html |archive-date=14 January 2013 |title=A family slaughtered in Israel – doesn't the BBC care? |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=UK |access-date=16 April 2011 |first=Louise |last=Bagshawe |date=24 March 2011}}

File:Itamar2.jpg, West Bank. Itamar's residents have been the target of deadly attacks by Palestinian militants. Itamar settlers have also committed violent acts against local Palestinians.]]

File:Bodies wrapped in tallit at funeral in Givat Shaul (Fogel family).jpg]]

Pro-Palestinian activists who hold regular protests near the settlements have been accused of stone-throwing, physical assault and provocation.[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3474845,00.html 3 Palestinians, left-wing activist suspected of uprooting trees at outpost] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823190546/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3474845,00.html |date=23 August 2012 }}, ynetnews[http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123467 Arabs, Left-Wing Extremists Uproot Jewish Vineyard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003131006/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123467 |date=3 October 2009 }}, arutz sheva[http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3834882,00.html stone throwing Naalin protest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020050813/http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3834882,00.html |date=20 October 2012 }}, ynet In 2008, Avshalom Peled, head of the Israel Police's Hebron district, called "left-wing" activity in the city dangerous and provocative, and accused activists of antagonizing the settlers in the hope of getting a reaction.{{cite news|title=Police: Leftists in Hebron more dangerous than right-wing counterparts|first=Efrat|last=Weiss|newspaper=Ynetnews|date=16 June 2008|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3556322,00.html|access-date=21 March 2010|archive-date=9 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309132144/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3556322,00.html|url-status=live}}

Municipal Environmental Associations of Judea and Samaria, an environmental awareness group, was established by the settlers to address sewage treatment problems and cooperate with the Palestinian Authority on environmental issues. According to a 2004 report by Friends of the Earth Middle East, settlers account for 10% of the population in the West Bank but produce 25% of the sewage output. Beit Duqqu and Qalqilyah have accused settlers of polluting their farmland and villagers claim children have become ill after swimming in a local stream. Legal action was taken against 14 settlements by the Israeli Ministry of the Environment. The Palestinian Authority has also been criticized by environmentalists for not doing more to prevent water pollution.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4081672.stm|title=Pollution politics in the West Bank|date=6 July 2005|publisher=BBC|first=Rob|last=Winder|access-date=29 June 2009|archive-date=5 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005172656/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4081672.stm|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=586952|title=Settlement sewage kills off 200 olive trees grown by Palestinians|date=10 June 2005|work=Haaretz|first=Zafrir|last=Rinat}} {{dead link|date=May 2019}} Settlers and Palestinians share the mountain aquifer as a water source, and both generate sewage and industrial effluents that endanger the aquifer. Friends of the Earth Middle East claimed that sewage treatment was inadequate in both sectors. Sewage from Palestinian sources was estimated at 46 million cubic meters a year, and sources from settler sources at 15 million cubic meters a year. A 2004 study found that sewage was not sufficiently treated in many settlements, while sewage from Palestinian villages and cities flowed into unlined cesspits, streams and the open environment with no treatment at all.Friends of the Earth Middle East, [http://www.foeme.org/index_images/dinamicas/publications/publ30_1.pdf A Seeping Time Bomb: Pollution of the Mountain Aquifer by Sewage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007031202/http://www.foeme.org/index_images/dinamicas/publications/publ30_1.pdf |date=7 October 2006 }}, pp. 6–8

In a 2007 study, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, found that Palestinian towns and cities produced 56 million cubic meters of sewage per year, 94 percent discharged without adequate treatment, while Israeli sources produced 17.5 million cubic meters per year, 31.5 percent without adequate treatment.[http://www.environment.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Object&enDispWho=News^l4345&enZone=e_news Results of Stream Monitoring in Judea and Samaria Published] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304103215/http://www.environment.gov.il/bin/en.jsp?enPage=e_BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Object&enDispWho=News%5El4345&enZone=e_news |date=4 March 2021 }}, Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection 23 September 2008

According to Palestinian environmentalists, the settlers operate industrial and manufacturing plants that can create pollution as many do not conform to Israeli standards. In 2005, an old quarry between Kedumim and Nablus was slated for conversion into an industrial waste dump. Pollution experts warned that the dump would threaten Palestinian water sources.{{cite news|title=Israel to dump 10,000 tons of garbage a month in the West Bank|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=560433&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y|date=4 April 2005|work=Haaretz|first=David|last=Ratner|access-date=12 March 2010|archive-date=1 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001062638/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=560433&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y|url-status=live}}

File:Settlers-onlyRoad.jpg, Hebron, 2010]]

The Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM) has reported in their 2011 migration profile for Palestine that the reasons for individuals to leave the country are similar to those of other countries in the region and they attribute less importance to the specific political situation of the occupied Palestinian territory.Anna Di Bartolomeo, Thibaut Jaulin, Delphine Perrin

[http://www.carim.org/public/migrationprofiles/MP_Palestine_EN.pdf "CARIM Migration Report Palestine"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032722/http://www.carim.org/public/migrationprofiles/MP_Palestine_EN.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}, CARIM – Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration, 2011, p. 5 Human Rights Watch in 2010 reported that Israeli settlement policies have had the effect of "forcing residents to leave their communities".[https://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/18/israelwest-bank-separate-and-unequal "Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610204901/http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/18/israelwest-bank-separate-and-unequal |date=10 June 2015 }} Human Rights Watch, 19 December 2010.{{cite book |last=Barahona |first=Ana|title=Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine|publisher=Metete|location=London| isbn= 978-1-908099-02-0|year=2013|pages=96&106}}

In 2008, Condoleezza Rice suggested sending Palestinian refugees to South America, which might reduce pressure on Israel to withdraw from the settlements.Carroll, Rory. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/24/condoleezza-rice-palestinian-refugees-south-america "Condoleezza Rice: send Palestinian refugees to South America."] The Guardian, 24 January 2011. Sushil P. Seth speculates that Israelis might feel that increasing settlements will force many Palestinians to flee to other countries and that the remainder will be forced to live under Israeli terms.Seth, Sushil P. [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\12\24\story_24-12-2010_pg3_5 "Israel sinks the peace process."] Daily Times, 24 December 2010. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128114747/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C12%5C24%5Cstory_24-12-2010_pg3_5 |date=28 January 2012 }} Speaking anonymously with regard to Israeli policies in the South Hebron Hills, a UN expert said that the Israeli crackdown on alternative energy infrastructures like solar panels is part of a deliberate strategy in Area C.

"From December 2010 to April 2011, we saw a systematic targeting of the water infrastructure in Hebron, Bethlehem and the Jordan valley. Now, in the last couple of months, they are targeting electricity. Two villages in the area have had their electrical poles demolished. There is this systematic effort by the civil administration targeting all Palestinian infrastructure in Hebron. They are hoping that by making it miserable enough, they [the Palestinians] will pick up and leave."

Approximately 1,500 people in 16 communities are dependent on energy produced by these installations duct business are threatened with work stoppage orders from the Israeli administration on their installation of alternative power infrastructure, and demolition orders expected to follow will darken the homes of 500 people.Akiva Eldarf, [http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/israel-demolishes-west-bank-villages-as-jewish-outposts-remains-untouched-1.413875 'Israel demolishes West Bank villages as Jewish outposts remains untouched'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326134214/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/israel-demolishes-west-bank-villages-as-jewish-outposts-remains-untouched-1.413875 |date=26 March 2012 }}, Haaretz, 21 February 2012:'Children will revert to straining their eyes as they do their homework in the light of oil lamps, and the women will go back to churning butter and cheeses with blistered hands. ... During the first six months of 2011, the UN Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs recorded 342 demolitions of Palestinian structures in the area. That is almost five times the number razed during the same period in 2010. The report noted that for Palestinian villages in Area C, the Civil Administration did not manage to plan sufficiently, but all Jewish communities in the West Bank did receive detailed plans.'Phoebe Greenwood, [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/14/palestinians-prepare-to-lose-solar-panels 'Palestinians prepare to lose the solar panels that provide a lifeline'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809145504/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/mar/14/palestinians-prepare-to-lose-solar-panels |date=9 August 2020 }} Wednesday, 14 March 2012: 'According to UN research, as the result of these policies, 10 of 13 Palestinian communities living in Area C surveyed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2011 had already left their land as a result of Israeli policies.'

File:Ariel University Center.jpg]]

Ariel University, formerly the College of Judea and Samaria, is the major Israeli institution of higher education in the West Bank. With close to 13,000 students, it is Israel's largest public college. The college was accredited in 1994 and awards bachelor's degrees in arts, sciences, technology, architecture and physical therapy.[http://www.che.org.il/colleges/college_e.aspx?collegeId=39 Database of Institutions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721075852/http://www.che.org.il/colleges/college_e.aspx?collegeId=39 |date=21 July 2011 }}, Council for Higher Education in Israel On 17 July 2012, the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria voted to grant the institution full university status.{{cite news |url= http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=277826 |title= Ariel gets university status, despite opposition |newspaper= The Jerusalem Post |access-date= 17 July 2012 |archive-date= 3 September 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120903230146/http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=277826 |url-status= live }}

Teacher training colleges include Herzog College in Alon Shvut and Orot Israel College in Elkana. Ohalo College is located in Katzrin, in the Golan Heights. Curricula at these institutions are overseen by the Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria (CHE-JS).Tamara Traubmann, [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/772722.html Education council angry over decision to upgrade Ariel College status] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090604213052/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/772722.html |date=4 June 2009 }} Haaretz, 10 October 2006

In March 2012, The Shomron Regional Council was awarded the Israeli Ministry of Education's first prize National Education Award in recognizing its excellence in investing substantial resources in the educational system.{{cite news|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153012#.T3OKN2FOAk0|title=Shomron Regional Council Receives National Education Award|publisher=Israel National News|quote=The award is an expression of our respect and appreciation for local authorities that are outstanding in the investment in education and in the importance they attach to fostering the local educational system.|date=22 February 2012|access-date=28 March 2012|archive-date=25 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425040555/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153012#.T3OKN2FOAk0|url-status=live}} The Shomron Regional Council achieved the highest marks in all parameters (9.28 / 10). Gershon Mesika, the head of the regional council, declared that the award was a certificate of honour of its educators and the settlement youth who proved their quality and excellence.{{cite news|url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/339/257.html|script-title=he:מועצה אזורית שומרון זכתה בפרס החינוך|work=Ma'ariv|date=21 February 2012|access-date=28 March 2012|language=he|archive-date=25 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225231127/http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/339/257.html|url-status=dead}}

File:SettlersSoldiersIraqBurin.jpg

In 1983 an Israeli government plan entitled "Master Plan and Development Plan for Settlement in Samaria and Judea" envisaged placing a "maximally large Jewish population" in priority areas to accomplish incorporation of the West Bank in the Israeli "national system".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXF9zwPL4wIC|title=Human Rights, Self-Determination and Political Change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories|first=Stephen|last=Bowen|date=28 October 1997|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|access-date=28 July 2016|via=Google Books|isbn=978-90-411-0502-8}} According to Ariel Sharon, strategic settlement locations would work to preclude the formation of a Palestinian state.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/imposing-middle-east-peace|title=Imposing Middle East Peace|magazine=The Nation|date=7 January 2010|access-date=28 July 2016|last1=Siegman|first1=Henry|archive-date=29 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729205056/https://www.thenation.com/article/imposing-middle-east-peace/|url-status=live}}

Palestinians argue that the policy of settlements constitutes an effort to preempt or sabotage a peace treaty that includes Palestinian sovereignty, and claim that the presence of settlements harm the ability to have a viable and contiguous state.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4367787.stm|work=BBC News|title=Israel confirms settlement growth|date=21 March 2005|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=19 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219173017/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4367787.stm|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4141484.stm|work=BBC News|title=Gaza diary: Hakeem Abu Samra|date=12 August 2005|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=11 February 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060211213405/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4141484.stm|url-status=live}} This was also the view of the Israeli Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon in 2008, saying "the pressure to enlarge Ofra and other settlements does not stem from a housing shortage, but rather is an attempt to undermine any chance of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians ..."Akiva Eldar, [http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/vice-pm-ofra-settlement-homes-built-on-private-palestinian-land-1.243558 "Vice PM: Ofra settlement homes built on private Palestinian land"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121105649/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/vice-pm-ofra-settlement-homes-built-on-private-palestinian-land-1.243558 |date=21 November 2010 }}. Haaretz, 8 April 2008

The Israel Foreign Ministry asserts that some settlements are legitimate, as they took shape when there was no operative diplomatic arrangement, and thus they did not violate any agreement.[http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Israeli+Settlements+and+International+Law.htm Israeli Settlements and International Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117183817/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%2BProcess/Guide%2Bto%2Bthe%2BPeace%2BProcess/Israeli%2BSettlements%2Band%2BInternational%2BLaw.htm |date=17 January 2013 }}, Israel Foreign Ministry website, 4 May 2001. Retrieved 11 July 2007.[http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm "Occupied Territories" to "Disputed Territories"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709034305/http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm |date=9 July 2011 }} by Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 16 January 2002. Retrieved 29 September 2005.[http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm Diplomatic and Legal Aspects of the Settlement Issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614213710/http://jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm |date=14 June 2006 }}, Jeffrey Helmreich, Institute for Contemporary Affairs, jcpa.org. Retrieved 11 July 2007. Based on this, they assert that:

• Prior to the signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, the eruption of the First Intifada, down to the signing of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994, Israeli governments on the left and right argued that the settlements were of strategic and tactical importance. The location of the settlements was primarily chosen based on the threat of an attack by the bordering hostile countries of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt and possible routes of advance into Israeli population areas. These settlements were seen as contributing to the security of Israel at a time when peace treaties had not been signed.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010402151.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Bush at Risk of Losing Closest Mideast Ally|first=Glenn|last=Kessler|date=5 January 2006|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=11 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111193907/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010402151.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4436739.stm|work=BBC News|title=Israel 'to keep some settlements'|date=12 April 2005|access-date=5 May 2010|archive-date=9 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309110319/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4436739.stm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/jl/jordanvalley-dg.htm|title=What Happened to Secure Borders for Israel? The U.S., Israel, and the Strategic Jordan Valley|author=Dore Gold|publisher=Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202239/http://www.jcpa.org/jl/jordanvalley-dg.htm|url-status=dead}}

{{Further|Israel's unilateral disengagement plan}}

File:Yamit evacuation 3.jpg, 1982]]

An early evacuation took place in 1982 as part of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty, when Israel was required to evacuate its settlers from the 18 Sinai settlements. Arab parties to the conflict had demanded the dismantlement of the settlements as a condition for peace with Israel. The evacuation was carried out with force in some instances, for example in Yamit. The settlements were demolished, as it was feared that settlers might try to return to their homes after the evacuation.

Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip took place in 2005. It involved the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, including all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank, while retaining control over Gaza's borders, coastline, and airspace. Most of these settlements had existed since the early 1980s, some were over 30 years old;{{cite journal|last=Dromi|first=Shai M.|title=Uneasy Settlements: Reparation Politics and the Meanings of Money in the Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza|journal=Sociological Inquiry|year=2014|volume=48|issue=1|pages=294–315|doi=10.1111/soin.12028|url=https://zenodo.org/record/976461|access-date=20 April 2018|archive-date=26 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026163232/https://zenodo.org/record/976461|url-status=live}} the total population involved was more than 8,000.“Palestine: The Forgotten Reality,” Le Monde Diplomatique, December 2005, online at https://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/index-of-countries-on-the-security-council-agenda/israel-palestine-and-the-occupied-territories/38326 .

htl. There was significant opposition to the plan among parts of the Israeli public, and especially those living in the territories. George W. Bush said that a permanent peace deal would have to reflect "demographic realities" in the West Bank regarding Israel's settlements.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4382343.stm|title=US will accept Israel settlements|work=BBC News|date=25 March 2005|access-date=22 April 2005|archive-date=24 June 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624181543/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4382343.stm|url-status=live}}

The Israeli human rights group GISHA maintains that despite the disengagement, Israel continues to occupy Gaza because it maintains its control over the area. For example, Israel maintains control over Gaza's airspace and waters, its borders (specifically, passage of goods and people to and from Gaza), the population registry, its telecommunications networks, and the collection of customs and tax on imports. GISHA also reports that Israel continues to control Gaza's infrastructure through its control over the supply of resources such as electricity. In addition, under the disengagement plan, Israel can prevent the PA from reopening its airport or seaport.{{cite book |author=Sara M. Roy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |title=The Gaza Strip |publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Incorporated |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-88728-321-5 |pages=lxxii |access-date=23 January 2024 |archive-date=11 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311045308/https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |url-status=live }}

Within the former settlements, almost all buildings were demolished by Israel, with the exception of certain government and religious structures, which were completely emptied. Under an international arrangement, greenhouses were left to assist the Palestinian economy although half had been demolished by the settlers two months prior to the disengagement.Erlanger, S. (2005). Israeli Settlers Demolish Greenhouses and Gaza Jobs. N.Y. Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/world/middleeast/israeli-settlers-demolish-greenhouses-and-gaza-jobs.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121163125/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/world/middleeast/israeli-settlers-demolish-greenhouses-and-gaza-jobs.html |date=21 November 2023 }} The reduction in greenhouse space and increased restrictions on exports reduced the viability of the project.{{Cite news |title='All the Dreams We Had Are Now Gone' |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2007-07-19/ty-article/all-the-dreams-we-had-are-now-gone/0000017f-df03-df7c-a5ff-df7b30140000 |access-date=2024-01-21 |work=Haaretz |language=en |archive-date=14 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514204656/https://www.haaretz.com/2007-07-19/ty-article/all-the-dreams-we-had-are-now-gone/0000017f-df03-df7c-a5ff-df7b30140000 |url-status=live }} After the redeployment of Israeli troops to the Gaza border, 30% of the greenhouses suffered various degrees of damage due to Palestinian looters stealing, for example, hoses and irrigation equipment.[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9331863 Looters strip Gaza greenhouses], NBC News, Associated Press, 13 September 2005. Following the withdrawal, many of the former synagogues were torched and destroyed by Palestinians.{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article565679.ece|title=Synagogues burn in Gaza|last=Freeman|first=Simon|date=12 September 2005|work=The Times|access-date=7 September 2010|archive-date=18 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718122127/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article565679.ece|url-status=dead}}

Some believe that settlements need not necessarily be dismantled and evacuated, even if Israel withdraws from the territory where they stand, as they can remain under Palestinian rule. These ideas have been expressed both by left-wing Israelis,{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.co.il/com/Advertising/Ysadeh/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991006195817/http://www.jpost.co.il/com/Advertising/Ysadeh/|archive-date=6 October 1999|title=A Cup of Tea in Old Jerusalem}} and by Palestinians who advocate the two-state solution, and by extreme Israeli right-wingers and settlers{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5EB5E1B3-B64F-43DF-A588-1C40FDDB0A83.htm |title=Interview: Israeli settler Avi Farhan |access-date=12 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101013515/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5EB5E1B3-B64F-43DF-A588-1C40FDDB0A83.htm |archive-date=1 November 2005}} who object to any dismantling and claim links to the land that are stronger than the political boundaries of the state of Israel.{{Clarify|reason=see invisible comment|date=February 2024}}

The Israeli government has often threatened to dismantle outposts. Some have actually been dismantled, occasionally with use of force; this led to settler violence.

American refusal to declare the settlements illegal was said to be the determining factor in the 2011 attempt to declare Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, the so-called Palestine 194 initiative.[http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/pa-official-u-s-mideast-peace-offer-convinced-palestinians-to-seek-statehood-at-un-1.385011 "PA official: U.S. Mideast peace offer convinced Palestinians to seek statehood at UN."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918121718/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/pa-official-u-s-mideast-peace-offer-convinced-palestinians-to-seek-statehood-at-un-1.385011 |date=18 September 2011 }} Haaretz, 17 September 2011.

Israel announced additional settlements in response to the Palestinian diplomatic initiative and Germany responded by moving to stop deliveries to Israel of submarines capable of carrying nuclear weapons.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,794991,00.html "Germany Threatens To Halt Submarine Sale to Israel."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103012431/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,794991,00.html |date=3 January 2012 }} Der Spiegel, 31 October 2011.

Finally in 2012, several European states switched to either abstain or vote for statehood in response to continued settlement construction.{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/germany-abstaining-at-un-because-israel-wouldn-t-budge-on-settlements.premium-1.481443|title=Ahead of the UNGA vote // 'Germany abstaining at UN because Israel wouldn't budge on settlements'|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=12 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112221951/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/germany-abstaining-at-un-because-israel-wouldn-t-budge-on-settlements.premium-1.481443|url-status=live}} Israel approved further settlements in response to the vote, which brought further worldwide condemnation.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-ambassadors-idUSBRE8B20DN20121203|title=Israel says will stick with settlement plan despite condemnation|date=3 December 2012|work=Reuters|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=17 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817131151/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-ambassadors-idUSBRE8B20DN20121203|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Israeli–Palestinian peace process}}

File:Ariel3.JPG, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank]]

File:Beitar Ilit.jpg, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank]]

File:MaaleAdumim7335.JPG, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank, industrial area, 2012]]

File:Kiryatsefer.jpg, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank]]

File:Trump Peace Plan Map.jpg for the creation of the State of Palestine.]]

The settlements have been a source of tension between Israel and the U.S. Jimmy Carter regarded the settlements as illegal and tactically unwise. Ronald Reagan stated that they were legal but an obstacle to negotiations.Rostow, Eugene. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100204104301/http://www.tzemachdovid.org/Facts/islegal2.shtml Bricks and stones: settling for leverage; Palestinian autonomy]}}, The New Republic, 23 April 1990. In 1991, the U.S. delayed a subsidized loan to pressure Israel on the subject of settlement-building in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem corridor. In 2005, U.S. declared support for "the retention by Israel of major Israeli population centers as an outcome of negotiations,"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4382343.stm 'US will accept Israel settlements'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312191029/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4382343.stm |date=12 March 2007 }}, BBC News Online, 25 March 2005. reflecting the statement by George W. Bush that a permanent peace treaty would have to reflect "demographic realities" in the West Bank.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4445839.stm 'UN Condemns Israeli settlements'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822064952/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4445839.stm |date=22 August 2006 }}, BBC News Online, 14 April 2005. In June 2009, Barack Obama said that the United States "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."[https://huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/04/obama-speech-in-cairo-vid_n_211215.html 'Obama Speech In Cairo: VIDEO, Full Text'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190316183542/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/04/obama-speech-in-cairo-vid_n_211215.html |date=16 March 2019 }}, The Huffington Post, 4 June 2009.

Palestinians claim that Israel has undermined the Oslo accords and peace process by continuing to expand the settlements. Settlements in the Sinai Peninsula were evacuated and razed in the wake of the peace agreement with Egypt. The 27 ministers of foreign affairs of the European Union published a report in May 2012 strongly denouncing policies of the State of Israel in the West Bank and finding that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal and "threaten to make a two-state solution impossible." In the framework of the Oslo I Accord of 1993 between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a modus vivendi was reached whereby both parties agreed to postpone a final solution on the destination of the settlements to the permanent status negotiations (Article V.3). Israel claims that settlements thereby were not prohibited, since there is no explicit interim provision prohibiting continued settlement construction, the agreement does register an undertaking by both sides, namely that "Neither 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" (Article XXX1 (7)), which has been interpreted as, not forbidding settlements, but imposing severe restrictions on new settlement building after that date.Mélanie Jacques, Armed Conflict and Displacement: The Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons Under International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press 2012 pp. 96–97. Melanie Jacques argued in this context that even 'agreements between Israel and the Palestinians which would allow settlements in the OPT, or simply tolerate them pending a settlement of the conflict, violate the Fourth Geneva Convention.'

Final status proposals have called for retaining long-established communities along the Green Line and transferring the same amount of land in Israel to the Palestinian state. The Clinton administration proposed that Israel keep some settlements in the West Bank, especially those in large blocs near the pre-1967 borders of Israel, with the Palestinians receiving concessions of land in other parts of the country.[http://www.hanania.com/aaview/CD08-16-05DennisRoosBook.htm Review of Dennis Ross book] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927201743/http://www.hanania.com/aaview/CD08-16-05DennisRoosBook.htm |date=27 September 2007 }}, by Ray Hanania, hanania.com, 16 August 2004. Retrieved 11 July 2007. Both Clinton and Tony Blair pointed out the need for territorial and diplomatic compromise based on the validity of some of the claims of both sides.[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/clintplan.html Remarks by Pres. Clinton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126065728/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/clintplan.html |date=26 November 2015 }}, 7 January 2001. (Full transcript available at: [http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/01/08/clinton.transcript/index.html cnn transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206000431/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/01/08/clinton.transcript/index.html |date=6 December 2007 }})[http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391629&a=KArticle&aid=1079978882333 Tony Blair press conference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927214104/http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391629&a=KArticle&aid=1079978882333 |date=27 September 2007 }}, 17 April 2004, incl. comments on compromising on settlements, UK Foreign office. Retrieved 12 July 2007.

As Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak approved a plan requiring security commitments in exchange for withdrawal from the West Bank.{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186516|title=US may give Israel arms in exchange for concessions|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=22 November 2009|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=21 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021170914/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186516|url-status=live}} Barak also expressed readiness to cede parts of East Jerusalem and put the holy sites in the city under a "special regime."[http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-israel-ready-to-cede-parts-of-jerusalem-in-peace-deal-1.311450 Barak: Israel ready to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100901220301/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-israel-ready-to-cede-parts-of-jerusalem-in-peace-deal-1.311450 |date=1 September 2010 }}, Haaretz

On 14 June 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as an answer to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo, delivered a speech setting out his principles for a Palestinian-Israeli peace, among others, he alleged "... we have no intention of building new settlements or of expropriating additional land for existing settlements."[http://middleeast.about.com/od/documents/a/netanyahu-peace-proposal_3.htm "Full Text: Netanyahu's Proposal for Palestinian-Israeli Peace (June 2009)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110112021244/http://middleeast.about.com/od/documents/a/netanyahu-peace-proposal_3.htm |date=12 January 2011 }} A Demilitarized Palestinian State With Limited Sovereignty by Pierre Tristam, About.com Guide. In March 2010, the Netanyahu government announced plans for building 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo across the Green Line in East Jerusalem during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel causing a diplomatic row.{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1157087.html|title=Brazil President in West Bank: I dream of a free Palestine|date=17 March 2010|work=Haaretz|access-date=15 April 2011|archive-date=21 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421212934/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1157087.html|url-status=live}}

On 6 September 2010, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Israel would need to withdraw from all of the lands occupied in 1967 in order to achieve peace with the Palestinians.{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/jordan-and-syria-call-for-israeli-withdrawal-from-all-arab-lands-1.312585|title=Jordan and Syria call for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab lands|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=30 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730201531/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/jordan-and-syria-call-for-israeli-withdrawal-from-all-arab-lands-1.312585|url-status=live}}

Bradley Burston has said that a negotiated or unilateral withdraw from most of the settlements in the West Bank is gaining traction in Israel.Burston, Bradley [http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/special-place-in-hell-breaking-israel-to-fix-it-rightists-rethink-holding-the-west-bank-1.314809?localLinksEnabled=false Special Place in Hell / Breaking Israel to fix it – rightists rethink holding the West Bank] Haaretz, 20 September 2010

In November 2010, the United States offered to "fight against efforts to delegitimize Israel" and provide extra arms to Israel in exchange for a continuation of the settlement freeze and a final peace agreement, but failed to come to an agreement with the Israelis on the exact terms.Ravid, Barak. [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-we-ll-oppose-delegitimization-of-israel-in-exchange-for-settlement-freeze-1.324496?localLinksEnabled=false "U.S.: We'll oppose delegitimization of Israel in exchange for settlement freeze."] Haaretz, 13 November 2010{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195212|title=US asks Israel for 90-day settlement building moratorium|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=27 March 2008|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=21 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021090549/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195212|url-status=live}}

In December 2010, the United States criticised efforts by the Palestinian Authority to impose borders for the two states through the United Nations rather than through direct negotiations between the two sides.Barak Ravid and Shlomo Shamir [http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-criticizes-pa-bid-to-take-settlement-construction-to-un-1.332611?localLinksEnabled=false "U.S. criticizes PA bid to take settlement construction to UN."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130143646/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-criticizes-pa-bid-to-take-settlement-construction-to-un-1.332611?localLinksEnabled=false |date=30 January 2012 }} Haaretz, 24 December 2010. In February 2011, it vetoed a draft resolution to condemn all Jewish settlements established in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 as illegal.{{cite news|author1=Charbonneau, Louis|author2=Dunham, Will|title=U.S. vetoes U.N. draft condemning Israeli settlements|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-israel-un-vote-idUSTRE71H6W720110218|date=18 February 2011|work=Reuters|access-date=20 February 2011|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924151308/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/18/us-palestinians-israel-un-vote-idUSTRE71H6W720110218|url-status=live}} The resolution, which was supported by all other Security Council members and co-sponsored by nearly 120 nations,{{cite news|title=Palestinian envoy: U.S. veto at UN 'encourages Israeli intransigence' on settlements|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-envoy-u-s-veto-at-un-encourages-israeli-intransigence-on-settlements-1.344364|date=18 February 2011|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=20 February 2011|archive-date=20 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110220204326/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-envoy-u-s-veto-at-un-encourages-israeli-intransigence-on-settlements-1.344364|url-status=live}} would have demanded that "Israel, as the occupying power, immediately and completely ceases all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and that it fully respect its legal obligations in this regard."{{cite news|title=United States vetoes Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37572&Cr=palestin&Cr1=|date=18 February 2011|publisher=UN News Centre|access-date=20 February 2011|archive-date=22 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222084607/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37572&Cr=palestin&Cr1=|url-status=live}} The U.S. representative said that while it agreed that the settlements were illegal, the resolution would harm chances for negotiations. Israel's deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon, said that the "UN serves as a rubber stamp for the Arab countries and, as such, the General Assembly has an automatic majority," and that the vote "proved that the United States is the only country capable of advancing the peace process and the only righteous one speaking the truth: that direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are required."{{cite news|title=Deputy FM: Anti-settlement vote proves UN is a 'rubber stamp' for Arab nations|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/deputy-fm-anti-settlement-vote-proves-un-is-a-rubber-stamp-for-arab-nations-1.344546|date=20 February 2011|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=20 February 2011|archive-date=20 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110220083538/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/deputy-fm-anti-settlement-vote-proves-un-is-a-rubber-stamp-for-arab-nations-1.344546|url-status=live}} Palestinian negotiators, however, have refused to resume direct talks until Israel ceases all settlement activity.

In November 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a 10-month settlement freeze in the West Bank in an attempt to restart negotiations with the Palestinians. The freeze did not apply to building in Jerusalem in areas across the green line, housing already under construction and existing construction described as "essential for normal life in the settlements" such as synagogues, schools, kindergartens and public buildings. The Palestinians refused to negotiate without a complete halt to construction.{{cite web |last=Heruti |first=Tali |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/netanyahu-declares-10-month-settlement-freeze-to-restart-peace-talks-1.3435 |title=Netanyahu Declares 10-month Settlement Freeze 'To Restart Peace Talks' |work=Haaretz |date=2009-11-25 |access-date=2016-06-10 |archive-date=9 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609180921/http://www.haaretz.com/news/netanyahu-declares-10-month-settlement-freeze-to-restart-peace-talks-1.3435 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Keinon |first=Herb |url=http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=239645 |title='We won't renew settlement freeze to lure Palestinian Authority to talks' |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=2011-09-26 |access-date=2016-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209173254/http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=239645 |archive-date=9 February 2013 }} In the face of pressure from the United States and most world powers supporting the demand by the Palestinian Authority that Israel desist from settlement project in 2010, Israel's ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben said Israel would only stop settlement construction after a peace agreement is concluded, and expressed concern were Arab countries to press for UN recognition of a Palestinian state before such an accord. He cited Israel's dismantlement of settlements in both the Sinai which took place after a peace agreement, and its unilateral dismantlement of settlements in the Gaza Strip. He presumed that settlements would stop being built were Palestinians to establish a state in a given area.[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3970766,00.html 'Israel's UN envoy says only peace can halt settlements,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402100906/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3970766,00.html |date=2 April 2015 }} AFP/Ynet, 17 October 2010.

{{see also|Settlement blocs}}

The Clinton Parameters, a 2000 peace proposal by then U.S. President Bill Clinton, included a plan on which the Palestinian State was to include 94–96% of the West Bank, and around 80% of the settlers were to be under Israeli sovereignty, and in exchange for that, Israel will concede some territory (so called 'Territory Exchange' or 'Land Swap') within the Green Line (1967 borders). The swap would consist of 1–3% of Israeli territory, such that the final borders of the West Bank part of the Palestinian state would include 97% of the land of the original borders.[http://www.peacelobby.org/clinton_parameters.htm Clinton Parameters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117011736/http://www.peacelobby.org/clinton_parameters.htm |date=17 January 2015 }}, The Jewish Peace Lobby website, full text (English)

In 2010, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians and Israel have agreed on the principle of a land swap. The issue of the ratio of land Israel would give to the Palestinians in exchange for keeping settlement blocs is an issue of dispute, with the Palestinians demanding that the ratio be 1:1, and Israel insisting that other factors be considered as well.{{cite news|last=Abu Toameh|first=Khaled|title=Abbas: Land swap principle reached|url=http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=176148|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=4 September 2010|archive-date=26 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121126061000/http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=176148|url-status=live}}

Under any peace deal with the Palestinians, Israel intends to keep the major settlement blocs close to its borders, which contain over 80% of the settlers. Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu have all stated Israel's intent to keep such blocs under any peace agreement. U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that such areas should be annexed to Israel in a 2004 letter to Prime Minister Sharon.{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-consensus-rdquo-settlements|title=The "Consensus" Settlements|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=11 September 2019|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504155030/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-consensus-rdquo-settlements|url-status=live}}{{better source needed|date=January 2023}}

The European Union position is that any annexation of settlements should be done as part of mutually agreed land swaps, which would see the Palestinians controlling territory equivalent to the territory captured in 1967.{{cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=378&PID=1857&IID=6797|title=The European Union: Challenges for Israeli Diplomacy|publisher=Jewish Center for Public Affairs|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917192246/http://jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=378&PID=1857&IID=6797|archive-date=17 September 2011}} The EU says that it will not recognise any changes to the 1967 borders without an agreement between the parties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has proposed a plan which would see settlement blocs annexed to Israel in exchange for heavily Arab areas inside Israel as part of a population exchange.

According to Mitchell G. Bard: "Ultimately, Israel may decide to unilaterally disengage from the West Bank and determine which settlements it will incorporate within the borders it delineates. Israel would prefer, however, to negotiate a peace treaty with the Palestinians that would specify which Jewish communities will remain intact within the mutually agreed border of Israel, and which will need to be evacuated. Israel will undoubtedly insist that some or all of the "consensus" blocs become part of Israel".{{better source needed|date=January 2023}}

A number of proposals for the granting of Palestinian citizenship or residential permits to Jewish settlers in return for the removal of Israeli military installations from the West Bank have been fielded by such individuals{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014952.html|title=Let them stay in Palestine|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2016|archive-date=17 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117013813/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1014952.html}} as Arafat,{{cite web |url=http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/01/30/story2939.asp |title=Arafat may allow Jewish settlers to stay in West Bank |access-date=3 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040518071800/http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/01/30/story2939.asp |archive-date=18 May 2004 }} Ibrahim Sarsur{{cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/715018.html|title=Haaretz – Israel News – Haaretz.com|access-date=28 July 2016}} and Ahmed Qurei.{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5056912|title=PA: Settlers can become Palestinian citizens|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=24 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524045403/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5056912|url-status=live}} In contrast, Mahmoud Abbas said in July 2013 that "In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli—civilian or soldier—on our lands."{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Abbas-wants-not-a-single-Israeli-in-future-Palestinian-state-321470|title=Abbas: 'Not a single Israeli' in future Palestinian state|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=2013-07-30|access-date=2016-12-23|archive-date=3 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903004000/https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Abbas-wants-not-a-single-Israeli-in-future-Palestinian-state-321470|url-status=live}}

Israeli Minister Moshe Ya'alon said in April 2010 that "just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in Palestine." ... "If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?".Herb Keinon, [https://www.jpost.com/Israel/No-need-to-remove-any-settlements 'No need to remove any settlements'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412171721/https://www.jpost.com/Israel/No-need-to-remove-any-settlements |date=12 April 2019 }} Jerusalem Post, 16 April 2010

The idea has been expressed by both advocates of the two-state solution and supporters of the settlers and conservative or fundamentalist currents in Israeli Judaism that, while objecting to any withdrawal, claim stronger links to the land than to the State of Israel.

On 19 June 2011, Haaretz reported that the Israeli cabinet voted to revoke Defense Minister Ehud Barak's authority to veto new settlement construction in the West Bank, by transferring this authority from the Agriculture Ministry, headed by Barak ally Orit Noked, to the Prime Minister's office.{{cite web |last=Heruti |first=Tali |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/cabinet-votes-to-curtail-barak-s-power-to-veto-west-bank-settlement-construction-1.368517 |title=Cabinet Votes to Curtail Barak's Power to Veto West Bank Settlement Construction |work=Haaretz |date=2011-06-19 |access-date=2016-06-10 |archive-date=22 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622113655/http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/cabinet-votes-to-curtail-barak-s-power-to-veto-west-bank-settlement-construction-1.368517 |url-status=live }}

In 2009, newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I have no intention of building new settlements in the West Bank... But like all the governments there have been until now, I will have to meet the needs of natural growth in the population. I will not be able to choke the settlements."[https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians Netanyahu would let West Bank settlements expand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205101253/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians |date=5 February 2009 }}. By Mark Levie. Yahoo! News. Published 26 January 2009. On 15 October 2009, he said the settlement row with the United States had been resolved.{{Cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121965.html|title=Netanyahu: Israel and U.S. have resolved settlements row|access-date=19 October 2009|archive-date=20 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020112434/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121965.html|url-status=live}}

In April 2012, four illegal outposts were retroactively legalized by the Israeli government.Peace Now, 1 August 2012 [http://peacenow.org.il/eng/Nofei-Nehemia The Government Secretly Approved another Outpost: Nofei Nehemia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011230611/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/Nofei-Nehemia |date=11 October 2013 }} In June 2012, the Netanyahu government announced a plan to build 851 homes in five settlements: 300 units in Beit El and 551 units in other settlements.Peace Now, 11 June 2012, [http://peacenow.org.il/eng/851newhomes The Compensation Package for the Settlers: 851 Units to Undermine the Two States Solution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012044046/http://peacenow.org.il/eng/851newhomes |date=12 October 2013 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/20126711518558607.html|title=Israel to build more West Bank homes|date=7 June 2012|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=7 June 2012|archive-date=7 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607183410/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/20126711518558607.html|url-status=live}}

Amid peace negotiations that showed little signs of progress, Israel issued on 3 November 2013, tenders for 1,700 new homes for Jewish settlers. The plots were offered in nine settlements in areas Israel says it intends to keep in any peace deal with the Palestinians.[http://forward.com/articles/186796/israel-approves-construction-of--new-settlemen/ Israel Approves Construction of 1,700 New Settlement Homes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105033112/http://forward.com/articles/186796/israel-approves-construction-of--new-settlemen/ |date=5 November 2013 }}. Reuters, 3 November 2013 On 12 November, Peace Now revealed that the Construction and Housing Ministry had issued tenders for 24,000 more settler homes in the West Bank, including 4,000 in East Jerusalem.[http://forward.com/articles/187496/israel-plans--new-homes-for-jewish-settlers/#ixzz2kSmksaEr Israel Plans 24,000 New Homes for Jewish Settlers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203003408/http://forward.com/articles/187496/israel-plans--new-homes-for-jewish-settlers/#ixzz2kSmksaEr |date=3 December 2013 }}. Reuters, 12 November 2013 2,500 units were planned in Ma'aleh Adumim, some 9,000 in the Gush Etzion Region, and circa 12,000 in the Binyamin Region, including 1,200 homes in the E1 area in addition to 3,000 homes in previously frozen E1 projects.[http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-halts-E1-housing-tenders-amid-plans-for-24000-new-units-in-West-Bank-east-Jlem-331505 Netanyahu instructs housing minister to 'reconsider' plans for 24,000 units beyond Green Line] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131123132908/http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-halts-E1-housing-tenders-amid-plans-for-24000-new-units-in-West-Bank-east-Jlem-331505 |date=23 November 2013 }}. Jerusalem Post, 13 November 2013 Circa 15,000 homes of the 24,000 plan would be east of the West Bank Barrier and create the first new settlement blocs for two decades, and the first blocs ever outside the Barrier, far inside the West Bank.[http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Potential-West-Bank-housing-plans-would-create-first-settlement-blocs-outside-barrier-route-331695 Potential settlement plans would create first blocs outside barrier route] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131123132906/http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Potential-West-Bank-housing-plans-would-create-first-settlement-blocs-outside-barrier-route-331695 |date=23 November 2013 }}. Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, 14 November 2013

As stated before, the Israeli government (as of 2015) has a program of residential subsidies in which Israeli settlers receive about double that given to Israelis in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As well, settlers in isolated areas receive three times the Israeli national average. From the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2013, the Israeli settlement population as a whole increased by a rate of over 4% per year. A New York Times article in 2015 stated that said building had been "at the heart of mounting European criticism of Israel."

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 "Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council every three months on the implementation of the provisions of the present resolution;"{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/SRES2334-2016.pdf/|title=Resolution 2334 (2016) Adopted by the Security Council at its 7853rd meeting, on 23 December 2016|date=2016-12-16|website=UN|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=8 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190908101439/https://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/SRES2334-2016.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Noura Erakat|title=Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yozugEACAAJ|year=2019|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=252|isbn=978-0-8047-9825-9}}

In the first of these reports, delivered verbally at a security council meeting on 24 March 2017, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, noted that Resolution 2334 called on Israel to take steps to cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, that "no such steps have been taken during the reporting period" and that instead, there had been a marked increase in statements, announcements and decisions related to construction and expansion.{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc12765.doc.htm/|title=Israel Markedly Increased Settlement Construction, Decisions in Last Three Months, Middle East Special Coordinator Tells Security Council|date=2017-03-24|website=UN|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=21 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921112555/https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc12765.doc.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_pv_7908.pdf|title=Security Council Seventy-second year 7908th meeting Friday, 24 March 2017, 3 p.m. New York|date=2017-03-24|website=UN|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=2 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200502150437/https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_pv_7908.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author=Seada Hussein Adem|title=Palestine and the International Criminal Court|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1m2QDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA144|year=2019|publisher=Springer|page=144|isbn=978-94-6265-291-0}}

{{see also|Regulation Law|Israeli outpost}}

The 2017 Settlement Regularization in "Judea and Samaria" Law permits backdated legalization of outposts constructed on private Palestinian land. Following a petition challenging its legality, on June 9, 2020, Israel's Supreme Court struck down the law that had retroactively legalized about 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land.{{cite news|title=Israel's Supreme Court strikes down law legalising settlements on private Palestinian land|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-settlements/israels-top-court-strikes-down-law-legalising-settlements-on-private-palestinian-land-idUSKBN23G2MI|publisher=Reuters|date=June 9, 2020|access-date=June 10, 2020|archive-date=11 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611115455/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-settlements/israels-top-court-strikes-down-law-legalising-settlements-on-private-palestinian-land-idUSKBN23G2MI|url-status=live}} The Israeli Attorney General has stated that existing laws already allow legalization of Israeli constructions on private Palestinian land in the West Bank.{{cite web|url=https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/A_73_45717.pdf/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216104802/https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/A_73_45717.pdf|archive-date=16 February 2022|title=Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 Note by the Secretary-General|date=2018-10-22|website=reliefweb|access-date=2019-09-20}} The Israeli Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, has updated the High Court on his official approval of the use of a legal tactic permitting the de facto legalization of roughly 2,000 illegally built Israeli homes throughout the West Bank.{{efn|group=upper-alpha|The Regularization law, opposed by Mandelblit, would allow the state to expropriate private Palestinian land where some 4,000 illegal settler homes have been built, provided that they were established "in good faith" or had government support, and that the Palestinian owners receive 125 percent financial compensation for the land.}} The legal mechanism is known as "market regulation" and relies on the notion that wildcat Israeli homes built on private Palestinian land were done so in good faith.{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ag-urges-court-to-strike-regulation-law-given-new-ways-to-legalize-outposts//|title=AG urges court to strike Regulation Law, points to new ways to legalize outposts|date=2018-12-18|website=The Times of Israel|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=21 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921124456/https://www.timesofisrael.com/ag-urges-court-to-strike-regulation-law-given-new-ways-to-legalize-outposts//|url-status=live}}

In a report of 22 July 2019, PeaceNow notes that after a gap of 6 years when there were no new outposts, establishment of new outposts recommenced in 2012, with 32 of the current 126 outposts set up to date. 2 outposts were subject to eviction, 15 were legalized and at least 35 are in process of legalization.{{cite web|url=https://peacenow.org.il/en/return-of-the-outpost-method|title=Return of the Outpost Method 32 new unauthorized settlements under the Netanyahu government|date=2019-07-22|website=PeaceNow|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=10 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610014422/https://peacenow.org.il/en/return-of-the-outpost-method|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://972mag.com/outposts-peace-now-report/143492//|title=Resource: Tracking Israel's support for illegal outposts|date=2019-09-20|website=trocaire|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=22 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922121234/https://972mag.com/outposts-peace-now-report/143492//|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-at-least-16-israeli-unauthorized-west-bank-outposts-established-since-2017-1.7546752|title=At Least 16 Israeli Unauthorized West Bank Outposts Established Since 2017|date=2019-07-22|website=Haaretz|access-date=2019-09-20|archive-date=22 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922013837/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-at-least-16-israeli-unauthorized-west-bank-outposts-established-since-2017-1.7546752|url-status=live}}

The Israeli government announced in 2019 that it has made monetary grants available for the construction of hotels in Area C of the West Bank.{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-to-provide-grants-for-hotels-in-West-bank-settlements-588282|title=ISRAEL TO OFFER GRANTS TO BUILD HOTELS IN WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS|author=Tovah Lazaroff|date=30 April 2019|access-date=13 May 2019|archive-date=13 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513194432/https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-to-provide-grants-for-hotels-in-West-bank-settlements-588282|url-status=live}}

According to Peace Now, approvals for building in Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem expanded by 60% between 2017, when Donald Trump became US president, and 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.apnews.com/98e4ad57e0784e05b9fdde2e0ffd7439|title=New data shows Israeli settlement surge in east Jerusalem|date=2019-09-12|website=AP|access-date=2019-09-13|archive-date=13 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913182134/https://apnews.com/98e4ad57e0784e05b9fdde2e0ffd7439|url-status=live}}

On 9 July 2021, Michael Lynk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, addressing a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, said "I conclude that the Israeli settlements do amount to a war crime," and "I submit to you that this finding compels the international community...to make it clear to Israel that its illegal occupation, and its defiance of international law and international opinion, can and will no longer be cost-free." Israel, which does not recognize Lynk's mandate, boycotted the session.{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlements-amount-war-crime-un-rights-expert-2021-07-09/|title=Israeli settlements amount to war crime – U.N. rights expert|date=9 July 2021|website=Reuters|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709171223/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlements-amount-war-crime-un-rights-expert-2021-07-09/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-settlements-amount-to-war-crime-un-rights-official-says-1.9985923|title=Israeli settlements amount to war crime, UN rights official says|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709172519/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-settlements-amount-to-war-crime-un-rights-official-says-1.9985923|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27291&LangID=E|title=OHCHR | Occupied Palestinian Territory: Israeli settlements should be classified as war crimes, says UN expert|website=www.ohchr.org|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190001/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27291&LangID=E|url-status=live}}

A new Israeli government, formed on 13 June 2021, declared a "status quo" in the settlements policy. According to Peace Now, as of 28 October this has not been the case. On October 24, 2021, tenders were published for 1,355 housing units plus another 83 in Givat HaMatos and on 27 October 2021, approval was given for 3,000 housing units including in settlements deep inside the West Bank.{{cite web|url=https://peacenow.org.il/en/a-government-of-change-for-the-worse|title=A Government of Change (for the worse)|date=28 October 2021|website=Peace Now|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=3 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103131818/https://peacenow.org.il/en/a-government-of-change-for-the-worse|url-status=live}} These developments were condemned by the U.S.{{Cite news|url = https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-u-s-gives-harshest-public-rebuke-yet-on-israeli-settlement-plans-1.10328186|title = U.S. Gives Harshest Public Rebuke Yet on Israeli Settlement Plans|newspaper = Haaretz|access-date = 4 November 2021|archive-date = 26 October 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211026194912/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-u-s-gives-harshest-public-rebuke-yet-on-israeli-settlement-plans-1.10328186|url-status = live}} as well as by the United Kingdom, Russia and 12 European countries.{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/british-minister-condemns-israeli-west-bank-housing-plan-683354|title=Russia, UK, top EU nations issue rebuke on settlement plans|website=The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com|date=28 October 2021|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104185010/https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/british-minister-condemns-israeli-west-bank-housing-plan-683354|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/statement-by-eu-spokesperson-on-further-settlement-expansion-non-un-document/|title=Statement by EU Spokesperson on Further Settlement Expansion (Non-UN Document)|first=Christopher|last=Heaney|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104190513/https://www.un.org/unispal/document/statement-by-eu-spokesperson-on-further-settlement-expansion-non-un-document/|url-status=live}} while UN experts, Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 and Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal (United States of America), UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing said that settlement expansion should be treated as a "presumptive war crime".{{cite web|url = https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/israel-settlement-expansion-should-be-treated-war-crime|title = Israel settlement expansion should be treated as 'presumptive war crime': UN experts| work=The New Arab |date = 4 November 2021|access-date = 4 November 2021|archive-date = 4 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211104185011/https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/israel-settlement-expansion-should-be-treated-war-crime|url-status = live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27758&LangID=E|title=OHCHR | UN experts say Israeli settlement expansion 'tramples' on human rights law|website=www.ohchr.org|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104185012/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27758&LangID=E|url-status=live}}

In February 2023, the new Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu approved the legalization of nine illegal settler outposts in the West Bank.{{cite news |title=U.S. Announced Israeli Settlement Freeze, Netanyahu Rushed to Deny It |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-27/ty-article/.premium/u-s-announced-israeli-settlement-freeze-netanyahu-rushed-to-deny-it/00000186-926e-d064-afde-f7fed8d50000 |work=Haaretz |date=27 February 2023 |access-date=7 October 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180951/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-02-27/ty-article/.premium/u-s-announced-israeli-settlement-freeze-netanyahu-rushed-to-deny-it/00000186-926e-d064-afde-f7fed8d50000 |url-status=live }} Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took charge of most of the Civil Administration, obtaining broad authority over civilian issues in the West Bank.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-handed-sweeping-powers-over-west-bank-control-over-settlement-planning/|title=Smotrich handed sweeping powers over West Bank, control over settlement planning|first=Jeremy|last=Sharon|work=The Times of Israel|date=23 February 2023|access-date=7 October 2023|archive-date=5 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231105011524/https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-handed-sweeping-powers-over-west-bank-control-over-settlement-planning/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/former-us-ambassador-accuses-israel-creeping-annexation-west-bank-israel-palestinians|title=Former US ambassador accuses Israel of 'creeping annexation' of the West Bank|first=Chris|last=McGreal|date=24 February 2023|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=7 October 2023|archive-date=24 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224143609/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/former-us-ambassador-accuses-israel-creeping-annexation-west-bank-israel-palestinians|url-status=live}} In March 2023, Netanyahu's government repealed a 2005 law whereby four Israeli settlements, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim, were dismantled as part of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-21/ty-article/.premium/u-s-denounces-provocative-settlement-law-slams-smotrichs-comments-on-palestinians/00000187-0570-dde5-ab8f-277c93490000|title=U.S. Denounces 'Provocative' Settlement Law, Slams Smotrich's 'Dangerous' Comments on Palestinians|newspaper=Haaretz|access-date=7 October 2023|archive-date=8 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230508074448/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-21/ty-article/.premium/u-s-denounces-provocative-settlement-law-slams-smotrichs-comments-on-palestinians/00000187-0570-dde5-ab8f-277c93490000|url-status=live}} In June 2023, Israel shortened the procedure of approving settlement construction and gave Finance Minister Smotrich the authority to approve one of the stages, changing the system operating for the last 27 years.{{cite news |title=Israeli government takes major step toward West Bank annexation |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/20/israeli-government-takes-major-step-toward-west-bank-annexation_6034532_4.html |work=Le Monde |date=21 June 2023 |access-date=7 October 2023 |archive-date=8 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008061731/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/20/israeli-government-takes-major-step-toward-west-bank-annexation_6034532_4.html |url-status=live }} In its first six months, construction of 13,000 housing units in settlements, almost triple the amount advanced in the whole of 2022.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-hands-smotrich-full-authority-to-expand-existing-settlements/|title=Netanyahu hands Smotrich full authority to expand existing settlements|first=Jeremy|last=Sharon|website=www.timesofisrael.com|date=18 June 2023|access-date=7 October 2023|archive-date=13 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113063154/https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-hands-smotrich-full-authority-to-expand-existing-settlements/|url-status=live}}

{{portal|Israel}}

• Israeli settlement timeline
• Jewish land purchase in Palestine
• List of Israeli settlements
• Neo-Zionism
• Palestinian Land Law
• Population statistics for Israeli West Bank settlements
• Proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank
• State of Judea
• Development town
• Unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel
• Kibbutz

{{notelist}}

{| style="margin-left:13px; line-height:150%;"

|-

|style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"|i.  

|{{note|desc}}Statistics for the West Bank ("Judea and Samaria") from the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2013 No. 64.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140225064037/http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton64/download/st02_16x.xls 2.16 Localities and Population, by District, Sub-District, Religion and Population Group]
• Total population = 341,400 in 123 "Jewish localities"
• Jews = 334,200 in 123 "Jewish localities"
• Arabs = 0 in 0 "Non-Jewish localities"

|}

{{reflist|group=upper-alpha}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book

| title = The ABC of the OPT: A Legal Lexicon of the Israeli Control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory

| last1 = Ben-Naftali

| first1 = Orna

| last2 = Sfard

| first2 = Michael

| last3 = Viterbo

| first3 = Hedi

| author2-link = Michael Sfard

| year = 2018

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Is5TDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52

| isbn = 978-1-107-15652-4

| access-date = 15 October 2018

| archive-date = 3 March 2023

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230303182234/https://books.google.com/books?id=Is5TDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52

| url-status = live

}}

• [https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2009/aug/24/israel-settlements-west-bank Israeli Settlements interactive map and Israeli land use] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314111837/http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2009/aug/24/israel-settlements-west-bank |date=14 March 2016 }} from The Guardian
• [http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/israeli-settlements Israeli Settlements] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306042033/http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/israeli-settlements |date=6 March 2016 }}. Bloomberg News
• [http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/0915/p12s01-wome.html Israeli settlements: Where, when, and why they're built] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327151112/http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/0915/p12s01-wome.html |date=27 March 2010 }}, Ilene R. Prusher, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 September 2009
• [http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5 Text of the Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623165144/https://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5 |date=23 June 2016 }} from icrc.org
• [http://www.reliefweb.int/rwarchive/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EVIU-69HJYR?OpenDocument The legal status of Israeli settlements under IHL (International Humanitarian Law)], Reuters ReliefWeb, 31 January 2004
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326021132/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/TheHumanitarianImpactOfIsraeliInfrastructureTheWestBank_full.pdf The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and Other Infrastructure in the West Bank] from UN OCHA, Palestinian territories
• [http://yesha.n3.net/ Israeli Communities in Yesha & Jordan Valley] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422102549/http://yesha.n3.net/ |date=22 April 2016 }}
• [http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/48475,in-pictures,news-in-pictures,in-pictures-the-illegal-israeli-settlements-palestine-territories-occupied-middle-east The Illegal Settlements] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218143243/http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/48475,in-pictures,news-in-pictures,in-pictures-the-illegal-israeli-settlements-palestine-territories-occupied-middle-east |date=18 February 2011 }}—slideshow by The First Post
• {{Cite book|last=Barahona, Ana|title=Bearing witness: eight weeks in Palestine|year=2015|publisher=Unknown Publisher |isbn=978-1-908099-02-0|oclc=900064194}}

;Viewpoints and commentary

• [http://www.poica.org/ Monitoring Israeli Colonization Activities in the Palestinian Territory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308175647/http://poica.org/ |date=8 March 2022 }}, The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem
• [http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/ Land Expropriation and Settlements] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221011452/http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/ |date=21 February 2006 }} from B'tselem
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160526132727/http://www.cartercenter.org/countries/israel_and_the_palestinian_territories.html Israel and The Palestinian Territories], The Carter Center
• [https://archive.today/20120804195332/http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/settlements.html Israeli Confiscation and Settlement on Palestinian Land] from If Americans Knew
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100627185838/http://peacenow.org/apn-positions/settlements.html Settlements] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100405022325/http://peacenow.org/apn-positions/settlements-and-us-policy.html Settlements and U.S. Policy], Americans for Peace Now
• Bregman, Ahron, Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090609181648/http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/pubs/19990804ib.html "The Wye River Memorandum and Israeli Settlements"], Geoffrey Aronson, The Jerusalem Fund, 4 August 1999
• [http://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc137.html For Israel, Land or Peace] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615185838/http://cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc137.html |date=15 June 2010 }} Jimmy Carter, The Carter Center, 26 November 2000
• [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=36&x_article=259 Backgrounder: Jewish settlements and the Media] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210073503/http://camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=36&x_article=259 |date=10 February 2006 }} from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, 5 October 2001
• [http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm From "occupied territories" to "disputed territories"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709034305/http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp470.htm |date=9 July 2011 }}, Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 16 January 2002
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080916054748/http://www.beki.org/landlaw.html Ottoman Land Registration Law as a Contributing Factor in the Israeli-Arab Conflict] by Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen, 2003
• [http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm Diplomatic and Legal Aspects of the Settlement Issue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614213710/http://jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm |date=14 June 2006 }} from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 19 January 2003
• [http://www.think-israel.org/meir-levi.settlements.html Occupation and Settlement: The Myth and Reality] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101191911/http://www.think-israel.org/meir-levi.settlements.html |date=1 January 2007 }}, David Meir-Levi, Think-Israel.org, 24 June 2005
• [http://www.forward.com/articles/7261 "At Israeli Outpost, Showdown Looms for Settlers, Government"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206042338/http://www.forward.com/articles/7261 |date=6 February 2006 }} Gershom Gorenberg, Jewish Daily Forward, 27 January 2006
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6168752.stm Settlements 'violate Israeli law'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218053350/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6168752.stm |date=18 February 2007 }}, BBC News, 21 November 2006
• [http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=10&x_article=1331 Backgrounder: The debate about settlements] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820212323/http://camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=10&x_article=1331 |date=20 August 2007 }} from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, 13 June 2007
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/opinion/israels-settlers-are-here-to-stay.html "Israel's Settlers Are Here to Stay"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308061819/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/opinion/israels-settlers-are-here-to-stay.html |date=8 March 2017 }} op-ed by Dani Dayan in The New York Times 25 July 2012

{{Commons category|Israeli settlements in occupied territories}}

• [https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-adv-01-00-en.pdf Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem], advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, 19 July 2024
• [https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2019-03/Think%20Twice%20report.pdf?BrN9N0VX3RkzTJROuKYC46LE43hCPtTu= 2019 amnesty 2019 Think Twice: Can companies do business with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories while respecting human rights?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224164512/https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2019-03/Think%20Twice%20report.pdf?BrN9N0VX3RkzTJROuKYC46LE43hCPtTu= |date=24 February 2020 }}
• [https://unsco.unmissions.org/security-council-briefings-0 UNSC 2334 quarterly reports] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191119125748/https://unsco.unmissions.org/security-council-briefings-0 |date=19 November 2019 }}

{{Zionism and the Land of Israel}}

{{Zionism}}

{{Israeli-occupied territories|state=expanded}}

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Category:Israeli–Palestinian conflict