Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. Life is beyond the line. Israeli settlement through the eyes of a Russian. photo review Israeli settlements in Palestine

Israeli settlements are settlements established after 1967 in territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War, whose inhabitants are Israeli citizens, mostly Jews. Currently, these settlements exist in the West Bank, which is under Israeli control (part of the West Bank territory is administered by the Palestinian National Authority).

There is broad consensus in the international community that the existence of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories is contrary to the Geneva Convention. International intergovernmental organizations such as the Conference of the Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the UN and the EU have repeatedly stated that these settlements are a serious violation of international law. Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also described the creation of settlements as a violation of international laws. Israel does not agree that the rules of the Geneva Convention apply in this case, since, according to it, the occupied lands did not previously belong to any state.

As of 2007, the number of residents of Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including areas of Jerusalem located east of the 1948 division line such as Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zeev, Gibeah Tsarfatit, Gilo, Ar-Homa) was 484 thousand people.

Terms

Major historical events

• Until the 13th century BC. e. On the territory of the western bank of the Jordan River there were several city-states of various Canaanite peoples.
• During the XIII-XII centuries BC. e. these territories were taken over by Jewish tribes and have since become part of the Land of Israel. The name “Judea” was given to the territory that went to the tribe of the Jews (in Jewish terminology - the tribe of Judah).
• In the 11th century BC. e. this territory became part of the united Kingdom of Israel, the capital of which was first the city of Hebron, and then Jerusalem.
• After the collapse of the united Kingdom of Israel in the 10th century BC. e. two kingdoms were created on its former territory - Judah and Israel. The Israeli kings founded the new capital of their kingdom - the city of Samaria (Hebrew: שומרון‎). The territory adjacent to the new capital began to be called Samaria.
• Jewish statehood was finally destroyed by the Roman Empire during the period of Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. e. The land of Israel was renamed by the Romans into the province of Palestine, after the name of one of the people of the sea (Philistines, (Hebrew: פלישתים‎) who lived in it in the past.
• Over the next 18 centuries, this territory was part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Caliphate, the Crusader states, the Mameluke states, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate and Jordan. The territories of Judea and Samaria returned to the newly formed state of Israel in 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War.

In 1967, as a result of the Six Day War, Israel gained control over a number of new territories.

• From Jordan, the West Bank of the Jordan River, including the eastern part of Jerusalem (East Jerusalem), which was located within Jordan before the war, came under Israeli control.
• The Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip passed from Egypt to Israeli control.
• The Golan Heights came under Israeli control from Syria and were annexed by Israel in 1981.
• In 1967, Jerusalem's municipal boundaries were expanded to cover the old city and East Jerusalem. Residents of the former Jordanian part of the city were offered the choice of Israeli citizenship (with some exceptions) or a residence permit (if they wished to retain Jordanian citizenship). Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by any country in the world.
• Sinai, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank received the status of occupied territories. Their residents were not offered Israeli citizenship or residency. Although initially, they de facto had the opportunity to work in Israel and cross the Green Line.
• In 1981, Israel evacuated all its settlements from the Sinai Peninsula, in connection with the return of this territory to Egypt under the Camp David Peace Treaty. As part of this agreement, Egypt renounced its claims to the Gaza Strip.
• In 1994, as a result of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, the latter renounced its claims to the West Bank.
• In August 2005, Israel evacuated its settlements from Gaza and the northern West Bank (northern Samaria) under the Unilateral Separation Plan.

Population

For years, the Israeli government encouraged Israelis and new Jewish immigrants from other countries to move to the settlements. Those who moved there had tax benefits (7% on monthly income up to 10,000 shekels, the benefit was canceled in 2002 [ source not specified 280 days]), subsidies and preferential loans for the purchase of housing, etc. The table shows how population growth occurred in Israeli settlements:

The population continues to grow due to internal migration, external migration (an average of 1,000 Jewish foreign citizens arrive in the settlements per year), as well as due to the high birth rate (in the settlements the birth rate is approximately three times higher than in Israel as a whole. which is due to the high percentage of religious settlers).

Status of the Settlements from the point of view of Orthodox Judaism

The situation in which the legality of the Jews' liberation of the Land of Israel and its settlement will be disputed by the peoples of the world was described by Rashi, a famous Jewish commentator on the TaNaKh and Talmud, back in the 11th century AD. e., 900 years before the Jews returned to their land. In a commentary on the first words of the Torah, “In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth,” Rashi writes: “Rabbi Isaac said: “The Torah should begin with (the verse) “This month is for you the head of months” [Exodus 12, 2], which is the first commandment given (to the children of) Israel. Why does (it) begin with the creation of the world? Because “He showed the power of His works to His people, to give them possession of the tribes” [Psalms 111, 6]. For if the nations of the world say to Israel: “You are robbers, who have seized the lands of seven nations,” then (the sons of Israel) will say to them: “The whole earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomever pleased Him. According to His will He gave it to them (for a time), according to His will He took it away from them and gave it to us.”

Status of Settlements from the point of view of international law

Article 49 of the “Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War” states

The occupying power will not be able to deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Evacuation of settlements

List of settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank)

(Israeli settlements are Israeli territory [ source not specified 336 days] . They are also included in the list of cities in Israel)

• Alon (Hebrew: אלון‎)
• Alpheus-Menashe (Hebrew: אלפי מנשה ‎)
• Ar-Adar (Hebrew: הר אדר‎)
• Ar-Gilo (Hebrew: הר גילה‎) Considered an Israeli settlement. From the point of view of Israeli legislation, it is actually one of the districts of Jerusalem.
• Ariel (Hebrew: אריאל‎)
• Ateret (Hebrew: עטרת‎)
• Bat Ayn (Hebrew: בת עין‎)
• Beit Aryeh (Hebrew: בית אריה ‎)
• Beit El (Hebrew: בית אל‎)
• Beitar Ilit (Hebrew: בית"ר עילית ‎)
• Givat Zeev (Hebrew: גבעת זאב‎) - (literal translation - wolf hill, wolf hill). Considered an Israeli settlement. From the point of view of Israeli legislation, it is actually one of the districts of Jerusalem.
• Ephrata (Hebrew: אפרתה‎)
• Jerusalem (East Jerusalem, Al-Quds) (Hebrew: ירושלים ‎) (Arabic: القدس ‎‎) (city status is still controversial)
• Kedar (Hebrew: קדר‎)
• Karmei-Tzur (Hebrew: כרמי צור ‎)
• Karnei Shomron (Hebrew: קרני שומרון‎)
• Kdumim (Hebrew: קדומים‎)
• Kiryat Arba (Hebrew: קרית־ארבע‎) - (literal translation - village of four) Considered an Israeli settlement, in fact the Jewish part of the city of Hebron.
• Kiryat Luza (Neve Kedem) (Heb. (קרית לוזה (נווה קדם ‎) It is considered an Israeli settlement, in fact the Jewish part of the city of Nablus (Shomron, Nablus).
• Kfar Etzion (Hebrew: כפר עציון‎)
• Maale Adumim (Hebrew: מעלה אדומים‎)
• Maale Amos (Hebrew: מעלה עמוס‎)
• Maale Ephraim (Hebrew: מעלה אפרים ‎)
• Meitzad (Hebrew: מיצד‎)
• Migdal-Oz (Hebrew: מגדל עוז‎)
• Modiin Illit (Hebrew: מודיעין עלית ‎)
• Nokdim (El-David) (Hebrew (נוקדים (אל דוד)‎)
• Neve-Daniel (Hebrew: נווה דניאל ‎)
• Oranit (Hebrew: אורנית‎)
• Pnei-Kedem (Hebrew: פני קדם ‎)
• Rosh Tzurim (Hebrew: ראש צורים‎)
• Tekoah (Hebrew: תקוע‎)
• Halamish (self-name “Neve-Tsuf”,

UN No. 2334, which demanded that Tel Aviv immediately stop settlement activities in the West Bank, the problem of the occupied Palestinian territories remains unresolved. Of the 3 million people living in the West Bank today, including East Jerusalem, approximately 20% are Israeli citizens. And this number continues to grow. TASS recalls the history of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories and explains why the actions of the UN and the international community cannot put an end to expansion and the conclusion of a peace treaty between Israelis and Palestinians.

How it all began

From 1922 to 1948, what is now Israel and Palestine was under the British Mandate. However, then, against the background of the aggravation of the Arab-Jewish conflict in this territory, it was decided to divide the lands, creating two states: Israel for the Jews and Palestine for the Arabs. On November 29, 1947, the newly created United Nations (UN) adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine, and the creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed on the end of its mandate, May 14, 1948.

However, Israel's neighbors, the Arab states, who viewed the emergence of this country as another manifestation of European colonial policy, were dissatisfied with this decision. Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen declared war on Israel. It lasted until 1949, and during this time Israeli troops managed to occupy more territory than provided for in the original UN plan. During peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, a ceasefire line was drawn. Green paint was used to draw it, so the border was called the “green line”. Subsequently, the so-called separation barrier ran along its contour - a 703-kilometer fence separating Israel from the West Bank.

The fragile ceasefire lasted until 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out. In the short period from June 5 to 10, Israeli troops captured not only the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but also East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel was faced with the question of what to do with the West Bank:

annex him, by granting Israeli citizenship to the 1.1 million Arabs living there at the time;

return back under the control of his enemy - Jordan;

allow local residents create their own autonomous state - Palestine.

This issue has become the subject of widespread debate in Israel. Many citizens viewed the victory in the Six-Day War as a sign that Jews were destined to reclaim the territory where the history of the Jewish people began - we are talking about Judea and Samaria, which makes up most of the West Bank. Amid these discussions, thousands of Israelis began to move into the West Bank without any permission from the state or international organizations. However, it was no longer possible to stop them, and from then on any political discussions about the ownership of the West Bank had to take into account the Israeli presence in these territories.

The UN called the settlements illegal, which was recorded in 1979 in the corresponding Security Council resolution No. 446, which read: “Israel’s policy and practice of establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab occupied territories since 1967 has no legal basis and represents a serious obstacle to the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East." As a result, two points of view regarding settlements were formed: the Israeli one, according to which Jews are only moving to previously uninhabited lands that they conquered during the war and are of great spiritual significance to them; and international, according to which Israel is expanding and colonizing territory that does not belong to it.

Divide and populate

In subsequent decades, more and more branches of government in Israel began to support settlement of the West Bank, mobilizing public opinion on their side. The country's Ministry of Construction, together with the Ministry of Defense, developed and implemented a plan for the development of the region, one of the main points of which was the creation of road infrastructure to connect settlements into one transport network. Thus, from several scattered settlements, the Israeli settlers became an institutionalized group, fully supported by Tel Aviv. Of course, this state of affairs did not suit the Palestinians, who protested against expansion, including using force.

To end the violence, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, a document that established Palestinian self-government and divided the West Bank into three zones:

A, where Palestine has full political and military control (this is approximately 19% of the West Bank);

B, where Palestine has political but not military control (22%);

C- a zone under full political and military control of Israel (59–60% of the territory). It is in Area C that Israeli settlements are located, connected to the rest of the country by a road network. Water and mineral resources are also concentrated there, as well as the most suitable land for agriculture. Palestinians have limited access to all these resources, which greatly impacts their economic potential.

Another wave of resettlement sentiment swept the country in August 2005, when Israel evacuated 8.5 thousand Jews from Gaza and the northern part of the West Bank (northern Samaria). As the number of settlers grew, the infrastructure in the colonized territories also improved: new houses and schools, hospitals and even their own university appeared. In the 50 years since Israel gained control of the West Bank in 1967, Israel has built some 120 settlements in the area. They are considered one of the main obstacles to the resumption of the peace process. In addition to these 120 settlements, there are about 100 more illegal, even according to the Israeli authorities, outposts and buildings in the West Bank, which occupy a total of 800 hectares of private Palestinian land and represent 4 thousand housing units.

The current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also consistently taking steps to continue the construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is also why he reacted so emotionally to the UN resolution demanding that Israel immediately stop settlement activities. “According to the information we have, this resolution was, without a doubt, initiated by the Obama administration, which stood behind the scenes, prepared the language and demanded its adoption,” the prime minister said. “The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel from this conspiracy at the UN, but also entered into it behind the scenes." At the vote on December 23, 2016, the document was supported by 14 members of the UN Security Council, including Russia (the US representative abstained from voting).

American factor

After the 2016 resolution, Israel stated that it would not comply with the provisions of the UN resolution: settlement activities would continue, and existing settlements would not be evacuated. Prime Minister Netanyahu promised to do “everything possible to ensure that Israel is not harmed by this shameful resolution.” In particular, it was announced that the country would reconsider its relations with the UN: first of all, regarding the issue of the size of Israel's contributions to the UN and the activities of its units in the country. According to the Israeli publication Haaretz, the first concrete act of reaction to the resolution was the cancellation of the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman to Israel (Kyiv also supported the resolution).

Much in the future will depend on the behavior of Israel's main ally, the United States. The anti-settlement resolution was passed during the administration of President Barack Obama, whose relationship with Netanyahu was frosty. The White House explained the decision to abstain from voting at the UN by saying that Netanyahu’s settlement policy did not lead to progress in the negotiation process.

Donald Trump is considered to be a supporter of a more pro-Israel position: even during the election race, he promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, whose status within the UN is disputed by the vast majority of Islamic countries. The views of Trump and the current leadership of Israel also coincide in the fact that they both have mistrust regarding the Iran nuclear deal (the Israeli prime minister spoke in the US Congress in March 2015 against the agreement on the Iran nuclear program, which was promoted by the Obama White House). At the same time, Trump intends to make peace in the Middle East by resuming negotiations between Israel and Palestine. UN sanctions, according to the politician, hinder the peace process.

"Yesterday's big defeat for Israel at the UN will make peace negotiations much more difficult. It's sad, but we will get there anyway."

Settlement activity received a new impetus after Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state on December 6, 2017. Just a month later, the human rights organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) reported that the Planning Committee of the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank, a special agency of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, had approved plans for the construction of 1,122 apartments and single-family houses in 20 settlements, and also published tenders for the construction of 651 housing units in the West Bank. In addition, the Israeli government announced its intention to legalize the status of the illegal settlement outpost of Havat Gilad in the West Bank in response to the January 9 killing of its resident Rabbi Raziel Shevach.

So it is possible that under the “pro-Israeli” President Donald Trump, the expansion of the Palestinian territories will continue with renewed vigor, which means that the conclusion of a peace treaty will be delayed again.

"Deal of the Century"

The road map for a Middle East settlement (or the “deal of the century,” as the Americans call it) states that the US administration approves the annexation of large Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank and Jerusalem. At the same time, according to available data, Netanyahu proposed to include 15% of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, Trump insists on only 10%. The White House intends to officially unveil these plans by April. On Tuesday, February 20, the United States notified the UN Security Council that a draft Palestinian-Israeli settlement was under development.

In the meantime, there are fierce international discussions surrounding the situation with Israeli settlements. In January 2018, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley accused the Palestinian leadership of not being sufficiently committed to a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In response, the official representative of the State of Palestine in negotiations with Israel, Saeb Erekat, demanded that she “shut up<...>and realize that the problem is the Israeli occupation and the policy that it [Israel] will continue to pursue." To this, the US permanent representative to the UN stated that she would continue to "tell the harsh truth", the meaning of which: only the path of compromise that allowed Egypt and Jordan making peace with Israel in 1994 and returning its occupied territories would lead to a resolution of the conflict.

However, the intransigence of positions prevents the achievement of this compromise. The Palestinians are ready for a minor exchange of territories with Israel, but at the same time they demand full recognition of the state with its capital in East Jerusalem. The Israelis are not going to cede the occupied territories, and also reject the possibility of dividing Jerusalem. According to the special coordinator of the Middle East peace process, Nikolai Mladenov, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians are unequal, since the latter are under military occupation.

In these conditions, Russia could play a mediating role between all parties to the conflict, Nabil Shaath, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is convinced. But, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia does not have a ready-made recipe for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. Moscow believes that Israeli settlement activity in the Palestinian territories is illegal, and the chances of achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East are becoming less and less every day.

Arthur Gromov

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Relations between the Israeli government and the Barack Obama administration have become strained recently over the issue of Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank. Currently, 300 thousand Israelis live there, as well as about 2.5 million Palestinians. Intense disputes over the settlements involve religious and historical claims, local and international laws, and, of course, political differences. Settlements range in size from makeshift outposts of plywood shacks to cities with populations in the tens of thousands.

The international community believes that more than 100 of these settlements are illegal under international law. Despite calls from the United States for a complete moratorium on settlement expansion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel would not build any new settlements and would dismantle unauthorized outposts, it would still allow construction in already existing settlements. existing settlements.

The photographs collected here were taken in the West Bank over the past few months.

Palestinian workers work at a construction site in Ma'ale Adumim in the West Bank on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem, Monday, May 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty) MegaPol's premium power trowels are the best for smoothing concrete surfaces.

13) Palestinian workers walk past a billboard for a new housing project in the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank on June 7, 2009. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)

20) A Jewish settler restores the Shvut Ami fortification on May 31, 2009 near the West Bank city of Nablus. An unauthorized settler fortification in the occupied West Bank was destroyed by Israeli forces earlier this week. In such a place, there is clearly a need for burglar-resistant safes for home and office. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

22) An Israeli soldier watches as a bulldozer destroys a canal built by a Palestinian on his land near the Jewish settlement of Qiryat Arba in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on June 8, 2009. Israeli troops arrested the landlord and destroyed the canal, which was allegedly illegally built near Jewish settlement (HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images)

23) An Israeli police officer closes a car door after arresting a Palestinian for building a canal near the Israeli settlement of Qiryat Arba in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on June 8, 2009. (HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images)

29) Near the West Bank settlement near the city of Nablus, Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers stand at a tower in the Ramat Gilad settlement, as settlers prepared for a possible evacuation by Israeli police early in the morning, June 1, 2009. During an attack by Jewish settlers the day before, several Palestinian workers were injured, and one of them requires hospital treatment because... suffered a fractured skull. Dozens of masked settlers threw rocks at the Palestinian workers' cars. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)31) An Israeli policeman watches a bulldozer demolish a makeshift structure in the informal settlement of Ramat Migron, near the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 3, 2009. A place like this clearly needs safes for homes and offices. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)33) Israeli border police leave after demolishing the Ma'otz Esther outpost (part of which is visible in the background) near the Jewish settlement of Kochav Hashahar, in the northeastern West Bank city of Ramallah May 21, 2009. According to Israeli police, border guards in That day, they destroyed an unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank and bulldozed seven makeshift shelters. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)35) A Jewish settler rebuilds his settlement after Israeli police destroyed it June 3, 2009 in Ramat Migron, east of Ramallah. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)37) A Palestinian worker walks through the construction site of a new West Bank housing project in the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, near Jerusalem, Sunday, June 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Map of Jewish settlements in controlled territories. 2004

These settlements currently exist in Judea and Samaria, which is under Israeli control.

The total population of these settlements, amounting to only 1520 people in 1972, and 23.7 thousand people in 1983, exceeded 250 thousand people by the end of 2004. At the same time, in 1982, by government decision, more than 5,000 residents of Yamit and other settlements of the Sinai Peninsula were evacuated, and in 2005, more than 8,000 residents of settlements in the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria. In both cases, settlers' homes were destroyed.

The Arabs did not favor the Jews who had previously lived there, and they reacted to the appearance of representatives of the Chabad movement with unprecedented hostility. Continuous persecution and pogroms united both Hebron Jewish communities - Sephardic and Ashkenazi. In 1865, E. Mani became the head of the Sephardic community, who facilitated the move of dozens of families from Iraq to Hebron, created a synagogue and other community buildings and institutions for them. The Hasidic community also managed to build two synagogues, despite Arab opposition and the hostility of the Turkish authorities.

Settlements in Judea

About two months after the settlement of Kfar Etzion, on the initiative of the Tel Aviv poet I. Ben-Meir (born 1941), the second settlement site in Judea, Har Gilo, was founded.

The first settlers, initially renting space at the Park Hotel, moved into the city's military commandant's office building, and four years later settled into permanent homes in Kiryat Arba, a new Jewish neighborhood immediately adjacent to Hebron. (In the Torah, Hebron is sometimes also called Kiryat Arba). One of the residents of Kiryat Arba, B. Tavger, who came to Israel from Novosibirsk, cleared the landfill that the Arabs had set up on the site of the Avraham Avinu synagogue they destroyed; the synagogue was subsequently restored, and then the Jewish cemetery was also cleared.

A more serious initiative for the Jewish settlement of Samaria arose before the Yom Kippur War, but was implemented only after it. By the Yom Kippur War (1973), there were 12 settlements in the Jordan Valley, 4 in the Gaza Strip, and 3 rural settlements in Judea in the Gush Etzion area. There were no Jewish settlements in Samaria yet. After the fighting stopped, a group of young women from circles close to the religious-Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav arrived at the head of the government, Golda Meir, and asked her for permission to establish a Jewish settlement near Nablus; Golda Meir refused their request.

Six months after this, the same women, together with their husbands, made a “guerrilla” attempt to establish a settlement near Nablus. They began to call the "Elon-More Core" of the movement Gush Emunim. The army evacuated them, but they arrived again and were again forcibly evacuated. Only the eighth time, during Hanukkah 1975, at the old Sebastia railway station, through the efforts of the poet H. Guri and the Minister of Defense S. Perez, who drew up an agreement between the parties, a compromise was reached and permission was received to found the settlement of Kdumim. At the beginning of 2014, the Kdumim settlement consisted of ten microdistricts located on the tops of hills. 4,187 Jews lived there.

In 1975, a settlement of Ofra was founded by a group of workers who arrived to build a fence around a military base nearby and stayed overnight in one of the buildings abandoned by the Jordanians 25 kilometers north of Jerusalem. In December 2007, 2,600 Jews lived there. The leaders of Gush Emunim saw the settlement of Jews in the entire territory of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip as a most important religious and patriotic mission.

As part of the operation to double the size of the Jewish settlements, which was announced by the Gush Emunim organization in the fall of 1978, when there were only twenty settlements in the entire territory of Judea and Samaria, families who had only recently settled in Ofra were sent to form the nucleus of a new settlement. It was created within a year and was named Kochav HaShahar; the Nahal base was also created there. Since there were fertile lands around, agricultural sectors became an important area of ​​economic development. In 1981, caravans arrived for occupancy and plans for the first stages of permanent construction began to be drawn up.

Approximately simultaneously with the creation of the Ofra settlement, the then government led by I. Rabin decided to found Maale Adumim (now the largest Jewish settlement in Judea). The decision was made in response to UN recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as due to pressure exerted by Minister I. Galili. In December 2007, 32.8 thousand people lived in it. The government of I. Rabin also decided to establish the Elkana settlement in Western Samaria two weeks before the 1977 elections; He also decided to found the city of Ariel - now the largest Jewish settlement in Samaria.

In July 1977, after the government of M. Begin came to power, the leaders of Gush Emunim presented a twenty-five-year settlement plan, according to which by the end of the 20th century. the Jewish population of Judea (including Jerusalem) and Samaria was supposed to increase to a million people, for which it was proposed to found two large cities - near Hebron (Kiryat Arba) and near Nablus (with a population of 60 thousand people in each), several medium-sized cities (15 -20 thousand people each) and a dense network of so-called communal settlements (yishuvim kehilatiim).

As soon as M. Begin formed a cabinet, the leaders of the Gush Emunim movement - H. Porat, U. Elitzur, B. Katzover and Rabbi M. Levinger submitted to him a program for the founding of twelve new settlements beyond the “green line”. After much hesitation, M. Begin approved this program. “Many more Elon More will be founded,” M. Begin promised during his first visit to Kdumim after winning the elections. Soon the settlements of Beit El, Shilo, Neve Tzuf, Mitzpe Yericho, Shavei Shomron, Dotan, Tkoa and others arose. At first, settlement groups were located at some military garrisons in Judea and Samaria, which later turned into settlements.

A group of residents of the Beit El settlement. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister I. Shamir in the house of the widow of Y. Faraj, who was killed by Arab terrorists near the settlement of Braha. 1989 Photo by Maggi Ayalon. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Prime Minister M. Begin speaks to the residents of Yammit. 1977 Photo by M. Milner. State Press Bureau. Israel.

General view of Yamit. December 1981, four months before the evacuation. Photo by J. Saar. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Destruction of Yamit. April 1982. Photo by B. Tel Or. State Press Bureau. Israel.

At school in Kfar Darom. Summer 2005. Photo by M. Milner. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Celebrating Lag Ba'omer in Hebron near the Machpelah Cave. 1987 Photo by Maggi Ayalon. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Outskirts of Kiryat Arba; in the background is Hebron. 1995. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Press Bureau. Israel.

Kiryat Arba (bird's eye view), 1998. Photo by A. Ohayon. State Press Bureau. Israel

Evacuation of settlers barricaded in a synagogue in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. August 2005. Photo by G. Asmolov. Press service of the Israel Defense Forces.

The policy of intensive Jewish settlement of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip caused heated debate in Israeli society. Along with supporters of the Allon plan, which assumed that in the future most of the territories of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) would be returned to Jordan, many public figures spoke out against the policy of creating Jewish settlements in densely populated Arab areas, demanding that the funds spent on settling the controlled territories be used for development of peripheral areas of Galilee and Negev, industrial and social infrastructure of development cities, etc.

Settler movement

This situation changed at the beginning of the 21st century. As of 2015, Likud deputies are settlers Y. Edelstein (chairman of the Knesset), Ze'ev Elkin, Oren Hazan. Although Likud remains the largest right-wing party, the presence of settlement residents among deputies from other parties is no less important.

Living conditions in the new settlements were very difficult, primarily due to the lack of necessary infrastructure, as well as pressure from representatives of the left camp and the international media, who protested against each new prefabricated house in the territories. In 1978, an appeal was filed to the Supreme Court against the establishment of the Beit El settlement, which was founded on land expropriated from Palestinian Arabs, and the expropriation was motivated not by housing needs, but by security considerations.

The court issued an interim order to stop the development work of the new settlement, including the laying of sewerage systems. After several months the appeal was rejected. However, in the winter of 1980, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal filed jointly by Palestinians and leftist activists. According to the court decision, a group of settlers had to leave the land of the village of Rujaib in Samaria, since it was private Palestinian land. From then on, new settlements arose almost exclusively on land that was not in private Arab ownership.

Paradoxically, as a result of this, the moral and legal foundation of the activities of the settlers in the controlled territories became almost stronger than that of the residents of Israel within the Green Line, where many moshav and kibbutzim were founded on land abandoned by Arab refugees during the War of Independence. with not properly registered property rights.

Development of Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula

In parallel, the development of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula took place, usually at the initiative and with the permission of the government. Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were first occupied by Israel during the Sinai Campaign of 1956, but returned to Egypt less than six months later; At that time, Jewish settlements were not created in these territories.

The government of I. Rabin-Sh., which came to power in June 1992. Peres announced a freeze on construction in Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line. At the same time, in order to prevent friction between the settlers and the residents of the newly created Palestinian Authority, new bypass highways were built, increasing the safety of the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

With the coming to power of B. Netanyahu's government in May 1996, decisions to freeze the construction of settlements were canceled, as a result of which the influx of new residents into them resumed. The period when the center-left government of E. Barak, who expressed his readiness to agree to the mass evacuation of Jewish settlements beyond the “Green Line”, was in power, was one of the most prosperous for the settlement project. In order to ensure coalition support from the National Religious Party and center-right circles, E. Barak did not oppose the growth of settlements in the controlled territories and new construction in them.

Contrary to expectations, it was the center-right government led by A. Sharon, where the post of Minister of Finance was successively occupied by ministers from the Likud bloc S. Shalom and B. Netanyahu, that imposed strict restrictions on construction in Jewish settlements (which was everywhere limited by the needs of their natural growth, and exclusively within existing geographical boundaries), and the tax benefits that were provided to settlers as residents of priority development areas were also cancelled.

Arab terror against settlers

Almost from the beginning, settlers in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza faced hostility from their Arab neighbors. In the early years, settlers were still able to move freely throughout Arab settlements and even shop and open bank accounts in Ramallah or Nablus, but over time, such freedom of movement became literally fraught with danger to their lives.

Since the late 1970s. Jewish cars began to be stoned. In the early 1980s. local Arabs had already begun to use firearms against Jewish settlers. The first victim was a yeshiva student from Kiryat Arba, I. Salome, who was killed by pistol shots in a market in Hebron in early 1980. A few months later, six Jews were killed in a terrorist attack near Beit Hadassah.

In the summer of 1982, a resident of the Tkoa settlement was killed in Herodion; in response to this, the settlement of Nokdim (El-David) was founded at the site of the murder. Since then, the practice has arisen of creating new settlements in those places where Jewish residents were killed by Arab terrorists. The symbolic significance of this policy was obvious: the settlers were clearly demonstrating to the Arabs that they would not be intimidated, that the Jewish settlement of Judea, Samaria and Gaza would continue, no matter the cost.

The development of Jewish settlements on lands occupied by Israel in 1967 led to acute conflicts and led to a further escalation of interethnic tensions. Jews (in the vast majority of cases, with the consent and support of the official authorities of Israel) created more and more cities and towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; Arabs protested against the seizure of lands that they considered and consider theirs, and this protest often resulted in acts of violence and terror.

Contradictory trends in the development of the settlement movement in the context of the unsettled legal status of controlled territories

From the beginning of the settlement movement to the present day, it has been influenced by the unsettled legal status of the controlled territories, and, as a consequence, the constant possibility that the Israeli authorities may, for one reason or another, decide to evacuate settlers and destroy (or transfer to control another country) the cities and villages they built.

Israel's right to create civilian settlements in controlled territories is not recognized by UN structures and member states of the organization; calls for the evacuation of all settlements already established on these lands are repeated in numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the status of these territories is not regulated in Israeli legislation.

Yamit was destroyed on April 23, 1982. During the evacuation, about two hundred right-wing activists barricaded themselves on rooftops, using sandbags and fire extinguisher foam to confront soldiers and security forces. Several protesters and several soldiers were injured and hospitalized. The evacuation of the residents of Yammit and the destruction of the city's infrastructure were carried out strictly according to the original plan and without delay.

The operation to destroy Yamit and other Jewish settlements established on the Sinai Peninsula was led by then Defense Minister A. Sharon, who noted: “Let these ruins be eternal proof that we have done everything and even the impossible in order to fulfill our obligations for peaceful agreement - so that our children do not blame us for missing such a chance. It was not the Arab army - they would never succeed - that destroyed the city. Only we, with our own hands, destroyed Yamit. We were forced to wipe this city off the face of the earth in order to fulfill the terms of the peace treaty, so that Jewish blood would not be shed.”

On December 18, 2003, in his speech at a conference in Herzliya, A. Sharon, who by that time had become Prime Minister, stated that “Israel will initiate ... a unilateral disengagement,” in which “some of the settlements will be moved.” In that speech, A. Sharon did not name the settlements that would be “relocated” (that is, destroyed), limiting himself to the phrase that we are talking about those settlements “which, in any possible scenario of the future final agreement, will not be included in the territory of Israel.”

A few months later, A. Sharon announced the details of his program, from which it followed that it was planned to evacuate all Jewish settlements created in the Gaza Strip (their number had reached 21 by that time), as well as four Jewish settlements from the Northern Samaria region. This was not about the evacuation of settlements as part of a peace treaty with a neighboring Arab country or with the Palestinians, but about a unilateral initiative of the Israeli government, agreed exclusively with the US administration.

Numerous protests led by the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Settlement Council did not affect government policy, and in August 2005 the so-called “disengagement program” was fully implemented, ending Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. After the departure of the Israeli settlers and troops, all the synagogues located in the area (from which Torah scrolls and prayer books were removed in advance) were destroyed and burned by local Arabs with the connivance of the authorities of the Palestinian Authority.

The demographic changes taking place in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) - despite differences in their assessment - are a factor that will play a significant role in the decision-making process about the future status of the controlled areas and the settlements established in them. Contrary to what seemed obvious earlier, these decisions will not necessarily be the result of negotiations between Israel and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and neighboring Arab countries.

It is quite possible that these decisions will be made by the Israeli leadership and agreed only with the US administration as the main foreign policy and military ally of the Jewish state. The construction by Israel, starting in 2003, of the so-called “security fence” actually means the unilateral determination of the contours of the future eastern borders of the Jewish state.

Settlements from the perspective of international law

Proponents of the view that the Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are illegal settlements usually refer to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and its Article 49, which states: “The Occupying Power will not be able to deport or transfer part of its own civilian population to the territory it occupies" and a number of UN Security Council resolutions based on this article of the Geneva Convention.

Israel believes that the 1949 Geneva Convention and its Article 49 do not apply to Judea and Samaria, since the concept of “occupation” implies the existence of a state whose territory is occupied. Judea and Samaria have never been part of any state since the Ottoman Empire.

Demographic and socio-economic indicators in settlements in the 2000s

As of 2010, the number of residents of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria exceeded 300 thousand people, and if we include annexed territories, then 500 thousand people. (approximately 6.5% of the total Israeli population). In 2015, the number of Jews in Judea and Samaria was about 400 thousand.

The table shows how population growth occurred in Israeli settlements by year:

The population of the settlements is growing due to internal migration, aliyah (an average of 1,000 Jewish foreign citizens arrive in the settlements per year), as well as due to the high birth rate (in the settlements the birth rate is approximately three times higher than in Israel as a whole. Which is related with a high percentage of religious settlers).

Socio-economic state of settlements

The largest Jewish settlement in the controlled territories - the city of Maale Adumim (founded in 1976) - is located a few kilometers east of Jerusalem, on the road to the Dead Sea. Secular residents make up about two-thirds of the city's population; the majority of the religious population is concentrated in the Mitzpe Nevo area and in the quarter created in the early 1990s. Russian-speaking repatriates - activists of the Mahanaim organization. A large shopping center was opened in Ma'ale Adumim in 1999, and a two-story library was opened in 2003. Intensive housing construction continues in the city.

The majority of the inhabitants of the Jewish settlements in the controlled territories were and are adherents of religious Zionism, in whose families the birth rate is, as a rule, significantly higher than the national average (34 children are born per thousand settlers per year, while the national average is 21) . As of the end of 2003, the average age of residents of Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza was 20.3 years, while for the country as a whole it was 27.7.

The level of participation of settlement residents in labor activity is very high; 64% of settlers aged 15 and older are employed - 10% more than the national average. Settlers work both in the service sector and in educational institutions, as well as in agriculture and industry. Agricultural settlements are concentrated mainly in the Jordan Valley (vegetable growing, horticulture, field crops) and in Gush Etzion (field crops - cotton, grains, sunflowers; horticulture, dairy farming, poultry farming). In Judea and Samaria, where land suitable for agricultural use is cultivated by Arab peasants, agricultural settlements are few (viticulture, horticulture, sheep and poultry farming).

Many settlements also contain small electronics, electrical and metalworking factories and laboratories. Significant industrial zones exist next to Maale Adumim (Mishor Adumim industrial zone, about 50 enterprises, including the Taasiya Avirit plant, Kiryat Arba (metal, wood, building materials, plastics and electronics) and - Institute for Research in Technology and Halakha, in Kdumim - Midreshet Eretz Israel (National Zionist educational center), and in Ariel - Ariel University.

It was founded in 1982 with the active participation and under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, although it subsequently acquired academic independence. There you can get academic degrees in biotechnology and chemical engineering, electronics, engineering and management, physiotherapy, civil engineering, architecture, economics and business management, social work and health care management. In 1990, a department for scientific research was created, in 1992, under the auspices of the college, the so-called “Technological Greenhouse” arose, and since 1994, scientific periodicals in the field of natural sciences and humanities have been published. The university has a large library.