Mapping the Israeli Settlement Project in the West Bank: History and Institutions

المؤلفون

  • مؤلفون

  • Walid Habbas
  • Anmar Rafeedie

الكلمات المفتاحية:

Settler Colonialism، Israeli Settlements، International Law، West Bank، Palestine، Israel

الملخص

This article examines the various components of the Israeli settlement project in the West Bank, as well as the Israeli agencies and institutions that plan, implement, and support it. It also addresses the status of settlement activity under international law. It proceeds from the premise that the settlement project constitutes an integrated structure engaged in a conflictual relationship with Palestinian space, governed by a zero-sum logic. The study begins with a historical overview of the development of settlements in the West Bank. It outlines the project’s structural components, followed by an analysis of the four Israeli bodies that administer the expansion of settlement and shape its legal and planning frameworks. Finally, it considers the position of international law regarding Israeli settlements.

المراجع

  1. Politically, the West Bank encompasses the entire area of Jerusalem occupied in 1967, which lies east of the 1949 Armistice Line or “Green Line”, and was under Jordanian rule from 1948-1967. However, Israel has annexed Jerusalem administratively and imposed Israeli law there, whereas the rest of the West Bank remains under military rule.
  2. The name moshava [colony], which Zionist Jews used to describe their settlement activity before the establishment of the State of Israel, has predominantly European, colonial connotations. The word comes from the Hebrew root y-sh-v , which means to abide and settle in a new place.
  3. Ayalon Gilad, “When Did Mityashvim Become Mitnakhalim, and Why Are They Being Recast as Mityashvim Again? On the Origins of the Word Hitnachalut,” [Hebrew] Haaretz , 9/3/2022, accessed on 26/11/2024, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPOP
  4. Although Petah Tikva is known in both Zionist and Arab literature as “the mother of the colonies”, some Jewish settlement activity did precede it, including the establishment of the Jewish Agricultural College (Mikveh Israel) in East Jaffa in 1870, and the Montefiore settlements in Jerusalem and the Galilee between 1840 and 1870. Source: Prepcared by the authors.
  5. Ibid. Israelis do not use the word hitnachalut to refer to settlements in Jerusalem. They simply refer to them as “neighbourhoods”, as they have been annexed to Israel.
  6. In biblical writings, particularly in the Book of Joshua, hitnachalut refers to a divine promise to grant the land to the 12 tribes of Israel as an eternal right, and is closely linked to the concept of religious entitlement to the land. In this sense, hitnachalut differs in its religious basis from moshav , which has an agricultural, cooperative character. It also differs from the English term colony , which focuses on colonial dimensions and foreign control, while hitnachalut is based on a religious narrative of historical rootedness and divinely ordained inheritance of the land.
  7. Israel Defense Forces, Leaflets, Orders, and Appointments Issued by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank Area: Booklet No. 9 , 17/12/1967 (Jerusalem: Military Government in the West Bank, 1967).
  8. National Library of Israel, “al-Ḍaffa al-Gharbiyya aw Yahūdā wa-l-Sāmira – Taghyīr al-Ism al-Rasmī fī Tammūz 1968,” in: Walid Habbas & Yasser Manaa, al-Khiṭāb al-Istīyṭānī al-Tawrātī Tijāh al-Ḍaffa al-Gharbiyya – Qirāʾa fī Khiṭāb al-Jaysh al-Isrāʾīlī wa-l-Mustawṭinīn , Israeli Papers, no. 83 (Ramallah: Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies – MADAR, 2024), pp. 34-37.
  9. Handel Ariel, Marco Allegra & Erez Maggor, “The Israeli Settlements: Past, Present, and Future,” in: Asaf Shafir (ed.), Routledge Companion to the Israeli Palestinian Conflict (London/New York: Routledge, 2022), pp. 218-233.
  10. “Israel Draws a Map for Peace with Egypt,” [Hebrew] Maariv , 5/1/1973, accessed on 8/7/2024, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GP2A
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  13. Walid Habbas, “al-Buʾar al-Istīyṭāniyya al-Zirāʿiyya fī al-Ḍaffa al-Gharbiyya: Min al-Irtijāl wa-l-Taṭawwuʿ ilā al-Maʾsasa wa-l- Tamwīl al-Ḥukūmī!,” Supplement to The Israeli Scene , Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies – MADAR, 12/2/2024, accessed on 16/11/2024, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPJF
  14. A settlement’s area of influence (Hebrew: shetach shevot) is the geographical area allocated to its local or municipal council, and is under full Israeli control in terms of its infrastructure, tax collection, public services, management of municipal life for the Jewish population, and security zone. Source: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, “Population in Localities and Regional Councils – Provisional Estimates, 2025–2026,” 2/3/2026, accessed on 21/5/2026, at: https://acr.ps/hBy2sIJ
  15. The most important of these organizations are the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), Peace Now, Volunteers for Human Rights (Yesh Din), and Kerem Navot.
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  22. “The Separation Barrier,” B’Tselem , 11/11/2017, accessed on 7/7/2025, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPCm Source: Prepared by the authors, based on a compilation of materials from various sources, including websites for some streets, and analysis of various urban plans.
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  38. Geneva Convention (IV), Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949 , Article 49, accessed on 5/11/2024, at: https://acr.ps/1L9zQAC
  39. International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 2004 , para. 117, accessed on 5/11/2024, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GP3n
  40. United Nations, Security Council, Resolution 242 [on a Peaceful and accepted Settlement of the Middle East Situation], S/RES/242 (New York: 1967), accessed on 9/7/2025, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPkn
  41. United Nations, Security Council, Resolution 446 [on Establishment of a Commission to Examine the Situation Relating to Settlements in the Arab Territories Occupied by Israel], S/RES/446 (New York: 1979), accessed on 7/7/2025, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPdK
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  45. Committee of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations on the Combined Seventeenth to Nineteenth Reports of Israel , CERD/C/ISR/CO/17-19 (New York: 2020), para. 9, accessed on 7/7/2025, at: https://acr.ps/1L9GPiD
  46. United Nations, Security Council, Resolution 252 ; United Nations, Security Council, Resolution 2334. Source: “Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley),” X, 8/12/2024, accessed on 20/5/2026, at: https://acr.ps/hBy2sSe
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Cover of العدد 21, Almuntaqa

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2026-09-01

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64 مشاهدة 63 تنزيل

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مجلد 9 عدد 021 (2026): العدد 21

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