Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement
Muhammad Javed Iqbal
By Uri Blau
Just four years ago, the defense establishment decided to carry out a
seemingly elementary task: establish a comprehensive database on the
settlements. Brigadier General (res.) Baruch Spiegel, aide to then
defense minister Shaul Mofaz, was put in charge of the project. For
over two years, Spiegel and his staff, who all signed a special
confidentiality agreement, went about systematically collecting data,
primarily from the Civil Administration.
One of the main reasons for this effort was the need to have credible
and accessible information at the ready to contend with legal actions
brought by Palestinian residents, human rights organizations and
leftist movements challenging the legality of construction in the
settlements and the use of private lands to establish or expand them.
The painstakingly amassed data was labeled political dynamite.
The defense establishment, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak,
steadfastly refused to publicize the figures, arguing, for one thing,
that publication could endanger state security or harm Israel's
foreign relations. Someone who is liable to be particularly interested
in the data collected by Spiegel is George Mitchell, President Barack
Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, who came to Israel this week
for his first visit since his appointment. It was Mitchell who
authored the 2001 report that led to the formulation of the road map,
which established a parallel between halting terror and halting
construction in the settlements.
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The official database, the most comprehensive one of its kind ever
compiled in Israel about the territories, was recently obtained by
Haaretz. Here, for the first time, information the state has been
hiding for years is revealed. An analysis of the data reveals that, in
the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent -
construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without
the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued.
The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive
construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools,
synagogues, yeshivas and even police
stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to
Palestinian West Bank residents.
Click here to view the secret Defense Ministry database on illegal
construction in the territories. It should be noted that the
information is given in Hebrew
The data, it should be stressed, do not refer only to the illegal
outposts (information about which was included in the well-known
report authored by attorney Talia Sasson and published in March 2005),
but to the very heart of the settlement enterprise. Among them are
veteran ideological settlements like Alon Shvut (established in 1970
and currently home to 3,291 residents, including Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun);
Ofra (established in 1975, home to 2,708 residents, including
former Yesha Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor Yosef and media
personalities Uri Elitzur and Hagai Segal); and Beit El (established
in 1977, population 5,308, including Hagai Ben-Artzi, brother of Sara
Netanyahu). Also included are large settlements founded primarily for
economic motives, such as the city of Modi'in Illit (established in
1990 and now home to 36,282 people), or Givat Ze'ev outside Jerusalem
(founded in 1983, population 11,139), and smaller settlements such as
Nokdim near Herodion (established in 1982, population 851, including
MK Avigdor Lieberman).
The information contained in the database does not conform to the
state's official position, as presented, for instance, on the Foreign
Ministry Web site, which states: "Israel's actions relating to the use
and allocation of land under its administration are all taken with
strict regard to the rules and norms of international law - Israel
does not requisition private land for the establishment of
settlements. " Since in many of the settlements, it was the government
itself, primarily through the Ministry of Construction and Housing,
that was responsible for construction, and since many of the building
violations involve infrastructure, roads, public buildings and so on,
the official data also demonstrate government responsibility for the
unrestrained planning and lack of enforcement of regulations in the
territories. The extent of building violations also attests to the
poor functioning of
the Civil Administration, the body in charge of permits and
supervision of construction in the territories.
According to the 2008 data from the Central Bureau of Statistics,
approximately 290,000 Jews live in the 120 official settlements and
dozens of outposts established throughout the West Bank over the past
41 years.
"Nothing was done in hiding," says Pinchas Wallerstein, director-
general of the Yesha Council of settlements and a leading figure in
the settlement project. "I'm not familiar with any [building] plans
that were not the initiative of the Israeli government." He says that
if the owners of private land upon which settlements are built were to
complain and the court were to accept their complaint, then the
structures would have to be moved somewhere else. "This has been the
Yesha
Council's position for the past years," he says.
You'd never know it from touring several of the settlements in which
massive construction has taken place on private Palestinian lands.
Entire neighborhoods built without permits or on private lands are
inseparable parts of the settlements. The sense of dissonance only
intensifies when you find that municipal offices, police and fire
stations were also built upon and currently operate on lands that
belong to Palestinians.
On Misheknot Haro'im Street in the Kochav Yaakov settlement, a young
mother is carrying her two children home. "I've lived here for six
years," she says, sounding surprised when told that her entire
neighborhood was built upon private Palestinian land. "I know that
there's some small area in the community that is in dispute, but I
never heard that this is private land." Would she have built her home
on this land had she known this from the start? "No," she answers. "I
wouldn't have kicked anyone out of his home."
Not far away, at the settlement's large and unkempt trailer site,
which is also built on private land, a young newlywed couple is
walking to the bus stop: 21-year-old Aharon and his 19-year-old wife,
Elisheva. They speak nearly perfect Hebrew despite having grown up in
the United States and having settled permanently in Israel just a few
months ago, after Aharon completed his army service in the ultra-
Orthodox Nahal unit. Now he is studying computers at Machon Lev in
Jerusalem. Asked why they chose to live here of all places, they list
three reasons: It's close to Jerusalem, it's cheap and it's in the
territories. In that order.
The couple pay their rent, NIS 550 a month, to the settlement
secretariat. As new immigrants, they are still exempt from having to
pay the arnona municipal tax. Aharon doesn't look upset when he hears
that his trailer sits on private land. It doesn't really interest him.
"I don't care what the state says, the Torah says that the entire Land
of Israel is ours."
A complicated problem
Even today, more than two years after concluding his official role,
Baruch Spiegel remains loyal to the establishment. In a conversation,
he notes several times that he signed a confidentiality agreement and
so is not willing to go into the details of the work for which he was
responsible. He was appointed by Shaul Mofaz to handle several issues
about which Israel had given a commitment to the United States,
including improving conditions for Palestinians whose lives were
adversely affected by the separation fence, and supervision of IDF
soldiers at the checkpoints.
Two years ago, Haaretz reporter Amos Harel revealed that the main task
given Spiegel was to establish and maintain an up-to-date database on
the settlement enterprise. This was after it became apparent that the
United States, as well as Peace Now's settlement monitoring team, was
in possession of much more precise information about settlement
construction than was the defense establishment, which up to then had
relied mostly on information collected by Civil Administration
inspectors. The old database had many gaps in it, which was largely a
consequence of the establishment preferring not to know exactly what
was going on in this area.
Spiegel's database contains written information backed up by aerial
photos and layers of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data that
includes information on the status of the land and the official
boundaries of each settlement. "The work took two and a half years,"
says Spiegel. "It was done in order to check the status of the
settlements and the outposts and to achieve the greatest possible
accuracy in terms of the database: the land status, the legal status,
the sector boundaries, the city building plan, government decisions,
lands whose ownership is unclear. It was full-time, professional work
done with a professional team of legal experts, planning people, GIS
experts. And I hope that this work continues, because it is very
vital. One has to know what's going on there and make decisions
accordingly. "
Who is keeping track of all of this now?
"I suppose it's the Civil Administration. "
Why was there no database like this before your appointment?
"I don't know how much of a focus there was on doing it."
Why do you think the state is not publicizing the data?
"It's a sensitive and complex subject and there are all kinds of
considerations, political and security-related. There were questions
about the public's right to know, the freedom of information law. You
should ask the officials in charge."
What are the sensitive matters?
"It's no secret that there are violations, that there are problems
having to do with land. It's a complicated problem."
Is there also a problem for the country's image?
"I didn't concern myself with image. I was engaged in Sisyphean work
to ensure that, first of all, they'll know what exists and what's
legal and what's not legal and what the degree of illegality is,
whether it involves the takeover of private Palestinian land or
something in the process of obtaining proper building permits. Our job
was to do the meticulous work of going over all the settlements and
outposts that existed then - We found what we found and passed it
on."
Do you think that this information should be published?
"I think they've already decided to publish the simpler part,
concerning areas of jurisdiction. There are things that are more
sensitive. It's no secret that there are problems, and it's impossible
to do something illegal and say that it's legal. I can't elaborate,
because I'm still bound to maintain confidentiality. "
Dror Etkes, formerly the coordinator of Peace Now's settlement
monitoring project and currently director of the Land Advocacy Project
for the Yesh Din organization, says, "The government's ongoing refusal
to reveal this material on the pretext of security reasons is yet
another striking example of the way in which the state exploits its
authority to reduce the information at the citizens' disposal, when
they wish to formulate intelligent positions based on facts rather
than lies and half-truths. "
Following the initial exposure of the material, the Movement for
Freedom of Information and Peace Now requested that the Defense
Ministry publish the database, in accordance with the Freedom of
Information law. The Defense Ministry refused. "This is a computerized
database that includes detailed information, in different cross-
sections, regarding the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria," the
Defense Ministry said in response. "The material was collected by the
defense establishment for its purposes and includes sensitive
information. The ministry was asked to allow a review of the material
in accordance with the Freedom of Information law, and after
consideration of the request, decided not to hand over the material.
The matter is pending and is the subject of a petition before the
Administrative Affairs Court in Tel Aviv."
Ofra, Elon Moreh, Beit El
The database surveys settlement after settlement alphabetically. For
each entry, it notes the source of the settlement's name and the form
of settlement there (urban community, local council, moshav, kibbutz,
etc.); its organizational affiliation (Herut, Amana, Takam, etc.), the
number of inhabitants, pertinent government decisions, the official
bodies to which the land was given, the status of the land upon which
the settlement was built (state land, private Palestinian or Jewish
land, etc.), a survey of the illegal outposts built in proximity to
the settlement and to what extent the valid building plans have been
executed. Beneath each entry, highlighted in red, is information on
the extent of construction that has been carried out without
permission and its exact location in the settlement.
Among all the revelations in the official data, it's quite fascinating
to see what was written about Ofra, a veteran Gush Emunim settlement.
According to a recent B'tselem report, most of the settlement's
developed area sits on private Palestinian land and therefore falls
into the category of an illegal outpost that is supposed to be
evacuated. The Yesha Council responded to the B'tselem report, saying
that the "facts" in it are "completely baseless and designed to
present a false picture. The inhabitants of Ofra are careful to
respect the rights of the Arab landowners, with whom they reached an
agreement regarding the construction of the neighborhoods as well as
an agreement that enables the private landowners to continue to work
their lands."
But the information in the database about Ofra leaves no room for
doubt: "The settlement does not conform to valid building plans. A
majority of the construction in the community is on registered private
lands without any legal basis whatsoever and no possibility of
[converting the land to non-private use]." The database also gives a
detailed description of where construction was carried out in Ofra
without permits: "The original part of the settlement: [this includes]
more than 200 permanent residential structures, agricultural
structures, public structures, lots, roads and orchards in the old
section of the settlement (in regard to which Plan 221 was submitted,
but not advanced due to a problem of ownership)." After mentioning 75
trailers and temporary shelters in two groups within the old
settlement, the database mentions the Ramat Zvi neighborhood, south of
the original settlement: "There are about 200 permanent structures as
well as lots being
developed for additional permanent construction, all trespassing on
private lands." Yesha Council chairman Danny Dayan responds: "I am not
familiar with that data."
Another place where the data reveals illegal construction is Elon
Moreh, one of the most famous settlements in the territories. In June
1979, several residents of the village of Rujib, southeast of Nablus,
petitioned the High Court, asking it to annul the appropriation order
for 5,000 dunams of land in their possession, that had been designated
for the construction of the settlement. In court, the government
argued, as it did regularly at the time, that the construction of the
settlement was required for military needs, and therefore the
appropriation orders were legal. But in a statement on behalf of the
petitioners, former chief of staff Haim Bar-Lev asserted that, "In my
best professional judgment, Elon Moreh does not contribute to Israel's
security."
The High Court, relying on this statement and the statements of the
original core group of settlers of Elon Moreh, who also argued that
this was not a temporary settlement established for security purposes,
but a permanent settlement, instructed the IDF to evacuate the
settlement and return the lands to their owners. The immediate
consequence of the ruling was to find an alternative site for
construction of the settlement, on lands previously defined as "state
lands." Following this ruling, Israel stopped officially using
military injunctions in the territories for the purpose of
establishing new settlements.
The lands that were originally taken for the purpose of building Elon
Moreh were returned to their Palestinian owners, but according to the
database, also in the new site where the settlement was built, called
Har Kabir, "most of the construction was done without approved,
detailed plans, and some of the construction involved trespassing on
private lands. As for the state lands in the settlement, a detailed
plan, no. 107/1, was prepared and published on 16/7/99, but has yet to
go into effect."
The Shomron regional council, which includes Elon Moreh, said in
response: "All the neighborhoods in the settlement were planned, and
some were also built, by the State of Israel through the Housing
Ministry. The residents of Elon Moreh did not trespass at all and any
allegation of this kind is also false. The State of Israel is tasked
with promoting and approving the building plans in the settlement, as
everywhere else in the country, and as for the plans that supposedly
have yet to receive final validity, just like many other communities
throughout Israel, where the processes continue for decades, this does
not delay the plans, even if the planning is not complete or being
done in tandem."
Satish Kumar
wrote:
> Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement
Muhammad Javed Zball (nee Ekball) thinks it was very Islamic for
Pakistan's military to murder 3 million Bengalis and rape a quarter
million to retain Bangladesh as a colony of pakistan. So why this
whining about "illegal settlement" by Israel which, numerically
speaking, pales into insignificance when compared to what the Paksitan
army did in Bangladesh in 1971 or in Balochistan since then?
First order of business should be the liberation of Jinnahpur, Sindhu
Desh, Balochistan, Seraikistan and Pakhtunkhwa. It is also very
important to exterminate the Taliban and the Al Qaeda who are into
imposing their interprtation of Islam on people everywhere thru
mindless terror.
Why is it that the OIC gets so excited about Israel but has nary a
word to condemn genocides like the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh, the
mass maurder of Shias and Kurds by Saddam Hussein or the genocide in
Sudan?
Israel still has a significant percentage of Muslim citizens. It is
the Arab countries that have expelled all Jews.