Diplomatic paralysis and dynamic,dramatic changes favoring settlers in thedivision of land in the occupied territo-ries dominate the Israel/Palestine land-scape today.

The Quartet’s “roadmap,” which aimsat filling the diplomatic vacuum createdby the failure of the Oslo process andthe Sharon government’s rejection ofthe Palestinian Authority as “an entitythat supports terror” has only confirmedthe assessment of diplomatic paralysis.

The roadmap is based upon assump-tions rejected by Israeli Prime MinisterAriel Sharon and offers phased “per-formance-based” promises unlikely to beconsidered sufficient by Palestinians.An Israeli government led by ArielSharon is not interested in a diplomaticsolution. One led by Amram Mitzna,Sharon’s challenger in upcoming elec-tions, is championing ideas and a visionof Palestinian statehood far bolder than contemplated by the roadmap’sarchitects.

The ideas outlined in the documentdraw inspiration from the Madrid con-ference and the stillborn Mitchell andTenet programs spawned in the wake of

the al-Aqsa intifada. Significantly, onlythe Oslo accords are conspicuous bytheir absence in the diplomatic antece-dents cited by the Quartet.

Nevertheless, the roadmap’s intent isto renew the security bargain madebetween Israel and the Palestine Libera-tion Organization in September 1993,offering Israel once again the promise ofa Palestinian commitment to defeat themilitant Palestinian opponents of thestatus quo while holding out the attain-ment of a sovereignty over perhaps halfof the West Bank (excluding East Jeru-salem) and all of Gaza as an interimmeasure.

The Quartet misses an opportunityto address the territorial contest at thecore of the dispute. The scores of new“outpost” settlements established beforeSharon’s tenure, not to mention thealmost 200 settlements where 400,000Israelis reside, are implicitly blessed bythe roadmap even as the Quartet reiter-ates the necessity to completely freezesettlement expansion at some point inthe process. A freeze is a poor andunworkable substitute for settlementevacuation, which is the key require-ment of any workable solution.

These ideas would have had far morerelevance in the months before the2000–2001 Camp David–Taba talksfailed to reach an agreement that would“end the conflict,” an aspiration absentfrom the Quartet’s agenda. The time-table outlined in the roadmap hasalready fallen victim to Israel’s upcom-ing election. More significantly, there is

no doubt about the refusal of theSharon government and, just as impor-tant, Israel’s security establishment, toembrace the security equation at theheart of the Quartet’s ideas. Israel underSharon is settling in for an extendedperiod of direct exercise of securityresponsibilities everywhere in theoccupied territories, a dramatic trans-formation from the last decade, and one that the Bush administration, theroadmap notwithstanding, hesitates to confront.

The explosion of new settlements,despite their innocuous description as“outposts,” attests to a program ofclaiming ever more contested spacealong the West Bank’s central north-south axis vital for the creation of a sov-ereign Palestinian state. The cascadingeffect of this policy is seen most vividlyin the hamlet of Yanun (see page 3),where Palestinian life has been made allbut untenable by the combination ofexpanding settlement and settler harass-ment under the complicit gaze of theIDF. The abandonment of Yanun by itsresidents may well prove temporary,but, as with the seemingly permanentrestrictions imposed on the tens ofthousands of residents from Hebron toNablus, and the equally dramatic if lessreported changes in Gaza’s topography,it serves as an unmistakable wake up callto those complacent about the impact ofsettlement expansion on the destiny ofthe two peoples. �

Visit our website, www.fmep.org, forback issues of the Settlement Report,maps, and current analyses andcommentary on the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.

The first in a series of Arabic andHebrew translations of the SettlementReport can be viewed at www.fmep.org.

REPORT ON

ISRAELI SETTLEMENTIN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

A B i m o n t h l y P u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e Fo u n d a t i o n f o r M i d d l e E a s t Pe a c e

Volume 12 Number 6 November-December 2002

QUARTET’S “ROADMAP” IRRELEVANT TO DRAMATIC CHANGES ON THE GROUND

TO OUR READERSFOUNDATION FOR

MIDDLE EAST PEACE

Merle Thorpe, Jr.Founder

(1917–1994)

Philip C. Wilcox, Jr.President

Geoffrey AronsonDirector, Research and Publica-tions, Editor, Report on IsraeliSettlements in the OccupiedTerritories

Mallika GoodEditorial Assistant

Holly Byker Derek Wentling

Interns

ADVISERS

Lucius D. BattleLandrum R. BollingPeter GubserJean C. NewsomGail PressbergNicholas A. Veliotes

TRUSTEES

Peter M. CastlemanChairman

Lucius D. BattleCalvin H. Cobb, Jr.James J. CromwellStephen HartwellRichard S.T. MarshRichard W. MurphyWilliam B. QuandtSally S. Thorpe

The Foundation, a non-profit I.R.C. 501(c)(3)organization, supports peaceand security for Israelis andPalestinians through mutualrecognition and a negotiateddivision of historic Pales-tine. It publishes the bi-monthly Report on IsraeliSettlement in the OccupiedTerritories.

Copyright © 2002

2 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2002

The withdrawal of the Labor Party fromAriel Sharon’s coalition and Labor’s choiceof a dovish former general, Amram Mitzna,to lead the party in early elections sched-uled for January 28, 2003, create a welcomeprospect of return to opposition politics inIsrael and a revival of the peace camp.

The polls predict that Sharon—assum-ing he defeats Benjamin Netanyahu’s bidfor leadership of the Likud—would defeatMitzna and Labor in the January elections.But Israeli voters are volatile, and Mitznawill at least galvanize politics by calling fora resumption of peace talks from the pointof collapse in January 2001 before Sharonwas elected. After two years of unrelievedviolence, notwithstanding Sharon’s promis-es of security, Israeli voters will have anopportunity to reject his agenda of militaryreoccupation, more settlements, and defeatof a viable Palestinian state.

Palestinian moderates, recognizing theneed to restore Israeli confidence in peace,

are pressing—so far without success—thedie-hard Islamists to cease terror attacks.Arafat’s shattered Palestinian Authoritylong ago lost the control and capability toforce this, and the IDF continues itsprovocative operations. Mitzna will there-fore not have the benefit of calm as theelections approach. Nor, it seems, can heexpect much help from Washington. TheBush Administration is still pushing theQuartet’s “road map,” which, in deferenceto Sharon, conditions negotiations and asettlement freeze on a cease fire andPalestinian reform, whereas Mitzna advo-cates an unconditional return to negotia-tions. Unless U.S. policy shifts, it will, iron-ically, be closer to Sharon’s than to theviews of Mitzna and the Israeli peace campas Israelis face a fateful election.

—————— � ——————

Source: Ha’aretz, October 24, 2002

November-December 2002 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 3

Date Inside (I)/Outside (O)Existence Settlement Plan’g

Outpost Nearest Settlement Reported Settler Population Boundary Remarks

1 Givat Hachish Alon Shvot 10/98 NA O2 Ein Perat Anatot NA 1 family O3 Hahar Avne Hefetz 10/98 4–5 families O Approved by Barak4 Sene Ya’acov Baracha 4/99 5 families plus singles O5 Baracha A Baracha 10/98 4–5 families O6 British Police Station Junction Benjamin Regional Council 6/02 Undetermined O7 Megron Benjamin Regional Council 5/02 12 families O8 Bet Ayn B (west) Bet Ayn 2/99 10 families O? Approved by Barak9 Bet Ayn East Bet Ayn 9/02 Undetermined NA

10 Barot Yitzhak HaYashana Bet Ayn 3/01 1 family O11 NG 652 Bet Ayn 2/02 0 O12 Hill 857 Bet El 10/01 NA O13 Bet El East Bet El 1/02 NA O14 Mitzpe Assaf Bet El 2/02 7 families O15 Bet Hagai West Bet Hagai 7/02 0 NA16 Rehavam Hill Bet Hagai 10/01 0 I17 Bracha South Bracha 8/02 0 NA18 Hill 778 Bracha 8/02 0 NA19 NA Bruchin 1999 12 families O20 Dagan Hill Efrat 2000 9 families I21 Tamar Hill Efrat 11/01 4–5 families I22 Einav Northeast Einav 5/01 0 I Currently used by IDF23 Einav Southwest Einav 2/02 0 O24 Einav East Einav 2/02 0 I25 Derek Ha Avote Elazar 3/01 5 families O26 Hakaron Eli 8/02 Undetermined NA27 Shemot Hayovel Eli 4/98 NA I28 Nof Harim Eli 12/96 NA I 25 caravans, 23 bldgs.29 Plagai Mayim Eli 2/99 NA O30 Eli South Eli 6/02 0 O31 Macan Dan Elkana 5/99 11 families I32 Elon Moreh South Elon Moreh 8/02 0 NA33 Point 792 Elon Moreh 1/99 2 families O34 Zofit Farm Halamish 5/99 NA I35 Neve Ya’ir Halamish 5/01 NA O Currently used by IDF36 The Point Itamar 1996 Undetermined I Approved by Barak37 Hill 851 Itamar 10/98 30 I Frozen by Barak38 Hill 782 Itamar 5/99 4 families I Temp. frozen by Barak39 Hill 836 Itamar 11/98 6 families I40 Givat Olam Itamar 11/98 NA I Frozen by Barak41 Hill 777 Itamar 3/99 3–4 families O42 Itamar North Itamar North 8/02 Undetermined NA43 NA Karmel 10/02 NA NA44 Sur Shalem Karme Tsur 3/01 3–4 families O Established 2/0145 Karme Tsur Karme Tsur 7/02 0 NA46 Ma’ale Shomron South Karnei Shomron 2/02 10–12 singles I47 Alonei Shilo Karnei Shomron 4/99 NA I48 Givat Degel Karnei Shomron (Moshe Zar) 2/02 2 families I49 Gilad Farm Karnei Shomron (Moshe Zar) 6/02 1 family O50 Gilad Outpost Karnei Shomron (Moshe Zar) 6/02 Undetermined O51 Har Tamar Kedumim 1996 NA I52 Rehavam Heights Kfar Eldad (Old Nokdim) 2/02 Undetermined O53 Kfar David Kfar Eldad NA Undetermined O54 Tapuah Kfar Tapuah 5/01 4–5 families O

4 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2002

SETTLEMENT OUTPOSTS

Date Inside (I)/Outside (O)Existence Settlement Plan’g

Outpost Nearest Settlement Reported Settler Population Boundary Remarks

55 NT 592 Kfar Tapuah 6/02 0 O56 Kiryat Arba South Kiryat Arba 7/02 0 Unclear57 Mitzpe Karamim Kochav Hashahar 5/01 8 families I Evacuated by Barak58 Mitzpe Shlomo Kochav Hashahar 5/99 Undetermined O Evacuated by Barak,

reoccupied by Sharon59 Kochav Ya’akov West Kochav Ya’akov 2/02 NA NA60 Aybe HaNahal Ma’ale Amos 3/99 6 families O61 Neve Erez Ma’ale Mikmash 5/99 2 families O Evacuated by Barak,

reoccupied by Sharon62 Mitzpe Danny Ma’ale Mikmash NA 4–5 families I63 Mitzpe Hagit Ma’ale Mikmash 4/99 4–5 families I64 Avigil Ma’on 10/01 4–5 singles O65 Hill 833 Ma’on 3/01 Undetermined NA66 Old Ma’on Farm Ma’on 2/02 Undetermined O67 Salit Hill Mehola 2/02 4 families I68 Penei Kedem Metzad (Asfar) 2000 12 families O69 Lucifer Farm Metzadot Yehuda 1996 1 family I70 Zvi Outpost Mevo Dotan 4/01 5 families + I71 Migdal Oz West Migdal Oz 2/02 0 NA72 Nahalei Tal Nahli’el 2/02 0 O Evacuated 7/0273 Mitzpe Lahish Neguhot 1/02 2 families O74 Neve Daniel North Neve Daniel 9/02 4 singles NA75 NA Nofei Prat 0 NA76 Mitzpe Eshtamoa Otniel 1/02 NA O77 Ginot Arieyh Ofra 5/01 Undetermined O 16 structures78 Emunah Ofra 12/97 19 families I Construction underway79 Tel Benjamin Ofra 11/01 NA O Approved 7/0280 Givat Assaf/Givat Degel Ofra 6/02 0 I81 Ofra South Ofra 6/02 0 O82 Brukin Peduel 1999 12 families O83 Psagot East Psagot 6/02 Undetermined O84 Rachelim South Rachelim 5/01 NA I85 Ginot Rachelim 2/01 0 O86 Eshhael Shani 1/02 Undetermined O87 Shavei Shomron West Shavei Shomron 10/01 0 O88 Givat Harel Shilo 11/98 7–8 families I89 Achia (Hill C) Shvut Rachel 10/98 NA O90 Adi Ad (Hill F) Shvut Rachel 10/98 NA O91 Holy Fire (Hill H) Shvut Rachel 10/01 Undetermined O92 Habayit Ha'adom Shvut Rachel 7/02 Undetermined NA93 Shvut Rachel Shvut Rachel 8/02 0 NA94 Susia Northwest Susia 9/01 0 I95 Ya’ir Farm Susia 1998 NA I96 Old Susia Susia 6/02 Undetermined I97 Susia North Susia 7/02 0 I98 Harasha Talmon 10/98 NA O99 Talmon South Talmon 1996 NA NA

100 Hodesh Yaron Talmon 12/97 0 I101 Zayit Ra'anan Talmon B (Neriah) 6/01 4–5 families I102 Tekoa B+C Tekoa NA NA I103 Tekoa D Tekoa 2/02 4 families + I104 Mor Farm Tene (Omarim) NA 1 family I105 Ya’ir Farm Yakir 5/01 5 families O Established 4/25/01106 Shelhevet Outpost Yitzhar NA 2 families I107 Shelhevet Yitzhar (Eastern Hill) Yitzhar 1996 4–5 families O108 Hill 725 Yitzhar NA 2 families O

November-December 2002 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 5

On October 19, 2002, the last of 25 families left the West Bankvillage of Yanun after four years of worsening attacks by settlers,who in recent years have established sites on nearby hilltops.

The exodus from Yanun is the first time in recent memory thatPalestinians abandoned an entire village because of settler harass-ment. In the wake of their departure, efforts began to assure thevillagers’ safe return from the nearby village of Aqraba, wheremany have established temporary residence. The following state-ment was issued by Yanun councilor Abdelatif Sobih.

Yanun is located three kilometers to the north of Aqraba.It is as ancient as the olive trees that cover the surroundinghills as well as meadows. The village is divided into two parts,upper and lower Yanun. During the Ottoman period, the vil-lage was inhabited by aristocratic, well-known families thatoriginally came from Bosnia. There is a holy shrine believedto be the prophet Nun in the eastern part of the village. Avisitor to the village can also see the ruins of an old Ottomanmosque. There is a natural spring upon which the farmers andthe shepherds who live there depend.

The northern part of the village (upper Yanun) is consid-ered illegal by the Israeli authorities, and people are notallowed to build new houses there or have proper facilities.

Yanun is a typical example of how Palestinian villages havebeen wiped out as a result of successive Israeli governmentexpansionist policies and as a result of the aggressive acts ofthe settlers. The settlers of nearby Itamar who are legally cov-ered, protected, and fully armed have been carrying out sever-al planned aggressive and terrorist activities intended to kickthe people of Yanun out of their homes and impose their con-trol, not only over the lands of Yanun, but over the nearbyfarms of Aqraba.

These activities include:1. Repeatedly attacking people in their homes, throwing

stones, shooting at windows and closed doors, terrifyingyoung children and women.

2. Attacking families on their farms. Here are a few exam-ples of these brutal acts:

a. In one of these attacks Galib Adel, 40 years old, wasbeaten brutally. He lost one of his eyes and had his leg bro-ken, in addition to suffering several bruises. Atif Tawfiq,Rashad Saleem, and Inbisat Ahmad were also beaten in theattack.

b. Moflih Adel was beaten severely and taken to the hospi-tal unconscious.

c. Gassan Abu Kaf, 38 years old, escaped murder and wasshot in the leg.

d. Ahmad Mahmoud, 80 years old, lost one of his eyes in asettler attack.

e. Abdul Latif Yousif, the mayor of the Yanun Council, wasbeaten severely in an attack.

f. Hani Hamdalla, 24 years old, was shot dead, while FadiFadil was injured in another attack by settlers.

3. Killing hundreds of sheep using poisonous injectionsand live bullets.

4. Blocking the main road to the village of Yanun.5. Spoiling the only natural source of water in the village.6. Burning down and destroying the only source of elec-

tricity, the electric generator that was donated by theEconomic Development Group.

7. Preventing farmers from getting to their farms andattacking them using fierce dogs and live bullets.

8. Destroying the crops by ploughing the farmed land andburning crops that were harvested and ready to transport, asevidence of possession and control. At least three cases ofburning have been recorded.

9. In broad daylight, stealing olive trees that belong to localfarmers.

10. Imposing a seige around the natural pastures and pre-venting shepherds from getting to them.

11. Preventing the relatives of the people of Yanun fromvisiting Yanun and shooting at the cars that go there, includ-ing the car of the mayor of Aqraba.

12. Cutting off the main road from Aqraba to Nablus. Thisroad, which was finished in 1935, is no longer safe to travel.

13. Even teachers at Yanun elementary school were sub-jected to questioning and provocations by settlers. �

6 ❖ Report on Israeli Settlement November-December 2002

SETTLERS FORCE DESERTION OF YANUN VILLAGE

Settlement Outpost Facts, November 2002Year Established Outposts

1996 61997 21998 12 1999 152000 22001 212002 42Total 100

Note: Year of establishment was not available for 8 outposts.

Number of outposts located inside existing settlement planning boundary: 37

Number of outposts located outside existing settlement planning boundary: 53

Note: Information on the location of 17 outposts is not available.The location of one outpost is unclear.

Peace Now reports that only eight outposts establishedsince 1996 have been completely dismantled. Formerminister of defense Benjamin Ben-Eliezer claimed thatduring February 2001-November 2002, 56 outposts weredismantled.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld: What do I thinkthe U.S. policy ought to be with respect to the settlements inthe occupied areas?

Question: Yes, sir.Rumsfeld: Former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak made a

proposal that was as forthcoming as anyone in the worldcould ever imagine, and Arafat turned it down.

If you have a country that’s a sliver and you can see threesides of it from a high hotel building, you’ve got to be carefulwhat you give away and to whom you give it. If you’re givingit to an entity that has some track record, that has a degree ofaccountability, that has the ability to enforce security that’spromised in whatever arrangements are made, it seems to methat’s one thing. If you’re making a deal and yielding territoryto an entity that cannot or will not do that, and there is noquestion but that the Palestinian Authority [has] beeninvolved with terrorist activities, so that makes it a difficultinterlocutor.

My feeling about the so-called occupied territories are thatthere was a war, Israel urged neighboring countries not to getinvolved in it once it started, they all jumped in, and they losta lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in thatconflict. In the intervening period, they’ve made some settle-ments in various parts of the so-called occupied area, whichwas the result of a war, which they won.

They have offered up, successive prime ministers haveoffered up various portions of that so-called occupied territo-ry, the West Bank, and at no point has it been agreed upon bythe other side. I suspect it will be, even in my lifetime, thatthere will be some sort of an entity that will be established.Maybe it will take some Palestinian expatriates coming backinto the region and providing the kind of responsible govern-ment that would give confidence that you could make anarrangement with them that would stick. It may be that theneighboring countries, Egypt and Jordan and Saudi Arabiaand others, will have to assist in providing a degree ofaccountability.

But certainly everyone has to hope and pray that there willbe something that could be an effective interlocutor so thatthey could make a deal.

The settlement issues—it’s hard to know whether they’resettlements in portions of the real estate that will end up withthe entity that you make an arrangement with or Israel. So itseems to me focusing on settlements at the present time miss-es the point. The real point is to get an effective interlocutor.The real point is to get a condition so that you can have apeace agreement. And those are exactly the things thatPresident [George W.] Bush and Secretary [of State Colin]Powell have been working on, and indeed, working particular-ly with Egypt and Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Department of Defense, news briefing,August 6, 2002

November-December 2002 Report on Israeli Settlement ❖ 7

RUMSFELD REDEFINES THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Residential Construction Starts in

Selected Settlements, 2000

Dwelling UnitsFinanced by:

Settlement State Private Total

Alei Sinai (Gaza) 4 — 4Alfe Menache 89 — 89Ariel 182 92 274Asfar 9 — 9Barkan 39 — 39Beitar Ilit 1,038 121 1,159Bet Arieyh 85 — 85Bet El 48 — 48Dolev 4 — 4Efrata 20 — 20Ganim 9 — 9Geva Benjamin 328 — 328Givat Ze’ev 168 — 168E. Jerusalem (Hamat Shmuel) 1,038 — 1,038E. Jerusalem (Pisgat Ze’ev) 605 — 605E. Jerusalem (Ramot) 90 — 90Karnei Shomron 32 — 32Kedumim 8 — 8Kleya 10 — 10Kochav Hashachar 8 — 8Kochav Ya’acov 72 — 72Ma’ale Adumim 371 57 428Ma’ale Shomron 9 — 9Modi'in Ilit — 277 277Na’ale 67 — 67Nisanit (Gaza) 4 — 4Nokdim 7 — 7Ofra 44 — 44Otniel 9 — 9Psagot 10 — 10Rafiah Yam (Gaza) 10 — 10Sa Nur 4 — 4Vered Jericho 5 — 5Zurit 1 — 1

Total 4,427 547 4,974

Source: Letter to MK Mossi Raz from the Prime Minister’s Office,January 21, 2002,and the Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2000, table 30.

Foundation for Middle East Peace1761 N Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036

According to settler council leader Benzi Leiberman, thepopulation in ten northern West Bank settlements has declinedby 35 percent since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada inSeptember 2000. The current population stands at around2,000. The decline reached 50 percent at one point, but recentmonths have witnessed a return of some settlers who original-ly left. The population decline in Gaza has been almost as dra-matic. U.S. sources estimate that 20 percent of Gaza’s 7,000settlers have left their homes during the intifada.

“I heard about the shooting in Hermesh, [when I wasat work]. I was in such a shock that I couldn’t telephonemy home for fear of what might have happened to myfamily. My sons, aged 14 and 15, could have been dead.

They returned early in order to watch the [soccer] game.Do you know why the saboteur didn’t manage to kill

more children? Because of the match of Macabi Haifa.The kids wanted to return early to watch the game. If notfor this, the saboteur would have met all of them in onegroup and the disaster would have been even greater.

My wife and I have decided to leave [the settlement].True, I have a house with one-quarter of an acre and atremendous view, but I prefer an apartment in Netanya. Itis less dangerous.”

Igor Gvilob, a resident of Hermesh settlement,where three were killed by a Palestinian intruder

on October 29, Ha’aretz, October 31, 2002

Government Tenders Issued for Settlement Construction, 1998–June 2002Location Settlement 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Total

East Jerusalem Har Homa — 1,498 1,214 — — 2,712Pisgat Ze’ev — — 415 131 48 594

Gaza Strip Nisanit 4 — — — — 4Rafiah Yam — 10 — — — 10

Golan Heights Ein Zivan — — 18 — — 18Katzrin — — 86 — — 86

West Bank Alfe Menache 136 — — 212 — 348Ariel 320 — — — — 320Beitar Ilit — 1,089 — — 244 1,333 Efrat — 20 17 — 359 396Elkana — — 76 39 — 115Giva Benjamin — — — — 76 76Givat Ze’ev — 594 — — — 594Har Adar — — 80 — 74 154Karnei Shomron — 57 — — — 57Kiryat Arba — 12 — — — 12Kochav Ya’acov — — — 696 — 696Ma’ale Adumim — 461 174 734 286 1,655Ofarim 400 — — — — 400Rachelim — — 14 — — 14Talmon A — — 29 — — 29

Annual Total 860 3,741 2,123 1,812 1,087 9,623

Source: Report on Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories, January 1999-September 2002.