B’Tselem-The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - May 27, 2002 - Back to Resources Page

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In December 2001, a long article appeared in Ha'aretz under the headline "Five Minutes from Kfar Saba – A Look at the Ari'el Region."1 The article reviewed the real estate situation in a number of settlements adjacent to the Trans-Samaria Highway in the vicinity of Ari'el. The article included the information that most of the land on which these "communities"2 were established are "state-owned land," and that "despite the security problems and the depressed state of the real estate market, the situation in these locales is not as bad as might be expected."

The perspective from which this article is written (the real estate market) and the terminology it employs largely refl ect the process of the assimilation of the settlements into the State of Israel. As a result of this process, these settlements have become just another region of the State of Israel, where houses and apartments are constructed and offered to the general public according to free-market principles of supply and demand.

This deliberate and systematic process of assimilation obscures a number of fundamental truths about the settlements. The fundamental truth is that the "communities" mentioned in the article are not part of the State of Israel, but are settlements established in the West Bank ? an area that, since 1967, has been occupied territory under a military regime and in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The fundamental truth is that the "state-owned land" mentioned in the article was seized from Palestinian residents by illegal and unfair proceedings. The fundamental truth is that the settlements have been a continuing source of violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, among them the right to freedom of movement, property, improvement in their standard of living, and self-determination. The fundamental truth is that the growth of these settlements is fueled not only by neutral forces of supply and demand, but primarily by a sophisticated governmental system designed to encourage Israeli citizens to live in the settlements. In essence, the process of assimilation blurs the fact that the settlement enterprise in the Occupied Territories has created a system of legally sanctioned separation based on discrimination that has, perhaps, no parallel anywhere in the world since the apartheid regime in South Africa.

As part of the mechanism used to obscure these fundamental truths, the State of Israel makes a determined effort to conceal information relating to the settlements. In order to prepare this report, B'Tselem was obliged to engage in a protracted and exhaustive struggle with the Civil Administration to obtain maps marking the municipal boundaries of the settlements. This information, which is readily available in the case of local authorities within Israel, was eventually partially provided almost one year after the initial request, and only after B'Tselem threatened legal action.

To download the full report please click below:

Attachment	Size
200205_Land_Grab_eng.pdf	2.26 MB

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B’Tselem-The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - May 27, 2002 - Back to Resources Page