Retroactive “laundering” of Itamar, Shvut Rachel, Sansana & Yaqir part of government policy to annex
Full title
Retroactive “laundering” of Itamar, Shvut Rachel, Sansana and Yaqir part of government policy to annex Palestinian land to State of Israel
Published:
22 Nov 2015
Several weeks ago, on 21 October 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a retroactive urban building plan (UBP) for the settlement of Itamar. About a week later, on 29 October, Netanyahu approved retroactive UBPs for another three settlements: Shvut Rachel, Sansana, and Yaqir. Once again, in one fell swoop, Israeli authorities “laundered” construction even they deemed illegal for years. Contrary to attempts in media reports to represent this move as capitulation by Netanyahu to settler leaders, it is in fact a further example of the implementation of long-standing Israeli policy.
While Israel employs the same planning and legal language to describe Israeli and Palestinian construction in the West Bank – e.g., planning and construction laws, UBPs, planning proceedings, unlawful construction – in practice, these procedures and regulations are implemented completely differently in settlements and in Palestinian communities. In the case of settlements, Israeli authorities provide assistance, turn a blind eye to violations, and retroactively approve unauthorized construction, all as part of their long-standing policy to facilitate the de facto annexation of West Bank land to the sovereign territory of the State of Israel. Palestinian communities on the other hand, face an exacting, by-the-book, bureaucratic approach, a freeze on planning, and extensively implemented demolition orders, all as part of an ongoing policy to prevent Palestinian development and dispossess Palestinians of their land.
In response to growing international pressure on Israel, including demands to freeze new construction in settlements, the Israeli government – particularly since 2011 – has adopted an overt policy of approving settlement outposts and existing illegal construction in settlements. As part of the present wave of laundering construction violations, approval has been granted to 187 illegal housing units in Itamar, 96 in Sansana, 305 in Yaqir, and 94 in Shvut Rachel. The state is currently preparing this type of laundering approval for an additional bloc of settlement outposts east of Shilo. According to reports, the bloc of settlement outposts established in the late 1990s covers a total area of 610.3 hectares and includes four large settlement outposts: Adei Ad, Kida, Esh Kodesh and Ahiya. Thus Israel will once again grant retroactive approval for hundreds of illegally-constructed Israeli buildings.
This laundering process has no legal validity. The establishment of settlements – with or without building permits –violated international humanitarian law (IHL) and the human rights of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank. Over the years, Israeli governments have all disregarded this prohibition and fabricated a sophisticated legal system designed to lend a guise of legality to the seizure of land in the West Bank. As part of this process, Israel has established some 137 settlements throughout the West Bank and on the land annexed to Jerusalem. Almost half a million Israelis now live in these settlements.
http://www.btselem.org/settlements/20151122_retroactive_laundering_of_settlements
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