Israeli Settlement

Gilo: Jewish settlement near Bethlehem

Israeli settlement, any of the communities of Israeli Jews built after 1967 in the territories occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War—the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. Most, but not all, were authorized and supported by the Israeli government.

Since 2005 these communities have existed almost exclusively in the West Bank, with a handful located in the Golan Heights. Settlements in the Sinai Peninsula were either dismantled or evacuated in 1982, and settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled in 2005. It is disputed, moreover, whether communities in the formally annexed territories of East Jerusalem (part of the West Bank territory under Jordanian rule from 1949 to 1967) and the Golan Heights constitute settlements: Israel applied full sovereignty to these territories in 1967 and 1981, respectively, but the legitimacy of these unilateral annexations remains unrecognized by most international observers and by the original inhabitants who still reside in those territories.

Israeli settlements were erected for a variety of reasons. In some cases, Israelis sought to recover property lost in the 1948 war and the hostilities leading up to it, such as the core settlements of Gush Etzion between Jerusalem and Hebron. Israel’s political and defense establishments, meanwhile—inspired in part by the peace plan of Yigal Allon, the deputy prime minister (1967–77)—spurred the development of settlements in strategic locations such as the Jordan Valley that would bolster Israel’s security and strengthen its hand in negotiations. Ideological settlers, seeking to maximize Jewish possession of biblical lands, set up settlements such as Kiryat Arba near Hebron.

Israeli settlements (2003)

Settlements continued to expand in the decades that followed, and by 1993 there were more than 280,000 people living in settlements (130,000 if East Jerusalem is excluded). That same year Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to implement a two-state solution, which required the two parties to come to an agreement on matters that would have direct consequence for the borders and contiguity of a future Palestinian state, including the final status of Israeli settlements. Despite the agreement, settlement building proliferated, especially in the West Bank, and in 2019 the number of settlers reached nearly 630,000 (413,000 if East Jerusalem is excluded). Most of these newer settlers were motivated less by reasons of ideology or recovering lost property, however, than by cheaper housing and financial incentives offered by the Israeli government.