Introduction to the translated version of the Speigel report.

“Spiegel database” of West Bank settlements and outposts
Developed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense

Enclosed are translations of excerpts from a classified Israeli government database never before released to the public. This database has been in assembly since 2004, when then-Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz tasked Brigadier General (Res.) Baruch Spiegel with building a database to include up-to-date reference for all statutory aspects of settlements and outposts in the West Bank.

The report data demonstrates:

Over 30 settlements – including longstanding settlements such as Ariel, Kochav Yaakov, Beit El, Elon Moreh and Ofrah – that were to some extent built on private Palestinian land.

Construction activity within settlements being conducted without necessary building permits or in direct violation of the building plans.

The extent and locations of unauthorized building in outposts across the West Bank.

January 30, 2009

Secret database shows Israeli government to be active partner in settlement land grab is Philip Weiss’ title to this story printed in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (from Mondoweiss). Weiss describes the story as “huge”: Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement The story outlines a database created by the Israeli defense establishment to gather:

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.

Perhaps what is left out of the story is the extent to which Israeli occupation forces over the years collaborated with settler teams to wrest Palestinian land from its owners, using harassment, violence, house demolitions, and destruction of farmlands and orchards (see Israel’s land grab caper: how it works, Daily Kos).

Now we have admission on the part of the military of this collaboration in building the settlements, all of which are illegal according to international law.
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Weiss says,

The (Haartez) article adds, “the painstakingly amassed data was labeled political dynamite.”

Well the dynamite has exploded.

There is much that can, and will, be said about this report. The initial take home message is that whenever you read or see a story where the Israeli government is presented as a counter balance to the “radical settler movement” you now know this is false. The Israeli government has been supporting and expanding the settlement project in the occupied territories all along, and it is now documented. The settlements have long been viewed as an exception, out of the government’s control, an issue that will be dealt with later. They should now be viewed as the rule. This point is made clear by a settler leader himself:

“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.”

Dror Etkes, an anti-settlement activist with the Israeli NGO Yesh Din has now published an analysis of the database today, along with an English translation of excerpts (the Ha’aretz article contains the database in Hebrew). Etkes says:

There is no doubt that this is the most important database that has ever been exposed on this issue, covering the activities of the State of Israel in the context of the settlement enterprise. It includes reference to additional statutory issues that until now have never been dealt with in public, and in fact proves a colossal violation of the law in nearly every aspect, applicable to most of the settlements – building without permit, land-theft, etc. This proves again that the State and the settlers have an unwritten agreement that divides the work between them: While settlers, through public bodies which they control, actually perform most of the illegal construction and trespassing, the State finances and provides sweeping and ongoing immunity to these criminal activities.

The Etkes analysis and the English translation of parts of the database can be downloaded from Mondoweiss.