Illegal construction in Area C

By Ted Belman

In October 2022, REGAVIM released a report that  

“reveals that in 2022, illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, the portion of Judea and Samaria under full Israeli jurisdiction, increased by 80%. The report documents 5535 new illegal structures built in 2022, compared to 3076 structures in the same period in 2021. Regavim: “The Israeli government is creating a de facto Palestinian state.“

‘At present, according to Regavim’s research, there are 81,317 illegal Arab-built structures in this area, covering an area of approximately 150,000 dunams’

Obviously there is an enormous amount of illegal Arab construction in Area C which the Civil Administration does nothing about.

Haaretz published an article, Internal Documents Reveal Israeli Settlers’ Dedication to Ousting ‘Arabs’ From West Bank, by notorious Amira Hass today. It is chock full of lies such as;

” in the territories known as Area C, whose planning and administrative powers were to temporarily remain in Israel’s hands, according to the Oslo Accords. By 1999, planning, construction and administrative powers in most of this territory were supposed to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, but Israel did not abide by the agreements.”

Since the Palestinians violated the Accords in many ways, Israel had no obligation to give them control by 1999.

 “The document provides yet another glance at the intense involvement of settlers in Civil Administration and Israeli army operations, from evictions of the Palestinians from most of the territory of the West Bank and the prevention of their construction and infrastructure work, to the meticulous effort to ensure that they do not exceed the bounds of the enclaves Israel has allocated to them.”

She omits to mention that the PLO /PA agreed to these enclaves without which agreement there would have been no accords. The purpose of the “intense involvement of the settlers” was to ensure that the terms of the Accords were not violated. The Palestinians had no right to be there and their construction efforts were illegal. If effect, the settlers were trying to prevent Palestinian violations.

“The recent demand of the Religious Zionism party to control the bodies that run the lives of the Palestinians and their land in the West Bank did not come out of nowhere: It is the natural continuation of the pressure that has been applied for years on the ground, in the Knesset, in the media and in the courts, by the settlement lobby, which for some 30 years has presented a false picture according to which the territory designated as Area C belongs solely to Israel and the Jews.”

There is nothing false about the picture it paints. According to the Accords, “Area C does belong  solely to Israel and the Jews”. Israel was given full control of it by the Accords.

“there are comments from the people who made the reports, which reflect how much the construction and other work undertaken by Palestinians in the West Bank has become criminalized according to the criteria set by the Civil Administration and the settlers.”

Another lie.  The construction by the Palestinians in Area C is illegal because they have never gotten permission to do so.. It has not been criminalized. No Palestinian has be charged criminally.

“When the call center was launched, in January 2021, it was described in an ad on the website of the Kokhav Ya’akov settlement (which is built on the land of Kafr Aqab) as a “snitch line.”

“The ad read: “Have you seen construction work by Palestinians that you think is suspicious and unauthorized? Have you come across a sanitation hazard caused by Palestinians who treat the law with contempt? From now on you have your own snitch line – turn to it anytime, in any possible way and make a complaint.””

The good news is that the settlers have made great use of the snitch line and made 1168 complaints since then most of which are south of Jerusalem and not north of it.  I do not know why no one is focusing on violations north of it.

“Regavim spokeswoman, Tamar Sikurel, told Haaretz that

“in the end, the Civil Administration is a body that has been given a mandate to protect Israel’s interests in these territories, and it very simply is not doing its job… The Operations Room C is [only] partly active; land inspectors in the councils in Judea and Samaria have WhatsApp groups in which military and Civil Administration people are members, and there they report 24/7 on building violations, of which the vast majority are not dealt with. This is in addition to the [the online form] in which inquiries to the Civil Administration are entered.”

MK Bezalel Smotrich, who is the founder of Regavim, has been given complete control over Area C starting as soon as the new government is installed.  I have complete confidence that he will right the situation.