Broken Trust: The Batan al-Hawa Report

Ir Amim has released, in cooperation with Peace Now, a joint report entitled “Broken Trust: State Involvement in Private Settlement in Batan al-Hawa, Silwan.”
The report focuses on the rapid escalation of private settlement activity in the heart of Batan al-Hawa, a Palestinian community in Silwan, which is now the site of the largest attempted settler takeover in East Jerusalem – representing not only the large scale displacement of an entire community but also the complicity of the Israeli government in facilitating private settlement in the Historic Basin.

By the end of 2015, the settlers had quadrupled the number of housing units in their possession, having taken over a total of some 27 units in six buildings. In addition, 12 eviction claims relating to 51 families are currently pending. One hundred families – roughly 600 Palestinians – are at risk of displacement.
The settlement in Batan al-Hawa now being developed by Ateret Cohanim is an integral part of efforts by settler organizations and Israeli authorities to consolidate Jewish control of the Old City and the surrounding Palestinian neighborhoods, to create an irreversible reality in the Holy Basin around the Old City that deliberately subverts efforts to negotiate an agreed political resolution on Jerusalem.
Click here to read the full report on state-backed settlement in Batan al-Hawa: bit.ly/BrokenTrustSilwan.
Along with the report on Batan al-Hawa, statistics were released on settlement activity in the Historic Basin and throughout East Jerusalem since 2009 – the start of Netanyahu’s latest tenure as prime minister – showing a significant increase in the number of new settlement sites (60%) and in the number of settlers (70%).
During this period, 60 Palestinian families have been evicted from their homes, of which 55 were evicted in the past two years. In East Jerusalem as a whole, the Ministry of Housing and Construction’s security budget for settlers has grown 119% during this time period.
See here for further information and graphs on the heightened settlement activity in East Jerusalem since 2009.