What’s the Difference? Illegal Outposts, Palestinian Towns in Area C, and Unrecognized Villages in the Negev

Most Bedouin villages in the Negev are located on land that the Bedouin tribes have lived on for generations. Some live in areas the State of Israel forced them to move to in the 1950s, promising they could eventually return to their own land – a promise that was never kept. Because, for decades, no town planning was carried out and these villages have not been officially recognized, the residents cannot build in compliance with planning and construction laws. Meanwhile, children are born, families grow, and the Bedouin need a place to live. Over time, more and more homes were constructed without the necessary permits, as residents of unrecognized villages do not have the option of legal construction.

Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C. Area A includes all the Palestinian cities, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) has responsibility for both civil and security matters; Area B includes most of the large Palestinian towns, and the PA has authority over civil matters only; in Area C, Israel has authority for both security and civil matters. Area C constitutes 60% of the West Bank, with 150,000 Palestinians living there in addition to all the settlements.   Like the Bedouin villages in the Negev, many Palestinian towns and villages in Area C are not recognized by Israel and have not benefited from even minimal town planning, even though many have been rooted in this land for generations. The natural expansion of these towns as a result of population growth is defined by Israel as “illegal.”   Unlike the Negev, however, the West Bank is not part of Israel, but under military occupation. As mandated by international humanitarian law [Article 43 of the Hague Convention (1907) and Articles 4 and 47-48 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949)], the occupying power is obligated to preserve the status quo that had existed in the area prior to its occupation, and to ensure the welfare of its inhabitants, defined as “protected persons”: The occupying power is responsible for maintaining public order and safety, and providing for needs in all areas of life. This means that it is incumbent upon Israel not just to recognize the towns that existed here prior to the occupation, but to afford the inhabitants the opportunity to plan and build to accommodate their natural increase, traditional lifestyle, and desire to improve their living conditions.   In practice, not only did Israel not undertake town planning for these villages, it even thwarted planning efforts initiated by the Palestinian residents. This has far-reaching consequences not just for development and construction in these villages, but also for ensuring the basic needs of the residents, such as infrastructure for water, electricity, and sewage. As a result, residents have two options – to continue building without permits on their private land and face the constant threat of demolition, or to move to Areas A or B and thereby lose their land – the family property.

Israeli outposts in the Occupied Territories are often referred to as “illegal” because they were built without official government permission. However even settlements built by government decision are in violation of international law: Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, ratified by Israel in 1951, explicitly prohibits the transfer of civilian population from the occupying state into the territory occupied. In many senses, the outposts are a direct continuation of Israel’s settlement enterprise, which has led to many grave violations of the human rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories.   Furthermore, a significant number of outposts were built on private land that belongs to Palestinians. In other words, as a result of establishing these outposts, land was stolen from its owners in violation of their property rights. Israeli law naturally prohibits the theft of private property, while international law defines the appropriation of property belonging to a protected person as a war crime [Rome Statute, Article 8(2)(a)(iv)].   The outposts were not created for lack of an alternative or the need to provide shelter. They are an ideological-political act designed to “establish facts on the ground”, i.e., to increase the Israeli presence in and control over the West Bank. Without reference to the historical, political, or ideological justice of this goal, these outposts clearly have nothing to do with ensuring housing or planning rights. Furthermore, the settlements – and particularly the outposts – are in grave breach of the rights of the native population – the Palestinians – to use the land as they see fit.

The problem of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev began as soon as the State of Israel came into being. In the early 1950s, Israel compelled all the Negev Bedouin to live in an area called the sayig [restricted region], located between Beer Sheva, Arad, Dimona, and Yeruham. Some Bedouin villages were already located in this region, and others were forced to move there from elsewhere, as the entire Arab population of Israel was under martial law from the birth of Israel until 1966. On more than one occasion, Bedouin were told that this was a temporary measure, a matter of six months, but the lands left behind were declared closed military zones and the tribes were never allowed to return.   At the same time, the Bedouin were not given property rights to the lands to which the State moved them. It did not even recognize the proprietary rights of those who had lived in the sayig previously and continued to live there on their own land. The forced move of the Bedouin population and their confinement to the sayig were part of a deliberate policy to restrict the living space of the Arab population in the Negev and to urbanize them, compelling them to give up their lifestyle, culture, and traditional economy.   As a result of government policies over many years, Bedouin homes in the Negev face a constant threat of demolition, the villages are not connected to the water, electricity, or sewage infrastructure, and the education, health and welfare services available to Bedouin citizens are inadequate or partial.

In parallel with the growth and expansion of the settlement enterprise, Israel began to place limitations on the number of construction permits granted to Palestinians in the West Bank. After the Oslo Accords and the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C in 1995, Israel completely suspended the planning of Palestinian towns in Area C. Since then, only a small number of permits are issued annually, and every attempt to enlarge or develop a Palestinian village incurs an automatic demolition order.   In 2011, the Civil Administration announced its intent to engage in planning of some Palestinian towns in Area C. This has not yet been implemented, and is not likely to meet the needs of the Palestinian residents after decades of restrictions and deliberate neglect. Meanwhile, the policy of demolition continues, and many Palestinians continue to live without connection to the electricity grid and having to purchase water from mobile tankers at inflated prices. Israel does not even acknowledge its obligation to provide basic services such as education or health to the Palestinians in Area C, even though the full responsibility for this rests with Israel.

Although the outposts were built without government approval or in fact any planning whatsoever, in most cases the government not only acquiesced by silence, but actively cooperated with the settlers in establishing them. Various government arms invested large sums of money to connect the outposts to the water system and electricity grid; they allocated land and mobile homes; and they even directly financed some outposts. According to a legal opinion ordered by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and submitted by Atty. Talia Sasson in 2005 (“the Sasson report”), the following authorities were directly involved in establishing the outposts: the Housing Ministry, Defense Ministry, Civil Administration, and the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, which is financed by the Agriculture Ministry.   Some outposts are built on private Palestinian land, such as Migron. Over the years, Israel has done nothing to enforce the law on these outposts, even though the authorities were aware of the fact that the Migron settlers seized private Palestinian land for their outpost – they acknowledged this to the Court. The Migron case is unique because in August 2011, for the first time since the Alon Moreh case (in 1979), the Supreme Court explicitly instructed the State to dismantle the outpost and it even set a time frame for its completion – by the end of March 2012. In other cases, the Court made do with promises by the State that the law would be enforced through dialogue with the settlers.