Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and have been constructed on lands that Israel has militarily occupied since the Six-Day War in 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this. In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found in an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation was illegal and ruled that Israel had "an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers" from the occupied territories. The population of the settlements increased rapidly over the last 35 years. The expansion of settlements often involves the confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, leading to displacement of Palestinian communities and creating a source of tension and conflict. Settlements are often protected by the Israeli military and are frequently flashpoints for violence against Palestinians. Furthermore, the presence of settlements and Jewish-only bypass roads creates a fragmented Palestinian territory, seriously hindering economic development and freedom of movement for Palestinians.
As of April 2025, Israeli settlements exist in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which is claimed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sovereign territory of the State of Palestine, and in the Golan Heights, which is internationally recognized as a part of the sovereign territory of Syria. Through the Jerusalem Law and the Golan Heights Law, Israel effectively annexed both territories, though the international community has rejected any change to their status as occupied territory. Although Israel's West Bank settlements have been built on territory administered under military rule rather than civil law, Israeli civil law is "pipelined" into the settlements, such that Israeli citizens living there are treated similarly to those living in Israel. Many consider it to be a major obstacle to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.Anthony Cordesman, Jennifer Moravitz, The Israeli–Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere, Greenwood Publishing Group, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2005 p. 432: 'Between 1993 and 1999, settlers established 42 "unofficial" settlements, only four of which were subsequently dismantled. More than a dozen new settlements were established between the 1998 Wye Accord [sic: it's the Wye River Memorandum, but Oslo Accords] and the outbreak of war, although former Prime Minister Netanyahu supposedly promised Clinton that he would halt expansion.'Zeev Maoz Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security & Foreign Policy, University of Michigan Press, 2006 p. 472: 'As can be seen from the table, in 1993 there were about 110,000 settlers in the occupied territories. In 2001 there were 195,000 (Note that the number of settlers increased by 18 percent during the Al Aqsa Intifada). This was an increase of 73 percent'Marwan Bishara, Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid Zed Books, 2003 p. 133: 'The settlement expansion has continued unabated...and accelerated after the launch of the peace process.' p. 133.Baylis Thomas, The Dark Side of Zionism: Israel's Quest for Security Through Dominance Lexington Books, 3011 p. 137: "Six years after the agreement there were more Israeli settlements, less freedom of movement, and worse economic conditions." Settlement building and roads for Jewish settlers proceeded at a frenetic pace under Barak – the classic Zionist maneuver of creating of facts on the ground to preclude a Palestinian state.' p. 137. In Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004), the ICJ found that Israel's settlements and the then-nascent Israeli West Bank barrier were both in violation of international law; part of the latter has been constructed within the West Bank, as opposed to being entirely on Israel's side of the Green Line.Regarding international organizations and courts of law, see ; regarding the UN, see UN General Assembly resolution 39/146, 14 December 1984; UN Security Council Resolution 446, 22 March 1979; and International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, 9 July 2004, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, para 120; Regarding the European Union position, see The Syrian Golan
As of January 2023, there are 144 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem; the Israeli government administers the West Bank as the Judea and Samaria Area, which does not include East Jerusalem. In addition to the settlements, the West Bank is also hosting at least 196 Israeli outposts, which are settlements that have not been authorized by the Israeli government. In total, over 450,000 Israeli settlers reside in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, with an additional 220,000 Israeli settlers residing in East Jerusalem. Additionally, over 25,000 Israeli settlers live in Syria's Golan Heights. Between 1967 and 1982, there were 18 settlements established in the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, though these were dismantled by Israel after the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979. Additionally, as part of the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel dismantled all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank.*
Per the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer by an occupying power of its civilian population into the territory it is occupying constitutes a war crime,Robert Cryer, Hakan Friman, Darryl Robinson, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure, Cambridge University Press 2010 p.308Ghislain Poissonnier, Eric David, 'Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, a War Crime?,' Revue des droits de l'homme, 2020.'Status of Settlements Under International Law,' Amnesty International pp.8,29f. although Israel disputes that this statute applies to the West Bank. On 20 December 2019, the International Criminal Court announced the opening of an investigation of war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The presence and ongoing expansion of existing settlements by Israel and the construction of outposts is frequently criticized as an obstacle to peace by the PLO, and by a number of third parties, such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,"OIC Secretary General hails EU decision on Israeli settlements" . United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine – OIC Statement to UN. Accessed 14 March 2015. the United Nations (UN), Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the European Union. The UN has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements in the occupied territories constitutes a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.*
Civilian and military presence as strategies of territorial control: The Arab-Israel conflict, David Newman, Political Geography Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 3, July 1989, Pages 215–227 For decades, the United States also designated Israeli settlements as illegal, but the first Trump administration reversed this long-standing policy in November 2019, declaring that "the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law"; this new policy, in turn, was reversed to the original by the Biden administration in February 2024, once again classifying Israeli settlement expansion as "inconsistent with international law" and matching the official positions of the other three members of the Middle East Quartet.
Name and characterization Certain observers and Palestinians occasionally use the term "Israeli colonies" as a substitute for the term "settlements". Settlements range in character from farming communities and frontier villages to urban suburbs and neighborhoods. The four largest settlements, Modi'in Illit, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit and Ariel, have achieved city status. Ariel has 18,000 residents, while the rest have around 37,000 to 55,500 each.
Housing costs and state subventions Settlement has an economic dimension, much of it driven by the significantly lower costs of housing for Israeli citizens living in Israeli settlements compared to the cost of housing and living in Israel proper.'The economics at the heart of Israel's illegal settlements,' Ma'an News Agency 7 January 2015. Government spending per citizen in the settlements is double that spent per Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while government spending for settlers in isolated Israeli settlements is three times the Israeli national average. Most of the spending goes to the security of the Israeli citizens living there.Jodi Rudoren, Jeremy Ashkenas,'Netanyahu and the Settlements,' The New York Times, 12 March 2015: 'the government spent about $950 supporting each West Bank resident in 2014, more than double its investment in people living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem; in isolated settlements, it was $1,483 per capita.'
Number of settlements and inhabitants
Main article: :List of Israeli settlements As of January 2023, there are 144 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem. In addition, there are at least 196 Israeli illegal outposts (not sanctioned by the Israeli government) in the West Bank. In total, over 529,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem, with an additional 246,000 Jewish settlers residing in East Jerusalem.
Additionally, over 20,000 Israeli citizens live in settlements in the Golan Heights.
History
Occupied territories Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied a number of territories. It took over the remainder of the Palestinian Mandate territories of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, from Jordan which had controlled the territories since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, which had held Gaza under occupation since 1949. From Egypt, it also captured the Sinai Peninsula and from Syria it captured most of the Golan Heights, which since 1981 has been administered under the Golan Heights Law.
Settlement policy As early as September 1967, Israeli settlement policy was progressively encouraged by the Labor government of Levi Eshkol. The basis for Israeli settlement in the West Bank became the Allon Plan,Separate and Unequal , Chapter IV. Human Rights Watch, 19 December 2010Akiva Eldar, "A matter of a few dozen meters" . Haaretz, 1 June 2008 named after its inventor Yigal Allon. It implied Israeli annexation of major parts of the Israeli-occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and the Jordan Valley.Ian S. Lustick, For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel , chapter 3, par. Early Activities of Gush Emunim. 1988, the Council on Foreign Relations The settlement policy of the government of Yitzhak Rabin was also derived from the Allon Plan.Knesset Website, Gush Emunim . Retrieved 27-02-2013
The first settlement was Kfar Etzion, in the southern West Bank, although that location was outside the Allon Plan. Many settlements began as Nahal settlements. They were established as military outposts and later expanded and populated with civilian inhabitants. According to a secret document dating to 1970, obtained by Haaretz, the settlement of Kiryat Arba was established by confiscating land by military order and falsely representing the project as being strictly for military use while in reality, Kiryat Arba was planned for settler use. The method of confiscating land by military order for establishing civilian settlements was an open secret in Israel throughout the 1970s, but publication of the information was suppressed by the military censor.