Israel’s illegal settlements are good for business, not for peace

The mood of the international community vis-a-vis Israeli-Palestinian peace, unless you are Donald Trump, ranges between complete apathy and deep despair. Both dispositions amount to the same thing, which is a strong sense that, in the current circumstances, peace is neither imminent nor feasible. There is hardly any evidence to contradict such an assessment. It is safe to say, if anything, that relations between the two peoples will get worse before there is any flicker of hope that a search for a solution that recognizes everyone’s human and national rights will be negotiated in earnest.

In the meantime, it is left for some within the international community to monitor certain aspects of the situation that are hindering such a peaceful solution; and none more so than the Israeli settlements, which, by their expansion and entrenchment, are rendering a two-state solution — or any other fair and just solution — impossible. There are some obvious features of the settlements that are creating obstacles, such as the land grabbing, the disproportionate exploitation of natural resources, and the oppression of the local population in the name of security. But there is also the neglected issue of how the occupation and settlements are benefiting Israel economically, and in return how the economic interests that operate in the Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are contributing to the perpetuation of the occupation by rewarding these illegal settlements with economic viability and prosperity; and adding to their ideological underpinnings an economic intransigence in resisting a peace deal with the Palestinians.

A report by the UN human rights office last month pointed out that, from the beginning of the Jewish settlement project in the Occupied Territories in the 1970s, “private businesses have been involved in Israel’s settlement policies, benefiting from and contributing to them.” With the exception of Israel, and more recently the US, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are regarded by the world as contravening international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Consecutive Israeli governments have defied those articles of law by arguing that these are not occupied territories, but disputed ones that didn’t belong to Jordan when Israel took them over in June 1967, as the territory was assigned to a future Palestinian state by the 1947 Partition Plan. At best, Israel is being disingenuous in using this argument to block the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, while at the same time it changes the conditions on the ground in order to lessen the possibility of such a state ever coming into being.

This latest UN report has identified 112 business entities involved in economic activities related to settlements, 94 of which are domiciled in Israel and the rest in countries such as the US, UK, France, the Netherlands and even Thailand. Among those mentioned are Opodo, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Motorola Solutions. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report previously highlighted that Airbnb and Booking.com advertised holiday properties in occupied West Bank settlements as being located inside Israel. Not only was this blatantly misleading, it also enhanced tourism and economic prosperity in illegal political entities for the sake of greed. These businesses actively contribute to the economic viability and sustainability of the settlements while benefiting “from the serious rights abuses and entrenched discriminatory practices stemming from the settlements.” Israelis and foreigners may rent properties in settlements, but Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred. This is a practice that has no parallel in any other country that Airbnb, for instance, operates in.

These businesses have contributed immensely to the growth of the settler population from zero to the current figure of about 600,000 in 140 settlements, some of which are outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law, in less than 50 years. A combination of Israeli and international businesses has been instrumental in financing and marketing settlement communities. After all, one of the common misconceptions about settlers and settlements is that they are all comprised of highly ideological right-wing and messianic Israeli Jews who long to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, who lived in these areas thousands of years ago. In fact, most of the settlers are economic migrants who couldn’t afford to buy property in Israel proper within the Green Line. They were tempted by cheap mortgages, tax breaks, low rents and disproportionate investment in health, education and transport that guaranteed a standard of living and a lifestyle they could not match had they stayed in Israel. Similarly, businesses have been tempted by tax breaks, subsidies and government investment in infrastructure, low rents, and access to cheap Palestinian labor.

In return, these companies are supplying equipment and material that facilitate the construction and expansion of the settlements and the security barrier, or alternatively the demolition of Palestinian property and the destruction of farm buildings, olive groves and crops. Moreover, these settlements will not survive unless they are provided with the necessary utilities, including essential transport and financial services vital to maintaining, developing and expanding them.

As important as this UN account of the collusion between the business community and Israel’s settlement project is, it only has reporting powers. It reveals the alliance between those politicians determined to destroy the prospect of an independent Palestinian state and the businesses that are making substantial financial gains from Israel’s illegal settlements, but it doesn’t suggest how the international community should go about correcting this situation, not even in relation to those international companies profiting from it.

This gap between exposing what is undermining the search for a fair, just and, hence, sustainable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the unwillingness of the international community to act in accordance with this evidence is a major contributory factor to the current impasse, the prolonged occupation, and the ever-expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank.

• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg