From 1967 to 1977, 35,000 Jewish settlers were installed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Plans to colonise and populate new areas were enacted as a regular phenomenon but were sharply accelerated during the “peace process.” There were 75,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank at the time of the Madrid Conference in 1991, 95,000 at the time of the signature of the Oslo Accords in 1993, 147,000 at the end of the Rabin and Peres governments in 1996, while 29,496 hectares of land were confiscated to bring to fruition the settlement policy. In 2001, 180,000 settlers lived in the West Bank, 190,000 in East Jerusalem, 5,000 in Gaza and 17,000 in the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

In January 2000, there were 209 Israeli settlements: (190 in the West Bank and 19 in the Gaza Strip); over 74settlements were established after the signature of the Oslo Accords and 27 more after the Wye Plantation Accord in October 1998. Under the Barak government, 3,499 housing units in the settlements were approved and 2,270 constructed. State subsidies reached almost $17,000 for buyers and land tax exemptions for land owners was spread over a period of up to 10 years.

Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada, some 15 new Jewish settlements have been given the green light. Since the beginning of the settlement enterprise, according to Shimon Peres, $80 billion has been spent on settlements by the State of Israel, largely subsidised by the American government. Figures are hard to cite, since much has been buried in defence budgets. [see Peace Now Settlement Watch and ARIJ “Eye on Palestine”  for up-to-date statistics.]