What does a settlement look like?

The characteristic feature of all settlements is their urban planning; their location and construction are subject to the preliminary approval of several ministries (Ministry of Defence, Ministry of the Interior, and Ministry of Housing & Infrastructure, among others). A mixture of civil and military architecture, they fulfill a double function, both aggressive and defensive. Usually built in concentric circles on hilltops, their position guarantees them territorial and military control of the surrounding areas. The uniform aspect of the buildings, built close together in neat rows, answer all these requirements as well as financial ones.

The By-Pass Road System in the West Bank

Since 1993, the State of Israel has invested over 3 billion dollars in the construction of a grid of new roads for settlers in the West Bank. The new road network’s aim is to create infrastructure that facilitates the expansion of settlements, reduces the military presence to these highways only, and leaves partly-autonomous Palestinian enclaves in the entire West Bank which are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, divided up by the grid of settler-only (“apartheid”) roads with each enclave or ghetto separated each from the other and the single exit road from each ghetto easily monitored by Israeli military checkpoints or other control mechanisms (gates, earth mounds, “flying” checkpoints (roving jeeps), etc.).

At the end of 1994, the Rabin government launched a programme of construction of 400 kms of new roads, linking the settlements directly to the Israeli state or connecting them to each other. The project required the confiscation of 1600 hectares of land, often extremely fertile. Since the al-Aqsa Intifada, large stretches of roads have been closed to Palestinians, who have been forced to take many time-consuming detours, sometimes using dirt roads, and to wait hours at the military checkpoints, whether fixed or temporary, which regularly punctuate the roads.