Settler State: Guide to the Israeli Settler Groups That Work to Dispossess Palestinians in Jerusalem

September 19, 2024

Snapshot

Israeli settler organizations and the Israeli government are intensifying their collaboration in seizing Palestinian land for the construction of Jewish settlements across occupied Palestinian lands, and this is most evident in Jerusalem. This Backgrounder surveys the main settler groups working with the Israeli government, and it describes the different ways they have long been coordinating the displacement of Palestinians and confiscation of their lands in East Jerusalem.

Israeli settlements have rapidly advanced across East Jerusalem between 2023 and 2024 (see Israel to Advance Nearly 7,000 Israeli Settlement Units in East Jerusalem). Since launching its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has initiated construction on 12,000 housing units in eight new settlements across East Jerusalem, either in or next to Palestinian neighborhoods.1

This unprecedented level of settlement expansion can be attributed in part to intensified cooperation between Israeli settler groups and government institutions. For decades, these settler groups have been working to promote and fund the settlement of Jews on the land through a variety of projects and initiatives, including the construction of housing units, archaeological sites, national parks, tourist sites, and other infrastructure that typically necessitates the confiscation of Palestinian land, the demolition of Palestinian properties, and the displacement of Palestinians. As Israeli leadership turns increasingly extremist, these settler-state projects continue to expand.

With the foundation of Israel centered on Jewish settlement, the state and settlers’ agendas are often one and the same, and nowhere is this collaboration in settlement projects more evident than in Jerusalem. Indeed, according to the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, an Israeli archaeological rights group:

Over the years, cooperation between government offices and state and municipal authorities with the settler organizations has tightened, leading to a steep increase in the number of archaeological sites under settler control. These sites are curated to emphasize the Jewish people’s central or exclusive ties to the area.2

In order to better understand the mechanisms through which Jewish settlement expansion takes place in Jerusalem, this Backgrounder identifies the major settler organizations operating in the city and investigates how they interact with government agencies.

Ateret Cohanim

Established in 1978, Ateret Cohanim’s stated objective is to “restore Jewish life in the heart of ancient Jerusalem.” Accordingly, its activities are focused on the Old City, where it considers the Muslim and Christian Quarters to be the “Old Jewish Quarter”; it is therefore working actively to “reclaim” them for Jews by facilitating the appropriation of Palestinian properties and transferring them to Jewish Israeli settlers.

A 2021 map illustrating the location of Jewish settlers’ homes, confiscated from the original Palestinian residents with the help of Ateret Cohanim and the Israeli government, throughout the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, directly south of the Old City. The Palestinian areas most affected within Silwan are Wadi Hilweh, Batn al-Hawa, Ras al-Amud, and the Mount of Olives.
Credit: Peace Now

One of the main tactics Ateret Cohanim uses is suing Palestinians in those areas under Israel’s 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law, which allows Jews—but not Palestinians—to claim ownership of land lost after the 1948 War. This entails expelling Palestinians and taking over their homes. Under the law, Israel’s General Custodian, operating within the Ministry of Justice, manages these alleged Jewish-owned properties and is responsible for returning them to the so-called original owners and their heirs (see How Israel Applies the Absentees’ Property Law to Confiscate Palestinian Property in Jerusalem).

“The General Custodian is one of the most notable bodies that has been working for years in collusion with settler groups,” Amy Cohen, international relations director at Ir Amim, an Israeli Jerusalem-focused NGO, told Jerusalem Story.3

Cohen argues cooperation between settlers and the General Custodian intensified in 2017 when Hananel Gurfinkel, head of the General Custodian’s economic unit, received responsibility for the office’s East Jerusalem portfolio.4 Gurfinkel lives in the East Jerusalem settlement of Nof Zion, which was built inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukabbir. He established Boneh Yerushalayim, an NGO working with the government to prevent illegal construction on state land,5 which often translates to targeting Palestinians who build without permits. Palestinians are often unable to secure building permits for their homes and businesses, because the Jerusalem Municipality largely does not approve zoning plans or permit applications in Palestinian areas.6

“The amount of eviction cases against Palestinians increased after Gurfinkel took over in 2017,” Cohen said.

The Nof Zion settlement, along with an Israeli military post, is built directly in front of the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukabbir in south Jerusalem. The difference in architectural and construction styles is clearly visible, as is the proximity of the settlement to the Palestinian homes. Shown here on October 25, 2017.
Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images

Ateret Cohanim was able to seize three historic hotel properties in the Old City by purchasing 399-year leases from the Greek Orthodox Church: Hotel Imperial and the nearby Petra Hotel, located at the entrance to the Jaffa Gate, were leased for $1.25 million and $500,000, respectively. The Muzamiya House, also located in the Old City, was leased for $55,000. Later efforts by the church to contest and void these deals were not successful in Israeli courts.7

Although most of its operations are located in the Old City, Ateret Cohanim, alongside the General Custodian, is promoting the Kidmat Tzion settlement plan (see With Eyes on Gaza, City Fast Tracks New Settlement That Will Foreclose Future Palestinian Capital in Abu Dis).

in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, located inside Jerusalem’s municipal boundary and the Separation Wall, Ateret Cohanim also established a settlement in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis.

Much of the organization’s activities outside the Old City are located in Silwan, specifically in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, where it has seized at least six buildings since 2004—expelling 14 Palestinian families (see One Lot at a Time, Israeli Settlers Expand Their Presence in Palestinian Silwan). Currently, more than 700 Palestinians are at risk of being dispossessed and displaced because of Ateret Cohanim (see Israeli Courts Order More than 50 Palestinians Expelled from Homes in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah).

“The General Custodian knows where there are alleged Jewish properties throughout East Jerusalem, and they’re abusing their authority to initiate settlement plans,” Cohen said.

The Givat HaShaked Jewish settlement, which is planned with nearly 700 housing units in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa, in southern Jerusalem, was the first such plan to be initiated by the General Custodian in 2021.8 The Jerusalem District Planning Committee subsequently approved the Givat HaShaked settlement in 2024 (see Under Cover of War, Israel Charges Ahead with Severing East Jerusalem from the West Bank through Settlements).

“Essentially, they are now starting to develop large settlement projects on lands that they administer, which is completely new,” Cohen said.

The General Custodian is also working with settler-affiliated companies Topodia and Nofey Rachel Ltd. to advance Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. In south Jerusalem, Topodia and the General Custodian are seeking to build 450 settler housing units on open land between the Palestinian neighborhoods of Umm Lison and Jabal Mukabbir,9 and with Nofey Rachel Ltd., the General Custodian wants to build 650 housing units in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sur Bahir (see Under Cover of War, Israel Charges Ahead with Severing East Jerusalem from the West Bank through Settlements).

Along with promoting settlement plans, the General Custodian is also using settlement of land title (SOLT) procedures to register property to the state or settler groups (see Land Settlement and Registration in East Jerusalem). For instance, in 2022, the General Custodian registered land near the designated Kidmat Tzion settlement to the state, suggesting another settlement may be advanced next to where Kidmat Tzion is planned (see With Eyes on Gaza, City Fast Tracks New Settlement That Will Foreclose Future Palestinian Capital in Abu Dis).The General Custodian is also carrying out land registration procedures in the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Lison, directly east of Sur Bahir.

In 2001, Ateret Cohanim gained control of the Benvenisti Trust, which was established in 1899 and housed Jewish immigrants from Yemen in Silwan who subsequently abandoned the area during the 1936–39 Great Palestinian Revolt. Through the trust, Ateret Cohanim displaces Palestinians from Silwan and replaces them with settlers by claiming the homes belong to Yemeni Jews whose properties fell under the trust as per Israel’s 1970 Legal and Administrative Matters Law (see Jerusalem Court Sides with Settlers, Ruling to Displace 66 Palestinians from Batn al-Hawa, Silwan).

“Essentially, the Registrar of Trusts [which sits under Israel’s Ministry of Finance] did not conduct due diligence at the time, because they were part of appointing Ateret Cohanim members to the trusteeship,” Cohen said. “You have this organization that’s very politically and ideologically driven, and then you have the Registrar of Trusts, which is a state body.”

A 2012 illustration by UNOCHA of the location of Israeli settlements in and around Palestinian residential areas of the East Jerusalem, especially the Old City and Silwan
Credit: UNOCHA via Mondoweiss

In other words, Ateret Cohanim was able to seize a large area in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood based on the justification that, at one point in history, the neighborhood belonged to Yemeni Jews. It did so with the help of the state, which entrusted it with the Benvenisti Trust in 2001, although it had no connection to the original Jews who once lived in the area.10 In addition, the General Custodian issued a bidding over large plots in the area exclusively to Ateret Cohanim, as it intentionally denied Palestinians who lived there for decades the opportunity to submit bids to purchase the property.

Ir Amim has a pending lawsuit against the registrar for granting Ateret Cohanim trusteeship, alleging the settler group’s mission contradicts the Benvenisti Trust’s charter to aid impoverished Jewish and non-Jewish Jerusalemites, and thereby demanding the revocation of Ateret Cohanim’s appointment.11

Ateret Cohanim is also working with the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry to turn a home it seized from Palestinians in Batn al-Hawa into a Yemenite Jewish heritage center. The government company PAMI, or East Jerusalem Development Company, issued the tender for construction of the center along with the Ministry of Culture allocating funding.12

The executive director and spokesperson of Ateret Cohanim is Daniel Lurie.

Elad

The Ir David (City of David) Foundation is another major player in the settler-state collusion scheme. Commonly referred to by its Hebrew acronym, Elad, the settler group works with several Israeli government agencies to advance tourist projects in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, displacing Palestinians in the process.

In 1974, Israel declared Silwan and its environs as the Jerusalem Walls National Park, meaning the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) began managing the area.

In 1997, the INPA, a government body, reached an agreement with Elad whereby it received the rights to manage the City of David archaeological park13 (see How Settlers Warp History in Silwan). In Judaism, David is the revered king of the Israelites who conquered Jerusalem in 1004 BC. Over the years, additional agreements gave Elad management rights over central archaeological sites throughout the Holy Basin.

Member of Knesset and retired military general Benny Gantz takes a tour of the City of David in Silwan on January 14, 2020. The controversial archaeological park, run by the right-wing Elad settler group and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, threatens to displace thousands of Palestinians.
Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images

In 2002, the INPA authorized Elad to manage the City of David archaeological site in the Wadi Hilweh area of Silwan. “This was the first time that a private organization was given the rights to run a site that is of national importance and under a state body,” Talya Ezrahi, external relations coordinator at Emek Shaveh, told Jerusalem Story.14 “Since then, they’ve been expanding the City of David underground and into open spaces within Silwan. And all of this is facilitated by the Nature and Parks Authority, which is the government agency within the Ministry of Environmental Affairs.”

In coordination with the INPA, Elad has expanded the City of David site deeper into Silwan and surrounding neighborhoods. In Silwan alone, Elad has seized as much as a third of the land that belongs to Palestinians there.15

In Silwan alone, Elad has seized as much as a third of the land that belongs to Palestinians there.

Elad is also carrying out a number of archaeological excavations throughout Silwan under the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry’s Shalem Plan, a comprehensive plan for the development of the Holy Basin that originated with Government decision 2678 on May 28, 2017. The plan is a cornerstone of an initiative to develop the Old City and the City of David, along with the Mount of Olives, the “Peace Forest” (Wadi Yasul), and the Armon HaNatziv Promenade. The plan’s goals entail “ongoing exposure of, research into, and development of antiquity sites in ancient Jerusalem as part of a national plan . . . that will highlight and empower the role of Jerusalem as the ancient capital of King David and the modern-day capital of Israel.” According to Emek Shaveh, the Shalem Plan is informed by “blatant ideological and political motives.”16

With assistance from the INPA, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Elad is currently excavating a network of tunnels underneath Silwan known as the “Pilgrims Road.” These excavations have caused cracks and fissures in Silwan homes.17 Meanwhile, in 2018, the government granted Elad approval to build Jewish residential units in the areas adjacent to al-Haram al-Sharif.18

Land belonging to Palestinian residents of Abu Tur, a neighborhood just south of Silwan, came under Elad’s authority in 2020 when it agreed with the INPA to establish a biblical park showcasing ancient farming methods on private Palestinian property. Elad and the INPA were able to secure “municipal gardening orders” in order to circumvent issues regarding private ownership.19 Currently, the INPA is seeking to expand the Jerusalem Walls National Park to encompass the Mount of Olives and its Christian religious sites. According to Emek Shaveh, this expansion plan also includes the area where the biblical farm is located.

“When you go [to the farm], you see people working wearing T-shirts with both logos—Elad and the Nature and Parks authority. So, they are basically indistinguishable,” Ezrahi said. “Now, we don’t say the settlers anymore. You can say the state. It’s the same thing.”

“We don’t say the settlers anymore. You can say the state. It’s the same thing.”

Talya Ezrahi, external relations coordinator, Emek Shaveh

In 2018, the government allocated approximately $54 million for a controversial cable car project that would connect the City of David visitors’ center to West Jerusalem.20 The cable car was initiated by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and Jerusalem Municipality.21 It is promoted as easing traffic congestion in Jerusalem, but ultimately it bypasses Palestinian areas and connects Elad’s tourist sites.

As part of this project, Elad also seized a Silwan parking lot for an archaeological dig, with plans to turn it into the settlers’ headquarters. Slated to be named Kedem Compound, the project would serve as a terminal for the cable car.22

A map, courtesy of Emek Shaveh, showing the routes of Israel’s planned cable car and underground train projects in the Holy Basin. The cable car route, shown in yellow, is seen crossing through the Palestinian neighborhoods of Silwan and Mount of Olives. In the center is the Kedem Compound stop, which will be located in Wadi Hilweh directly south of the Haram al-Sharif. Also seen in green is the historic Green Line, which the cable car route is set to breach, as shown.
Credit: Emek Shaveh

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is also intertwined with Elad’s projects. For instance, the JNF allowed Elad to take over a nearly four-acre complex in the so-called Peace Forest, a park run by the JNF and located along the Green Line in Jerusalem.23

Along with funding from the Jerusalem Municipality and Jerusalem Development Authority,24 the JNF is also sponsoring Elad’s construction25 of a visitors’ center and zipline in the “Peace Forest.”

Palestinians living there are considered disposable.

Nahalat Shim’on

Nahalat Shim’on is a private settler organization named after a small Jewish settlement that was established close to Sheikh Jarrah in 1891 by Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews to house impoverished Yemeni and Sephardic Jews. The organization, which does not have ties to the original Jewish residents of the area,26 has the explicit intention of resurrecting an expanded vision of the Nahalat Shim’on settlement by demolishing parts of Sheikh Jarrah, thereby expelling Palestinians.

Nahalat Shim’on has already displaced hundreds of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, most of whom are Palestinian refugees from lands that became Israel in 1948 who moved to the area as part of a housing agreement between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956. Over the last few years, Palestinians residing in the Kerem al-Juni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, primarily from the al-Kurd, Askafi, al-Juni, and al-Qassem families, have been appealing Israeli courts to stop their expulsion.27

Nahalat Shim’on has already displaced hundreds of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah.

In March 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court accepted “a portion of the families’ appeal, which has provisionally frozen their eviction and afforded them with the opportunity to prove property rights in the framework of formal settlement of land title proceedings”28—a long, costly, and convoluted process that often exposes Palestinians to further dispossession (see The Settlement of Land Title (SOLT) in East Jerusalem: “The Most Acute Threat Facing Palestinian Residents of Jerusalem Today”).

Tzachi Mamou, an extremist settler activist, represents Nahalat Shim’on. He is also a key figure in settler takeovers of Palestinian properties in the Old City, as well as several settler projects in East Jerusalem, one of which would build a road through Sheikh Jarrah for Jewish tours, seizing the Tomb of the Kings compound in the process.29

Aryeh King

Aryeh King, a well-known settler activist, has been serving as Jerusalem’s deputy mayor since 2021. As founder of the settler group Israel Land Fund (ILA), King has been instrumental in evicting Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah for decades. According to the ILA’s website, King stepped down from his managerial role when he assumed the position of deputy mayor.30

Despite this detail, King and his right-hand man, Yonatan Yosef, a settler-activist and former Jerusalem council member, are behind efforts to evict the Salem family in the Umm Haroun section of Sheikh Jarrah. Using Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law, Yosef claims to have purchased part of the Salem home from heirs of the Jewish family who purportedly owned the property before 1948.31 In 2021, Yosef and King hand-delivered an expulsion notice to the Salem family. The family appealed the order to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, which accepted the appeal in April 2022, thereby prolonging an injunction on their eviction.32

“A lot of ethnonationalists, Jewish extremists, and settler-activists are sitting in the government and they’re sitting in the Jerusalem Municipality,” Cohen said.

King, who lives in the Israeli settlement of Ma‘ale Hazeitim, located in the center of the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, has also been involved in plans to increase construction and double the number of settlers in Ma‘ale Hazeitim.33

Video What Does the Israel Land Fund Do for Jews? Director Arieh King Explains

The founder and director of the Israel Land Fund, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Arieh King, describes the fund’s goals in his own very explicit and unequivocal words.

The Northern Trail and Red Heifer Projects

Similar to Elad’s touristic endeavors in Silwan, settler group Reshit Jerusalem (Jerusalem First) is working with the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry (one of the project’s funders) to develop the Northern Trail, a walking route from Damascus Gate to Sheikh Jarrah that highlights settler homes and Jewish sites, while excluding most Christian and Muslim holy places, and ignoring Palestinian historical sites. Reshit has also received funding from Israel’s Ministry of Education.34

“Participants who register via the Jerusalem Municipality website for a tour along the trail that is directed toward tourists, receive the impression that they are visiting Israeli territory, thus their participation and presence in turn strengthens these political settlement compounds,” Ir Amim wrote in its 2022 annual report.35

The Northern Trail project includes expanding an Israeli memorial site in Sheikh Jarrah, construction on which began in July 2023.36 This expansion is a joint initiative between the Jerusalem Municipality and Paratrooper Veterans Association, with funding from the JNF. The project originally called for building a 300-seat amphitheater to surround the memorial,37 but this was nixed after opposition from Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah.38

Mamou runs Reshit, which is backed by Boneh Israel,39 a US Evangelical Christian organization. In 2022, Boneh Israel and the Temple Institute received support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, Jerusalem Affairs Ministry, and Israeli Ministry of Heritage to import cows from the US which they claim satisfy the so-called red heifer qualifications.40 Under Jewish law, the ritual sacrifice of a red heifer is needed to rebuild the third Jewish temple at al-Haram al-Sharif.

The Temple Institute is a Jewish extremist group advocating for the destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque in order to rebuild the Third Temple. According to extremist groups like the Temple Institute, a Third Temple can only be built once al-Haram al-Sharif is destroyed and the “compound is purified.”41 The sacrifice of the red heifer is only one part of the purification ritual, which would also include the mixture of ashes from the cow, red yard, cedar wood, and hyssop “with fresh spring water collected by ritually pure children who were born and raised under certain conditions.”42

Extremist Temple Movement activists perform prayers at a Passover ceremony at al-Haram al-Sharif in 2023.
Credit: Olivier Fitoussi via Haaretz

Ir Amim reported that members of these extremist so-called Temple Movement groups are closer to fulfilling their prophecy than ever before, thanks to the support of the Israeli government. Indeed, the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development circumvented protocols in the process of importing the heifers, as the import of live animals from the US was prohibited.43 The Director General of the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage even delivered a speech at the ceremony welcoming the cows at Ben Gurion Airport in September 2022. Ir Amim warns that this is a clear sign of increased government involvement in settler group agendas.

Extremist Israeli Jews from the Temple Institute practice the red heifer ritual in front of the al-Aqsa Mosque using a cutout of a cow, August 6, 2024.
Credit: Posted on X by @YinonMagal via Middle East Eye

The red heifer controversy even garnered the attention of Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, 100 days into Israel’s war on Gaza. Abu Obeida declared that the the potential sacrifice of the cows is a “detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation.”44

But Aviv Tatarsky, senior researcher at Ir Amim, says that he does not believe the Temple Movement will be able to go through with the provocative sacrifice and destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque anytime soon. These moves, he explains, would require considerable government and religious agreements among Israeli religious and political leaders, which is simply unfeasible in the midst of war.