EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The european union’s position is absolutely clear: israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are “illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible”.yet this report shows how european policy helps sustain the settlements. it reveals that the eu imports approximately fifteen times more from the illegal settlements than from the Palestinians themselves.
Israeli settlements are communities established on territories occupied by Israel since 1967. Today there are more than 500,000 Israeli settlers living across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Settlements control more than 42% of the West Bank’s land and the majority of its water and natural resources. Their daily encroachment on palestinian territory undermines the feasibility of the two-state solution promoted by the european Union.
Over the past two years, settlement expansion has accelerated with more than 16,000 new housing units announced or approved.Meanwhile the demolitions of palestinian structures - including those funded by European donor support - are on the rise, displacing over a thousand people from their homes in 2011, almost twice the number in 2010. The last two years have also seen unprecedented numbers of violent attacks by settlers against Palestinians.