Fast Fact #3: Approximately 500,000 Israeli settlers live within the occupied Palestinian territory in violation of international law.

• Demographic statistics compiled by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics peg the population of Israeli Jewish settlers in the West Bank at 301,200 as of the end of September 2009. [10] B’Tselem Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories cites the Jewish settler population of occupied East Jerusalem at 184,707 as of 2007 [11] (the population is estimated to have increased in the years since 2007 at an annual rate of 3 to 3.5%).
• Israel defines Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as citizens and residents of Israel, in defiance of the legal status of the land on which they reside. Official Israeli census records make no distinction between Jewish residents of West Jerusalem and occupied East Jerusalem, but merge the two populations into a single statistical group. [12] Likewise, the territory known generally as the occupied West Bank is defined within Israeli census records as a “district” of Israel called “Judea and Samaria.” [13]
• The Fourth Geneva Convention and the 1907 Hague Regulations define the legal status of settlers living in occupied territory [13]. These documents also enumerate the duties of the occupying power toward the subject population and explicitly forbid many of Israel’s activities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza—including settlement building and land expropriation.
• The Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” [14]
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 13 and 17) [15] enshrines rights that are seriously infringed by Israel’s actions toward the Palestinian population living under occupation. Not only do the settlements violate international humanitarian law, B’Tselem explains, but, additionally, “lead to the infringement of international human rights law” in their impact on the Palestinian population. [16]

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[10] Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, West Bank data, as cited in Lazaroff, Tovah. “Settler population rose 4.9% in 2009,” Jerusalem Post, March 10, 2010
[11] B’Tselem, statistics on settlements
[12] Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics: Population of Localities
[13] Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
[13] International Committee of the Red Cross: “Occupation and international humanitarian law: questions and answers”
[14] Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, reproduced on the website of the International Committee of the Red Cross
[15] The United Nations: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
[16] B’Tselem, “Land expropriation & settlements: international law”