Settlements have cost Israel $17 billion, study finds

Just imagine if that $17 Billion had been spent on infrastructure and population distribution into the Galilee and Negev and the rest of the periphery, instead of being poured into the bottomless pit of Judea and Samaria! Those regions would now be developed, secure and totally integrated with the rest of Israel, and we would not now (60 years later) only be trying to salvage something of them for the nation. That $17 Billion is a wasted investment; one that can and will never be recovered. It will go the same way as the greenhouses of Gush Katif when the Settlers are eventually forced to leave the West Bank. And make no mistake, that will happen, with the possible exception of the consensus Settlement Blocs.

How much did it cost to the Palestinians? The booth will be taken from the zionist criminal occupiers at the first opportunity.

now laws against the acquisition of territory by force. It was not an American Model BTW, nor is it now. There are only two states I can name today who use it to illegally acquire other folk's territories. One admits it's actions, the other, the point in case, denies what it is doing, while continuing to do it, despite some 223 UNSC resolutions demanding it adhere to the Law.

Another way of looking at this dubious data is to say that the settlers helped the economy of Israel by 17 billions at least, not even counting on the taxes they paid, just the materials they may have used. So, Israelis, I think it is time you all thanked the settlers for aiding your lifestyles as well as deffending you from arabs hell bent on killing or blowing up your children.Oh, I know, there are good arabs too, but what about those gentle ones throwing rocks through your car windows?

You have time to get used to this reality

"lf accountant ideology would have been used to validate the justification for the jewish state, it would have never had happened." ---------------------------------------- It never did happen. Israel is not a "Jewish" state (or nation). It is a Zionist enterprise that has been VERY lucrative for most of its owners, so far. You're convoluted "engrish" may justify something though... go for it. (lol)

thats bedause i do not take you seriously.

"the arabs lost... like mexico lost to the US... I try to be as cute as possible... thanks man" .. spouting nonsense in order to justify an illegal activity. The US legally annexed. By agreement./.treaty.

They have cost the US tax payer $17bn.

Hey Zionists - 3 cheers for CJ from Aussieland who made the legal ruling that when countries are at war it's ok to expel citizens who belong to what you perceive to be the "other side". Phew! And here we were all worried about possible compensation to Palestinian refugees! Thanks, CJ. Glad to know that Australia and the USA set the legal precedent for us. Especially after that '67 war too. Good to know that CJ has concluded that ethnic cleansing is legal during war time. I don't necessarily agree with him, but then his conclusion makes life oh so much easier for the "settlers". Since the Arabs haven't let a single refugee go back, the precedent is there for Israel to keep the Pal refugees out. Thanks, CJ. Great thinking down under!

Post '93? Are you kidding us? Fatah had been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually long before 1993 - how else do you figure they financed themselves?!?!? Every year there were hundreds of millions for arms, hundreds of millions for "jobs", and hundreds of millions for "projects". The US wasn't the sucker giving it to them before 1993 - it was Arab League members and the U.N. and European countries. And yes, for a long time now the Pals have been getting MORE than $1 billion a year. Johnboy - don't you bother doing any research before you send your talkbacks?!? The biggest problem with Palestinian aid has been and still is that it too often disappears down black holes. Arafat for years fought against transparent accounting... don't you even wonder why? So if it wasn't $17 billion embezzled then it was only $14 billion. Crikey, mate. Were you born yesterday? Seems like it...

the arabs lost... like mexico lost to the US... I try to be as cute as possible... thanks man

Post '93? Are you kidding us? Fatah had been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually long before 1993 - how else do you figure they financed themselves?!?!? Every year there were hundreds of millions for arms, hundreds of millions for "jobs", and hundreds of millions for "projects". The US wasn't the sucker giving it to them before 1993 - it was Arab League members and the U.N. and European countries. And yes, for a long time now the Pals have been getting MORE than $1 billion a year. Johnboy - don't you bother doing any research before you send your talkbacks?!? The biggest problem with Palestinian aid has been and still is that it too often disappears down black holes. Arafat for years fought against transparent accounting... don't you even wonder why? So if it wasn't $17 billion embezzled then it was only $14 billion. Crikey, mate. Were you born yesterday? Seems like it...

...for this nicely manicured and developed areas when the territory disputes are resolved. what? #you don't honestly expect compensation for having an illegal punt on stolen land do you?

How many Palestinians and Israelis were killed and injured in 42 years of occupation? Mind-boggling!

hope every rightist israeli pays with their wage

Let them build - and Palestinians and all lovers of freedom simply have to ask the same question over and over - can we vote, can we vote? let Israel explain to the world why it disenfranchises millions of people.

CJ makes a valid point that America has stopped colonizing. CJ should also note that the American settlers who colonized did not leave their colonies. Dozens of nations (Sioux, Cree, Apache, Navajo, etc etc) remain occupied, while dozens of others have been eradicated. The American model is that colonization worked. The settlers settled, the local natives were kind of compensated, and today the natives are full citizens and can run for president. Ok, you sold us. We'll use the American model and cancel the two-state solution idea. Wasn't too popular on either side anyway.

Sir, the US alone transfers a minimum of US$3,0 billion to Israel each year and Germany is also called a friend of Israel because of financial aid. So, what is the problem for Israel except finding a place to build?

Poor, suffering, Zionists... Do the Palestinians have any money that the Israelis can "borrow" until the situation stabilizes?

That would save the American taxpayer quite a sum over the next decade. Time to turn off the faucet that has for so long been taken for granted.

"how many innocent afghanis are murdered by your army everyday?" How many wrongs will you need to make what Israel does right? Will there ever be enough? "how much land have your people stolen? florida, texas, new mexico, california" LEGALLY annexed. "how about dropping another atom bomb and slaughtering another 500K people?" They haven't. Israel IS STILL COLONIZING BY FORCE. "how about killing the last of the native americans?" That would make what Israel is doing right? Man that's really twisted. ".. you are a shallo hypocrite and a shamefull jew hating ant israel bigot." .. cute....

lf accountant ideology would have been used to validate the justification for the jewish state, it would have never had happened.

"the ethnic cleansing by Arab countries who seized all Jewish owned assets and kicked out hundreds of thousands of their own citizens...simply because they were Jewish" The Jewish State and the Arab States were at WAR!! The US interred or expelled Germans, Japanese. So too Australia. So too Israel. Except Israel has never let them back, their homes were razed, starting BEFORE the War of Independence. Before Israel existed Jewish forces were already outside proposed boundaries. "It`s illegal. It`s criminal" It isn't for countries at war. How many are refugees now?

"it take TWO PARTIES TO ACCEPT PARTITION !!" So where is the article asking them to CO-SIGN in order to be INDEPENDENT? If they didn't co-sign, is Israel illegitimate? INDEPENDENCE = NOT Being reliant on anyone to co-sign Letter From the Agent of the Provisional Government of Israel to the President of the United States, May 15, 1948 //?MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have the honor to notify you that the state of Israel has been proclaimed as an independent republic within frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947, and that a provisional government has been charged to assume the rights and duties of government for preserving law and order within the boundaries of Israel, for defending the state against external aggression, and for discharging the obligations of Israel to the other nations of the world in accordance with international law. / "1922 mandate as valid" READ THE Declaration of a Jewish State. FIRST LINE!!

Paul, "nothing has ever legally changed the west bank remains part of israel for ever !!!" That may well be but if it is then it will include a few million Palestinian Arabs. Your pipe dream of a West Bank Ethnic Cleansing is simply that; a pipe dream. 90% of Israelis would never countenance that sort of unconscienable criminality. Peace. Stephen

Zeev- we are inevitably faces with the choice of relinquishing the territories, or most of them and relinquishing any hope of the sort of country that most of us would want to live in. So what is the point of this massive infrastructure which we will then hand over to the Palestinians? There is no reason on earth to be giving tax breaks to people just because they live over the green line. Is the price of suppressing another people worth paying- personally I think not - it is not prejudice it is an opinion.

BUT it did cost the American tax payers at least that much, if not more!

Every now and then some bleeding heart kneejerk Palestinian lover says "oh my, these poor Palestinians must be compensated for the awful crimes!". Good for you Sean from Amsterdam! Good for you! And obviously, you want to see an assessment of the economic and personal damages that the International Courts will award the victims of the ethnic cleansing by Arab countries who seized all Jewish owned assets and kicked out hundreds of thousands of their own citizens...simply because they were Jewish. That's called ethnic cleansing. It's illegal. It's criminal. And you assessment will obviously have to total up those costs as well. The Arabs and Iranians are filthy rich from their oil, so they certainly can afford it. And the UN should chuck in a healthy share since the crimes happened at they did nothing. Justice is indeed needed. Are you prepared to make sure it is blind?

the $1 trillion spent on recent wars by the usa ???

vh: "it take TWO PARTIES TO ACCEPT PARTITION" Indeed it does: a) the trustee (i.e. the Mandatory) b) its supervisor (i.e. the UNGA) Both parties accepted partition, victor. But I will assume that you meant that the two parties were the "Jews of Palestine" and the "Arabs of Palestine". How odd, because I don't remember either of them ever being allowed to cast a vote.... The Mandate was a TRUST, victor, and Palestine was the ASSET UNDER MANAGEMENT. The Arabs and the Jews were the BENEFICIARIES, and beneficiaries don't actually have a vote in how the trustee apportions the assets amongst them. That decision is entirely up to: a) the trustee, and b) its supervising body. Zionists have such funny ideas sometimes, and they come to believe them purely out of endless repetition....

Nor can Israel trust the Palestinians with the security of Gaza. All these lands, and Jerusalem, now belong to Israel by right of conquest. The so-called two state solution is a pipe dream. Eretz Israel will be one state from the river to the sea with 5.6 million Jews, 5.4 million Arabs and about 300,000 others. Just give the Palestinians the vote and your problems are all solved.

Back in the dark ages only a few nations had any 'spy' satellites. Now anyone can Google Earth. The methodology of this study is old stuff for photo analysts, but relatively new to the world of bigots and ideologues.

This is just the cost of the real estate. Add to this all the extra on security from the fences, and floodlights to the wages of security guards, police, Border police, and army. Add all the extra equipment they have had to buy - armoured cars, buses, jeeps, tear gas, weapons, road blocks, training, surveilance, helicopter fuel and repairs. Add to this the state subsidies for all those 350,000 lving there - all the yeshivas and other people who do not work. then comes the most expensive items. From the palestinians whose lands were stolen, the victims of shootings on both sides (predominantly palestinian), and the settlers children - innocents put in the front line of an ideological war. and finnally the cost in lives. Worth it?

do your own DD...suffice to say, the EU connections are all over this organization and its "studies".

So what if it cost 17 B's. If Hertzl thought about how much dough it would cost to finally get our home land built up again,and NOT as a Dhimmi, maybe he wouldn't of started in the first place. Amortized over nearly 2,000 years of 'savings' is not a bad deal at all.

...The Israelis have succeeded in building & populating the West Bank. Shame on you. Shame on you for preventing equality and fairness to Palestinians.

it take TWO PARTIES TO ACCEPT PARTITION !! Then resolution 181 was illegal as under the 1945 charter the un had accepted the 1922 mandate as valid and legal ! nothing has ever legally changed the west bank remains part of israel for ever !!!

I do believe one in four Israeli children are from families living below the poverty line. Many of these get their meals from charity organizations. Maybe at least some of that $17 billion should have been invested in your own next generation instead of illegal settlements.

Isreal accepted the partitian in 1947 which did not include the West Bank,

I would like to see an assessment of the economic and personal damages that the International Courts will award the victims of this illegal enterprise. Justice is needed.

I do not like the haredi or these settlers... we would be better off without them... however you live in a glass house. how many innocent afghanis are murdered by your army everyday? how much land have your people stolen? florida, texas, new mexico, california, puerto rico.. etc? how about dropping another atom bomb and slaughtering another 500K people? how about killing the last of the native americans? NYC guy... you are a shallo hypocrite and a shamefull jew hating ant israel bigot.

Actually what you say is no more true than any other area in Israel. The facts do not substantiate your prejudice. I also wonder what the government invests in the infrastructure for 350,000 residents in other areas. by the way many of the roads in Judea and Samaria are roads vital to the Army and the less said the better.

"If" Israel pulls out of the settlements how much will it then throw (almost certainly including US taxpayers money) at the settlers to compensate them for losing their land-grab.

This prima foreign settlemen nthe heart of Tel Aviv ,so faithfu'l and eager ,surely it must be worth more ?

that works out to $1400 a sq meter, no wonder their is large scale poverty in Israel, what a waste

Zeev - in response to your questions, these highly ideological people, who only live their because it is the biblical homeland, have for some reason extorted massive tax breaks from the government, which means that the overwhelming majority pay little or no tax at all. If you take an average of 5 people in a family, it means that each family has been subsidized by about $250,000. Now just think what Israel would look like if that had been distributed equally, or given to those that need it or used to develop desalination plants. instead we have Givat Ochlim al gav hamedina, Chaim alheshbonchem and other wonderful assets

where is all that money sucked up from?

BC: "the $17 billion figure certainly sounds about right for the amount of money embezzled by Arafat and his Fatah henchmen over the past 40 years." Leaving aside the issue of the relevence of your comparison, I'm curious to see what you base that argument on. considering that Arafat and his gang only started receiving int'l aid post-1993, which gives them only 17 years (rather than 40 years) to carry out that (alleged) Grand Larceny. They embezzled $1billion a year, each and every year, did they? Do they even **get** $1billion a year in aid, Brian?????

Considering that cost is being carried over for decades of use it was as good an investment as building anywhere else in the country.

According to the latest povert report from the National Insurance Institute in February 2009, there are 1,631,000 people living below the poverty line; among them are 783,600 children! With one in three children suffering from hunger, one in four people living in poverty, and one in five of the elderly in need of immediate assistance, Meir Panim has an enormous responsibility to help those who need it most. Israel a state for her people? I don't think so!

The Negev - The Biblical Land of Kind David Far more bang for the buck. The costs of development, the costs of land etc etc are lower and the potential returns greater Thats where the clever money is going especially as Infrastructure gets so much better though there is a long way to go What could we do with $17bn? Build fast Rail Network N to S and E to W ie the Industrial heartland of the Negev to Ashdod, Build Beersheba International Airport, Build Beersheba Metro, add more Desalination capacity in Ashkelon, expand Universities of the Negev, expand Tourism, Agricultural Settlements, build new Kibbutzim and Moshavim..... This is the future!

When such politically motivated studies are done marketed witha big publicity push they discredit themselves by basing their bias on cost analysis. So, it cost money to develope Israel. Is that worth the cost of the study? Now go do the study for Sderot and any other front line city and justify their existence on cost to value. Shamefull!

It is our land and we have to do all we can to keep it in our hands. We need at lease one million jews in Yehuda and Shomron

... from businesses and residents in Yesha througout the years. Sounds like a good investment to me. And oh, the land on which the towns and villages were built? Bought with the residents own money.

Doesn't include East Jerusalem so the costs are at least $35bn which is 70,000 per miserable settler. Imagine what housing in West Jerusalem would cost per head.

amazing what you can do with hard work and commitment, instead of sitting complaining and making up lies. The people of Yehuda and Shomron should be proud. We all learnt an important lesson after gush katif, they got the land and still murder. Never ever again

Despite the fact that the numbers are fishy, the $17 billion figure certainly sounds about right for the amount of money embezzled by Arafat and his Fatah henchmen over the past 40 years. The MCPE report fails to investigate, of course, how much of that infrastructure also benefits the Pals. Yea yea, and before you anti-Israel demons go off ranting and raving about separate road systems and all that, the truth is that lots of $ was spent on the roads that are used by BOTH Jews and Arabs. Don't believe me? Well come on out to Judea and stand with me on Highway 60... a major road that gives direct access to the Gush Etzion communities, but probably has 60% or more Palestinian traffic. Yes! Palestinian cars and trucks and buses use this Israeli built road more than the "settlers". It goes from Jerusalem to Hebron and on any given day the white and green license plates outnumber the yellow and black ones. Ah yes, statisticians, numbers and liars. No shortage of the latter....

"The findings will be unveiled Tuesday at a conference." Not at AIPAC, I take it?

...is wether Israel has the chutzpah to send Abbas an invoice for $17billion when those settlements have to be vacated and the Pals move in...

israels infrastructure began in 1922 with the british, at no time did they say there were specific arab territories ! the real treaties give total legality to all jewish building within the mandate of 1922 !

Olaestenians will be the ultimate benificiaries

does the government get from taxes paid over the last 40 years by the hundreds of thousands Israelis and thousnds of businesses and factories that are in Judea and Samaria?

!2 million square meters divided by 350,000 Israeli's living in the Occupied lands yields only 34 square meters per person. I find that hard to believe.

How will they react when they lose all that money when they are forced to leave?

real expensive when you have to get out

you knnow on your side of the green line?....no of course not

To think of all US tax payers monies that were siphoned by AIPAC and the Jewish Fund for this monstrosity of illegality in the Palestinian territories. It's all a Holy Shame and it must be dismantled and void as the 14 justice panel in the Hague ruled unanimously in 2004.... Dutch

you people about to lose it all

wow and how much did isrl spend on the pals part, since they are not allowed in the jewish only settlements, "excluding the cost of buldozing palestinian houses of course"?

Exactly why those who think Israel is the innocent one looking for peace are completely fooling themselves. A country that really wanted peace wouldnt spend this much on settling people and the be willing to throw it all away in a peace deal, unless of course the settlers want to be citizens of palestine, very unlikely though. Time to wake up and smell the coffee...ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT PEACE! Stop blaming the Palestinians!