Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

In Ariel Sharon's first public address after Yasser Arafat's December 2001 call for an end to the armed Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, the Israeli prime minister displayed the elements that have long defined his public image as a pragmatic expansionist.

Every Israel government since the election of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has committed to refrain from the construction of new settlements in the occupied territories. This commitment has not included the expansion of existing settlement communities, whose population has increased to more than 400,000 in more than 200 officially recognized locations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.

A conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention concerning the application of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories took place in Geneva on December 5, 2001.