Settlement

Colony established by the State of Israel solely for Jews. Before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, these colonies were established by the Zionist movement (Yishuv). Thereafter, the state established and expanded residential and industrial settlements throughout the lands of pre-1948 Palestine to house the influx of Jewish immigrants. The sizes of these settlements range from single-person outposts (often the early harbinger of a settlement to come) to entire cities. The continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, is one component of the case that Israel continues to flout international law, which forbids the transfer of a civilian population into occupied areas.