Who were the first settlers in Israel?

3,000 to 2,500 B.C. — The city on the hills separating the fertile Mediterranean coastline of present-day Israel from the arid deserts of Arabia was first settled by pagan tribes in what was later known as the land of Canaan. The Bible says the last Canaanites to rule the city were the Jebusites.

How many illegal settlers are there in Palestine?

The UN has condemned settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in multiple resolutions and votes, declaring them to be illegal under international law. The number of settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank has grown to nearly 600,000.

What kind of people live in Israeli settlements?

Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish ethnicity, built in violation of international law on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Why are there Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem?

At the time East Jerusalem was under the mandate of Jordan, but Israel has since occupied and annexed the area. Jewish settlers claim that the land belongs to them, and want to expand settlements to the whole of East Jerusalem, where Palestinians live. Under international law, Israeli settlements are deemed illegal and are widely denounced.

Where are the Jewish settlements in the West Bank?

Nearly 10 percent of Israel’s Jewish population now lives on land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinians and Israeli activists run away from tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the construction of Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley, in the West Bank, on Nov. 17.

Who are the leaders of the settlers in the West Bank?

The violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians has been condemned by leading religious, political and municipal figures in the West Bank, including Rabbi Menachem Fruman of Tekoa, who said: “Targeting Palestinians and their property is a shocking thing, (…) It’s an act of hurting humanity.