In many instances, Arab residents from Areas A and B are encouraged by incentives to relocate or start a second home in the new settlements. Some structures are makeshift, festooned with the logo of the European Union. Some are multi-floor office centers.

In several cases, the illegal constructions are deliberately established on Israeli military reserves. Since the 1970's, Israel Defence Forces have maintained military training and firing ranges, such as Firing Zone 918. That zone now has illegal settlements.s

While the sudden development rush has been percolating in the Jewish and Israeli media. Many are incredulous that the Israeli government has not acted to block the illegal projects. But a security spokesman close to the Area C files located in Bet El blames the inaction on Israel’s complex legal system.

“When we discover something,” stated a security spokesman, “we give them a stop order, and if they don’t stop, they are summoned to an [adjudication] panel. But they don’t come. They go to court to enjoin us.”

These court cases are frequently financed and represented by well-funded nongovernmental organisations, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The Gordian knot of legal principles to parse includes Ottoman land law from a long-dismantled empire, Jordanian law from the withdrawn 1948 illegal occupation, post-Six Day War military administrative law, and a library of international legal codes – all stoked and poked with competing maps, surveys, expert opinions, decrees, chronologies and historical accounts.(cont)