Kerem Navot

Kerem Navot's logo

Kerem Navot (Hebrew: כרם נבות, "Naboth's Vineyard"; Arabic: كرم نافوت) is an Israeli nonprofit research and advocacy NGO that monitors Israeli settlement activity and Israeli land policy in the West Bank. Founded by settlement researcher Dror Etkes, the organization conducts field research, analyzes aerial photography and geographic data, and publishes studies concerning the use and control of land, particularly in Area C.[1][2]

Kerem Navot has focused particularly on the relationship between agriculture, pastoralism and Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank. Its findings have been cited in international and Israeli reporting on settlement expansion and Palestinian displacement, including by Reuters, the Associated Press, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel.[3][4][5] Its research has also been used in academic studies of land, agriculture, water and pastoral settlement in Israel and the State of Palestine.[6][7]

History and name

In May 2013, The Times of Israel described Kerem Navot as a new organization then preparing its inaugural study, devoted to Israeli agricultural activity in the West Bank. At that stage the organization consisted principally of Etkes. The newspaper described his methodology as combining repeated field visits, land records and successive aerial photographs to identify changes in cultivation and land use.[1]

The organization's Hebrew name refers to the biblical account of Naboth's vineyard in the First Book of Kings. In the narrative, Ahab, king of Israel, desires a vineyard belonging to Naboth, who refuses to surrender his ancestral property; Jezebel subsequently arranges Naboth's death, enabling Ahab to take possession of it. The Times of Israel described the choice of name as a pointed biblical reference directed particularly toward the Israeli religious settlement movement.[1] Scholars Daniel Monterescu and Ariel Handel similarly explained the name in an academic discussion of settlement agriculture, describing Kerem Navot as an activist organization documenting the role of agriculture in disputes over land.[6]

Research methods

Kerem Navot's research is based heavily on spatial and historical comparison. Etkes and the organization use aerial photographs from different periods, field observations, Israeli land-registration and planning records, GIS layers and information obtained from the Israeli Civil Administration.[1][8] Etkes has also led field tours in the West Bank for Israelis and foreign visitors. A 2017 profile in +972 Magazine characterized the purpose of the reports and tours as explaining the practical consequences of Israeli military and land policy through changes visible in the landscape.[2]

The use of aerial photographs derives from Etkes's earlier work at Peace Now. The Times of Israel reported that he used digital overlays of photographs from successive years to identify the appearance or disappearance of cultivation, roads, fences, buildings and agricultural installations.[1] The organization has subsequently used similar techniques to investigate agricultural land, vineyards, livestock installations and pastoral outposts.[8][9]

Research and activities

Agriculture and land use

Agricultural settlement was the subject of Kerem Navot's first major research project. In 2013 Etkes examined Israeli cultivation outside the built-up areas of settlements, including vineyards, orchards and other agricultural plots. Contemporary reporting described the study as an attempt to document cases in which Israeli agricultural activity extended onto land recorded as privately owned by Palestinians or onto land whose Palestinian owners had lost regular access.[1]

The organization's early emphasis on agriculture subsequently attracted academic attention. Monterescu and Handel, writing in Comparative Studies in Society and History in 2020, described Kerem Navot as documenting the role of agriculture in Zionist land takeovers in their study of wine production, territory and political geography in Israel and the West Bank.[6] Matan Kaminer's 2022 article in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, on agricultural settlement and the political ecology of Zionism, likewise cited Etkes's 2013 Kerem Navot research on settler agriculture in its discussion of the relationship between cultivation and territorial settlement.[10]

In 2018, Kerem Navot investigated horse farms and stables located around West Bank settlements. The Times of Israel, which independently visited some of the locations, reported that the organization's survey identified 11 professional horse farms and 19 smaller stables constructed on privately-owned Palestinian land during the preceding fifteen years. The report used aerial photographs combined with Civil Administration GIS data and identified at least 44 demolition orders that the Civil Administration had issued against structures at the sites.[8] Kerem Navot argued that in several settlements, including Sha'arei Tikva, Modi'in Illit, Oranit and Shavei Shomron, Palestinian owners had lost practical access to land through military closure arrangements while Israeli agricultural uses subsequently developed there.[8]

Closed areas and land administration

Another strand of Kerem Navot's work has concerned the Israeli administrative and military mechanisms governing access to land. Its research on areas declared closed by the military was subsequently cited by legal geographer Irus Braverman in a peer-reviewed study of diminishing Palestinian access to natural springs in the West Bank.[7]

Kerem Navot has also used freedom-of-information litigation to obtain Civil Administration records. Together with the Israeli organization Haqel, it sought information concerning eviction orders from land claimed by the Israeli occupation as state land. After two freedom-of-information requests were rejected, the organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice, after which the Civil Administration supplied information on 670 eviction orders issued between 2005 and 2018.[11]

Their analysis found that 609 of the 670 orders, or 91 percent, had been issued to Palestinians, while 57, or 8.5 percent, had been issued to Israeli settlers. The Times of Israel reported that the largest concentration by area was in the Jordan Valley, while the largest number of individual orders was in the Gush Etzion area.[11] The findings were presented by the organizations as evidence of differing enforcement patterns in the administration of state land.[11]

Herding and agricultural outposts

From the late 2010s onward, Kerem Navot increasingly examined agricultural and livestock outposts rather than only conventional residential settlements. A joint Kerem Navot–B'Tselem report covered by The Jerusalem Post in 2021 identified 41 illegal "herding outposts" established during the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump. Etkes told the newspaper that such outposts had become an increasingly important means by which settlers expel native Palestinians to occupy extensive areas of Area C because a aggressive herding and associated violence could prevent access to a much larger surrounding Palestinian territories.[12]

The development of pastoral outposts subsequently became one of Kerem Navot's most frequently cited areas of research. The Guardian reported in 2022 on the expansion of settler shepherding operations and cited Kerem Navot's assessment that pastoral outposts enabled small numbers of settlers and livestock to occupy areas substantially larger than conventional built settlements.[9] In October 2023, The Guardian again cited data derived from Kerem Navot in reporting on the displacement of Bedouin communities and the territorial reach of settler herding farms.[13]

Following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, the Associated Press reported in June 2024, citing Kerem Navot, that the amount of land controlled through "unauthorized outposts" had more than doubled since the beginning of the war. The AP used Kerem Navot's mapping in its investigation of sanctioned settlers and the expansion of agricultural outposts in the South Hebron Hills.[4]

Academic research has also drawn upon this work. Danna Masad and Wassim Ghantous cited Kerem Navot's 2022 report The Wild West in their 2026 study of Israeli herding outposts in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, and used later mapping by Etkes and Peace Now in their analysis of the expansion of pastoral outposts after October 2023.[14]

The Bad Samaritan report

In 2025, Kerem Navot and Peace Now published a joint study of grazing outposts titled The Bad Samaritan. According to reporting by Agence France-Presse, the organizations estimated that grazing outposts had enabled Israeli settlers to cleanse 14 percent of the West Bank and that about 70 percent of the land they classified as having been taken over by settlers during the preceding three years had been inflicted through grazing activity.[15] Reuters reported that the study used government documents to examine the allocation of grazing land and public assistance to settler farms. Reuters interviewed Etkes as well as Palestinian herding families and Israeli settlers in the affected areas.[3]

Expansion of settlement control, 2023–2026

Kerem Navot continued this research in collaboration with Peace Now during the government of Benjamin Netanyahu formed in late 2022. In July 2026, a joint report by the two organizations received substantial international coverage. Le Monde described it as documenting an acceleration in settlement expansion, construction of roads, establishment of outposts and displacement of Palestinian communities during the preceding three and a half years. The newspaper reported the organizations' estimate that areas under effective settler control had risen from about seven percent of the West Bank before the Gaza war to approximately 18 percent by 2026.[16]

The Guardian, reporting separately on the same research, stated that Kerem Navot and Peace Now estimated that farm outposts occupied more than 100,000 hectares, representing roughly 18 percent of the West Bank. According to the organizations, nearly one-third of that settlement encroachment had occurred during 2025 alone.[5] Reporter Julian Borger accompanied Etkes on a field tour and described Kerem Navot as an advocacy organization monitoring changes in land control and settlement growth.[5]

Corporate settlement activity

Kerem Navot has also researched commercial activity associated with West Bank settlements. In 2018 it worked with Human Rights Watch on research concerning properties in settlements illegally advertised through Airbnb and Booking.com. The resulting study examined rental properties and their location in relation to land ownership and settlement boundaries.[17] The research became part of the controversy surrounding Airbnb's November 2018 announcement that it intended to remove approximately 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. A settler who advertised property through the platform filed suit in Jerusalem against Airbnb and also named Kerem Navot in the proceedings because of its involvement in the research.[17] In April 2019, Airbnb reversed its planned removal as part of settlements reached in litigation and announced that it would instead donate profits from West Bank bookings to humanitarian organizations.[18]

Use in journalism and scholarship

Kerem Navot's maps and research have frequently served as source material for outside reporting on West Bank settlements. The organization and Etkes have been consulted on settlement construction, "agricultural" outposts, land-registration disputes, military closure orders, grazing areas and the territorial consequences of road and settlement development.[1][8][4][3]

The organization's work has likewise entered academic literature concerned with the political geography of the West Bank. Monterescu and Handel characterized its documentation of agricultural expansion as meticulous in their study of wine and territoriality.[6] Braverman cited Kerem Navot's research on closed military areas in an analysis of water springs and military occupation.[7] Kaminer used its research on Israeli settler agriculture in a study of the historical political ecology of Zionist agricultural settlement.[10] More recently, Masad and Ghantous relied on its documentation of pastoral outposts in their analysis of the geographical effects of settler herding.[14]

The organization's increasing specialization in field mapping has also led journalists to use Etkes as an expert guide to changes in the West Bank landscape. In a 2013 profile, The Times of Israel described him as possessing unusually detailed knowledge of the development of Israeli settlements, while a 2017 +972 Magazine profile emphasized his extensive collection of aerial photographs and long-term field observation.[1][2]

Defamation litigation

In 2020, Kerem Navot published a social-media post about settler Zvi Bar Yosef and his farm near Halamish, alleging illegal construction, incursions by livestock onto Palestinian land and violence toward Palestinians. Bar Yosef, his partner and their daughter subsequently sued the organization for defamation and invasion of privacy.[19] In May 2024, the Beit Shemesh Magistrate's Court partially accepted the suit. The court rejected the privacy claim and accepted Kerem Navot's truth defense concerning the illegality of some structures at the farm and the incursion of Bar Yosef's livestock onto Palestinian land. It also found evidence that Bar Yosef had engaged in intimidation, threats and coercive conduct toward Palestinians, but held that Kerem Navot had not substantiated its broader characterization of him as engaging in severe physical violence. The organization was ordered to pay NIS 30,000 in compensation and NIS 10,000 in legal costs.[19] Kerem Navot appealed. In May 2025, the Jerusalem District Court set aside the judgment after Bar Yosef failed to submit a response to the appeal despite being instructed to do so. The court accepted the appeal in full and ordered Bar Yosef to pay Kerem Navot NIS 15,000 in costs.[20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Friedman, Matti (20 May 2013). "Houses, fences and fruit trees: A decade of watching settlements grow". The Times of Israel.
  2. 1 2 3 Konrad, Edo (1 June 2017). "The man on the heels of Israel's settlement enterprise". +972 Magazine.
  3. 1 2 3 Sawafta, Ali; Mackenzie, James (18 April 2025). "Herders under growing pressure as West Bank settlers encroach on grazing land". Reuters.
  4. 1 2 3 Mednick, Sam; Frankel, Julia (6 June 2024). "How international sanctions emboldened Israeli settlers in the West Bank". Associated Press.
  5. 1 2 3 Borger, Julian (8 July 2026). "Palestinians brace as Israeli settler figures in coalition seek to cement West Bank gains before election". The Guardian.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Monterescu, Daniel; Handel, Ariel (2020). "Terroir and Territory on the Colonial Frontier: Making New-Old World Wine in the Holy Land". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 62 (2): 222–261. doi:10.1017/S0010417520000043. hdl:20.500.14018/27472.
  7. 1 2 3 Braverman, Irus (2020). "Silent springs: The nature of water and Israel's military occupation". Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. 3 (2): 527–551. doi:10.1177/2514848619857722.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Magid, Jacob (1 June 2018). "Rein in illegal Israeli horse farms in West Bank? State signals nay". The Times of Israel.
  9. 1 2 "'The land beyond the road is forbidden': Israeli settler shepherds displace Palestinians". The Guardian. 20 June 2022.
  10. 1 2 Kaminer, Matan (2022). "The Agricultural Settlement of the Arabah and the Political Ecology of Zionism". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 54 (1): 40–56. doi:10.1017/S0020743821001021.
  11. 1 2 3 Magid, Jacob (1 June 2020). "In West Bank, 91% of land evictions issued against Palestinians — rights groups". The Times of Israel.
  12. ↑ Lazaroff, Tovah (9 March 2021). "Israel established 41 herding posts in West Bank under Trump - B'Tselem". The Jerusalem Post.
  13. ↑ Graham-Harrison, Emma; Kierszenbaum, Quique (21 October 2023). "'The most successful land-grab strategy since 1967' as settlers push Bedouins off West Bank territory". The Guardian.
  14. 1 2 Masad, Danna; Ghantous, Wassim (2026). "The wandering frontier: Geographies of colonial herding in Palestine". Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. doi:10.1177/25148486261445215.
  15. ↑ Agence France-Presse (21 March 2025). "'Bad Samaritan' report says Israeli settlers used grazing to grab swathes of West Bank land". The Times of Israel.
  16. ↑ Bronner, Luc (8 July 2026). "Two Israeli NGOs warn of a 'de facto annexation at an unprecedented pace' in the West Bank". Le Monde.
  17. 1 2 "Israeli settler sues Airbnb for dropping West Bank listings". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 23 November 2018.
  18. ↑ Williams, Dan; Pierson, Brendan (9 April 2019). "Airbnb reverses on delisting Israeli settlements, won't profit off West Bank". Reuters.
  19. 1 2 Persico, Oren (20 May 2024). "ביהמ"ש פסק לטובת מתנחל שתבע כי כונה "אלים": "לאלימות פנים רבות"" [Court rules for settler who sued after being called "violent": "Violence has many faces"]. The Seventh Eye (in Hebrew).
  20. ↑ Persico, Oren (15 May 2025). "בוטל פסק הדין לטובת המתנחל ש"הטיל אימה"" [Judgment in favor of settler who "intimidated" Palestinians overturned]. The Seventh Eye (in Hebrew).
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