A/HRC/31/43 8. Successive reports by the Secretary-General have shown that the presence of settlements results in violations of the rights to life and to security of the person. The failure to address violent acts also renders individuals’ right to a remedy illusory and promotes impunity. IV. Settlement expansion A. Overview 9. During the reporting period, Israeli authorities continued to expand settlements, to retroactively formalize unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to approve plans for new settlements. Steps were also taken to enable the expansion of settlement-controlled areas through the declaration of “State land” and allocation of land in the West Bank for farming and construction purposes. As of the end of 2014, the total population in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was approximately 570,700. Overall, the settlement population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has continued growing at a steady rate, with the latest available data showing an average growth rate of 14,600 people per year between 2002 and 2014. 10. The construction of settlements continued despite a slowdown in the planning and tendering of new housing units in settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The planning of infrastructure related to settlements, such as roads, was not halted. These policies persisted despite the elections and the formation of a new Government on 14 May 2015. In the new Government, the pro-settlement Jewish Home party lost control of the Ministry of Housing and the Finance Committee chairmanship, both key for settlement activities. However, it gained other positions that are useful for promoting settlements, including in the Ministry of Justice and authority over the Settlements Division of the World Zionist Organization, a body attached to the Prime Minister’s Office that channels significant funding to settlement activities. Additional concessions, including budgetary allocations to bolster local settlement authorities and measures to enable retroactive legalization, under Israeli law, of unauthorized outposts, were also included in the coalition agreement with the Jewish Home party.1 11. Sustained monitoring and pressure from the international community has had a mitigating effect on efforts by the Israeli authorities to implement the full range of settlement expansion initiatives presented by the Government of Israel during its first months in power. Diverging agendas within the governing coalition also served to rein in aspects of the pro-settlement agenda. Joint action by members of the Kulanu party, headed by Minister for Finance, Moshe Kahlon, together with Members of the Knesset from the ultraorthodox parties, prevented the inclusion of 61 West Bank settlements under a new system regulating income tax benefits for Israeli municipalities, although as part of a compromise, Hebron settlements remained on the list.2 Those parties also played a role in blocking several pro-settlement legislative initiatives promoted by the Jewish Home party. Similarly, the Israeli High Court of Justice continued to play a role — albeit limited — in curbing aspects of settlement activity, particularly where Palestinian private land was concerned. Since the formation of his new Government, the Prime Minister, Benjamin 1 2 Coalition agreement for the establishment of the thirty-fourth Government of the State of Israel, reached on 7 May 2015, between the Likud and Jewish Home parties. Moti Bossak and Zvi Zrahiya, “Government rejects plan to give 61 West Bank settlements tax benefits”, Haaretz, 26 October 2015. 3