Outgoing Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit okayed a deal between the Israeli government and West Bank settlers that would authorize a settlement outpost established without official approval, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
Mandelblit signed off on the plan for the controversial Evyatar outpost in Beita village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, during his final hours in office as he retired on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked have all recently been pushing to advance the plan, the Ynet news site reported.
Under an agreement reached in mid-2021, the settlers left the outpost peacefully and the area became a closed military zone, with the houses and roads erected remaining in place.
As part of the deal, a survey was carried out which, according to media reports, determined that part of the land was not owned by Palestinians, paving the way for the establishment of a religious school and for some settler families to return.
The return of settlers to Evyatar still requires a formal announcement that the site will be approved, as well as a grace period during which objections can be filed.
Palestinians in nearby villages say the outpost was built on their land and fear it will grow and merge with larger settlements nearby.
Before the settlers left, Palestinians held near-daily protests that led to violent clashes with Israeli forces.
Coalition members from the dovish Meretz party said the retroactive approval of the wildcat outpost was a reward for settlers who break the law, coming at a time when settler violence against Palestinians has surged.
Meretz lawmaker MK Mossi Raz said the intention of the “right-wing government” to establish the “criminal Evyatar outpost is a violation of the spirit of the coalition agreement and total surrender to settler violence.”
“It is unfortunate that there are some in the government who, instead of fighting against violence, work on behalf of those who are violent,” Raz said referring to a recent spike in violent attacks in the West Bank by extremist settlers against Palestinians, left-wing Israeli activists, and Israeli army soldiers.
The news followed a report published Tuesday by Amnesty International, in which it said that Israel has maintained “a system of oppression and domination” over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948, one that meets the international definition of apartheid.
According to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settler violence, said the Israeli occupation government is trying to impose a fait accompli by legalizing the outposts.
“These plans will not pass as long as Palestinians are defending their lands,” he stressed, adding that nine Palestinians were killed during the past eight months, and about 500 were wounded by live ammunition, and thousands by rubber bullets, fractures and suffocation.
Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the occupation states defies Amnesty’s report by approving additional settlement projects.
It issued a press statement saying that Mandelblit’s decision “explains the fierce attacks launched by the occupation forces, settler militias, their organizations and terrorist elements against Beita, the neighboring villages, and the entire area south of Nablus.”
