The World Zionist Organization Settlement Division is set to invest 29.5 million shekels ($8.5 million) to connect “unauthorized” occupied West Bank settlements (called “outposts” by officials) to the electricity grid and prepare master plans ahead of authorizing them as proper settlements.
Peace Now led on May 30, 2022 a landmark protest which called upon Israel to evict the illegal outpost of Homesh in the occupied Palestinian territories (Photo: Peace Now)
According Haaretz, the legalization of some of the outposts was complicated because the access road to them passes through privately owned Palestinian land. Nevertheless, over the years, many settlements were legalized as neighborhoods of existing settlements. Over the past year alone, the Bennett-Lapid government legalized three outposts in this way.
The transfer of the funds is part of the policy set in place by Yamina’s chairman,
former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as part of his past role as settlement affairs minister. The Settlement Division is part of the World Zionist Organization, which acts as an operational arm of the Israeli government, with the Settlement Affairs Ministry holding responsible for it. The ministry was established in 2020 by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government
Since the establishment of the Bennett-Lapid government in June 2021, the ministry has been without a minister or a director general, and Bennett held the post of minister under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office. In addition to responsibility for the Settlement Division, the ministry is also in charge of pre-military preparation courses and “mission groups” that live in and work with settlements on education, culture and welfare.
One project that passed through the ministry is the 18.6 million shekels allocated to regional councils in the occupied West Bank to establish departments to follow up and report on Palestinian construction in Area C, which is under full Israeli civil and military control. The division’s work plan for 2022 also includes the development of “disturbed areas” – for example, the establishment of pre-military courses in abandoned army camps in the West Bank, the Galilee and the Negev. The division also works to increase Jewish population in these areas.
Support of the outposts by the Settlement Division is nothing new. In the past, Haaretz reported that the division assisted in establishing outposts by granting loans. A Haaretz investigation revealed that the division granted dozens of loans for the establishment and development of illegal outposts, farms and vineyards throughout the West Bank. In 2019, the Calcalist business daily reported that the division funded projects in outposts at more than 2 million shekels (roughly $570,000).
According Peace Now, under the Bennett-Lapid government there were six new illegal outposts founded: Givat Hadegel in the South Hebron Hills, Karnei Re’em in the Salfit area, Mevo’ot Jericho Farm north of Jericho, Julius Farm in the North of the Jordan Valley and the Ohavey-Ya outpost West of Bethlehem. There was a 26% increase, with the promotion of plans for 7,292 housing units in the settlements, compared to an annual average of 5,784 housing units in the Netanyahu governments and a 62% jump in construction starts in settlements with the entry of the new government.
Under the Bennett-Lapid government there has been an increase of approximately 45% in settler violence incidents against Palestinians and their property, from an average of 20 incidents per month to 29 cases, documented by B’tselem.
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