Tag: Palestinian Authority

General
י"ז כסלו התשפ"ה - 18 December 2024
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Meir Deutsch, Director General for The Regavim Movement

Published in Israel Hayom, December 18th, 2024

For the first time in a decade, there’s been an unprecedented decline in illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, coupled with a significant increase in enforcement actions by the Civil Administration. This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a beacon of hope and a testament to the impact that determined policy decisions can have on the reality on the ground.

Regavim’s recent analysis of aerial surveys from May 2023 to June 2024 reveals a striking decline in illegal construction starts: In previous years, average illegal Arab construction in Area C climbed as high as 642 new structures per month under the Bennett-Lapid government in 2022, while the most recent study reveals a monthly average of 260 new illegal structures.This year’s figures suggest a reversal of the relentless upward trend of illegal construction, with the current government prioritizing the preservation of state land.

The factors contributing to this decline deserve closer consideration. While one might attribute the shift to the ongoing war, the Civil Administration has repeatedly noted severe staffing shortages as a result of reserve duty. A more compelling explanation lies in the strategic nature of enforcement actions that have been taken over the past year. In 2024 alone, 602 structures were demolished, a sharp increase over the 306 demolitions in all of 2023. Recent enforcement activity has focused on large, permanent structures in strategic locations that pose security threats , as opposed to demolitions in previous years that were sporadic and haphazard actions against insignificant, temporary structures. 

This shift, more than anything else, has sent a clear deterrent message to the Palestinian Authority: Israel is no longer turning a blind eye to the systematic takeover of Area C. This area, under full Israeli civil and security jurisdiction, has been the quiet battleground, where the Palestinian Authority has been establishing facts on the ground, as per the 2009 Fayyad Plan, the blueprint for de facto establishment of a Palestinian state. The periodic aerial surveys conducted and analyzed by The Regavim Movement have consistently shown that since 2009 the PA has taken a stark, unmistakable turn away from construction and development in Areas A and B and focused instead on aggressive expansion in Area C. The systematic construction and development observed in these aerial studies reveal a strategic and systematic program that is encircling and isolating Israeli communities while creating territorial contiguity between PA-controlled areas. 

Just as the State of Israel was essentially established long before 1948 by the pioneers who built homes and farms and developed communities, the State of Palestine is being established daily –  on Israeli state land. The current data suggests that, at last, the Israeli government is responding to the mandate of its voters by actively countering this existential threat.

Despite the encouraging findings of the recent survey, the battle for Area C is far from over. With a total of 97,581 illegal structures now standing in Area C, the challenge remains monumental. However, recent enforcement actions signify that the tide may be turning. This isn’t just about maintaining territorial integrity; it’s about ensuring security, both for the Israeli communities in Area C and for the entire State of Israel. The October 7th attack, which was facilitated by similar dual-purpose construction along Israel’s relatively small border with Gaza, was a wakeup call for Israelis living on both sides of the “green line”. It is heartening to see that Israeli legislators have begun to take action and to fulfill the mandate they have been given by the public.

This may be a crucial moment, a crossroads that may be a critical turning point. The impressive shift observed on the ground must be a call to action, for the Israeli public, for its elected representatives and for the international community. It is also a reminder of the power of policy reform, the importance of vigilance, and the positive impact that a firm and resolute  stand on matters of national sovereignty and security can have on our shared reality.

General
ז' אב התשפ"ד - 11 August 2024
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July 18, 2024 – The Knesset – Jerusalem, Israel

The People Have Spoken: NO to a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel!

Regavim welcomes the historic Knesset resolution against the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel:

“With an overwhelming majority of votes and cross-party consensus, an important declarative decision was passed against the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel.

We congratulate all the members of the Knesset who supported this Zionist decision. We thank the initiator of the discussion MK Zeev Elkin and the chairmen of the Land of Israel caucus MK Yuli Edelstein MK Limor Sonn Har Melech and MK Simcha Rothman for leading the move.

This decision sends a clear and unequivocal message to all our enemies and gives special encouragement to our heroic fighters who are fighting until we destroy Hamas and all the hostages are returned.

Yesterday’s decision was a significant step forward, but the fight is not over yet. We call on the government and the Knesset to continue to act decisively and resolutely to ensure the security and future of the State of Israel.

In the face of dangerous construction plans in the territory of our sheep pastures, and the praise of martyrs and supporters of the October Seventh — the Israeli government must stand firm and take full responsibility for the territories of the homeland; in Judea and Samaria, in the area of the seam line, in the Negev and the Galilee and the entire State of Israel.

The voice of the people that was heard last night in the legislature gives its support to its elected officials to act in this way to ensure that all of Israel will forever remain the safe home of the Jewish people.”

Op-ed
כ"ט אדר ב' התשפ"ד - 08 April 2024
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Secretary Blinken meets with Palestinian President Abbas in Ramallah, November 2023. (Credit: State Department/Chuck Kennedy)

One of the most talked-about topics in Israeli public discourse since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war is the collapse of what Israelis call “the conception,” the assumptions regarding the intentions, capabilities and willingness of the Palestinian people and its leadership to wage war. The paradigm that has shaped Israel’s military and political strategy for decades went up in smoke, blood and tears as the horrors of Oct. 7 unfolded.

Since that day, the discourse on “the day after” the war has been awash with statements by experts, real and imagined — every current or past politician, every military has-been, every pundit, every analyst, every taxi driver and talk-show host — on the need to uproot the failed paradigm and correct the wishful thinking vis-à-vis Hamas and the Gaza Strip that led to the massacre along Israel’s southern border.

Unfortunately, the very same paradigm is alive and well when it comes to Judea and Samaria, particularly regarding the day after the war and the feasibility of handing control of the entirety of the disputed territories — Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — to the Palestinian Authority.

The most excruciating evidence of enduring wishful thinking was brought into focus by a recently-published report by the Regavim Movement, titled “Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night,” which exposes the Palestinian Authority’s involvement in acts of terrorism perpetrated against Israeli citizens and soldiers.

The PA’s ongoing and ever-expanding payroll of terrorists is perhaps the most infamous aspect of its shameless support for terrorism, but it is far from the only one. Aside from being a violation of the very core of the Oslo framework and a betrayal of the PA’s mandate, this brazen support for murder makes US support for the PA illegal, as per the Taylor Force Act (H.R. 1164, S. 1697), passed by Congress in 2018 with the express purpose of conditioning all US aid to the PA on it ending its “pay-for-slay” policy.

In an Orwellian masterstroke, this week PA representatives are in Washington, D.C., working with administration officials to “redefine” the flow of funds in order to circumvent the Taylor Force Act. Payments to the families of eliminated terrorists are to be categorized as “support for Palestinian families in crisis.” The incentivization of terrorism will continue, but will be recast as humanitarian aid.

As if that weren’t bad enough, “Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night” exposes another level of institutional terrorism in the PA, detailing acts of terrorism committed by those already on the PA payroll. Members of official branches of the Palestinian security framework play a dual role; on the one hand, they serve in the policing and security entities tasked with prevention and eradication of Palestinian terrorism, while at the same time, many of these same officers are themselves perpetrators of unspeakable acts of terrorism against Israeli civilians and security forces.

The report’s findings have been reinforced in the two weeks since its publication, as PA Security Force officers have carried out additional terrorist attacks — including machine-gunning a school bus full of children, shooting up a vehicle and wounding two far-left “peace activists” and, in another incident, evading a five-hour Israel Defense Forces manhunt after wounding seven Israeli civilians. 

Although senior Fatah and PASF officials have already made it very clear that members of all branches of the Palestinian security system are actively involved in the struggle against “the occupation,” and take great pride in the large and growing number of “martyrs” and prisoners from among their ranks, key members of Israel’s political and military decision-making elite refuse to so much as entertain the possibility that the PA may turn its guns on Israel in the foreseeable future. Let alone admitting that this is not only the current reality, but has been the case since the moment the PA and its security apparatus were created under the Oslo Accords. 

The notion that on the day after the war the very same Palestinian “security mechanisms,” which are actually terrorist mechanisms, will bear responsibility for Judea and Samaria, as well as for the Gaza Strip,  is the definition of insanity. The PA and its “security” mechanisms see themselves as the executive arm of the jihad, entrusted with the dual mission of conquering Israel and eradicating the Jewish people. The unequivocal words, the murderous actions and the pay-for-slay policies of the PA leave no room for doubt or denial.

To believe any statement to the contrary, made in service of any other interest or by any other “authority,” is tantamount to burying one’s head in the sand, and poses an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the moral underpinnings of peace-loving democratic societies worldwide.

This article first appeared on JNS

General
ה' אדר ב' התשפ"ד - 15 March 2024
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A new report reveals that nearly 80 officers of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces have been killed or arrested while carrying out terror attacks against Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers in the past three years. Regavim: “To continue to claim that the Palestinian Authority is a moderating force that fights terrorism is to prop up the same failed concepts and paradigms that went up in blood, smoke, and tears on October 7th.”

A shocking new study released by the Regavim Movement reveals the deep and growing involvement of officers of the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus – officers who are trained, armed and equipped by the US and Europe – in terrorism against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.

The report, titled “Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night,” provides details on 44 “PASF terrorists,” who were posthumously declared “martyrs of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces” after they were killed in the course of terror attacks they carried out against Israelis between 2021 and 2023. In this short period, at least 25 additional officers of the PASF were arrested by Israeli security forces for involvement in acts of terrorism. At least another 7 PASF officers were wounded in the course of terror attacks against Israeli civilian or military targets.

Regavim’s study focuses exclusively on acts of terrorism perpetrated by officers of the Palestinian Authority’s various security branches – Civilian Police, the Liaison and Coordination Office, the General Intelligence Service and other official PA bodies that ostensibly prevent and uproot terrorism and cooperate with Israel’s security system – and does not include acts of terrorism perpetrated by members of Fatah, despite its very close affiliation with the PA. “The study,” explained Regavim’s Naomi Kahn, “focuses on the officers who turned their western-supplied guns on the State of Israel.”


“Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night” draws upon a wide range of primary sources, foremost among them the “martyrdom proclamations” published by the PA, the various branches of the PASF and Fatah, all of which glorify and take pride in the terrorists within their ranks. Regavim’s researchers dug into their backgrounds, revealing proof of the official positions of these terrorists in the PA’s security frameworks. Additional sources shed light on the terrorists’ personal histories, organizational affiliations, time spent incarcerated for security offenses, family affiliations and more.

Cross-reference of the incidents with publicly available information allowed Regavim’s researchers to account for these terrorists’ victims, and to track their broader impact on the narrative and ethos of Palestinian armed struggle against Israel.

The report makes it clear that the Palestinian Authority not only fails to condemn the acts of terrorism that arise from its own ranks, it glorifies the perpetrators; it provides ostentatious military funerals, makes ostentatious, official condolence visits, memorializes the terrorists in public institutions, naming streets, buildings and other projects after them, and more. This conduct is only one aspect of the Palestinian Authority’s support for terrorists who murder Jews – support that is also expressed in the generous salaries for terrorists who are apprehended and incarcerated in Israeli prisons or to the families of terrorists killed in the act.

Regavim’s researchers preface the report by stressing that the data presented is an under-estimate; it does not include PASF terrorists who have not been apprehended or killed in action and who have managed to escape justice. It also does not include terrorists whose personal details or connection with the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces were not found. Additionally, they note that official statements released by the IDF and the Israeli security system following terror incidents tend to obscure the affiliations of the perpetrators, whether to Fatah or to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah’s military wing) – and even more so, if the attack was carried out by officers of the PASF.

The report cites abundant evidence of the depth of PASF involvement in terrorism, including statements by PASF Spokesman Colonel Tala Dweikat, who boasted in an interview televised in late October 2023 that “over the past 30 years, the PASF has sacrificed more than 2,000 martyrs,” – in other words, terrorists killed while carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians or IDF forces.

“Our objective is to dispel the fog that has been blinding the Israeli public to reality,” said Meir Deutsch, Director General of Regavim. “Senior Israeli political and military decision-makers regard the Palestinian Authority as a positive force that prevents terrorism and treats the possibility that the PA will turn its guns against Israel as an unlikely threat scenario lurking in the distant future. These attitudes and misperceptions endanger the safety and security of every citizen of Israel.”

“The failure to publicize the information we have uncovered and which we present to the public in our new report has served international anti-Israel forces that advocate turning the Palestinian Authority into an independent State of Palestine under the leadership of Abu Mazen and his cohorts,” continued Deutsch. “To continue to claim that the Palestinian Authority is a moderating force that fights terrorism is to prop up the same failed concepts and paradigms that collapsed on October 7th. The citizens of Israel have been shaken out of their reverie and they are no longer willing to accept statements that are disconnected from reality and that may lead to the next ‘October 7th’.”

To read the full report, click here: https://bit.ly/3ThhTLt

To watch a video about the report, click here:

https://youtu.be/NGYmZQCz4qU?si=ej8SL69BpTn3Jwtg

Op-ed
א' שבט התשפ"ד - 11 January 2024
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PRESIDENT ISAAC Herzog speaks as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on, in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. While the PA proudly declares its full partnership with Hamas, the US continues to maintain that this twisted leadership is a viable alternative for post-war Gaza, says the writer.

Many Israelis have begun to understand that on the “day after,” we cannot simply revert to the “day before.”

The basic, underlying assumptions and security paradigms upon which Israeli policy has been built for decades came crashing down on October 7. On that day, it became painfully clear that the underlying assumptions upon which Israel has based its relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with the Arab population of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip were rooted in fallacies, misconceptions, and even self-delusion.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, we continued to pretend – and behave – as if we had a partner that shared the values we Israelis cherish, and we ascribed our own aspirations to our Palestinian interlocutors: to live in peace and prosperity; to provide a better future for our families; and to live in dignity under strong democratic institutions that protect our values and nurture progress and development.

Unfortunately, all our wishful thinking was proven to be nothing more than self-delusion but if misery loves company, we can console ourselves in the knowledge that we are not alone in this massive failure. Our Western allies – principal among them our closest and staunchest ally, the United States – continue to operate under the same delusions.

Palestinian Authority declares full partnership with Hamas

While the PA proudly declares its full partnership with Hamas, not only in spirit but also in the murderous actions of October 7, the US continues to maintain that this twisted leadership is a viable alternative for post-war Gaza. The “martyrs” and “prisoners” funded by the PA – those who either succeeded or attempted to murder Israelis but were neutralized or apprehended by the IDF – are as much a testament to the PA’s intentions as the official PA curriculum, the countless public pronouncements by PA officials, or the refusal of the PA to amend its charter, which continues to call for jihad and the eradication of Israel.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY head Mahmoud Abbas attends Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, last year. Abbas, in recent years, has depicted Jesus as Palestinian, says the writer. (credit: Ahmad Gharabli/Reuters)

Similarly, the unchecked illegal PA program of de facto annexation of areas under full Israeli jurisdiction – “Area C” – has been willfully ignored by successive Israeli governments in the decades since the PA launched the Fayyad Plan. This openly violates international law with the support of the European Union and a host of governments that pay lip service to their commitment to that same law and to “a negotiated resolution of the conflict.” Israel continues to cling to collapsed enforcement paradigms and delusional “appeasement” and “tolerance” that have turned its national interest into nothing more than a rumor.

It’s time for a reality check. It’s time to reexamine the underlying assumptions and begin to rebuild our security paradigm. Some in the US have started to demand that their government shake off the reverie of self-delusion; a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal calling for an end to US tax dollars funding the PA’s pay-for-slay program, to which the October 7 murderers have been added, is a case in point.

Israelis should be doing the same.

Land policy
י"א אלול התשפ"ג - 28 August 2023
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Israel’s High Court of Justice. Photo credit: EPA

Under a newly adopted law, the “reasonableness doctrine,” created by former Chief Justice Aharon Barak as a means of vastly expanding the power of Israel’s High Court to overrule policy choices made by officials, has been curtailed. 

In what may come as a surprise to critics of the move in Israel and abroad, the sky has not fallen, and Israel’s judicial branch has not lost its independence. The new law simply restores limits upon the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down ministerial appointments or other decisions by elected officials, while not touching the Court’s jurisdiction regarding decisions taken by the non-political echelon – the sweet spot that preserves powers for the Court that are unique in the Western world, but restores to the people their ability to govern themselves democratically through elections.

Consider a recent petition brought by the Regavim Movement against a Civil Administration protocol that automatically suspends enforcement against illegal Arab-built structures. The Civil Administration is an arm of the Israeli defense apparatus that administers “Area C” of Judea and Samaria, the territory over which Israel exercises full jurisdiction under the Israel-PLO Oslo Accords.

Although subject to the supervision of the Minister of Defense, the Civil Administration enjoys substantial autonomy in setting policy, and the protocol in question was not formulated by the minister or his staff, nor by any preceding holder of this office; it was instituted and enforced by the Civil Administration alone. 

In fact, Justice Groskopf noted in the decision, that although the amendment limiting the “reasonableness doctrine” came into effect some three weeks ago, this case focuses on policies instituted by the “professional echelon” (OC Central Command and Commander of the Civil Administration), and is therefore unaffected by the new law.

Some might argue that this passing comment, intended to provide justification for hearing the petition in the first place, is an important insight into the bigger picture of the level at which Israel’s governance in Judea and Samaria is conducted in practice; more on this below.  

 The particulars of the case involve a petition filed by Regavim last year regarding a “standard operating procedure” applied by the Civil Administration to illegal Arab-built structures in Area C.

The upshot has been an umbrella of legal protection that lasts for years on end. The appeals process, if it can be called a process, drags on interminably as the structures are built to completion, inhabited for years thereafter, and accepted as one more fact on the ground in the Battle for Area C. No such protection is afforded to illegal Jewish construction, which the High Court has ordered demolished even when its legal status is unclear or in the process of legalization. 

This past May, when arguments were heard in the High Court of Justice, Regavim presented data that paints a very clear picture of the abuse of the system by Arab construction offenders: From 2018 to 2020, a whopping 1302 permit requests were submitted – and not a single one was approved.

These requests were for post-facto “whitewashing” of illegal structures that were already in various stages of completion, built, for example, in nature reserves, on archaeological sites, in active military firing zones, within the municipal lines of existing Jewish communities, on privately owned land, adjacent to major traffic arteries or on land slated for new roads, and other such locations.

Eight-hundred-and-one requests were rejected outright and another 501 are still pending. In that same time period, 479 appeals were filed, of which 475 were denied. 

In other words, the overwhelming majority of requests and appeals were frivolous, baseless, utterly without merit – and were clearly nothing more than a means of protecting existing illegal structures that cannot and will not be granted legal status.

The stalling tactic of submitting a permit request followed by an appeal when the request is rejected, has effectively turned the system against itself and provided the legal cover for mass-scale annexation of the open spaces of Area C by the Palestinian Authority. 

The state’s representatives argued that enforcement bodies have the authority to suspend enforcement against illegal structures according to priorities based on a variety of considerations. Additionally, the state’s attorney presented a very broad interpretation of the Jordanian law to justify the policy of suspending enforcement until all procedural and legal steps are exhausted.

Justice Groskopf noted that the government’s arguments were inconsistent, and Chief Justice Hayut criticized the government for failing to present accurate data regarding the number of permit requests and appeals: “The respondents are expected to periodically examine the policy they adopt in this context, and to formulate an opinion based on the data… in order to determine whether the data supports the policy they have instituted,” said the Chief Justice. 

Nonetheless, the High Court found insufficient cause to intervene, agreeing that continued reliance on this policy “does not overstep the boundaries of reasonableness.” Regavim’s petition was rejected.

This gives us an opportunity to think about what is “reasonable” about current Israeli policy in Judea and Samaria, and what is “unreasonable.” Although the High Court found that the Civil Administration’s authority to implement its current policy is “not unreasonable,” its policy is bringing about unreasonable results. 

On a purely legal level, the Civil Administration clearly has a mandate to formulate and implement enforcement policy, but this mandate is itself unreasonable. The Civil Administration is an arm of the military, and its primary objective is to maintain peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, this objective is all too often achieved through unreasonable means that are beyond the purview of military operations and go to the heart of politics, geopolitics, international relations, and Israel’s future. In the case of wholesale, open-ended suspension of enforcement, the price for avoiding confrontation with Arab construction offenders – and with the international community that is supporting this activity as a means of creating a de facto Palestinian state – is the sacrifice of Israel’s security, the decimation of Israeli governance, discrimination against Jews, and deprivation of their right to live in and develop Jewish communities in Area C. 

The very expansive interpretation given by the Civil Administration to Jordanian law is itself unreasonable, even if it is “legal”: It protects, encourages, and rewards illegal construction; undermines governance and the rule of law; and enables de facto annexation of what is, at the very least, disputed territory that the State of Israel has been entrusted and empowered to protect – very unreasonable outcomes indeed. 

It would be reasonable to require a less expansive interpretation and application of the Jordanian law. It would be no less reasonable to require the application of legal norms as they are applied throughout all other areas under Israeli jurisdiction. 

It would certainly be no less reasonable to require the Civil Administration to uphold standards in the Arab sector that equal those for planning, construction, and environmental sustainability equal to those applied to the Jewish sector. Israel’s High Court of Justice has failed to grasp the magnitude and intensity of the battle for the open spaces of Area C that is being waged by the Palestinian Authority – and is being lost by the State of Israel. The Civil Administration has failed to defend Israel in that war. Neither the Civil Administration nor the High Court of Justice should be entrusted to provide solutions to these problems; the High Court’s decision in this case makes it clear that it does not intend to do so.

Regavim’s petition on this matter, as in so many others, was an attempt to force the Israeli government to act as any reasonable government should, and the decision that was handed down leaves the door wide open for the government to do so. The time has come for Israeli legislators to roll up their sleeves, wade into the muddy waters, and restore reasonableness to Civil Administration protocols. In other words, it’s time for the Israeli government to govern. 

Battle for Area C
כ"ז אב התשפ"ג - 14 August 2023
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The illegal events venue in Gush Etzion

After months of unanswered complaints and correspondence, Regavim has taken its battle against an illegal events venue up a notch: A new petition filed jointly with the Gush Etzion Regional Council demands immediate enforcement. “The Palestinians are partying at our expense.“

A new petition to the Jerusalem District Court demands the immediate demolition of an illegal event complex, built without the necessary permits on the outskirts of the village of Al-Khader – in Area C, which is under full Israeli jurisdiction. The complex has a commanding location adjacent to Route 60, the major thoroughfare connecting the communities of Gush Etzion and Mount Hebron to Jerusalem that is traveled by thousands of motorists every day.

The site houses several structures in a multi-level entertainment and events compound complete with a spacious parking lot. When work at the site first began, Regavim and the Gush Etzion Regional Council appealed to the enforcement authorities to prevent the land-grab and illegal construction. It took months and months for the Civil Administration to respond to the repeated appeals, and the response was the same as in thousands of cases Regavim has pursued over the years: The Civil Administration claimed that stop-work orders and demolition orders had indeed been issued – and enforcement would be carried out “according to established priorities.”

Nonetheless, over the course of the past year, development work was completed – in complete disregard for any orders that were or were not issued, and the perpetrators even submitted a request for a retroactive permit, which was rejected. Throughout this entire farce, the compound has continued to host events every day. There has been absolutely no enforcement of any kind against this illegal business enterprise, the structures built at the site, or the perpetrators – who continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

The Regavim-Gush Etzion petition mentions both the close proximity to the road, and the fact that the structures were built within an area under military orders that prohibit construction of any kind due to the sensitivity of the location: “The very real security risk posed by the compound to all users of the road requires increased enforcement, not tacit acceptance of illegal activity by enforcement authorities that have made a habit of turning a blind eye to Arab construction offenses.”

Proximity to the Highway: The illegal complex with Route 60 in the background

According to Regavim’s data, there are more than 370 illegal structures and dozens of agricultural encroachments in this area alone, resulting in a takeover of thousands of dunams of land in the open areas that is suffocating the southern approaches to Jerusalem and forming a stranglehold around the capital.

“The Palestinians are celebrating here – and what they’re celebrating is Israel’s lack of governance,” says Moshe Shmueli, Regavim’s Field Coordinator for Judea and Samaria. “This is a complex that hosts weddings and parties every evening, on one of the busiest roads in the vicinity of Jerusalem, less than half a kilometer from the tunnel road. We see again and again how the Battle for Area C has long been waged: annexation tactics are not limited to planting trees and other agricultural projects, or construction of shacks and shanties. The Palestinian Authority is on a massive construction spree in all of Judea and Samaria from south to north – building parks, event venues, recreation complexes, institutions and factories. We are witnessing the fulfillment of Palestinian declarations about the unilateral establishment of a state – and the State of Israel continues to ignore it.”

Shlomo Ne’eman, Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and Chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, adds: “It’s time to put an end to the celebration! This complex was built by Arabs who are taking advantage of the lack of enforcement against the rampage of illegal construction in the area. The compound is located on land which for the most part falls under a military order prohibiting construction of any kind. To make matters worse, it is built on archeological antiquities: the complex’s pool is built on a burial cave, trampling not only the priceless history but the law that requires preservation and scientific examination and documentation of our heritage.”

Despite Civil Administration orders, these lawbreakers violated the law time and time again and continued with illegal construction. The Gush Etzion Council invests massive efforts in the fight against the hostile Arab takeover of our national land resources. This illegal complex is located in a strategic area that connects Gush Etzion to Jerusalem, and we demand immediate enforcement and oversight.”

Illegal schools
כ"ג אייר התשפ"ג - 14 May 2023
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Before
After

Following our petition, Civil Administration forces tore down an illegal Palestinian school, built in the Herodion Nature Reserve and Heritage Site in Gush Etzion.

63 days after the Jerusalem District Court ordered to seal off and demolish the illegal structure, and despite UN efforts to delay law enforcement, the school was taken down.

This school is only one out of more than 100 illegal school buildings that were built in Judea and Samaria, as part of the Palestinian Authority’s plan to take over Area C and the open spaces.

Yesterday morning’s enforcement is the first step in restoring law and order to the area, and it is certainly not the last: now, we need to restore the site and deal with the hundreds of similar cases of illegal takeovers of lands and nature reserves in this area and beyond.

Environmental abuse
כ"ח ניסן התשפ"ג - 19 April 2023
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An aerial image of the illegal Beit Fajjar quarry

“Have any of you ever been to the quarry?” – that’s what the judge asked the State representatives in last week’s District Court hearing in the case of the Beit Fajjar quarry.

The Beit Fajjar quarry, located in east Gush Etzion and mainly in Area C, is the largest illegal quarry in the country, spreading over about 1,600 acres.

In the last decade, Regavim has filed two petitions against the illegal quarrying – which, besides taking over huge swaths of land, causes major damage to archaeological sites.

Photo credit: Preserving The Eternal

In last week’s hearing, the State rejected the claims that there is ongoing damage to archeology, and claimed that quarry has not expanded significantly since 2005. Regavim’s lawyers presented findings that prove the opposite, causing the judge to wonder why the State authorities are unaware of the current reality. The judge demanded that up-to-date evaluations be carried out and an answer submitted to the courts within 60 days.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation on the ground, as part of the battle to preserve Israel’s land resources.

General
כ"ו אדר התשפ"ג - 19 March 2023
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In the heart of the Land of Israel, an exclusive new housing project is underway. To qualify for this prime location you must have Jewish blood on your hands: Eligibility is for those who have served a minimum 5-year prison sentence in an Israeli security prison.

Recently, work began on a new neighborhood of 100 luxury villas in Area B – the portion of Judea and Samaria under Palestinian Authority civil jurisdiction and Israeli security jurisdiction.

The project developer, the Ramallah-based “Al Karameh Corporation for Prisoner Housing,” is an association whose members have served sentences of at least five years in Israeli prisons for terror-related convictions. The governing board of the corporation boasts family members of notorious terrorists, including Ablah Saadat, wife of Ahmad Saadat, Secretary General of the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Naim Al-Sharif, father of Imad Al-Sharif, a convicted Hamas terrorist.

The new neighborhood has a commanding position overlooking Route 60 at the British Police Junction. This is the spot from which countless terrorist incidents have been launched, including in 2002 when an Palestinian-Arab sniper murdered 7 IDF soldiers, 3 civilians and injured 6 others.

Construction underway in the new neighborhood

This proves unequivocally that those calling upon Israel and the world to prop up and even strengthen the Palestinian Authority are completely out of touch with reality. It is high time that we understand precisely who and what we are dealing with: The Palestinians – both the leadership and the rank and file civilian population – idolize terrorists and consider them freedom fighters and martyrs, while the Israeli government agonizes over the morality of deporting the families of terrorists or of instituting the death penalty.

While all this hand-wringing and moralizing is going on, terrorism continues to claim the lives of Israelis throughout the Land of Israel, and the bloody tally of Jewish victims continues to swell.

An aerial view of an illegal house – built for terrorists