A new building for a yeshiva located in the illegal West Bank outpost of Homesh was relocated by Israeli settlers overnight to nearby location designated by Israel as “public land”.
The move is considered a goal in the extremist settler movement and the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to legalise and re-establish Homesh, despite its international illegality.
Homesh was built illegally on private Palestinian land, namely the West Bank village of Burqa, as a military outpost in 1978. It was transformed into a residential settlement for Jewish settlers in 1980.
The settlement, which is illegal under not just international law but even Israeli law, was officially dismantled by Israel in 2005. However, despite the eviction of settlers, the Palestinians to whom the land legally belongs have never been allowed to return, blocked by the Israeli security forces and deterred by settler violence.
This has left the site open for attempts by Israeli settlers to re-colonise the area, which is precisely what is occurring, with Israelis continuously entering and occupying the area illegally.
This most recent move comes as the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to rescind the 2005 Israeli disengagement as it relates to the four West Bank settlements, including Homesh.
In March, Netanyahu lifted the ban on Israeli settlers entering Homesh, as well as the three other settlements in the West Bank. This most recent move involving the yeshiva was done with the full approval of Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and was formally greenlit by Netanyhu.
Despite opposition from the Israeli attorney general’s West Bank office, the Government ordered Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Maj. Gen Yehuda Fuchs to let settlers enter Homesh and to provide them with the necessary security, according to the Israeli media.
The IDF stopped short of aiding in the construction of the yeshiva until its legality is confirmed, with growing frustration within the military at Netanyahu’s disregard for the rule of law.
Meanwhile, the settler movement was jubilant. As quoted by local media, Yossi Dagan, chairman of the Shomron Regional Council speaking on behalf of the Yeshiva of Homesh, stated that it was another step towards “full rectification” of Israel’s “disengagement with Northern Samaria”, which is the name Israel uses to describe the illegally occupied West Bank.
On the other hand, , which provides legal representation for Palestinian landowners, released a statement that Israel should have re-evacuated the post “immediately” but is rather “giving reward to serious criminals” and “still doesn’t allow Palestinians to reach their land and continues their dispossession.”
As the Israeli government began the groundwork for this move by formally allowing Israelis to remain, with fully military protection, at Homesh, Israel’s closest ally the US rushed to condemn the move. “We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank,” a US State Department spokesman in a statement.
, 700,000 Israeli settlers currently illegally reside across 279 settlements in the West Bank, 147 of which are outposts considered illegal even by Israeli courts, such as the one at Homesh.