IDF rejects appeal against plans to raze illegal West Bank outpost

T. Belman. This is what is wrong with allowing the DoD to rule the territories. Their decision is based on security and the Geneva Convention. If the government extended sovereignty to these lands, the Government would  be in charge and their decision would be based on the rule of law.

But even then the High Court would put the matter in the hands of the police as they do on the Temple Mount when security is at stake..

Finally, as a matter of law, it must be applied equally or the Jewish settlers could claim discrimination.

Military says Evyatar was established unlawfully and ‘undermines the IDF’s ability to maintain security in the area’; 4 Palestinians have died in clashes nearby in recent weeks

By EMANUEL FABIAN, TOI

Settlers seen in the Illegal Evyatar outpost, in the northern West Bank, on June 16, 2021. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)

Settlers seen in the Illegal Evyatar outpost, in the northern West Bank, on June 16, 2021. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)<
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The Israel Defense Forces has rejected out of hand an appeal against the planned evacuation and demolition of an illegal West Bank outpost.

Settlers of the Evyatar outpost had hoped to stop the planned evacuation, but the military denied their request on Sunday. “The Evyatar outpost was established illegally. Everything was done in complete violation of the law and without any proprietary or planning agreements,” the IDF Central Command wrote.

The military also stated that that the required documents were not attached to the appeal, which was itself sufficient reason for denying the request.

The residents can now appeal to Israel’s top court, the High Court of Justice, but their petition unlikely to be accepted there.

The land on which Evyatar was reestablished in April historically belonged to the adjacent Palestinian villages of Beita, Kablan and Yitma, though residents have been barred access to it for decades for what the IDF has said are security reasons.

The outpost has quickly grown over the last two months, swelling to roughly 50 buildings for dozens of families. The outpost’s Facebook page boasts that Evyatar prevents contiguity between the surrounding Palestinian villages while connecting the Israeli settlement of Tapuah to the Za’atara Junction and Migdalim settlement.

Settlers seen in the Illegal Evyatar outpost, in the northern West Bank, on June 16, 2021. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)

The area around Evyatar has seen repeated clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in recent weeks following the reestablishment of the outpost.

Palestinians near the adjacent Beita have hurled stones at troops and burned swaths of land, while Israeli soldiers have responded with riot dispersal munitions and in some cases, live bullets. In recent weeks, four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the clashes.

In the denial of the settlers’ appeal, the military wrote that the establishment of the illegal outpost “undermined security stability in the area,” adding that the army was required to use additional forces to protect the area, which disrupts military routine and impairs the IDF’s ability to maintain security in the area.

Israeli security forces clash with Palestinians during a protest against the Evyatar outpost, in Beita, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on June 18, 2021. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Evyatar has already been razed several times since it was built in 2013 after the murder of Yitzhar resident Evyatar Borovsky in a stabbing attack at the Tapuah Junction.

The estimated cost of razing some 50 buildings in the illegal outpost is roughly NIS 10 million ($3 million), security officials told Channel 12 news last week.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

June 21, 2021 | 5 Comments »

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5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. Can’t find anything on the history of these villages. Were they established by the King during the illegal Jordanian occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Yesha, when he began giving away land to Arabs?

  2. @Ted

    Clarification in Israel in English it is the MOD (Minstry of Defense or in phonetic Hebrew Misrad ha Betachon).

    DOD is the USA equivalent.

  3. This article sounds sympathetic to the Arabs. Like to hear the other side of the argument that this land belonged to these villages, just for hasbara purposes, not that I care, one way or the other, personally. I preferred this article:

    “Another Fine Mess for Bennett: IDF Rejects Evyatar Settlers’ Plea, Clears Next Week’s Demolition
    By David Israel – 11 Tammuz 5781 – June 21, 2021 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/another-fine-mess-for-bennett-idf-rejects-evyatar-settlers-plea-clears-next-weeks-demolition/2021/06/21/

    By the way, you know The Jewish Press has an Israpundit page, right?

    https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/israpundit/

    By contrast, TOI’s sister paper is The Jewish Week
    https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/

    Though both The Jewish Press and The Jewish Week are based in New York City and TOI in Israel, The Jewish Press comes across as more of an Israeli paper than either, frankly, and I go to it, first. Jewish Week is like Haaretz and TOI, which I used to like is sounding more and more like Haaretz which had an article just now saying Israeli is an apartheid state because of the law restricting Palestinian family unification!

    Apropos of nothing, the editor of The Jewish Press was one of the genuinely pro-Trump Jan. 6 demonstrators, in case you didn’t know.

    https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/editor-of-jewish-press-revealed-as-one-of-the-jan-6-capitol-rioters-664557

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/editor-of-orthodox-weekly-jewish-press-identified-as-january-6-capitol-rioter/

  4. This article sounds sympathetic to the Arabs. Like to hear the other side of the argument that this land belonged to these villages, just for hasbara purposes, not that I care, one way or the other, personally. I preferred this article:

    “Another Fine Mess for Bennett: IDF Rejects Evyatar Settlers’ Plea, Clears Next Week’s Demolition
    By David Israel – 11 Tammuz 5781 – June 21, 2021 0

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/another-fine-mess-for-bennett-idf-rejects-evyatar-settlers-plea-clears-next-weeks-demolition/2021/06/21/

    By the way, you know The Jewish Press has an Israpundit page, right?

    https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/israpundit/

    By contrast, TOI’s sister paper is The Jewish Week
    https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/

    Though both The Jewish Press and The Jewish Week are based in New York City and TOI in Israel, The Jewish Press comes across as more of an Israeli paper than either, frankly, and I go to it, first. Jewish Week is like Haaretz and TOI, which I used to like is sounding more and more like Haaretz which had an article just now saying Israeli is an apartheid state because of the law restricting Palestinian family unification!

    Apropos of nothing, the editor of The Jewish Press was one of the genuinely pro-Trump Jan. 6 demonstrators, in case you didn’t know.

    https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/editor-of-jewish-press-revealed-as-one-of-the-jan-6-capitol-rioters-664557

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/editor-of-orthodox-weekly-jewish-press-identified-as-january-6-capitol-rioter/

  5. This article sounds sympathetic to the Arabs. Like to hear the other side of the argument that this land belonged to these villages, just for hasbara purposes, I don’t care. . I preferred this article:

    “Another Fine Mess for Bennett: IDF Rejects Evyatar Settlers’ Plea, Clears Next Week’s Demolition
    By David Israel – 11 Tammuz 5781 – June 21, 2021 0

    Judge Paul
    Photo Credit: Sraya Diamant/Flash90

    The Evyatar outpost in Samaria, June 16, 2021.
    Central Command Chief General Tamir Yadai on Sunday rejected the criticism filed by the residents of the Evyatar outpost in Judea and Samaria regarding an order instructing them to evacuate. The criticism was submitted by the settlers alongside a construction plan aimed at preventing evictions. This means that as of next week, security forces are expected to start evicting the settlers and destroying their newly build, 40 or so homes.

    Unless somebody above the General’s pay grade, say, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (Yamina), would order his defense minister (Benny Gantz) to halt the destruction. There’s also the appeal to the High Court of Justice the residents are preparing. They argue that since the area is being evaluated as part of the process of turning it into state-owned land and as such available for Jewish settlement, the IDF should wait for the results of the evaluation. What’s the hurry?

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    The Deputy Attorney General for the Judea and Samaria Region, Lt. Col. Lahat Shemesh, justified the rejection of the criticism and said the outpost had been established illegally, and that dozens of buildings were erected there illegally. Lt. Col. Shemesh added that the establishment of the outpost led to an undermining of the stability of security in the area, which was expressed, among other things, in “dozens of significant disturbances,” which “affected the security assessment in the sector, and requires the allocation of many forces that are diverted from other operational missions, for all that this implies.”

    The good Lt. Col. Was referring to the fact that hundreds of local Arabs are making it their main daily concern to attack and harass the Jewish residents of Evyatar, a community that was created in the first place to commemorate young Jews who were murdered in the nearby Tapuah junction by local Arab terrorists.

    It would have been funny had it not also been so tragic: the people in charge of securing the lives of the Jews of Evyatar are annoyed because their presence there brings on murderous attacks which said security forces must now go over and stop. Jewish settlers can be so annoying…

    Local Arabs harass the Jewish settlement of Evyatar on a daily basis. / Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90
    In any event, the violent clashes between Arabs and the security forces take place around the outpost almost every day, and since the outpost was established at the beginning of May, four Arabs have been killed in clashes with security forces. So the military is obviously eager to remove those pesky Jews and go home.

    Early last week, General Yadai imposed on Evyatar a military order allowing the evacuation of the entire outpost within eight days of the signing. The residents were given an extension to appeal the order, and filed such an appeal last Thursday, just before a possible eviction went into effect. That appeal was rejected outright Sunday night.

    The High Court of Justice is probably also going to reject the settlers’ plea unless they land one of the conservative justices appointed by then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina). In the end, the Evyatar folks are hoping Prime Minister Bennett will prefer to avoid the evacuation of the outpost, at least in his first months as prime minister.

    There’s a movement in the bizarre Bennett-Lapid coalition to offset the regulation of Jewish outposts (the code words for which are “young settlements”) with the legalizing of Bedouin settlements in the Negev. It may be a deal with the devil, but trading the survival of real, Jewish communities in exchange for large swaths of Negev lands may offer a happy, albeit short term, resolution.

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/another-fine-mess-for-bennett-idf-rejects-evyatar-settlers-plea-clears-next-weeks-demolition/2021/06/21/

    By the way, you know The Jewish Press as an Israpundit page, right?

    https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/israpundit/

    By contrast, TOI’s sister paper is The Jewish Week
    https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/

    Though both The Jewish Press and The Jewish Week are based in New York City and TOI in Israel, The Jewish Press comes across as more of an Israeli paper than either, frankly, and I go to it, first.

    Apropos of nothing, the editor of The Jewish Press was one of the genuinely pro-Trump Jan. 6 demonstrators, in case you didn’t know.

    https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/editor-of-jewish-press-revealed-as-one-of-the-jan-6-capitol-rioters-664557

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/editor-of-orthodox-weekly-jewish-press-identified-as-january-6-capitol-rioter/