Israel is legalizing old and new settlements

Moshe Ya’alon to expand Etzion settlement area south of Jerusalem to include former church compound next to al-Aroub

BY RAOUL WOOTLIFF AND JUDAH ARI GROSS, TOI

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (left), with Efrat Mayor Oded Ravivi (right) in the Etzion Bloc settlement on September 30, 2015 (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (left), with Efrat Mayor Oded Ravivi (right) in the Etzion Bloc settlement on September 30, 2015 (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)WRITERSRaoul Wootliff

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has reportedly decided to expand the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion south of Jerusalem to include a compound Israelis hope to turn into a new settlement.

The move comes after Ya’alon approved construction on the site in June and will allow for the creation of a new settlement on the land, which formerly housed a Christian-run hospital, Army Radio reported Thursday.

The plot sits across from the al-Aroub refugee camp on Route 60, between the Etzion settlement bloc and Hebron.

If populated, the outpost would help create an Israeli corridor stretching from Jerusalem to Hebron, which critics say would further complicate efforts to create a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank under a two-state peace deal.

The Gush Etzion area directly south of Bethlehem is considered one of the largest settlement blocs in the West Bank, home to tens of thousands of Israelis spread over several communities.

The area is considered one of several Israel would seek to hold on to in a future peace deal with the Palestinians, in exchange for land swaps, according to officials.

Ya’alon’s move to append the compound to the Etzion Bloc would be the latest in a series of settlement authorizations planned by Israel. On Wednesday the Attorney General’s Office had informed Israel’s High Court of the government’s intention to legalize the unauthorized West Bank settler outpost of Adei Ad, located in the Shiloh area north of Ramallah.

Three other illegal outposts in the area will also be retroactively made into permitted settlements, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

Settlements are legal under Israeli law, but considered illegal by the international community.

Speaking during a visit to the Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank Wednesday, Ya’alon said that “there is not, nor will there be, a freeze in [settlement] construction, given that our legitimacy to settle the land has come under attack.”

The property near al-Aroub is owned by Jerusalem City Council member Arieh King, who bought it three years ago and began refurbishing it with the intention of establishing a new settlement outpost there.

The purchase was reportedly funded by US millionaire and right-wing philanthropist Irving Moskowitz through a series of shell corporations and charitable organizations in 2008, according to Haaretz.

The church property was previously owned by a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania through a group called “The Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.”

The church sold the site when Joan Davenport, the nun who managed the property, left Israel. “We decided to finish our mission in Israel because they told us in Bethlehem that there were enough local Christians and that they did not need us,” she said.

The site includes eight buildings, among them a large central structure and several smaller ones. Twenty years ago the Presbyterian church was turned into a hostel, but the business venture failed and the site was abandoned and left in ruins.

The compound was built by Thomas Lambie, an American missionary who worked in Ethiopia before coming to Palestine in 1947. He established a hospital for tuberculosis patients at the site, where he was buried after his death in 1954.

The compound has undergone repairs and is expected to house as many as 20 families. A new fence has also been built despite a stop-work injunction by the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank, which cited the lack of a building permit for the fence.

The nature of the site was kept a secret even from those working on it. A man who went by the name of Emanuel, who claimed to be Norwegian, dealt with the Palestinian workers in the compound.

Emanuel claimed he wanted to merely restore the church to its former state, Haaretz reported.

The Israel Defense Forces had been unaware of the site’s intended purpose when the refurbishment began, and security for the settlement-to-be was even handled by a private company.

Local Palestinians have protested the site’s renovation, placing Palestinian flags on the fence of the complex.