Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak has approved the construction of 240 homes in a settler outpost near the illegal settlement of Talmon, east of Ni’lin.The approval comes at a time when the issue of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank has become a point of public contention between the US and Israeli government, with the latter vowing to continue what it calls ‘natural growth’ of settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.
Although construction within existing settlements has continued at a fast pace, the Israeli government has publicly maintained that no new settlements will be approved. The outpost, known in Hebrew as Givat Ha'breicha, was mentioned in the 2005 Sasson Report as ‘illegal’ by Israeli standards, i.e. built without planning approval by the government.
However, the defense ministry’s approval for the rapid expansion of the outpost seems to give Givat Ha'breicha official government endorsement. This follows a well-beaten path in the Israeli settlement program; small remote outposts are set up without government consent while the Israeli government publicly pledges to remove them, by force if necessary. Over time, the outpost grows and receives official sanction and approval for state-sponsored construction and either becomes a full-fledged settlement or is incorporated into an existing one, with the Palestinian land between incorporated into the new bloc.
It is worth noting that the government minister who threatened to remove the outposts by force, Ehud Barak, is the same who approved the expansion of this outpost.
The new expansion will be built on 212 acres of agricultural land belonging to the village of al-Jania. The land is of critical importance to the village, but is only accessible via a road that will become part of the new settlement and therefore closed to the Palestinians on whose land it is built.
This move appears to be as public a defiance of the Obama administration's position on settlements as was the Israeli government's decision to continue ‘natural growth’ expansion in preexisting settlements. Both 'natural growth' and the outposts confiscate Palestinian land, cut off Palestinians from their remaining lands, restrict the freedom of movement of Palestinians and, despite the Israeli government's differentiation, are illegal under international law.
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