Israel announces illegal move to seize historic West Bank site as settlers erect new outpost

Israel plans to seize large parts of a major occupied West Bank historic site, according to a government document, and illegal settlers put up a new outpost overnight, even as the country faces pressure to crack down on settler violence in the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s Civil Administration announced its intention to expropriate large swaths of Sebastia, a major archaeological site in the West Bank, in the document obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said the site is around 1,800 dunams (450 acres) — Israel’s largest seizure of archeologically important land.

The move came as Israeli settlers celebrated the creation of a new, unauthorised settlement near Bethlehem, and a Palestinian lawyer said a West Bank activist has been detained and hospitalised.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said Israel may have committed war crimes when it forcibly expelled 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps this year.

Israel to seize heritage site

The Israeli order released on November 12 lists parcels of land it intends to seize in the Sebastia area. Peace Now, which provided the document to AP, said the popular archeological site, where thousands of olive trees grow, belongs to the Palestinians.

It is the site where Christians and Muslims believe Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) was buried.

Israel announced plans to develop the site into a tourist attraction in 2023.

Excavations have already begun, and the government has allocated more than 30 million shekels ($9.24 million) to develop the site, according to Peace Now and another rights group.

The order gives Palestinians 14 days to object to the declaration.

The largest parcel of historical land previously seized by Israel was 286 dunams (70 acres) in Susya, a village in the south of the occupied West Bank, Peace Now said.

Settlers inaugurate new illegal outpost

Israeli settlers said they established a new unauthorised outpost close to Bethlehem.

The chairman of the local Etzion settler council, Yaron Rosenthal, welcomed the settlement.

The new outpost is close to the busy junction where on Tuesday, one Israeli was stabbed to death.

Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack, but in a statement called it “a normal response to the occupation’s attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” vowing that Israeli aggression wouldn’t go unchallenged.

Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now’s settlement watch programme, said the outpost is on land that used to be an Israeli military base. Photos that settlers shared online show temporary homes at the site and bulldozers at work.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — areas designated for Palestinians for a future state — in the 1967 war. It has settled over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank, largely on illegal settlements, in addition to over 200,000 more in contested East Jerusalem.

Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who formulates settlement policy, and Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation’s police force.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed concern that the latest spate of violence by illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

"I hope not," Rubio told reporters recently, when asked whether the occupied West Bank events could endanger the Gaza ceasefire.

"We don't expect it to. We'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen."

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Source: TRT