In rare move, security forces demolish illegal Israeli buildings in West Bank outpost
Remains of construction demolished by Israeli forces in a West Bank outpost on August 14, 2023. Courtesy of Haaretz
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Israeli security forces demolish four illegal buildings in an outpost in the central West Bank on Monday morning.
This is an unusual move under the current government. It was approved by the Settlement Administration under the control of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as part of his role as a minister in the Defense Ministry.
As Israeli security forces arrived at the outpost, settlers reportedly began throwing stones, and burning tires. One resident was arrested.
The now-destroyed buildings were erected in recent months near the Kokhav Hashahar settlement in the central West Bank.
The Civil Administration recently issued demolition orders for the buildings. Last week, Civil Administration personnel gave notice about the impending building demolition.
According to settlers, two families lived in the destroyed buildings.
On Monday morning, MK Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party and the head of the Binyamin Regional Council Yisrael Gantz visited the outpost.
הריסת בית הבוקר בגבעת אעירה שחר בישוב כוכב השחר שבמטה בנימין?. pic.twitter.com/tXSOOrce3E
— דוד קשת (@david_keshet) August 14, 2023
Sources close to Defense Ministry Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday morning that “These new buildings were built on legal private Arab land and cannot be legalized.” He went on to say that “in this case there is a responsibility to Israeli security forces and law enforcement lawyers.”
“Unfortunately, we were not able to come to a consensual solution to transfer the buildings to nearby state lands in order to legalize them, as we have done in other places,” Smotrich said.
There are 30 buildings in total in the outpost, which is referred to by security forces as the Baladim outpost. It is considered a particularly radical and violent West Bank outpost.
In May, a community of some 200 Palestinians living in tents and temporary structures in the West Bank village of Ein Samia near the Baladim outpost decided to leave their home, which they had inhabited since the 1980s, due to ongoing Israeli settler violence.
Security forces have had trouble implementing the evacuation of illegal outposts since the Civil Administration was put under the control of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in February. Evacuating illegal settlements was relatively common under Israel’s previous government.
In June Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved the evacuation of an outpost set up following the shooting attack in Eli. However, this decision was overturned by a Jerusalem court following a settler petition.
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