On Friday, Peace Now emailed its subscribers (yours truly included) an urgent alert saying Israel is “on the way to complete annexation,” presumably meaning the annexation of Judea and Samaria. The impetus for the alert was an announcement that the Israeli government declared 66 dunams (16.3 acres) as state land for the regulation of the Evyatar outpost.
REALITY CHECK
According to an agreement between the Lapid-Bennett government and the residents of the Evyatar outpost, the residents vacated the place by Friday, July 2, 2021, in the afternoon, and it was transferred to the control of the IDF, without the demolition of the buildings. The status of the land on which the outpost was established was to be examined by judicial officials in the Civil Administration, and if it were found to be privately owned by local Arabs, a yeshiva would be established and residences approved for the yeshiva staff and the students, leading eventually to full civilian presence.
In October 2021, the Civil Administration completed the survey of Evyatar and found that approximately 60 dunams (14.8 acres) of the area were state land on which a new settlement could be established. However, despite the completion of the survey, then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz refused to keep his word and did not declare Evyatar state land.
On February 2, 2022, on his last day in office, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved the outline according to which Evyatar was declared state land.
BACK TO THE PEACE NOW EMAIL
On July 8, 24, the Commissioner for Government and Abandoned Property signed a declaration of approximately 66 dunams (16.3 acres) south of Shechem as state lands. The landowners were given 45 days to challenge the declaration and try to prove to an appeals committee that the land was theirs. The announcement is intended to allow the Evyatar outpost to be legalized.
“The government allowed the settlers to continue living there even though it is illegal and a significant security burden on the security forces, and recently even decided to legalize the outpost and turn it into an official settlement,” Peace Now complained.
You’ll notice that they describe violent Arab harassment of Evyatar’s Jews as “a significant security burden on the security forces.” Such warm and friendly people they are at Peace Now.
“The announcement in Evyatar is one of five such announcements regarding state lands made since the beginning of the year, totaling 23,572 dunams (5,879 acres),” the Peace Now urgent mail declared, noting that “The year 2024 is a record year for such announcements and in fact in 2024 alone about half of all the lands announced since the Oslo agreement in 1993 were regulated.”
This is the most appropriate point to repeat my favorite “Jew reading Der Sturmer” Joke:
In the 1930s, a Jewish man was seen riding the train in Berlin reading Der Sturmer, the Nazi party’s newspaper. He explained: When I read the Jewish papers all I can see is news about Jewish persecution and suffering. But when I read der Sturmer I see the Jews control the world, the Jews own the banks. It’s happier news.
Much like that Jewish Berliner, I find comfort in Reading Haaretz and the Peace Now emails.
Here’s the graphic demonstration provided by the Peace Now research team that follows the settlement enterprise with enviable tenacity, of the dramatic rise in declared state lands in 2024. If you are a lover of Jewish life on Biblical land, you should cork a nice bottle of settlements wine and drink Lechayim:
Now, that’s progress!
