Elazar ( he, אֶלְעָזָר) is an
Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, 18 kilometers south of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in the
Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion ( he, גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural v ...
cluster of settlements. A
community settlement
A community settlement ( he, יישוב קהילתי, ''Yishuv Kehilati'') is a type of village in Israel and the West Bank. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the village's residents are organized in ...
, it had a population of in . It is administered by the
Gush Etzion Regional Council
The Gush Etzion Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית גוש עציון, ''Mo'atza Azorit Gush Etzion'') is a Regional council (Israel), regional council in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West B ...
. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank
illegal under international law, although the Israeli government disputes this.
Netiv HaAvot outpost
The Netiv HaAvot
outpost, officially an expansion of Elazar, 500 meters beyond the Elzar settlement's jurisdiction,
[5 May '10: A license to loot: the Derekh Ha'avot outpost]
B'tselem
B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...
, 25 April 2010. and adjacent to
Alon Shvut
Alon Shvut ( he, אַלּוֹן שְׁבוּת) is an Israeli settlement located southwest of Jerusalem, one kilometer northeast of Kfar Etzion, in the West Bank. Established in June 1970 in the heart of the Etzion bloc, Alon Shvut became the ...
is built on land which some human rights organizations consider privately owned Palestinian agricultural land, the former property of the Mussa family of
al-Khader
Al-Khader ( ar, الخضر) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the south-central West Bank. It is located west of Bethlehem. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a ...
. Local Palestinian villagers say they owned and worked the land until military curfews and closures in the wake of the
Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...
forced them to abandon it, whereupon settlers moved onto the land to build there in February 2001.
An assistant to the Minister of Defence at that time, Brig. Gen.
Baruch Spiegel, stated that the outpost was built on privately owned Palestinian land and on "survey land", meaning land whose ownership was still subject to determination.
Netiv HaAvot subsequently figured among 105 outposts listed in the
Sasson Report
The Sasson Report is an official Israeli government report published on 8 March 2005 that concluded that Israeli state bodies had been discreetly diverting millions of shekels to build West Bank settlements and outposts that were illegal under Is ...
submitted to the Israel cabinet in 2005, and the report noted that
Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction had by that date spent
NIS
Nis, Niš, NiS or NIS may refer to:
Places
* Niš, a city in Serbia
* Nis, Iran, a village
* Ness, Lewis ( gd, Nis, links=no), a village in the Outer Hebrides islands
Businesses and organizations
* Naftna Industrija Srbije, Petroleum Industry o ...
300,000 to develop the outpost.
Netiv HaAvot has since been the subject of two
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...
petitions.
The court ordered the government to form a committee to examine the land ownership issue after 8 Palestinian farmers from al-Khader petitioned for the demolition of the outpost in 2002 on the basis that it was built on their privately owned land. No committee was constituted however.
In 2008, a second petition to demolish the outpost was filed by Peace Now
Peace Now ( he, שלום עכשיו ''Shalom Achshav'', ) is a non-governmental organization, liberal advocacy and activist group in Israel with the aim of promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Objectives/position ...
, and the state said a committee would be formed to examine land ownership.[ The office of the State Attorney responded by concurring that the outpost was unauthorized and that action, stop-work orders an demolitions, was being taken. In July 2009, justices ordered the state to provide a "clear timetable for carrying out the orders." The timetable was never produced,]
On being told by Israeli Labor MP Yuli Tamir
Yael "Yuli" Tamir ( he, יולי תמיר; born 26 February 1954) is an Israeli academic and former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 2003 and 2010, and as Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Educatio ...
, who confronted the residents, that the outpost had been built without permits, the Gush Etzion Council head Shaul Goldstein replied:"I have examined 200 locales around Israel, and they were all erected this way. This is the building culture in Israel."[Tovah Lazaroff and Dan Izenber]
''Settlers lift Gush from consensus''
''The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'', 23 September 2009.
The state, though having repeated for 9 years that the outpost had been built illegally, stated through the Attorney General on the 25 April 2010, in a notification to the High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...
that the government was considering approving the settlement, subject to determining what buildings stood on state ground and which constructions were built on private Palestinian land. If cases were found reflecting the latter circumstance, then demolitions would proceed. B'tselem
B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...
, the Israeli Human Rights organization argued that any such government approval would constitute approval of looting and unlawful construction, and implied that the state was ignoring obligations undertaking in the Road map for peace
The Roadmap for peace or road map for peace ( he, מפת הדרכים ''Mapa had'rakhim'', ''Khāriṭa ṭarīq as-salāmu'') was a plan to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East: the United State ...
. The Peace Now petition was rejected in October 2010 by Justice Edmond Levy because the land survey had not been carried out.[ The survey, completed a month later, found that 60% of the outpost was built on privately owned Palestinian farmland.][ On April 13, 2014, Israel announced its intention to retroactively declare 983 ]dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s around Netiv HaAvot state land, marking the largest expropriation of West Bank territory in recent times.[ Palestinian village leaders were given notice of the state's intention to appropriate the land, and have 45 days to appeal the decision.][ According to ''Haaretz'' the "planned appropriation of land far exceeds the size of Netiv Ha'avot, which is built on just a few dozen dunams".][ About 50 families live in the outpost, including the secretary of Amana described by ''Haaretz'' as "the organization that is the driving force behind all the illegal outposts".][ Palestinians living in nearby villages were given 45 days to appeal the decision.][ Dror Etkes, head of the ]Peace Now
Peace Now ( he, שלום עכשיו ''Shalom Achshav'', ) is a non-governmental organization, liberal advocacy and activist group in Israel with the aim of promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Objectives/position ...
settlement tracking project, described the decision as "a faithful reflection of the Netanyahu government's policy" intended to "extinguish the last embers of the negotiations with the Palestinians".[
On June 12, 2018, the outpost was evicted due to a supreme court decision.]
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Populated places established in 1968
Populated places established in 1975
Israeli settlements in the West Bank
Gush Etzion Regional Council
1968 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate
1975 establishments in the Israeli Military Governorate
Community settlements
North American-Jewish culture in Israel