![Gva'ot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Gva%27ot_.jpg)
Gevaot ( he, גְּבָעוֹת) is an
Israeli outpost
In Israeli law, an outpost ( he, מאחז, ''Ma'ahaz'' lit. "a handhold") is an unauthorized or illegal Israeli settlement within the West Bank, constructed without the required authorization from the Israeli government in contravention of Israe ...
[Ben Sales]
'Israel’s land seizure: political favor or West Bank game-changer?,'
Jewish Telegraphic Agency 2 September 2014. located 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 ...
, in the westernmost area of 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 ...
settlement bloc. It is named for the hills (gevaot in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
) from which
Balaam
Balaam (; , Standard ''Bīlʿam'' Tiberian ''Bīlʿām'') is a diviner in the Torah ( Pentateuch) whose story begins in Chapter 22 of the Book of Numbers (). Ancient references to Balaam consider him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and the son o ...
spoke, according to Numbers 23:9, just like the neighbouring settlement
Rosh Tzurim
Rosh Tzurim ( he, רֹאשׁ צוּרִים, eng. Top of the Rocks) is an Israeli settlement and religious kibbutz in the West Bank established in 1969. It is located about south of Jerusalem, 3.9 km east of the Green Line, inside barr ...
.
On 31 August 2014, Israel declared 988 acres of land surrounding Gevaot as part of state land in West Bank.
Gevaot had yet to be recognized by the Israeli government, due to the lack of defined boundaries, this land appropriation is the first required step to officially recognizing Gevaot.
As of August 2014, there were 10 families living in Gevaot.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank
illegal under international law, whereas Israeli outposts, like Gevaot, are considered illegal not only under
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
but also under Israeli law.
Location
The location is strategically located above the highway from Gush Etzion to
Beit Shemesh and the
Shfela
The Shephelah or Shfela, lit. "lowlands" ( hbo, הַשְּפֵלָה ''hašŠǝfēlā'', also Modern Hebrew: , ''Šǝfēlat Yəhūda'', the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel str ...
. 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 in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the se ...
. Gush Etzion's main communities were founded on land purchased by Jews prior to the establishment of Israel, although "Arab soldiers destroyed the communities when they fought against Israel's founding" in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War.
History
A 1982 Israeli government decision led to the construction of an
Israel Defense Forces Nahal outpost at the site in 1984.
According to
ARIJ, Israel confiscated 135
dunams of land from the nearby
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
village of
Nahalin
Nahalin, also spelled Nahaleen, ( ar, نحالين) is a Palestinian village located in the Bethlehem Governorate to the southwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The word ''nahaleen'' is Arabic for those who collect honey from bees. The village was ...
in order to construct Gevaot.
In 1997, the base was transferred to the Shvut Yisrael
Hesder
Hesder ( he, הסדר "arrangement"; also Yeshivat Hesder ) is an Israeli yeshiva program which combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the Israel Defense Forces, usually within a Religious Zionist framework. The program all ...
Yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...
, which moved there from nearby
Efrat
Efrat ( he, אֶפְרָת), or previously officially Efrata ( he, אֶפְרָתָה), is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, established in 1983 in the Judean Mountains. Efrat is located south of Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and Hebron, ...
. The site is on privately owned Palestinian land, and outpost was built without zoning permits.
[Elior Levy, Itay Blumental ]
'Israel recognizes 4,000 dunam in Gush Etzion as state land,'
Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, 31 August 2014. Over the following decade the yeshiva developed the location as a housing area for its married students and their families. The yeshiva itself moved back to Efrat in 2003.
In 2013, the Israeli government announced plans to expand the settlement and opened bids for 1,000 additional housing units. As of August 2014, 523 of the 1,000 units were under construction. The area was designated as a neighbourhood of
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 ...
, though that is several miles away, and, in the Israeli view, as a neighbourhood of a pre-existing settlement, new construction there would not constitute the creation of a new settlement.
[Chaim Levinson, Jack Khoury]
‘Israel expropriates massive tract of West Bank Land,’
Haaretz 29 August 2014.
2014 land reclassification
In late August 2014, in what was widely reported as a
land grab
Land grabbing is the contentious issue of large-scale land acquisitions: the buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals.
While used broadly throughout history, land grabbing a ...
,
the
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
's
Civil Administration of the West Bank announced it was appropriating 988 acres (1.54 square miles), defining it as Israeli state land as opposed to private Palestinian land south of
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
,
['Israel confiscates 1,000 acres of Palestinian land south of Bethlehem,'](_blank)
Ma'an News Agency
Ma'an News Agency (MNA; ar, وكالة معا الإخبارية) is a large wire service created in 2005 in the Palestinian territories. It is part of the Ma'an Network, a non-governmental organization media network created in 2002 in the Palest ...
31 August 2014. a seizure which prohibits Palestinians from using the area.
According to
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 ...
, it was the largest confiscation of Palestinian land in three decades.
The move, first prompted by a suggestion at a security meeting by
Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon ( he, משה יעלון; born Moshe Smilansky on 24 June 1950) is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israel's Defense Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 ...
,
[Barak Ravid]
'U.S. mulls more steps in response to Israel’s land grab in West Bank,'
Haaretz 5 September 2014. was explained both as a response to the
murder of three Israeli teenagers and as a measure adopted by
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
to placate government allies to his right who were critical of his handling of
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
in the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ),
was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...
.
The land belongs to the five Palestinian villages of
Jab'a
Jab'a ( ar, الجبعة) is a Palestinian village in the central West Bank, located 17 kilometers north of Hebron and 15 kilometers southwest of Bethlehem. Located three kilometers east of the Green Line, it is located in the Seam Zone, surroun ...
,
Surif,
Wadi Fukin
Wadi Fukin ( ar, وادي فوقين) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, eight kilometers southwest of Bethlehem in the Bethlehem Governorate. The village, is located on 700 acres of land, between the Green Line and the Israeli West Bank ...
,
Husan
Husan ( ar, حوسان) is a Palestinian town located west of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Husan had a population of 5,511 in 2007.
In the 1945 statistics the population o ...
and
Nahalin
Nahalin, also spelled Nahaleen, ( ar, نحالين) is a Palestinian village located in the Bethlehem Governorate to the southwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The word ''nahaleen'' is Arabic for those who collect honey from bees. The village was ...
.
The IDF maintains that there are no Palestinian claims on the land, but that those who felt they had valid claims, could appeal within 45 days of the announcement.
[ Palestinians in the area, including the mayor of Surif, Ahmad Lafi, said that land belongs to them][Huge new Israeli settlement in West Bank condemned by US and UK]
and that they harvested olive trees there.
The land making up the Gevaot land appropriation is located on the Palestinian side of the current route for the Israeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Israeli–Palestinian ...
.
Reactions
Israel
*The move was hailed by 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 ...
settlements council as an opportunity to expand Gevaot.
*Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman (, ; russian: Эве́т Льво́вич Ли́берман, Evet Lvovich Liberman, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician serving as Minister of Finance since 2021, having previously served twice as Deputy ...
, Israel's foreign minister, said that the Gush Etzion area "would remain a part of the state of Israel" in any future peace agreement.
*Naftali Bennett
Naftali Bennett ( he, נַפְתָּלִי בֶּנֶט, Transliterated: , ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minist ...
, Israel's economy minister, described the move as an "appropriate Zionist response to murder", adding: "What we did yesterday was a display of Zionism. Building is our answer to murder."
*Davidi Perl, speaking on behalf of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, hailing the announcement as paving the way to the establishment of a Gevaot city, stated that: "The murderers of the three teens wanted to plant fear in our hearts and disrupt our daily lives, and our answer is strengthening the settlements and constructing both inside the main blocs and outside of them."
*Michael Oren
Michael Bornstein Oren (Hebrew: מיכאל אורן; born Michael Scott Bornstein; May 20, 1955) is an American-born Israeli historian, author, politician, former ambassador to the United States (2009–2013), former member of the Knesset for ...
, Israel's former ambassador to the United States
The following table lists ambassadors to the United States, sorted by the representative country or organization.
See also
*Ambassadors of the United States
Notes
{{reflist, 30em
External linksCurrent and former Ambassadors to the United Sta ...
, commented that it was part of a pattern: "The government does something that is unpalatable to the right wing, whether it be making concessions in the peace process or, in this case, agreeing to a cease-fire in Gaza, and then it attempts to palliate the right by building in Judea and Samaria or, in this case, reclassifying land."
*Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now described the measure as "a knife to the back of Mahmoud Abbas" in that while the government negotiates with Hamas, the measure has undermined peace talks with Palestinian moderates on the West Bank.
Palestine
*Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi ( ar, حنان داوود مخايل عشراوي ; born 8 October 1946) is a Palestinian politician, legislator, activist, and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson ...
, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader, stated that the move: "clearly represents Israel's deliberate intent to wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land and to willfully impose a de facto one-state solution." Saeb Erekat called for diplomatic action against Israel.
International
*The United States responded to the announcement by rebuking Israel for taking measures that were 'counter-productive' to the two-state solution in peace talks. Speaking anonymously, a U.S. State Department official, said the U.S. had requested of Israel that it reverse the decision since it contradicted "Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.” According to Israeli sources, the decision "drove the Americans nuts", and the United States administration was mulling measures to respond to the declaration, which had not been cleared with them.
*The expropriation was also condemned by the United Nations, PLO, United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
Egypt, France, Spain, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, European Union, Turkey, Norway, Japan and Amnesty International.
*Richard Ottaway
Sir Richard Geoffrey James Ottaway (born 24 May 1945) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Croydon South from 1992 to 2015. He was previously MP for Nottingham North from 1983 to 1987.
Early l ...
cited the expropriation as an 'outrageous provocation', the last of many landgrabs in the West bank, which tipped him, a long-time supporter of Israel, into casting an abstention vote in a British Parliamentary resolution supporting recognition of Palestine as a state.'Vote to Recognize a Palestinian State Is a Wakeup Call for Israel,'
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
16 October 2014.
*The
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
' belief was that the timing of the decision appeared to indicate a political desire to compensate settlers in the West Bank and punish the Palestinian population.
Isabel Kershner
Isabel Kershner is a British-born Israeli journalist and author, who began reporting from Jerusalem for ''The New York Times'' in 2007. Kershner had previously worked as senior Middle East editor for ''The Jerusalem Report'' magazine. She has al ...
'Israel Claims Nearly 1,000 Acres of West Bank Land Near Bethlehem,'
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
29 August 2014.
References
External links
Shvut Yisrael Yeshiva (Hebrew)Gevaot Website (Hebrew)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gevaot
Gush Etzion Regional Council
Nahal settlements
Populated places established in 1984
1984 establishments in the Palestinian territories
Israeli outposts
Unauthorized Israeli settlements