Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in urging the Israeli government to reverse the so-called “compromise agreement” reportedly achieved with militant West Bank settlers, and immediately remove a settlement outpost built illegally on land that is claimed by the Palestinian villages of Beita and Yatma, near Nablus.

APN urges the Biden administration to demand that the Israeli government remove this illegal outpost and put an end to the damaging practice of “legalizing” West Bank settlement outposts built in violation of both international law and Israel’s own laws. 

As Peace Now points out, the settlement outpost, Evyatar, was built illegally, without government authorization. Since its construction started on May 3rd, the settlers have built some 50 homes at the site, unhindered by Israeli authorities. In daily demonstrations by neighboring villagers, four Palestinians were shot dead by the IDF. According to some reports, settlers were also involved in the shooting. 

In a June 20th letter to the settlers’ attorneys, the Israel Defense Forces, which maintains full civil administrative control over this part of the West Bank, stated that the outpost’s construction “contributed to violating the security stability” in the West Bank, and constitutes a security burden as well as a “severe and flagrant violation of the law.”

The outpost was built on land that is neither owned by the settlers nor categorized as “State Land” (land managed by the governing power, Israel’s military government). A large part of the land has been cultivated by Palestinian villagers for generations. The settlers demand that Israel’s occupation authorities declare the land as State Land in order to retroactively “legalize” the outpost. 

Evyatar is partially funded through a crowdsourcing campaign that is registered in the United States. 

APN demands the immediate dismantlement of this illegal outpost and urges the Biden administration’s intervention with the government of Israel in this regard. 

For more about Evyatar, see here.