Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled against a petition to remove a previously abandoned settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank that Israeli parliament cleared for rebuilding earlier this year.
The court said on Wednesday that the recent relocation of the outpost, which mainly consists of a yeshiva or religious school, from private Palestinian land to public land was enough to allow Palestinians access to their land.
Palestinians say that despite its relocation, the settlement and the military forces securing it block them from freely reaching their land. They have reported increased settler violence in recent months that has put their lives and property at risk.
Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in a 1967 Middle East war as illegal. Their expansion has for decades been among the most contentious issues between Israel, the international community, and the Palestinians, who say settlements cut communities from each other and undermine hopes of a viable independent state.
The United States, Israel’s key ally, has repeatedly expressed objection to Israeli settlement expansion.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition, which includes far-right ministers who oppose Palestinian statehood, has accelerated settlement growth, citing biblical and historical ties to the area.
In March, Israel’s parliament amended a 2005 law to allow Jewish Israelis to return to four evacuated settlements, including Homesh in the northern West Bank, which overlooks the Palestinian village of Burqa.
Read the article in the Kalgoorlie Miner.