Michael Arria
Mondoweiss / May 30, 2023
Jewish settlers established a yeshiva in the evacuated Homesh Jewish outpost two months after a Knesset bill pushing to legalize it. The Biden Administration says it is “deeply troubled” by the move.
Jewish settlers have re-established a Yeshiva in the illegally occupied West Bank. The school had previously been located in the Jewish settlement of Homesh, but was moved to nearby state-owned land.
The move, which was approved by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was done without permits and in violation of existing Israeli law. Tensions developed between the Israeli army and the government over the project, with the army ultimately caving to settler pressure.
“The Homesh affair reiterates the true balance of power within the government, which is controlled by the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties,” writes Amos Harel in Haaretz. “The Homesh yeshiva’s relocation was essentially orchestrated by the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, who was provided cover from the government by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.”
“Smotrich may spend only one day a week in his second office, as minister in the Defense Ministry, but this is his true passion project,” he continues. “Besides, if we are to judge based on the economy’s performance in recent times, it is also the sole place where he can show his voters some form of achievement.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir has praised the settlement’s re-establishment as an “historic moment” which proves the current right-wing government is committed to “building and developing the entire State of Israel.”
In March the Knesset approved legislation to reinstitute four settlements (Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim) that were dismantled in 2005 as part of an agreement between late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former U.S. president George W. Bush. The bill was criticized by the Biden Administration at the time. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the law was “particularly provocative and counterproductive” and inconsistent with Israel’s commitment to the United States.
The State Department reiterated these sentiments last week. “We are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank, which according to Israeli law was illegally built on private Palestinian land,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement.
“This order is inconsistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon’s written commitment to the Bush Administration in 2004 and the current Israeli government’s commitments to the Biden Administration. Advancing Israeli [Jewish] settlements in the West Bank is an obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution.”
During a press briefing, Al-Quds’s Said Arikat pressed Miller on the issue over the Biden Administration’s lack of action on settlement expansion. “I mean, look, good statement, strong statement, as far as stating your position on the settlements and so on and expansion and otherwise but what next?,” asked Arikat. “I mean, regardless of the letters exchanged and so on, so we’ve heard from behind this podium by you, by the Secretary, by others, and so on, expressions of displeasure, of concern, and all these things. But what steps are you willing to take? I mean, it can be concerned, deeply concerned. It can be – maybe you’re angry and so on. But what steps can you take to really drive the point home?”
Israel has dismissed U.S. concern. In response to Miller’s comments Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said “there was no commitment with regard to the relocation of the yeshiva from a location which the Palestinians probably rightly claimed to be private land, to another location on [Israeli] state-owned land.” It bears noting, however, that even “state-owned” land was also illegally seized by the Israeli government.
Earlier this month the Israeli army rolled back an order prohibiting civilians from visiting Homesh amid a right-wing push to legalize the settlement. Shortly after the move clashes broke out in the area between settlers and Palestinians. Israeli officials have told the Biden Administration that they won’t turn the outpost into a new settlement.
Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss
