‘A giant gift’: Settler leaders hail IDF approval of borders for new W. Bank settlement
Planning proposals for now-legalized outpost seek some 3,600 housing units; ‘We will continue the settlement momentum throughout the land,’ says Smotrich
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Settler leaders on Tuesday hailed the formal approval of municipal boundaries for a new West Bank settlement, a step that implements a government resolution from February 2023 legalizing nine previously illegal outposts in the territory.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was a key player behind the development, celebrated the decision, as did local settlement leaders from the Gush Etzion region where the settlement is located.
The new settlement, which will be named Mishmar Yehuda, is essentially the legalization of the Mitzpe Yehuda outpost, which is also known as Kedar Tzon Farm and encompasses some 417 dunams (100 acres) of land.
It is located just south of the large Maale Adumim settlement in the Judean Desert but will nevertheless be appended to the Gush Etzion Regional Council whose main settlements are considerably further south.
Commander of IDF Central Command Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox formally approved the municipal jurisdiction for Mishmar Yehuda on Sunday.
According to the Peace Now organization, which campaigns against settlement construction and Israeli rule in the West Bank, the land on which the new settlement will be built was registered in the name of an Israeli company based in the Kiryat Arba settlement in the southern West Bank in 2014, which says it bought the land from Palestinian owners in 1992.
The local planning committee of the Gush Etzion Regional Council held a hearing on planning proposals for the new Mishmar Yehuda earlier this month where plans were presented for the first phase of construction in the settlement of some 3,600 housing units for the religious-Zionist community.
An architect who presented the plans said that there was the potential to build some 13,000 housing units in total in the new settlement.
Peace Now said that documents from the Housing and Construction Ministry showed that it had paid NIS 2.7 million in fees to a planning company to draw up plans for Mishmar Yehuda.
The local planning committee does not itself have any power to approve construction. That is under the authority of the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, which is yet to be presented with any plans for Mishmar Yehuda.
Smotrich warmly welcomed the approval of Mishmar Yehuda’s municipal boundaries, saying it came following “diligent work” over the course of a year by the Settlements Administration within the Defense Ministry, which he controls.
Smotrich was the driving force behind the February 2023 cabinet resolution to legalize nine outposts, as stipulated in the coalition agreement between his Religious Zionism party and Likud.
The Settlements Administration was set up at Smotrich’s demand in February 2023, giving him sweeping powers over civilian issues, including settlement planning and construction, in the West Bank.
Smotrich said that the Settlements Administration would now prepare a masterplan for the new settlement.
“We came to this land to build and to be built up in it. We will continue the settlement momentum throughout the land. Congratulations to Gush Etzion, congratulations to the settlements, and congratulations to the State of Israel,” said Smotrich on Tuesday.
The outgoing head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Shlomo Neeman, said the development was “a very sweet and dramatic event,” a “giant gift” to the residents of Gush Etzion, and “our best response to terrorism, to those who want to dispossess us from the land of our forefathers.”
Peace Now denounced the development as a step that would further entrench the conflict with the Palestinians.
“Anything that will God forbid be built in the new settlement, Israel will eventually be forced to evacuate,” said the organization.
“The plan is a severe blow to Israel and to the possibility of reaching a two-state solution. Instead of planning a future of peace and security, the government is planning for us the continuation of the conflict, the deepening of the occupation, and unfortunately also the continuation of bloodshed.”
