Government gifts more ATVs to illegal West Bank outposts to ‘deepen control’ of territory

The government this week distributed 29 all-terrain vehicles, as well as security and logistical equipment, to illegal farming outposts in the West Bank with the stated goal of “strengthening the resilience” of such unlawful communities and “deepening” Israeli control of the territory.

The ATVs and security equipment were funded by the Settlements and National Missions Ministry, and provided through the auspices of the World Zionist Organization’s Settlements Division to settlement municipal authorities in the Benjamin and Gush Etzion regions of the West Bank.

The equipment was ceremoniously handed over on Sunday and Monday at the settlement of Sde Ephraim, which until recently was an illegal farming outpost but was legalized by the government in June last year.

It included floodlights, night vision goggles, drones, communications equipment, fire suppression trailers, water trailers, and generators.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister within the Defense Ministry in charge of civil affairs in the West Bank, said at the ceremony: “The agricultural farms and young settlements are the spearhead of Zionist settlement in Judea and Samaria.

“Today we are equipping these pioneers with the tools that will allow them to protect their homes, maintain the territory, and deepen our hold on the Land of Israel,” he added.

The project to equip the illegal outposts is coordinated with the IDF’s Central Command, which designates which outposts are eligible for the equipment.

Settlements Minister Orit Strock, who was also in attendance at the ceremony, described the farming outposts as the most important component of the settlement movement “because they completely change the perception of the area, greatly expand our grip on the area, and in fact provide the best and most significant response to the project and plot of taking over the area led by the Palestinian Authority.

The government made similar contributions to 19 other illegal farming outposts in the South Hebron Hills region in April, including to Yinon Levi, an extremist settler who founded the Meitarim Farm outpost and who on Monday allegedly shot dead a Palestinian activist during an incident in the Palestinian hamlet of Umm al-Kheir.

Levi has previously been filmed hounding the livestock of Palestinian shepherds with an ATV, a phenomenon that civil rights activists say is a common way for extremist settlers to harass rural Palestinian communities.

Civil rights organizations have repeatedly insisted there is a nexus between illegal farming settlement outposts and violence against local Palestinians, while settlers living in and managing the illegal farming outposts state explicitly that the goal of such enterprises is to take control of large swaths of land and to drive out Palestinians from the area.

The Yesh Din organization, which tracks settler violence, said on Wednesday that there was a “close connection” between Levi and the government’s distribution of “security components” to extremist settlers, adding that the “messianic vision” of the far-right coalition parties was unfolding before the country’s eyes.

The financing of the ATV vehicles was secured in the coalition funds section of the state budget, which are financial earmarks secured by coalition parties to fund their pet projects.

Coalition funds approved by the government in December 2023 earmarked NIS 75 million ($22 million) for “security components for the young settlement in Judea and Samaria” for 2024. Young settlements are a euphemism for illegal outposts.

Although the farming outposts are unauthorized by the cabinet and are therefore illegal, the Attorney General’s Office nevertheless approved the budget item for providing them with security and other equipment.

“Security components” that can be provided under the coalition funds include equipment that is not permanently attached to the ground, such as security cameras, flashlights, binoculars, drones, water trailers, and ATVs.

Illegal outposts eligible to receive such equipment must be approved by the IDF’s Central Command in accordance with the security threat they face, the legal adviser to the Settlements and National Missions Ministry told civil rights lawyer Michael Sfard in November last year.