High Court orders police to investigate assistance to illegal settlement outposts

Ruling responds to seven-year-old petition alleging settlement municipal authorities provide substantive, unlawful support for construction of outposts

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

View of the Israeli outpost of Shvut Rachel, in the West Bank, January 30, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
View of the Israeli outpost of Shvut Rachel, in the West Bank, January 30, 2023. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

The High Court of Justice issued a ruling on Tuesday requiring police to open a criminal investigation into whether officials in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council and the Karnei Shomron Local Council, two West Bank settlement municipal authorities, illegally assisted with the construction of illegal settlement outposts.

The order comes due to a series of petitions filed by the Peace Now organization to the High Court, starting nearly seven years ago, demanding that the police and State Attorney’s Office investigate such activity, in the absence of enforcement action by those authorities to date.

Settlement municipal authorities have been involved in supporting illegal outposts for years, despite such support being ostensibly illegal given that outposts are built without authorization from the government.

Peace Now, which campaigns against the settlements, said in response to the decision that criminal investigations were crucial in dealing with the phenomenon, and for having the leaders of the settlement movement “reconsider breaking the law.”

In 2017, Peace Now published a study called “Unraveling the Mechanism Behind Illegal Outposts,” detailing the methods through which illegal settlement outposts are established, including through the assistance of local settlement municipal authorities and non-governmental organizations, and the failure of law enforcement agencies to investigate such activity.

On the back of the report, the organization filed evidence to the police and the State Attorney’s Office urging them to investigate allegations regarding several specific outposts, but such investigations never came.

A mother walking with her children near caravan homes in Givat Haroeh outpost, January 18, 2004. (Flash90)

As a result, Peace Now filed the first of several petitions to the High Court In 2018 against the police, the Attorney General’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, the Amana settlement construction organization, and others, demanding that the law enforcement agencies investigate the allegations.

The petitions dealt specifically with the illegal outposts of Shvut Rachel and Haroeh in the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, and Alonei Shiloh, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.

Peace Now alleged that officials in those municipal authorities illegally provided assistance in establishing these outposts, “exploiting public resources and funds to create political and security facts on the ground.”

The organization alleged in its petitions that the municipal authorities helped build infrastructure for the outposts and provided them with various forms of administrative and bureaucratic assistance to build them, among other forms of support.

On Tuesday, the High Court noted that the State Attorney’s Office had told the court in December 2024, as a result of the petition, that the complaints had been passed to the police’s Judea and Samaria District, which would investigate the allegations.

The court said it was turning the State Attorney’s Office statement into a ruling, meaning it has the force of law and is now a legal obligation.

In the time since Peace Now filed its petitions, Shvut Rachel has been retroactively legalized as a formal settlement by the government, and Haroeh is in the process of being legalized.

Alonei Shiloh remains an illegal outpost.

The High Court issued a similar ruling several months ago requiring police to investigate illegal construction in the HaYovel outpost, close to Shvut Rachel, in response to a separate Peace Now petition.

And another Peace Now petition demanding an investigation into the involvement of the Gush Etzion Regional Council in funding and constructing the illegal outpost of Sde Boaz is pending before the court.

“For too long, settler leaders have acted with impunity, exploiting public funds to entrench facts on the ground that impose political and security costs on all of Israeli society,” said Peace Now following Tuesday’s ruling.

“Opening an investigation is a critical first step in tackling this phenomenon. It is time for settler leaders to reconsider before breaking the law and using public resources to further entrench the occupation, deepening the conflict, and moving Israel further away from peace.”

The organization acknowledged that the police could very quickly close any investigations it is required to conduct, but said it would demand to see the investigative material to try and ensure that a serious investigation is conducted.

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