Chief Rabbi of Safed visits, praises illegal outpost in PA-run Area A of West Bank

Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu visits an illegal settlement outpost in Area A of the West Bank, which is run by the Palestinian Authority and where Israelis are prohibited by military order from entering.

The outpost in the northern West Bank, the precise site of which neither he nor the settler activists disclosed, appears to be located east of the Homesh settlement and north of Nablus. It was established last night.

Speaking in a video filmed at the outpost, Eliyahu, a prominent religious leader of the far right, praises settler activists who have established dozens of illegal outposts around the West Bank in the last four years, and denounced the 1990s-era Oslo Accords, which were seen as a stepping stone to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.

“The Oslo Accords were against the covenant that the Holy One, blessed be He, made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and are destined to be abolished,” says Eliyahu in a video distributed by settler activists.

“Thank God, we have merited to see today that settlers are settling all over Areas C, B and A,” says the rabbi, referring, respectively, to areas under Israeli control, shared Israeli-PA control, or PA control. He also denounces the use of the terms, saying they are not part of Hebrew or Jewish culture.

The outpost is set up by Rabbi Elishama Cohen, who heads the yeshiva in Homesh, with activists stating the yeshiva’s activities have now been moved to the outpost.

“It is a great merit to help all the settlements in these territories today because this is the covenant of our forefathers,” says Eliyahu.

The IDF does not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether the rabbi received a military permit to enter Area A, whether the outpost was known to the army, and if steps were being taken to remove it.

A spokesperson for Eliyahu also does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some 240 illegal settlement outposts have been established in the West Bank over the last four years according to Peace Now, mostly in Area C where Israel has civilian and security control, but increasingly in Area B where there are around 30 such outposts but where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is supposed to have civilian control.

A small number of outposts have also reportedly been established in Area A as well, where the PA is supposed to have civilian and security control.