Netanyahu said to back recognition of illegal farming outposts in West Bank

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly supports the authorization of illegal farming outposts in the West Bank, some of which have been home to extremist hilltop youth settlers who have been carrying out regular attacks against neighboring Palestinians.

The prime minister also reportedly called for educational measures to reduce violence from hilltop youth.

Netanyahu’s stance was laid out in a document, obtained by the Ynet news site, summarizing a discussion last month on addressing violence by hilltop youth. The discussion, which also included Defense Minister Israel Katz and the chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, came as settler violence spiked across the territory.

Ynet reports that a section of the document titled “Prime Minister’s Summary” calls the farms “a positive response that is necessary in order to safeguard Area C,” the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control, and says they “act as a response to Palestinian activity in the area.”

Settler leaders claim that Palestinians are illegally expanding their villages in Area C, while Palestinians note that Israel grants building permits in the territory almost exclusively to Jewish settlers.

Rights groups also argue that settlers have been using the farming outposts to take over additional land, while violently intimidating neighboring Palestinians. Hundreds of Bedouin families have fled their homes due to repeated attacks.

Nonetheless, Ynet reported that Netanyahu is pushing for the farming outposts to be legalized.

While successive governments have provided security and funding to West Bank outposts, they were built without the necessary permits, making them illegal under Israeli law.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, and Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock — both on the far right — have directed tens of millions of shekels to the farms, according to Ynet. The funds have gone to security measures and mobile dwelling structures.

Ynet reports that, according to security officials, there are approximately 1,000 hilltop youths, among them 300 who are considered violent. At the center of that group, the officials said, is a hard core of 70 activists.

According to the document, Netanyahu called for combating the violence through education.

“The goal we should pursue is using educational tools to remove as many Jewish youths as possible from the cycle of violent activity in Judea and Samaria,” the document said, according to Ynet, using the government’s preferred term for the West Bank.

“Unfortunately, although efforts have been made, the number of youths who are involved has only grown, and that’s because there isn’t a central address that covers the spectrum of social and educational treatments,” it adds.