Violation: New outpost built on lands allocated as a natural reserve/forest.

Location: Umm Safa / Ramallah governorate.

Date: September 1^st 2020.

Perpetrators: settlers from “Sons of the Hells” gangs.

Victims: People of Umm Safa village.

Description:

According to eyewitnesses, settlers belong to Al-Tilal gang[1] set up three tents and a shack used as a barn on 2 dunums of Palestinian lands allocated as a natural reserve.

Reportedly, the new outpost is only 200m away from an outpost previously set up on Al-Qastal mount area, and it is linked to “Halmish” settlement (1 km away) with a dirt road.

Photo 1: the new outpost built on Umm Safa village lands

Umm Safa village Council Head Marwan Sabah told LRC:

“There are vast olive groves in Al-Qastal mount, Israeli settlers are trying to impose their control on the through setting up outposts and harassing Palestinian farmers to stop them from coming to the area.”

Palestinian forests and Oslo Accords:

In the Oslo Accords signed between Palestinians and Israelis in 1995, Forests and natural reserves in the West Bank are under Israeli Control, but this responsibility will eventually be transferred to the Palestinian Administration once a Palestinian state is established under the Accords, this solution became impossible with settlement construction eating up vast areas of the West Bank and dividing its communities.

 On the ground, The Israeli Authority allows settlers to build illegal outposts and settlements on West Bank Natural reserves and forests , and prohibit Palestinians from using them , which is a violation of international conventions and agreements related to the protection of civilians in times of War and/or under Occupation.

[1] Al Tilal Gang: One of its members was “Baruch Goldstein" who committed the Ibrahim Mosque Massacre on February 25, 1994 when he opened fire on helpless worshippers praying in the Mosque; tens of Palestinians were killed and injured as a result. Al Tilal group was formed as a response to the call of the radical Prime Minister, Sharon, who encouraged colonists to take over the peaks of mountains in the West Bank and inhabit them without waiting for a permission nor a building permit from the Israeli authorities and even without proper infrastructure in a bid to create facts on the ground and foil the Palestinians' efforts to establish a state of their own.

This report was prepared with EU funding

The contents of this document do not reflect positions and views of the European Union