Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed a forthcoming settlement growth close to a UNESCO Heritage Site within the Occupied West Bank, detailing plans in a statement on X right this moment, August 14. The announcement follows a June proposal from the Israel Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration searching for to legalize 5 new settlements within the West Bank, that are considered illegal under international law.
Aiming to attach Jerusalem with Gush Etzion, a cluster of Israeli settlements positioned southeast of the town, Israeli forces need to set up a brand new settlement referred to as Nachal Heletz, mentioned Smotrich’s assertion, which notes that a part of the target is to stop Palestinian statehood. The information might stoke tensions between Israeli and Palestinian officers prematurely of tomorrow’s scheduled negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, the place Israeli forces have killed more than 39,677 people and injured over 91,645 others since Hamas’s October 7 assault.
The new settlement would embody roughly 148 acres (~60 hectares) positioned throughout the safety zone for the historic Palestinian village of Battir. Situated southeast of Bethlehem, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is thought for its historical dry-stone terrace farms, lush olive tree groves, and a standard irrigation system courting again a whole bunch of years, which helps the livelihoods of around 40% of the village’s 5,000 residents. Activists have long warned that the positioning has been increasingly encroached on by Israeli settlers and military forces.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry decried the brand new plans as a part of Israel’s “expansionist colonial policy,” reported Anadolu Agency.
Hyperallergic has contacted UNESCO, the Israel Planning Administration, and the City of Bethlehem for remark.
The information comes lower than a month after UNESCO voted to inscribe Palestine’s Saint Hilarion Monastery onto its official World Heritage List and List of World Heritage in Danger. Located in central Gaza, the 1,700-year-old monastery website often called Tell Umm Amer was the fifth place in Palestine to be added to the World Heritage List, which totals 1,223 properties and constructions throughout 168 nations.
