Settler leaders in Judea and Samaria, including the Nahala movement led by Daniela Weiss and Zvi Elimelech Sharbaf, are considering establishing 10 outposts at various points in Judea and Samaria during the visit of President Joe Biden to Israel, Israel Hayom reported Sunday night.
President Biden is expected to arrive in Israel in July for the first visit since his reelection. The visit was originally scheduled for late June. The details of Biden’s July visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia have not yet been finalized.
The admittedly provocative move of the settler group is a protest of the delay in implementing the Evyatar settlement agreement that was signed between the founders of the settlement and the Bennett government a year ago. Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue & White) has been dragging his feet on this deal, which he officially opposes.
In late June 2021, the residents of Evyatar reached an agreement with Minister Gantz and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to regulate the settlement and prevent evacuation, a deal that was sharply criticized by the Arab MKs.
According to Nahala, since the government’s reneging on their promise to Evyatar settlers has been rationalized by Lapid-Bennett’s fear of upsetting the visiting president, “We’ll build ten Evyatars at the night during Biden’s visit.”
On March 9, 2016, Vice President Biden visited Jerusalem the same week that the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Commission decided to approve the construction of 1,600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo, which was still called the Shuafat ridge at the time. Biden and President Barack Obama treated the decision as a malicious Israeli insult, even though the timing was entirely coincidental. The Obama administration tried to leverage this claim of an Israeli insult to quash Jewish settlements.
Samaria Council Head Yossi Dagan in May told the Knesset’s Eretz Israel lobby regarding Evyatar: “There was an agreement to establish a yeshiva immediately after a land survey was conducted showing that these are state-owned lands, and after the end of the appeals, a permanent settlement would be established. The survey was completed months ago, and we have been lied to ever since. This behavior does not meet the standards of even this government. I say clearly: do not test us. This government will collapse over violating the Evyatar agreement.”
Dagan is not wrong, although he was not speaking as a representative of Nahala. The IDF, Shin Bet, Border Guard, and police could not possibly evacuate so many new outposts that would start popping up as Biden’s plane touches the tarmac at Ben Gurion. Also, both the US and the Israeli governments are sure to be embarrassed should coverage of the presidential visit be marred by clashes between the settlers and security forces all over Judea and Samaria. Also, the clashes, combined with public pressure against the evacuation of the new outposts, are expected to further undermine the stability of the Lapid-Bennett coalition.
Maybe Minister Gantz should capitulate ahead of time and keep his word?
