Israeli settlers and police clashed as two illegal settlement buildings were torn down but PM, under pressure from pro-settler parties, approves hundreds more

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has approved the immediate construction of hundreds of settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in an effort to stave off a growing threat posed by pro-settler parties in his rightwing coalition government.

The issue was brought to a head on Wednesday by a supreme court ruling that two buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El – built on private Palestinian land without permits – should be destroyed, despite Netanyahu’s opposition.

Settlers and Israeli police clashed at Beit El on Tuesday and Wednesday. The case has exacerbated increasing tensions in Netanyahu’s government, not least with the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, which was already complaining about a claimed freeze in recent settlement construction.

Settlements in the West Bank are viewed as major obstacles to peace negotiations with Palestinians, who see the land as part of a future independent state. Western nations have called on Israel to halt such projects.

In a separate incident, several hundred settlers have also occupied the ruined site of a settlement in the northern West Bank that was forcibly evacuated 10 years ago at the same time as Jewish settlements inside Gaza.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Beit El confront police. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian

Netanyahu’s fragile coalition has a majority of a single seat, and recent tensions, coupled with Wednesday’s construction announcement, underline the power wielded by the pro-settlement parties.

Beit El in particular has become a lightning rod in recent days for pro-settlement ministers, who travelled to the area to support activists who had briefly occupied two unfinished buildings facing demolition.

On Tuesday, violent clashes erupted between Israeli police and hundreds of young settlers who were trying to stop the demolitions. Police made arrests and deployed water cannon and “skunk water” – a foul-smelling chemical fluid that clings to the body for weeks – at the height of the confrontations.

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Among those on site to oppose the demolition was the Jewish Home leader and education minister, Naftali Bennett, who faced calls from settlers in Beit El to quit the government.

Although the defence ministry had attempted to retroactively approve the buildings, the supreme court ruled against the prime minister and the defence ministry and ordered their immediate demolition, which was carried out barely an hour later by bulldozers backed by hundreds of police.



Announcing the new settlement building, Netanyahu’s office said: “After consultations in the prime minister’s office, the immediate construction of 300 homes in Beit El has been authorised.” It added that planning for another 504 homes in occupied east Jerusalem had also been approved.

The announcement of the construction of new settlements was immediately condemned by the senior Palestinian political figure Hanan Ashrawi. “These settlement measures and war crimes are part of a plan by Israeli leaders to impose a ‘greater Israel’ on historic Palestine and destroy the two-state solution and the chance for peace,” she said in a statement.

According to the statement from Netanyahu’s office, the 300 units in the West Bank had been promised three years ago following the demolition of other homes in the Beit El settlement.

In a radio interview after the announcement of the planned settlement building, Bennett said: “The prime minister decided to approve a new neighbourhood, 300 housing units immediately plus 500 in Jerusalem, our capital. This is the way to build our land.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Beit El settler breaks down in tears during the demolition of two buildings. Photograph: Peter Beaumont for the Guardian

The confrontations in Beit El and in the ruined settlement of Sa Nur have come at a time of increased dissatisfaction among settlers, who are marking the 10th anniversary of “disengagement”, as the evacuation of the Gaza settlements is known.

That anger, directed at the government, was in evidence in Beit El on Wednesday as hundreds gathered to oppose the demolition, scuffling from time to time with police, who had set up roadblocks to prevent other pro-settler activists reaching the settlement.

“This is completely illegal,” claimed Judy Simon, a resident of Beit El who organises tours of the settlement. “It is undemocratic and absurd. These buildings are completely legal.

“If this building must fall,” she added, “then the government must fall.”

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“What happens today with these buildings has an implication for the future. For building in half of Israel,” added Ilana Shalev, who also believes the Netanyahu government should not survive. “Maybe we cannot stop it now but we can protest [against] it so it does not happen again.”

Watching a back-hoe construction vehicle tear down one of the buildings, Hillel Fendel said: “I feel a terrible sorrow. But we cannot let that stop us. People see this as a seed. Perhaps these two buildings will be destroyed but out of this many more will grow.”

There was speculation that the demolished buildings would be quickly rebuilt. The rightwing justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, said permits for the structures – acquired after their construction – made reconstruction likely.

Gilad Grossman, who works for Yesh Din, a human rights organisation that has represented the Palestinian landowner of the site of the unfinished houses, welcomed the decision to destroy the buildings and said Yesh Din would now try to get the land returned to its owners.

“This land was seized ... by the military for military use, not building, and built on without permits,” he said. “In 2010 the state issued demolition orders and finally that was upheld.”

He warned, however, that this may have been a battle the government was prepared to lose ahead of more difficult ones: “The real issues here are future issues – houses elsewhere that need to be demolished, including all of the Amona outpost and nine buildings in Ofra.”