Israel Cracks Down on Illegal Palestinian Authority Construction in Gush Etzion Nature Reserve

Photo Credit: Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL

A sales office in the Judean Desert Nature Reserve where Palestinians Authority Arabs are building an illegal neighborhood, on Aug. 21, 2024.

(TPS) Israel began razing Palestinian buildings built illegally inside a nature reserve on Thursday.

Nearby residents hailed the move as “historic” saying the illegal Palestinian Authority Arab construction has been unchecked in the Judean Desert Nature Reserve in the Gush Etzion region.

“For years, the reserve has been systematically destroyed by illegal construction. This construction harms nature and creates a stranglehold around nearby Jewish communities,” Yaron Rosenthal, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, told The Press Service of Israel. “Today, for the first time since the Oslo Accords, we are witnessing the enforcement of law in this regard. This is a crucial step towards restoring the desert and preserving the Judean Desert—a Jewish desert.”

The reserve is located in Area B, where the Palestinian Authority has administrative jurisdiction while Israel is responsible for security. However, under the terms of the 1998 Wye River Memorandum, the Palestinians agreed not to build in the 41,000-acre reserve.

During a tour of the nature reserve in August, TPS-IL witnessed expansive illegal construction spanning kilometers, piles of construction debris and trash as well as scorch marks in the ground left behind by the burning of garbage. There were buildings in various stages of construction, ranging from still-wet cement foundations to a completed building resembling a guest house with a swimming pool.

The foundation for a complex of illegal Palestinian Authority Arab buildings in a nature reserve in the Judean Desert on Aug. 21, 2024.

A recent aerial survey conducted by Regavim, a non-governmental organization that monitors illegal Palestinian construction in Judea and Samaria, identified approximately 3,400 illegal structures in the reserve. When the Wye River memorandum was signed in 1998, there were 268.

Sharon Avni, an activist and resident of nearby Tekoa explained the implications of the construction to TPS-IL, “It’s very clear that construction in the agreed reserve is a strategic effort to strangle the Jewish settlements and sever territorial connections with Jerusalem. Moreover, the area is rich in archaeological treasures, and every day, more of our history is being destroyed there if we don’t stop it.”

MK Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who raised questions about the construction during hearings said, “The Palestinian celebration ends here, and the committee I head will continue to act and monitor the progress of the works and the continued clearing of the agreed reserve from Palestinian takeover attempts.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who spearheaded the enforcement initiative within the Security Cabinet, said, “The State of Israel is taking a major step in the strategic battle for open spaces. With professional and thorough groundwork, we have begun enforcing against the rampant illegal construction by the PA in the Judean Desert. We will not allow the PA to violate agreements and establish a terrorist state that threatens our security.”