EU behind illegal Palestinian building in Judea and Samaria, Israeli NGO says

The site was found during a routine field inspection to assess the condition of state land in the area as the Israeli government takes steps to expand Jewish communities in northern Samaria.

By David Isaac, JNS

An illegal Palestinian Authority compound funded with European Union money was recently discovered in Area C by Regavim, an Israeli NGO focused on land-use issues.

It sets in stark relief E.U. hypocrisy, the group said.

The recently discovered recreational compound and public park was built in 2025 on the outskirts of the village of Silat ad-Dhahr in northern Samaria.

Part of it is located on Israeli state land in Area C, near the renewed community of Sa Nur, one of four settlements evacuated in Samaria during the 2005 Gaza disengagement.

“Constructed less than a year ago, the compound includes an impressive entrance gate, a broad access road, benches, a pergola, playground equipment and a light-construction utility structure. According to official signage at the site, the planning and construction of the compound and access road were funded directly by the European Union,” Regavim said in a statement.

The site fits into a broader pattern of Arab encroachment on open areas to seize Israeli state land and create facts on the ground in preparation for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

The site was found during a routine field inspection to assess the condition of state land in the area as the Israeli government takes steps to expand Jewish communities in northern Samaria.

The government wants a bloc of settlements to regain control of this “strategically crucial area that has become a hotbed of terrorism,” Naomi Kahn, director of the International Division of Regavim, told JNS.

“Our field coordinator did a standard sweep to update our data on the areas being repopulated by Jewish communities in northern Samaria. He discovered a recently built recreational compound with European Union sponsorship signage and Palestinian Authority credits. But the compound, which ‘spilled over’ from Area B, is sitting on Israeli state land in Area C,” she said.

“The whole thing is illegal and awesome at precisely the same time the EU has sanctioned law-abiding Israeli civil society organizations, including Regavim, without even the pretense that they are guilty of doing anything illegal,” Kahn added.

The European Council adopted restrictive measures against Regavim and its director Meir Deutsch on May 28.

It accused Regavim of petitioning the courts to demolish “Palestinian property with the aim to expand the control of Israel to the whole West Bank and institute legal proceedings to that end.”

Kahn said the E.U. targeted Regavim as payback after the group successfully foiled illegal EU building activity, particularly an EU-funded school deemed a serious safety hazard by the Jerusalem District Court, which was then demolished.

The E.U. referred to this structure specifically in its sanctions announcement.

“The organization [Regavim] also lobbied for the demolition of an EU-funded Palestinian primary school at the Jabbet al Dhib village, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank,” the E.U. said.

Kahn is convinced that E.U. sanctions against Regavim and other Israeli civil society groups are only a first stage.

“Their aim is to curb the independence of Israeli courts and then the Israeli government,” she said.

“Knowing that Regavim has been sanctioned for bringing suit, a reasonable judge will ask him or herself whether it’s worth having their assets frozen, their travel restricted, their reputation dragged through the mud for the sake of enforcing the law against a rinky-dink structure that the E.U. will simply pay to rebuild.”

Roi Drucker, Regavim’s field coordinator who discovered the illegal structure, said, “This is an unprecedented act of audacity by the European Union, which imposes sanctions with one hand while, with the other, violates international law and Israeli jurisdiction in Area C.”

He called for the Palestinian Authority and its European benefactors to obey the law. He also demanded that Israel’s enforcement authorities restore order and governance to the region, starting with the demolition of the illegal compound.