Illegal Palestinian building rampant on ruins of former Jewish communities – NGO

‘A place where there is no permanent Jewish presence falls victim to invasion and land robbery, even though the IDF apparently holds the territory,’ said a representative from Zionist NGO Regavim.

By World Israel News Staff

Illegal Palestinian building is ramping up in Judea and Samaria, and some of the construction is taking place atop the ruins of Jewish communities that were evacuated as part of the 2005 disengagement, a Zionist NGO warned the Knesset on Sunday.

During a meeting regarding a potential repeal of the disengagement law which saw numerous Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria dismantled and their residents displaced, Avraham Binyamin, a representative from the Regavim NGO presented evidence of wide scale Palestinian in Area C.

Presenting aerial photographs of the region, Regavim said thousands of illegal structures have been built since the disengagement, with hundreds of them being constructed in the last year alone.

Regavim estimated that there are some 81,000 illegal structures in Area C, with some 5,500 going up between April 2021 and May 2022.

Area C is officially under the full control of Israel, whereas Areas A and B are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority or jointly administered by the PA and Israel.

Binyamin noted that there is open land for building in Areas A and B, and said that illegal building in Area C is part of an intentional effort to weaken Israeli sovereignty in the territory.

“A place where there is no permanent Jewish presence falls victim to invasion and land robbery, even though the IDF apparently holds the territory,” Binaymin said.

He said the widespread illegal Palestinian building in Area C, some of which occurred on the ruins of the Jewish towns of Sa-Nur, Ganim and and Kadim, are evidence of the failure of the “architects of disengagement who claimed that ‘disengagement will bring security.’”

Binyamin added that the concept of giving back land would create peace has been “shattered in the face of the reality in Gaza and in northern Samaria. Where there is no [Jewish] settlement, there is lawlessness and certainly, there is no security.”

“Nearly a century ago, Joseph Trumpeldor summarized an essential truth of the Zionist ethos that is no less relevant today than it was in the pre-State era: The place where the last row is plowed will be the border of our country,” Regavim told World Israel News in a statement. “Land on which there is no Jewish presence will be lost. Settlement and security are not only related, they are inseparable.”