The Commander of the Central Command, Avi Bluth, signed about a month ago a seizure order for dozens of dunams for the purpose of paving a bypass road approximately 1.25 kilometers long to the illegal outpost “Bar Kokhba” (Nahal Heletz), west of Bethlehem. The road is intended to provide settlers with a shorter route to the outpost that bypasses the houses of the Palestinian village of Battir.
Peace Now: The government has lost all shame. After establishing an outpost illegally, without valid plans and on land whose status is disputed, it now dares to use the security pretext to take more Palestinian land in order to create an apartheid road for the settlers of the outpost. This outpost has an alternative route that does not pass between village homes, but it is longer, and therefore the government prefers to seize land from others and harm a heritage site—all just to save a few minutes of travel time for settlers close to its heart.
Map of the seizure order with the route of the planned bypass road for the “Bar Kokhba” outpost
In 2019, the Neve Ori Farm outpost was established not far from the village of Battir, and began taking over extensive areas and pushing Palestinian farmers away from the vicinity. In December 2023, the outpost moved to a new location, in the heart of a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. In June 2024, the government decided to establish a new settlement at the site named “Nahal Heletz,” later renamed “Bar Kokhba”. Shortly thereafter the construction of a caravan site began about 400 meters from the homes of the village of Battir, with the involvement of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
It is important to note that a government decision to establish a settlement is not sufficient to make an outpost legal. The land must be declared “state land” in order to allocate it to settlers; a jurisdictional boundary must be defined; building plans must be prepared and approved—only then can a settlement be considered “legal” under Israeli rules (under international law, all settlements are illegal). In the case of Nahal Heletz/Bar Kokhba, the government has begun regulating the land status, but proceedings are still ongoing with Palestinian landowners who claim ownership of the land. The government has also defined a jurisdictional area for the new settlement, but the outpost was established about a kilometer away from it. In any case, no building plan has yet been approved for the site, and all structures in the outpost are illegal even under Israeli law.
The meaning of the seizure order
Under international law, an occupying power is prohibited from confiscating private land of the occupied population for its own needs. Therefore, when the government seeks to pave a new road intended to serve settlers only, it is not allowed to expropriate Palestinian land for this purpose. To nevertheless pave the road, the government uses the security pretext, claiming the land is required for security needs. The seizure order issued by the commander of the central command states that the land is needed for security purposes, and that it is seized only for a limited period (until the military need ends), and that landowners are entitled to request usage fees from Israel for their land.
In practice, this is a bypass road that bypasses Palestinians and also bypasses the law. Road construction and the establishment of a settlement are not temporary matters, and the claim of temporary land use until the end of a security need is a false pretext. Moreover, the “security” need for the road in question is not a genuine security need at all; the need for the road stems from the planned settlement. The planned settlement does not contribute to security but rather harms it and diverts forces and resources from the IDF.
Furthermore, the outpost already has an existing road that does not pass between Palestinian homes, but it is unpaved, winding, and long. To shorten the route, settlers from the outpost travel through the village of Battir between the houses. Now the IDF seeks to provide them with a separate road from the Palestinian road that will bypass the homes, under the security pretext, in order to save them the longer journey on the alternative road.
Map of the Seizure Order