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June 26, 2026

1. WEST BANK: Israel Seizes Land for Outpost Legalization; Smotrich Announces Millions for Illegally Seized Ancient Pool; New Report on Israel’s Seizure of the Hasmonean Palaces; New Lightrail for Settlers?
2. STATE-BACKED SETTLER TERRORISM: Key stories this week
3. BONUS READS

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WEST BANK

Israel Seizes Land South of Nablus to “Legalize” Givat Haroeh Outpost

Peace Now reports the Israeli Civil Administration declared over 115 acres of land belonging to the village of Sinjil, located south of Nablus, as “state land” in order to enable the “legalization” of the Givat Haroeh outpost under Israeli law. The declaration more than quadruples the size of the outpost’s boundaries, allowing for massive growth in the future and consolidating the contiguous sting of Israeli settlements in the Shilo Valley area. 

Peace Now said in a statement: 

“Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of Israel’s residents for the benefit of a small group of settlers who receive thousands of dunams as a gift, as if there is no political conflict to resolve. They are exploiting every moment in power to create more and more facts on the ground that will make it harder for Israel to reach peace. Today it is clear to everyone that this conflict cannot be resolved without a political agreement that includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, yet the Israeli government is choosing instead to make this possibility more difficult and move us further away from peace and from ending the bloodshed.”

The Israeli government approved the legalization of the Givat Haroeh outpost in 2023 as part of a Cabinet decision to legalize 10 outposts, setting in motion the legal process to do so. Givat Haroeh was known to the Israeli government to have been illegally built on land that is at least partially privately owned by Palestinians; these landowners now have 45 days to file objections to the new military seizure order.

As noted at the time, a source told Haaretz that the Israeli Cabinet chose the ten outposts for authorization specifically because they are all located in remote or isolated locations — meaning they cannot be “legalized” via expanding the borders of a nearby settlement and declaring the outposts to be merely neighborhoods of those “legal” settlements (a legal maneuver Israel has repeatedly used to expand settlements and retroactively legalize settlements). This means, among other things, that legalization of these 10 new settlements would inevitably l lead to additional land seizures for related infrastructure work.

 

Joint Report: Israel’s Seizure of Land Near Hasmonean Palaces

In new analysis, Emek Shaveh, the Palestine Solidarity Co-op and Emek Shaveh detail Israel’s recent military seizure order taking control of land near the Hasmonean Palaces, a West Bank archaeological site located on the outskirts of Jericho in Area C of the West Bank. The seizure order will allow Israel to construct a new road to the site that bypasses Jericho. 

The construction ratchets up the violent and coercive conditions facing the Kaabneh bedouin community of Ein ad-Duyuk al Tahta, which is located on land immediately adjacent to the Hasomonean palaces. The community has been subjected to increasingly violent daily settler attacks and harassment, a trend which crescendoed on February 10, 2026 when dozens of settlers carried out a pogrom against the community. Settlers attacked violently, including women and children, looted the village, and brought in a bulldozer to level 13 homes. Israeli police and military did not respond to calls from the community for intervention. The community lives now on the ruins of these homes, while Israel is pursuing the development of the Hasmonean Palaces into a major tourist attraction.

The three groups write:

“The Hasmonean Palaces are also one of several major antiquity sites that the current Minister of Heritage, Amihai Eliyahu, had defined as “anchor sites” in the plan to develop Judeo-centric archaeological theme parks across the West Bank. In July 2023, the government had allocated 20 million NIS for the development of the site into a tourist attraction. At the time it was said that the Binyamin Regional Council would operate the site. The community of Ein ad-Duyuk al-Tahta is situated in part on what Israel considers state land and in part on land privately owned by East Jerusalemite families. The area under seizure order is privately owned, but as of June 2026, the owners have not yet been located.

In recent years, a settler-led campaign, spearheaded by the NGO Guardians of Eternity, claimed deliberate destruction of “Jewish” antiquities by the Palestinians, in an attempt to push the government to expand control over West Bank sites. The Hasmonean Palaces site was often mentioned in this context. Over the years, the SOA has carried out numerous enforcement actions at the site, including stopping works, confiscating equipment, and demolishing what it defines as illegal construction.”

Dror Etkes told The Forward:

“We will see an area completely disconnected from its surroundings. Palestinians won’t be able to enter the area. Two roads [for Israelis] will lead to this area. Settlers will be very violent, it will be very restricted for the Palestinians, construction in the area [by Palestinians] will be completely banned, the construction that already exists is without a permit and a large part of it will be demolished by Israeli authorities.

It will be another national park that will tell one story — the story the Israeli radical right wants you to hear.”

Emek Shaveh’s ED Alon Arad told The Forward:

“You change the identity so that from a village on the outskirts of Jericho it becomes a palace of a dynasty. You don’t need actual settlers there, it’s enough to build an access road, put up a fence and whatever comes with tourist development-a kiosk, a parking lot, someone to guard it…You start bringing in tourists and it’s a normalizing process for people to go inside the West Bank and return to Haifa or wherever they are from. They go in and out and it was fun for them and you create the idea that this is part of Israel.”

Smotrich Announces Millions to Renovate Illegally Seized Ancient Pool Near Jericho

Haaretz reports Israel plans to invest millions of shekels in developing an illegally-sized ancient pool and archaeological site near the Petza’el settlement in the Jordan Valley. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich announced that he allocated 3 million shekels for the development and the site.

Settlers took control over the pool just a month ago, and began renovating the site. According to Haaretz, the IDF recognizes the area as privately owned Palestinian land. One landowner told Haaretz:

“They [the settlers] diverted the water, they are swimming in the pool, they put up Israeli flags and opened a tourist site for settlers, and they do not allow anyone to approach the area or repair anything…”We have springs on land we have owned for many years, and we use them for agricultural irrigation…we have no water.”

Dror Etkes from the Kerem Navot told Haaretz that 

“trifles like Palestinian property rights do not interest the extreme and violent elements in the government. They have no problem reaching a site that settlers covet, attaching an invented history to it and looting it in the name of a historical past that has nothing behind it but a lust for plunder and nothing more.”

 

New Light Rail for Settlements?

On June 21st, the Gush Etzion Regional Council announced “the transportation revolution in the bloc continues” and that a new light rail line will connect the settlement block to Jerusalem. The press event announcing the project included an illustration of the light rail line, being held by the smiling Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Yaron Rosenthal, the head of the settlement regional council. Despite the public support for the announcement, the Israeli Department of Transportation denied the plan, saying it had not been approved or funded by the government.

STATE-BAKED SETTLER TERRORISM

Key Reads this week:

• “Israeli Settler Indicted Over West Bank Rampage That Left Eight Palestinians Wounded” (Haaretz, 6/26/26); “Yitzhar resident indicted after armed sheep search erupts into violence in Huwara, West Bank” (Jerusalem Post, 6/25/26); “Israel prosecutors charge settlers with terror offences after West Bank attack” (The New Arab, 6/26/26)
• “Former settlement chief charged with threatening Palestinians with assault rifle” (The Times of Israel, 6/25/26)
• “Israel’s Top Court Slams Police for Failing to Probe Settler Attack on Rabbi Solidarity Activist” (Haaretz, 6/25/26)
• “Israeli Soldiers Were Sent to Harass a Bedouin Community That’s Halfway to Expulsion” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
• “Israeli former leaders and security chiefs threaten legal action over ‘Jewish terrorism’” (The Guardian, 6/24/26)
• “As settlers rampage, IDF soldiers accused of aiding violence, theft against Palestinians” (The Times of Israel, 6/26/26)
• “An Israeli Settler Shot a Disabled Palestinian Five Times. Police Quickly Labeled the Wounded Man a ‘Terrorist’” (Haaretz, 6/20/26)
• “Ethnic Cleansing 3.0: How Israel Became the Transfer State” (Gideon Levy in Haaretz, 6/25/26)

BONUS READS

1. “How the Jewish National Fund Became the Face of Israeli Expulsion” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
2. “Chevra Kadisha Burial Society Seeks Payment From East Jerusalem Residents for Using Path to Their Homes” (Haaretz, 6/24/26)
3. “Death Penalty For Palestinians Only” (Visualizing Palestine, June 2026)
4. “IDF Eases Closures on West Bank Palestinian Town, but Keeps Key Highway Blocked” (Haaretz, 6/25/26)
5. “The Israeli right is marching under a new flag” (+972 Magazine, 6/15/26)
6. “Palestinians warn West Bank antiquities bill designed to expand Israeli control” (The Times of Israel, 6/25/26)
7. “Palestinians decry Israeli push for control over ancient West Bank sites” (Reuters, 6/25/26)
8. “Hundreds of Bedouin left homeless as Israel ramps up Naqab expulsions” (+972 Magazine, 6/24/26)