By Ilan Ben Zion (The Age)
Jerusalem: Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven ministers from Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet have marched to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.
The march to Eviatar, an unauthorised settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous Israeli government in 2021, was led by hardline ultranationalist Jewish settlers.
The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over the contested Jerusalem holy site of al-Aqsa Mosque. In new violence, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, while a 48-year-old Israeli woman died of wounds sustained in an attack last week that killed two of her daughters, dual Israeli and British citizens.
Monday’s march took place in the northern West Bank – the scene of repeated violence in recent months. Thousands of Israeli police and army forces were reportedly deployed to secure it, which added to the already combustible atmosphere that has accompanied the overlap of major Jewish and Muslim holy days.
Israel captured the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. It has built dozens of settlements that are now home to more than 700,000 Jewish settlers.
Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem for a future independent state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has made settlement expansion a top priority, and already has advanced plans to build thousands of additional homes.
Daniella Weiss, a settler leader, told Kan public radio that the ministers’ participation in the march could be a “therapy for the government to free yourselves from the dictates of the US and Europe” concerning West Bank settlement.