Photo: ActiveStills
Earlier this year, Yesh Din published the report “Plundered Pastures” detailing the tactics of settlers who establish illegal sheep farms on Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank and use violence to push Palestinian shepherds and farmers away. The report concluded that through the sheep farms, the Israeli government allows settlers to create “facts on the ground,” permanently altering the map of the occupied territories in the settlers’ favor.
In the aftermath of the report, Haaretz revealed that the Civil Administration intended to retroactively legalize dozens of illegal sheep farms in the West Bank. According to Yesh Din, this is further evidence of the state’s support for the illegal settler farms.
The state allows the settlers to violate the law and inflict violence on Palestinian and reaps benefits from their actions. The retroactive approval of the farms will reward the settlers and encourage more violations of the law, which will in turn increase the violations of Palestinians’ human rights.
This is just another tool within the Israeli government’s established policy to take over as much Palestinian land as possible in the West Bank.