Last week Israeli settlers built an illegal outpost beside Palestinian homes in Qusra and blocked the families’ access to them. The first attempt to clear the outpost failed, and after clashes with settler activists who converged on the area, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered another battalion sent in. The IDF called the activity “illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable.”

To describe this simply as another failure to enforce the law against extremist settlers is to isolate one part of a larger mechanism.

Consider what happened in earlier cases. A short drive from Qusra stands Evyatar, an illegal outpost evacuated by agreement in 2021, where settlers returned in 2023, and which the cabinet approved in June 2024 for regularization as a settlement. Homesh offers another example. A yeshiva operated there for years in violation of the law, despite repeated evacuations and demolitions. In March 2023, the Knesset repealed the provisions of the Disengagement Law that had barred Israelis from the area; two months later, the head of the IDF Central Command revoked the military order barring their return.

These precedents change the calculation. An ideological lawbreaker does not act with the authority of the state, but he may have reason to believe that he will not remain in conflict........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)