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APN to Biden: Tell Israel to Remove West Bank Illegal Outpost Evyatar

Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its Israeli sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) in urging the Israeli government to reverse the so-called “compromise agreement” reportedly achieved with militant West Bank settlers, and immediately remove a settlement outpost built illegally on land that is claimed by the Palestinian villages of Beita and Yatma, near Nablus.

APN urges the Biden administration to demand that the Israeli government remove this illegal outpost and put an end to the damaging practice of “legalizing” West Bank settlement outposts built in violation of both international law and Israel’s own laws.

As Peace Now points out, the settlement outpost, Evyatar, was built illegally, without government authorization. Since its construction started on May 3rd, the settlers have built some 50 homes at the site, unhindered by Israeli authorities. In daily demonstrations by neighboring villagers, four Palestinians were shot dead by the IDF. According to some reports, settlers were also involved in the shooting.

On May 3, 2021, following the killing of Yehuda Gueta by Palestinian gunfire, a group of settlers established a new settlement (an illegal outpost) under the name of Evyatar (commemorating Evyatar Borovsky who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian at the Zaatra Junction in 2013). Photo courtesy of Americans for Peace Now

In a June 20th letter to the settlers’ attorneys, the Israel Defense Forces, which maintains full civil administrative control over this part of the West Bank, stated that the outpost’s construction “contributed to violating the security stability” in the West Bank, and constitutes a security burden as well as a “severe and flagrant violation of the law.”

The outpost was built on land that is neither owned by the settlers nor categorized as “State Land” (land managed by the governing power, Israel’s military government). A large part of the land has been cultivated by Palestinian villagers for generations. The settlers demand that Israel’s occupation authorities declare the land as State Land in order to retroactively “legalize” the outpost.

Evyatar is partially funded through a crowdsourcing campaign that is registered in the United States.

APN demands the immediate dismantlement of this illegal outpost and urges the Biden administration’s intervention with the government of Israel in this regard.

For more about Evyatar, see here.

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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

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