YATZIV SETTLEMENT, West Bank: Calls to prayer from a mosque in the Palestinian community across this West Bank valley were nearly drowned out by the sounds of construction and celebratory music screaming from loudspeakers. While soldiers surrounded the hilltop, keeping watch, Orthodox Jewish women with babies on their hips and colorful head coverings shared trays of fresh vegetables.
The image on Monday was the result of a protracted effort by Israeli settlers to establish a settlement at this location, which has a view of the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour. They resisted efforts to construct a hospital for Palestinian children on the property over the years, clinging to the belief that the land would eventually belong to them.
After twenty years of work, their new settlement, known as “Yatziv,” transformed from an unofficial outpost of a few mobile houses to a fully recognized settlement in just one month. The name of the new hamlet appropriately translates to “stable” in Hebrew.
Bezalel Smotrich, a settlement leader and finance minister, told The Associated Press during Monday’s inauguration ceremony that “we are standing stable here in Israel.” “We will be here indefinitely. Here, we will never create a Palestinian state. Settlers are feeling the wind at their backs as leaders like Smotrich hold important positions in Israel’s cabinet and build strong connections with the Trump administration.
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