The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture funds random settlement outposts set up as farms in the occupied West Bank.

Although all settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are not legal under international law, Israel describes only the random settlement outposts as illegal, because they were not established according to a government decision, but with government encouragement and support.

The newspaper "Haaretz" reported today, Thursday, that the settlement outposts, which were funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, were established by settlers who carried out terrorist attacks against the Palestinians, including Neria Ben Bazi, to whom the Ministry transferred an amount of 12 thousand shekels, after the Israeli army issued a deportation order against him from the West Bank, in Last January, the United States imposed sanctions on him in March.

The newspaper added that the Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Minister Avi Dichter from the Likud Party, decided to allocate funding for two random settlement outposts established by settlers Zvi Bar-Yosef and Moshe Sharvit, who were also subjected to US sanctions in March, following their participation in terrorist attacks against the Palestinians.

In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture approved funding for Bar Youssef in the amount of 52 thousand shekels, and 6 thousand shekels for Sharfit, last year. Britain imposed sanctions on these two terrorists last February.

It appears from the data of the “Peace Now” movement that during the past six years, the Ministry of Agriculture transferred an amount of 1.66 million shekels to random settlement outposts in the West Bank, in addition to decisions to transfer about 1.5 million shekels that have not yet been paid.

The Ministry of Agriculture claims that it funds these settlement outposts in order to encourage livestock grazing. These terrorist settlers are paid 1,000 shekels for each cow, in a herd of no less than 50 cows. The Ministry funds 55 shekels for one lamb or goat in a herd of at least 100 lambs or goats.

In addition to funding these settlement outposts, the occupying state granted an area of more than 8,500 dunams to six random settlement outposts “for the purpose of grazing livestock and agriculture,” noting that these settlement outposts are illegal under Israeli law.

The Ministry of Agriculture also supports settlement associations that provide volunteers to work in settlement outposts. These associations are Hashomer Yosh, Kedma, and the Preparatory Military College in the Beit Yatir settlement in the south of Mount Hebron.

Sources in the “Slan Now” movement say, “Settler violence is not a mistake, but rather an advantage. The dozens of agricultural settlement outposts that lead to the theft of hundreds of thousands of dunams owned by Palestinians in the West Bank are not a marginal phenomenon practiced by (the terrorist organization) the Hilltop Youth, but rather Part of a planned and financed system supported by official government agencies.”

Ben Bazi and a group of settlers seized the lands of the Palestinian village of Wadi Al-Sik, harassed its residents and displaced them from their lands, last October. In the same month, these settlers, supported by Israeli soldiers, attacked landowners in this area and attacked Israeli peace activists.

Last July, settlers in the settlement outpost established by Bar Youssef carried out terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the villages of Jibiyeh and Kober. The occupation authorities conducted one investigation with Bar Youssef, then closed the file against him.

Settlers, led by Sharfit, attacked the village of Ain Shibli in the Jordan Valley, in October, and the residents of the Palestinian village had fled their homes due to settlers’ terrorism against them in the wake of the current war on Gaza.