Near the olive groves of Palestinian landowner Olayan Olayan, young Israeli settlers are establishing an illegal outpost on a UNESCO-protected hillside.
Olayan and his neighbors have long fought to preserve Battir, a heritage site in the Israeli-occupied West Bank renowned for its ancient stone terraces.
Israeli construction in the West Bank has surged since the war began in the Gaza Strip, despite all settlements in the territory being considered illegal under international law.
The new outpost on a Battir hilltop, unapproved by Israel, received an eviction notice that Olayan’s cousin, Ghassan Olayan, said has not been enforced due to the Gaza war.
The outpost already features a flagpole, living quarters, and a barn for sheep that graze a rocky hill covered with olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers.
“I plowed the land and planted it until it bore fruit trees,” said Olayan, who at 83 is older than the state of Israel itself.
“Some trees were 50 years old, or even more, and suddenly the settlers came and wanted to devour the land and take it from us,” he added, his voice shaky.
Heletz settlement
Even more concerning to the Olayans than the encroaching outpost is the adjacent, future settlement of Heletz.
Yonatan Mizrahi of settlement watchdog Peace Now said Heletz was among five settlements “deep in Palestinian territory” approved by the Israeli government on June 27.
“It is a settlement that is going to block Battir and in many ways create tension between the neighbors,” he said.
Heletz and the outpost sit inside the UNESCO protection zone for Battir, one of four listed heritage sites in the West Bank.
The UNESCO classification means the village can get technical, legal, and monetary assistance to preserve endangered sites.
In Battir, children splash in the Roman-era fountain that waters the terraces where tomatoes, corn, eggplants, and olive trees grow.
The 2,000-year-old dry stone walls supporting the landscape earned the village its cultural inscription in 2014. However, the classification has done little to prevent seizures of the surrounding farmland.
Battir’s inhabitants have beaten in court at least three previous Israeli settlement outpost attempts.
But Ghassan Olayan fears the conflict since the Oct. 7 Hamas’ incursion on Israel will make the new, government-approved Heletz more likely to become a reality.
Preventing statehood
According to Olayan, Heletz is intended to link Jerusalem to Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements deeper in the West Bank.
If that is achieved, Battir and the nearby Palestinian villages would be cut off from Bethlehem and the rest of the West Bank, a process they fear will fragment a future Palestinian state.
“There will be no territorial continuity,” said Olayan, leaving only what some observers describe as an archipelago of Palestinian sovereignty.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, openly states that preventing Palestinian statehood is the objective.
“We will continue to develop the settlements in order to maintain Israel’s security and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he wrote on the social media platform X after the five latest settlements were approved in June.
In recent months, Israeli forces have blocked a road to Battir, nearly doubling the time it takes to reach Jerusalem just 10 kilometers (6 miles) north.
When asked about the new outpost in Battir, an Israeli security official acknowledged that “an Israeli farm had been established without proper authorization.”
The official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) “the possibility of authorizing the farm will be weighed” as the development of Heletz gets underway.
Battir residents “raised several claims that the land belongs to them” but have “not presented documentation to support their position,” claimed the official.
Olayan said documents from Ottoman times prove Battir inhabitants’ ownership of the land.
A UNESCO spokesperson said the U.N. cultural agency’s world heritage committee had been told about “reports of illegal constructions” and that Battir would be discussed at a session in late July.
Olayan fears that sleepy Battir faces a difficult future with its collective life centered around the Roman fountain’s irrigation system allotting each family a specific time slot to water their crops.
“Battir is a peaceful village, and the settlement will only bring trouble,” he said.
