The hills of Battir are lost for Palestine. Streaked with terraces tended by dozens of generations of farmers – man has inhabited these parts since ancient times – they are still covered with pine and olive trees. Here and there, the white of a few storage buildings and trailers contrasts with the watercolor green of the trees. They are first recent signs of Israeli colonization in the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967.
Battir, which has a population of 5,000, lies below. A spring at the heart of the village irrigates market gardens, where the inhabitants grow eggplants, peppers, pomegranates and cucumbers. Not far from Jerusalem, this village was once one of the Holy City's orchards and, thanks to the railroad built by the Ottomans at the end of the 19th century, exported its produce as far as Jaffa. In recent years, it has also become an attraction for many Palestinians, who come here to forget the daily grind of occupation, for a hike or to have lunch in the shade of the arbors.
This "land of olives and vines" was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014: "The dry-stone architecture represents outstanding example of a landscape that illustrates the development of human settlements near water sources and the adaptation of the land for agriculture." However, this landscape is now in danger.
Bezalel Smotrich, an Israeli far-right supremacist figure, minister of finance and head of settlement administration in the West Bank, announced on the social media network X on August 7 that he was "initiating procedures for the establishment of the Nahal Haletz settlement." Nahal Haletz is part of a project to build five new settlements, decided at the end of June by the government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, in retaliation for the unilateral recognition of the State of Palestine by Spain, Ireland, Norway and Slovenia, said the minister in his statement published in Hebrew on X.
Even though war rages in Gaza and the Israeli economy is increasingly being downgraded by rating agencies, Smotrich is launching costly settlement projects, increasing the number of faits accomplis while world attention is focused on the cessation of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave.
By building an Israeli settlement there, the government hopes to establish Jewish territorial continuity from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion, a massive settlement block of some 100,000 inhabitants, and make the existence of a possible Palestinian state even more impossible. The territory of Nahal Haletz covers almost half of the "core zone" of the UNESCO-listed site.
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