Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock participated in a ceremony last week, in which 19 all-terrain vehicles paid for with state funds were granted to illegal settlement farming outposts in the South Hebron Hills region, for security purposes.

Two more vehicles were handed over to residential illegal settlement outposts in the region.

The vehicles, funded by the Settlements and National Missions Ministry and the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, were handed over at the illegal settlement outpost of Meitarim Farm in the presence of its owner, Yinon Levy, who was sanctioned by the Biden administration for violence against Palestinians in the area.

The vehicles were funded through a NIS 75 million ($20 million) budget of “coalition funds,” a form of political allocation, earmarked in December 2023, for “Security Components for Young Settlements in Judea and Samaria,” for use in 2024.

Also present at the ceremony last Thursday was the Mount Hebron Regional Council head Eliram Azulay, and residents of illegal farming outposts in the council’s jurisdiction.

“Young settlements” is a euphemism for illegal outposts.

The Settlements Ministry said in a statement to the press that the vehicles were funded as part of a joint project with the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces to increase security for “young settlements.”

Even though the outposts are illegal, the Attorney General’s Office reportedly approved the use of public funds for security equipment for such places on the grounds that while directly funding actual construction of illegal outposts from state coffers would be illegal, funding the purchase of security equipment for such outposts is not.

Civil rights organizations and groups campaigning against the settlements have often argued that there is a nexus between illegal farming settlement outposts and violence against local Palestinians.

Indeed, one frequently documented tactic on the part of farming outposts is the use of ATVs to harass Palestinian herders and their livestock.

Levy himself has been videoed using an ATV to harass herds of Palestinian shepherds grazing on land in the same region as his Meitarim Farm outpost.

Levy — as one of the leaders of attacks on Palestinian hamlets and their infrastructure in the South Hebron Hills region, including the depopulated hamlet of Khirbet Zanuta — has been repeatedly cited in High Court petitions demanding police action against such violence.

The explicit goal of the settlement activists who establish such farms is to take control of as much land in the West Bank as possible, arguing that they are far more effective at seizing territory than residential settlements.

Speaking after the ceremony, the head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council said that there are 25 outpost farms under his jurisdiction, each of which “guards” 1,200 to 2,500 acres of land.

“Without your hands on the steering wheel, it wouldn’t happen,” said Azulay jovially of Smotrich and Strock, while sitting in one of the new ATVs alongside the finance minister.

“It is he [Azoulay] who does everything, we just help, we are what’s called combat support on this issue, you are the real fighters for the Land of Israel and I simply salute you,” said Strock.

Smotrich pointed to one of the visible farming outposts, and praised them for “grabbing massive territories,” in the region.

“The heroic and pioneering settlers who live here are doing Zionism, and they need security, they need security components, and they are not second-class citizens. We are here to build with them and to settle the land,” he said.

The Settlements and National Missions Ministry said the ATVs and other security equipment funded under the budget was part of a joint project with the Defense Ministry and the IDF’s Central Command.

“The security cabinet, the government and the Knesset decided and approved the budget for the security components for the young settlements and the farms, in light of the increased security risk toward these settlement sites, and also approved the assignment of the role to the Settlements Ministry, in full coordination with the [IDF’s] Central Command,” it said.

The ministry added that the security equipment was “selected and distributed with reference to the characterization of the threats on the ground.”