RAMALLAH, August 10, 2026 (WAFA) – The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Israeli occupation authorities have taken a new administrative step toward “legalizing” the Givat Har'el colonial outpost near Sinjil, north of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, by approving its jurisdictional boundaries.
In a press statement issued today, Monday, the Commission said the occupation authorities, through the so-called “Civil Administration,” had approved the jurisdictional boundaries of the Givat Har'el colonial outpost as part of efforts to complete its legalization and transform it into an independent colonial settlement with its own planning and expansion powers.
It added that the jurisdictional area includes lands previously classified by the occupation authorities as “state land,” paving the way for the preparation of structural plans, allocation of budgets, and construction of roads, water and electricity networks, and public facilities, in a further step toward consolidating the colonial outposts surrounding the town of Sinjil.
It explained that the measure is part of a process that began in February 2023, when the Israeli “cabinet” decided to regularize, under Israeli law, the status of the neighboring Givat Har'el and Givat Haro'eh outposts.
The process advanced in June 2026 with the declaration of 465.4 dunums of land belonging to Sinjil and Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya as “state land,” aimed at regularizing Givat Haro'eh's status and preparing an area approximately four and a half times its built-up area for future expansion.
It explained that today’s announcement represents a new development in the process of legalizing and administratively organizing the outpost and does not constitute a new declaration to seize land.
It added that defining the jurisdictional boundaries represents a highly dangerous step, as it transforms the outpost from a colonial site established on the ground into an administrative unit with clearly defined boundaries, paving the way for the preparation of a structural plan, allocation of land and budgets, and construction of roads, water and electricity networks, and public facilities. In this way, occupation institutions transform facts created by colonists on the ground into permanent colonial settlements equipped with the tools of planning, protection, and funding.
The Commission explained that the occupation authorities are pursuing a gradual approach to consolidating the colonial project, beginning with a political decision to regularize the status of the outpost, followed by declaring the land “state land,” defining its jurisdictional boundaries, preparing structural plans, allocating budgets, and eventually issuing tenders and undertaking construction. It added that these successive decisions do not constitute separate projects, but rather stages in a single process aimed at taking control of the land and transforming outposts into official colonial settlements capable of further expansion.
The Commission warned that the process aims to expand the colonial belt around Sinjil and Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and to link it to the colonial settlements of Shilo and Ma'ale Levona, thereby restricting Palestinian agricultural and urban space, limiting access to land, and reshaping geographic contiguity in favor of the colonial project.
T.R.
