Israel's settler movement celebrates as sparse outpost of Yatziv becomes settlement in a month

(20 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yatziv (previously called Shdema), West Bank - 19 January 2026
1. Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Finance Minister (far right) and Orit Strook, Israeli Minister for Settlement (left of Smotrich) cutting red ribbon
2. Mid of Smotrich touring new settlement
3. Various of bulldozer working near caravans
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Finance Minister:
“We are standing stable here in Israel. This is our land, our state. We are here. We're going to be here forever. We will never establish a Palestinian state here. And we are taking control all over the area. We are building more than 68 new settlements here in Judea and Samaria. We are taking off, out of the table, the idea of creating a Palestinian state, it will be a terror state, and we are here forever.”
5. Pan from vehicle to West Bank city
6. Various of bulldozer working, Palestinian buildings in background

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel - 28 December 2025
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister:
++VIDEO CALL++
"The legalizing of the settlements which were evacuated in 2005 is the most explicit, forceful statement that we are destroying everything that the (Ariel) Sharon and Olmert governments wanted to build. If they wanted to indicate that we are on the way out of any parts of the West Bank, we are on the way in to every part of the West Bank and the most significant way to prove it is to rebuild those settlements that were evacuated."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beit Sahour, West Bank - 15 January 2026
8. Various of Beit Sahour city and the settlement outpost in Ush Ghurab area
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Younis Arar, Head of the International Relation Unit at the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in Bethlehem:
"About four months ago, Israeli occupation colonisers fully supported and escorted by Israeli occupation forces have established a new illegal colonial outpost in the Ush Ghurab area, about 12 mobile caravans were erected. This area is a very strategic area where if this colonial project succeeds, it will isolate Beit Sahour from its eastern Palestinian surroundings as well as its connection will isolated from Jerusalem."
10. Wide of Har Homa Israeli settlement as seen from Beit Sahour city
11. Various of Beit Sahour municipality building
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elias Isseid, Mayor of Beit Sahour:
"The mere establishment of this settlement outpost in this area will limit development. Geographically, it will limit natural development and restrict citizens' benefits from this area in terms of agriculture, recreation, or as a breathing space for the city of Beit Sahour, with all the elements in this area, such as parks or public institutions."
13. Various of closed park and empty soccer field near the area of Ush Ghurab
STORYLINE:
Israeli government ministers celebrated on Monday the new settlement of Yatziv, previously called Shdema, in the occupied West Bank adjacent to the Palestinian city of Beit Sahour.

The inauguration reflected the culmination of Israeli settlers' decades-long struggle to turn this site, overlooking the Palestinian city of Beit Sahour, into a settlement.

Over the years, they fended off plans to use the land for public works there, galvanized protesters to take over a partially-abandoned military base as a cultural center.

Two months ago, when the time was ripe, they erected some caravans at the site. One month later, it was legalized as “Yatziv," the Hebrew word for “stable,” in a process that monitors say moved with unprecedented speed.




















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