Israeli settlers open seminary on illegal Homesh site

Jewish settlers inaugurated a seminary in the illegal settlement of Homesh that has been a focus of US scrutiny, drawing Palestinian condemnation on Monday. 

In a video posted on social media, settler leader Yossi Dagan recited a Jewish benediction at the entrance to the Homesh seminary school, a large white prefabricated shack at the top of a West Bank hill.

"With God's help ... there will be many more new settlements in northern Samaria," he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

🔴 Il a fallu attendre 18 ans pour revoir des Juifs se réinstaller à Homesh dans les territoires. Yossi Dagan,le chef du conseil régional de Samarie inaugure ce matin les nouveaux locaux de l'établissement talmudique qui va accueillir de nouveaux étudiants.Force et courage!! 💪🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/0LNLeuWpsO

— Jonathan Serero (@sererojonathan) May 29, 2023

US-led peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza broke down in 2014 and show little sign of revival, and Israeli violence in occupied Palestine has escalated over the past year.

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law - and the settlement of Homesh is also illegal under Israeli law. Palestinians say they eat away at the land they want for a future state and cite growing violence by settlers.

Abbas said Homesh must be removed. "Statements of condemnation are no longer enough in the face of the (Israeli) extremist right-wing government," said his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

In a bid to quell international concern, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel has no intention of building any new settlements as his nationalist-religious government has vowed to bolster existing ones.

Spokespeople for Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on whether any of them had authorised the establishment of the new Homesh seminary.

Last week, Smotrich, who heads the pro-settler Jewish Zionism party and holds some West Bank powers, said Homesh had been officially added to settlement council land in order to work out a new building plan for the seminary school. 

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian security officer during clashes in the occupied West Bank flashpoint city of Jenin on Monday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Earlier it said in a statement that its forces came under heavy Palestinian fire while seeking the arrest of security suspects in Jenin and returned fire at the gunmen.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party identified the officer as Ashraf Sheikh Ibrahim, saying he had died "as he confronted the aggression and the occupation's storming of the city of Jenin."