Israeli outpost

In Israeli law, an outpost (Hebrew: מאחז‎, Ma'ahaz lit. "a handhold") is an unauthorized or illegal Israeli settlement within the West Bank, constructed without the required authorization from the Israeli government in contravention of Israeli statutes regulating planning and construction. In Israeli law, outposts are distinguished from settlements authorized by the Israeli government. This distinction between illegal outposts and "legal" settlements is not endorsed by international law, which considers both a violation of the norms, governing belligerent occupations, applicable to the West Bank.

Outposts appeared after the 1993 Oslo I Accord, when the Israeli government made commitments to freeze the building of new settlements. Although outposts were not officially supported by the government, Israeli public authorities and other government bodies played a major role in establishing and developing them, according to the 2005 Sasson Report, commissioned by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Outposts differ from neighborhoods in that they are built at a substantial distance from authorized settlements, while neighborhoods are attached to an existing settlement.

In July 2002, the Israeli government acknowledged that 69 outposts had been established since 1996. A number of them, most unpopulated, have been removed afterwards. Currently, some hundred outposts exist. The majority of them, some 70 in 2002, belong to the Amana movement.

In 2012, ten unauthorized outposts were retroactively legalised by the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, according to the Israeli NGO Peace Now, by redesignating them as a neighbourhood of nearby settlements.

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