Report: IDF actively supports construction of settler outposts and farms in West Bank
The IDF is fully aware and cooperating with Israeli settlers building new farm outposts in the West Bank, marking an overt shift in the Israeli military's policy, according to an IDF officer who spoke with Israel's Kan public broadcaster in a program aired Monday.
Since Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth was appointed to head the IDF's Central Command in July 2024, "A formal mechanism for establishing farms in full cooperation with the command has really begun to take shape," the lieutenant colonel told news program "Zman Emet" (Real Time).
The officer, who the report said has been involved for years in IDF activity in the West Bank, said that the command doesn't just "know that farms are going to be established," but that the military is "also a partner in the preliminary coordination process."
The lieutenant colonel was said to have been taking part in the IDF's sensitive discussions on the matter. He said that during the tenure of previous Central Command chief Yehuda Fuchs, the farms "simply popped up and were established on the ground, without the army's knowledge or coordination. That is, they would appear in the shadows, and we were forced to accept it as a fait accompli."