A former employee of Israel’s Civil Administration declared a plot of land in the occupied West Bank to be state land and then after leaving his job set up an illegal outpost on it Haaretz reported on Saturday.
The settlement outpost located in Gush Etzion bloc and named Tzurei Ye’elim now contains a farm and a guesthouse owned by the Israeli official Yossi Levitt and his partner the Hebrew newspaper said.
Tzurei Ye’elim which covers an area of 250 dunums was built entirely without permits. A demolition order was issued against the buildings but has never been carried out.
According to Haaretz the Civil Administration declared the site state land on 24th November 2013 and the outpost was illegally established in 2014. Aerial photographs show that Levitt began building the outpost immediately after he resigned from the Civil Administration.
