On March 30, 2026, Israeli settlers pitched a tent on privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank village of Abu Nujaym, southeast of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. By April 6, scores of settlers from the Israeli settlement of Efrat joined the outpost, while others began rampaging adjacent villages, including Jurat al-Shamma, Tuqu‘, and Harmala (see Settlements).1

This intensifying settler violence does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is an integral part of Israel’s plans to build a new Israeli settlement in the area that will hem in Bethlehem—already blocked from its northern side by the illegal settlements of Gilo, Har Gilo, and Har Homa—from its southern side and thereby split the southern West Bank.

Known as Givat Eitam, the Israeli settlement project is designated for approximately 1,200 dunams (nearly 300 acres) of land belonging to the Palestinian village of al-Nahla, south of Bethlehem and also in the Bethlehem Governorate, and two kilometers north of the settlement Efrat.2 Givat Eitam has not yet been approved, but the number of planned housing units ranges from 2,500 to 7,000—the larger figure having been proposed in 2020 by former Israeli defense minister Naftali Bennett.3

If approved, although they are not adjacent, Givat Eitam would be considered part of Efrat, doubling its size,4 thereby cutting off Bethlehem from the southern West Bank, including rural areas historically linked to it. Combined with the E1 development plan east of Jerusalem threatening to sever the West Bank in half, Givat Eitam, also known as E2, would contribute to foreclosing the possibility of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital (see Israel Accelerates Plans to Build E1, Entailing Mass Displacement of Bedouin Communities).

In 2004, Israel declared an additional 1,300 dunams (320 acres) of land near al-Nahla as state land, granting itself license to develop the area.5 Under international law, an occupying force is forbidden from confiscating occupied land for the benefit of its population. To circumvent this, Israel recycled an 1858 Ottoman land law to declare privately owned land as state property if it considers the area to be uncultivated for several consecutive years.6

In response, nine Palestinian landowners filed appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court against the designation of their land as public land. The appeals committee accepted that 7 percent of the land belonged to the landowners but decided the rest belonged to the state, claiming it had not been cultivated as much as is required under the Ottoman land law.7

In 2018, Israel announced it intended to allocate the land to its housing ministry in order to advance a settlement. Then, in 2020, Israeli peace activist group Peace Now and a dozen Palestinian landowners petitioned the Supreme Court against the allocation, but in 2022, the state rejected the petition and paved the way for the settlement’s development.8

According to Peace Now, Givat Eitam may soon be approved. “The state announced that it wants to amend the jurisdiction of Efrat to a new line,” Hagit Ofran, codirector of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch Project, told Jerusalem Story, explaining the land designated for Givat Eitam is part of Efrat’s jurisdiction but not aligned with the declared state land borders.9

“This means that they are getting closer to filing the plan,” Ofran said. “They had to do it in order to be able to put the plan on the table. So, I’m afraid that we will see the plan being promoted in the coming months.”

E2 is already being implemented on the ground. Some 300 dunams (70 acres) of al-Nahla land planned for the Givat Eitam settlement was purchased from Palestinian landowners by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a quasi-governmental agency established in 1901 to purchase Palestinian land for Jewish settlement (see Jewish National Fund Secretly Registered More than 100 Palestinian Homes as Its Own).

The land was registered in the name of the Himanuta (a subsidiary of the JNF used to purchase, register, and manage land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem) in 1979 and 1990.10 In October 2011, former minister of defense Ehud Barak allowed for the establishment of a so-called agricultural farm on the Himanuta land, leading to settlers erecting an outpost in the area in 2013—Givat Eitam.11

While the outpost has been evacuated and rebuilt over the years, Ofran says that today, settlers have gained a significant foothold over the land through repeated attacks against Palestinians in the area.12

“Settlers started the outpost many years ago but never had a serious hold of the land. Nobody really lived there,” Ofran said. “It wasn’t the way it is now, with several settler families with a very active and violent leader.”

“There are several incidents of very violent attacks,” Ofran added. “They took over a house belonging to Palestinians. They cannot return, because the settlers won’t let them.”

The construction of Givat Eitam would link the Gush Etzion settlement block to the settlements of Tekoa and Nokdim, southeast of Bethlehem, creating a contiguous settlement corridor that would cut Bethlehem off from the southern West Bank.13 This idea already appears to be in the works, as the Israeli military has begun building a settler-only bypass road connecting Tekoa to Efrat.14

The road, the outposts, and the ongoing settler violence are all part of the same strategy, settlement experts explain.

“Settler violence and terror against Palestinians—systematic, state-sponsored, and protected as it is—is an elemental tool in ensuring two twin policies: terrorizing Palestinian communities into forcible displacement, and the permanent control of the land—the ‘facts on the ground’ strategy,” Dalia Qumsieh, founder and director of the Palestinian NGO Balasan Initiative for Human Rights, told Jerusalem Story.15

In regards to Givat Eitam, the settlers intend to clear the land of its Palestinians before construction begins.

“Settlers believe they are maintaining the space for the settlement, that if they are there, Palestinians will not start cultivating or building, and the hill will be empty and ready for the construction of the settlement,” Ofran said. “They are there to ‘clear the area of Arabs.’”

Like E1 (see Israel Accelerates Plans to Build E1, Entailing Mass Displacement of Bedouin Communities), E2 will sever Bethlehem from the southern West Bank, while the Israeli settlement of Har Homa already cuts Bethlehem off from Jerusalem (only 5.5 kilometers away) and prevents its expansion northward.16

“It’s been rebranded as E2 to align with the more famous E1 plan, as both plans create settlement corridors and annex large portions of Palestinian lands, on the one hand, and impede any potential for a future contiguous Palestinian, state on the other,” Qumsieh said.

Ofran elaborated on how E2 would further fragment Palestinian land. “In order to be able to have a viable Palestinian state, Palestinians need room to develop. But Bethlehem is blocked from the north and from the west, so, if there is any future for Bethlehem areas, it’s in the south,” she said. “That’s one aspect, and the other is that if Israel is to annex Efrat, then it will also annex the main road that goes from Bethlehem to Hebron [Road 60]. So, a Palestinian state would have no road between Bethlehem and Hebron.”

Not only would the settlement seize more Palestinian land; E2 would entirely isolate Bethlehem from its surroundings, transforming a Palestinian city with deep historical and religious roots—and closely and historically tied to Jerusalem in Christian culture and belief—into an isolated ghetto.

“It would have drastic cumulative impacts on the geographic connectivity between Palestinian communities, including towns and villages like al-Khadir and Artas,” Qumsieh said, “limiting urban expansion and development for Palestinians, while enabling it for settlers who reside illegally on the same land. This, in addition to exacerbating the already dire and prohibitive movement restrictions.”

Givat Eitam is not just erasing a Palestinian state; it is slowly suffocating Bethlehem, devastating the city and its deep historical and religious significance to and connection with Jerusalem.