The EU proudly presents: An ‘ancient village’ is born - by Naomi Kahn

A joint project of the P.A. and the European Union is taking over a strategic area in the center of Gush Etzion, “restoring” an historic village that never existed.

Naomi Kahn..
JNS.org..
27 May '19..

The Palestinian Authority, aided by the European Union, is taking control of a strategic area in the heart of the Etzion Bloc, between Highway 60 and Neveh Daniel.

Over the past two years, the P.A. has created, out of thin air, a “historic” village—that just so happens to be located on a strategic point adjacent to the Jerusalem-Hebron highway. The name given to this new “ancient” village: Shoshkhalah.



Yishai Hemo, Judea and Samaria field coordinator for Israeli NGO Regavim, describes the methodology: “Over the course of the past two years, activists from the Arab town of Al Khader, backed by P.A. and European Union funding, occupied the ruins of two ancient shomerot (watchman’s huts)—primitive stone structures used by passing shepherds or farmers as shelter from the elements—that dot the landscape in the Jerusalem and Sataf areas. They renovated these abandoned structures and turned them into homes—and from that point, in very short order, totally new structures have been added in the surrounding area.”

The signs posted on the refurbished buildings, proudly bearing the European Union emblem, explain that the site is an ancient village—Shoshkhalah—despite the fact that aerial photos paint a completely different picture: In the past two years, more than 15 homes have been built in this “village,” each connected to solar power infrastructure and water tanks paid for by the Europeans.

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