The View from Battir

Olayan Olayan, born in the ancient Palestinian village of Battir in 1941, gazes over a valley where a new Israeli settler outpost has recently been built. The view is from Battir, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in the occupied West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Young Israeli settlers have established two illegal outposts within the UNESCO-protected area, Battir Outpost and Makhrour Outpost. In addition to these outposts, which are harbingers of future settlements to come, Battir residents are concerned about the future settlement of Heletz, planned to be located deeper within Palestinian territory between these two existing outposts, which was approved by the Israeli government in June 2024 (see Israel Fast Tracks New West Bank Settlement, Its First in Years, on Ancient Battir Lands, Southwest of Jerusalem).1