Israel set to remove outposts as part of peace plan
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Cabinet ministers he was committed to removing outposts as part of an internationally-backed peace plan, but it remained unclear if more outposts would be removed and how soon.
The United States and the Palestinians have demanded the outposts, seen as seeds of larger settlements, be dismantled immediately.
The Cabinet set up a ministerial committee to make sure the report’s recommendations, including new legislation, are implemented, according to Israeli media.
Settlers established the outposts - usually starting with a few mobile homes, a generator and a water tank - in the past decade to break up Palestinian areas and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
Under the US-backed “road map” peace plan, Israel promised to remove outposts established after Mr Sharon came to power in March 2001.
According to the official report on the outposts, 24 were established after that date, while 71 were built before 2001. In 10 cases, it is not known when they were set up.
Israel Radio said the Cabinet decided to dismantle the outposts set up after March 2001, but the report could not immediately be confirmed.
US officials say they expect Israel to eventually remove all the outposts. Successive Israeli governments have promised not to establish new settlements on lands claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, and outposts were seen as a way around that promise.
At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Mr Sharon said “the dismantling of the unauthorised outposts is part of the Israeli commitment within the road map.”
Mr Sharon had commissioned the study, conducted over six months by a former state prosecutor, Talia Sasson. His critics have said the study was largely a ploy to divert US pressure over the issue, at least temporarily.
Ms Sasson described systematic deception by government ministries and authorities in funnelling millions of dollars to the outposts. However, the report stopped short of blaming Mr Sharon or other leading politicians, who settlers say gave them support and money for outposts in the past decade.
Her recommendations included new legislation that would allow the government to seize mobile homes in outposts and that would make illegal construction in the West Bank a criminal offence. Cabinet ministers were at odds yesterday over how soon outposts should be dismantled.
Communications Minister Dalia Yitzik from the moderate Labour Party said setting up a ministerial committee amounted to stalling. “These outposts are blatantly illegal,” she told Israel Radio. “Israel has to evacuate them ... for its own good, not for the Americans.”
However, ministers from Mr Sharon’s Likud Party said Israel should take its time. Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said Israeli soldiers would be busy with the dismantling of all Jewish settlements this summer, and the removal of outposts should wait. Education Minister Limor Livnat, also from Likud, said Israel is only required to dismantle the outposts established after March 2001 and should not volunteer to remove the others.
However, Ms Sasson told Cabinet ministers there was no difference between outposts before and after March 2001.
About 235,000 Israeli settlers live in some 150 veteran settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. About 2,000 live in the outposts, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
