Olmert declares war on isolated illegal settlements

Israel’s new prime minister promised to tear down wildcat Jewish outposts in the West Bank after police hauled dozens of settlers and their backers out of a Palestinian building in the volatile city of Hebron.

The West Bank evictions yesterday set a tough tone for Ehud Olmert’s plan to draw the border between Israel and the Palestinians.

Settlers in Hebron met police and soldiers with firebombs and paint balloons when they came to evict them from a building the settlers said they owned, but Israel’s highest court ordered them out.

It was the first test for Olmert’s new Cabinet, which convened its first session just after the Hebron operation was concluded. Olmert, who ran for office on a plan to set Israel’s border with the West Bank by 2010, unilaterally if necessary, indicated that the Hebron clash was just the beginning.

Also in his sights are dozens of outposts that have sprung up on hilltops across the West Bank without government permission in an open attempt to torpedo the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel pulled out of Gaza last summer, removing 8,000 settlers, encountering anger and some resistance. Olmert’s plan means moving tens of thousands of settlers from their homes, emptying the most “ideological” of the settlements, where Orthodox Jewish Israelis have brought up two generations of children with the belief that God gave them the land and no government, even theirs, can take it away.

Olmert told his Cabinet he was firm in his pledge to remove the outposts.

“In every case where the law is violated, we will respond without compromise, and we won’t reconcile ourselves to illegal facts on the ground,” he was quoted by Olmert’s office.

A government-commissioned report issued last year said settlers had established 105 unauthorised outposts in the past decade. Settlers say openly that the outposts, sometimes no more than a mobile home and an Israeli flag on a barren hilltop, are designed to break up Palestinian areas and prevent establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel promised the US to dismantle about two dozen outposts set up since Ariel Sharon was first elected prime minister in March 2001, but little action has been taken.

Hours before the Hebron eviction began, officers and settlers clashed as officers cleared a crowd of protesters gathered outside the home. Settlers inside threw stones, bottles and firebombs at security forces, police said.

The evacuation of the three-storey building took just over two hours. Police stormed the building after sawing through a barricaded metal door. They appealed to the settlers – some with toddlers and babies – to leave peacefully, and some agreed. But others had to be dragged out, including one woman whose infant was crying as officers carried them out.

Reinforcements were called in after the clashes broke out, police said. About 700 police, reinforced by 1,000 soldiers, were mobilised for the operation.

Three families and 27 young sympathisers from were removed from the building, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. Nineteen police officers were injured and 17 settlers arrested. Army Radio said seven settlers were slightly injured.

After nightfall, soldiers sealed the building, Army Radio reported.

Hebron is home to about 160,000 Palestinians and 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers who live in heavily fortified enclaves.

:: Israel says it will begin easing a closure that has kept Palestinian workers out of Israel for most of the last two months.

Amir Peretz, the new Israeli defence minister, told the Cabinet that in the first phase, 12,000 workers would be allowed in from the West Bank.