Posted on 01/06/2004 2:14:16 PM PST by anotherview
Jan. 6, 2004
IDF prepares for removal of 60 illegal West Bank outposts
By MATTHEW GUTMAN
Havat (Farm) Maon as seen from the air.
Photo: AP
The defense establishment is preparing to dismantle some 60 illegal outposts settlements in the West Bank, a security source told the Jerusalem Post.
Israel has been under increasing pressure from the United States to dismantle the 100 or so illegal outposts that continue to spring up in the West Bank.
The defense establishment has also drawn up a short-list of illegal outposts that could be dismantled within a month in a move the settlers have condemned as the first step in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza.
"The entirety of these outposts will be dismantled, and their residents, if there are any, will be evacuated," said the source who reiterated Sharon's determination to remove the outposts, almost universally considered an obstacle to peace.
Defense Ministry planners are still "mapping out both topographically and legally," the list of the 60 or so outposts, a list that largely matches the one drawn up by the US.
The short list of 28 outposts includes 18 that are inhabited and aims to relocate some 400 settlers to more established settlements. To the dismay of the Council for Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, several of the names on the list include established mini-settlements and "extended neighborhoods," of established settlements. The largest of the outposts is Migron, home to 43 families.
Most of the outposts were set up after March 2001, after Sharon took office.
The defense establishments' stance is that the outposts were illegally constructed, that their residents are squatters, and must therefore be removed from the expropriated land. The settlers contend that in the vast majority of the cases they have the proper documentation for the outposts – more often than not a water tank and an empty shipping container abandoned on a West Bank hilltop.
However the outposts continue to be the "bone in the throats," of the Palestinians, and their removal is considered to be a sin qua non for the advancement of meaningful negotiations between the two sides.
Privately, security officials said they are concerned that the IDF is short of available manpower to effect such a large number of evacuations. "At most a handful of outposts will be evacuated a week, the problem being that it will allow the settlers to regroup and flock to each outposts scheduled for evacuation," said one security source.
The inhabited outposts reportedly include Maon Farm (Havat Maon), Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad), Givat Haroeh, Mitzpe Itzhar, Ginot Arieh, Givat Slayit, Yair Farm (Havat Yair), Ma'ale Rehav'am, Neve Daniel north and T'koa south, according to Ma'ariv daily newspaper.
The uninhabited outposts reportedly include Yatir south-west, Bat-Ayin west-west, Mitzpe Asaf, Tal Binyamin and Chazon David.
Yesha had previously believed that Sharon was using the threat of unilateral separation to cajole the Palestinians to an agreement, or at least encourage the PA to clamp down on terror groups, but with each new evacuation order, those hopes are fading.
"How can we not takes this one seriously, Sharon is signing orders for evacuation right and left. This is part of the unilateral separation he is promising," said Yesha Spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef.
"We are extremely concerned about this trend," continued Mor-Yosef, "Sharon has listed outposts and settlements that are not even part of the Road Map. He has put settlements with stone houses and gardens on the chopping block, not just trailers."
The Defense Ministry, said officials, is confident that the High Court of Justice will hear, but not accept the appeals of the outpost settlers. "There is no chance that the courts will accept their petitions," said one official Tuesday night.
Earlier Tuesday, YNET published a list of settlements and outposts supposidely on the list of 28 outposts slated for immediate removal. The list included: The inhabited outposts reportedly include Maon Farm (Havat Maon), Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad), Givat Haroeh, Mitzpe Itzhar, Ginot Arieh, Givat Slayit, Yair Farm (Havat Yair), Ma'ale Rehav'am, Neve Daniel north and T'koa south, according to Ma'ariv daily newspaper.
Security sources, said the above list was only partially correct, but refused to publish the list in its entirety fearing that the settlers will flock to the outposts that appear on the list.
The order for the evacuation of the outposts has moved past the Defense Ministry and trickled down to the Civil Administration, which is charged with dealing with the settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been under pressure from the U.S to fulfill his obligations to the "road map" plan and recently signed orders to evacuate six of the outposts.
At the Likud Convention, Monday, Sharon reiterated his commitment to also removing some veteran settlements in a future peace deal or in a one-sided move if peace talks fail.
PM Sharon and Security Minister Mofaz last week signed decrees of evacuation for four outposts. They are expected to sign additional decrees for two more outposts Wednesday.
Following an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court, the government agreed Monday to give the settlers 15 days, instead of 3, to appeal outpost evacuation orders.
I don't think Prime Minister Sharon is anti-settler. I do think he has a responsibility to uphold the law. The Yesha Council cannot be a law unto itself.
I expect to be roundly flamed for supporting the government on this by the ideologically minded on here.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | Kuwait | 100.00 |
1 |
100.00 |
3 |
33.33 |
|
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Amb. Kurtzer Warns Israeli Courts: Don't Let Law Prevent Uprooting Migron
If illegality is the issue, does illegal Arab construction get addressed, particularly in East Jerusalem?
Unfortunately transfer ("ethnic cleansing" in the Arab view) is going to be necessary to secure borders, but there's no point in putting a pretty face on it.
Same thing. Tear them down.
Same thing. Tear it all down. The law should be applied equally.
Unfortunately transfer ("ethnic cleansing" in the Arab view) is going to be necessary to secure borders, but there's no point in putting a pretty face on it.
That depends on how you define transfer. 3.5 million Arabs or a few thousand Jews at most? The latter is practical, the former is not.
It's not a matter of definitions, it's the same thing. You're right about the practicality issue, but the real barrier is world opinion. No one cares if a few hundred, or thousand, or tens of thousands of Jews get transfered.
A few winters ago Mayor Daley attempted to "transfer" a few homeless people out of their cardboard boxes and into shelters. You should have heard the outrage.
The same goes for tearing down illegal Arab construction, it won't happen. The IDF can't even tear down illegal construction in defensive zones without howls of protest.
No, I wouldn't expect any "flames" by the people who are affiliated with issues surrounding the Nation of Israel around here. It wouldn't do any good, and they're by and large professionals. "Flaming" you implies their positions, or mine, are somehow weak, whimsical, or unfounded.
I'll tell you though, and pardon me if I wax spiritual for a moment, what's happening with the settlers isn't going to stop now, just like it hasn't stopped since Oslo, or any of the other nonsense "peace" initiatives over the last few decades. Sharon, or Bush/Powell and the US, or Arafat can posture and threaten and play their diplomatic games impelled by their various motives and cultural/economic/political angles all they want, but, well, it isn't going to stop.
The Jews, as a people and culture, ever since 70 AD have held on to the idea of returning to The Land, and indeed, G-d in His word has promised it. But driving that, through all those centuries has been that passion that is borne of having lost something of great value, something few would really understand unless they have experienced the same thing.
But, now the Jews have it back. And it is the Yesha settlers who, after almost sixty years back in The Land, are still modeling that passion for "The Land," the "dream," the "Promise." Whatever the Israeli Supreme Court says, or politicians looking at the short term, it isn't going to go away. America herself has a history of agitation against wrong rulings of our Supreme Court. Many have been overturned.
I'm behind the settlers, one hundred percent. If one "settlement" is uprooted from ground that is rightfully the Jews, two more will just pop up somewhere else. Because the passion isn't going to die.
Unfortunately, it's going to take more treachery on the part of the Arabs, the leftist EU, and elements hostile towards Jewish sovereignty in the US government, when the violence against Israel flares again, for the rest of the Jews who immigrated to Israel over the last six decades—because G-d is gracious and He gave it back—to fan that flagging passion again, and have that plain Israeli patriotism more clearly reflected in their cultural institutions.
There's more than one Jew around here who knows what I'm talking about. It goes a whole lot deeper than "ideology."
"...but the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4)
Especially on the Hills of Samaria.
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