Posted on 06/29/2002 2:01:17 PM PDT by Pokey78
Ten illegal settlements in the West Bank will be dismantled in the next 24 hours,Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Saturday.
Earlier in the week, Ben-Eliezer vowed to remove 20 of the hilltop outposts, even if he had to send in the army to forcibly remove the settlers, many of whom say they have a biblical right to the land they believe God gave the Jews.
"By the end of the day tomorrow, 10 outposts are to be taken down. I intend to dismantle another 10 outposts," Ben-Eliezer told a gathering of his Labor Party.
The Defense Ministry must approve any new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The illegal outposts have never received government approval.
Yarden Vatikai, Ben-Eliezer's spokesman, said they were negotiating with representatives of the Settlers' Council to reach agreement on which outposts to dismantle and when.
He refused to say which outposts would be dismantled.
"Tractors are not standing there with their engines running and if they (the settlers) don't come out we'll go in. The intention is to do it in the coming days and to do it with agreement," Vatikai said.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak reached an agreement with the council in 1999 to dismantle several illegal outposts. But more than 100 settlers at a small ranch called Havat Maon refused to leave. Television footage of soldiers dragging and carrying men, women and children on to buses were broadcast worldwide.
Since the start of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000, settlers have been targeted by terrorists. Several illegal outposts have been built, some just a caravan on a hilltop, in memory of settlers killed in the violence.
The IDF has said the outposts are vulnerable to Palestinian attack and difficult to protect.
A pregnant woman, her husband and a reserve soldier were killed in June in a Palestinian shooting attack on a mobile home community near the settlement of Karmei Tzur.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.