Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday joined those condemning the actions of the Nachshon Battalion soldiers who declared Sunday that they would not throw Jews out of their homes in what the government terms illegal outposts. "I condemn the phenomenon of soldiers refusing to evict people at outposts. We will not all this activity to spread. Throughout the IDF's history, we were able to keep it out of the political debate in this country, and we will continue to do so," Barak said at a Beersheva high school.

So far, six soldiers who were involved in the incident on Sunday, where soldiers stood on the roof of a building and unfurled a banner that said "Nachshon Brigade soldiers do not remove Jews from their homes" have been punished by IDF authorities with varying sentences in the army brig, and demotions.