Members of the Renewed Yesha Council of Judea and Samaria Communities toured hilltop communities defined as "unauthorized outposts" Tuesday.
Led by the council's new head Danny Dayan, members began the morning in Sde Boaz, in Gush Etzion, continued to Maaleh Rechavam, in eastern Gush Etzion and then visited communities in the southern Hevron Hills and then the Binyamin region.
Dayan told residents that although Defense Minister Ehud Barak has still refused to meet with council members, they are trying to win authorization of the communities that do not have legal issues pending with the land upon which they are situated, and for possibly "moving" places such as Migron, near Kochav Ya'akov.
Avi Ro’eh, Deputy Mayor of the Binyamin region dispatched a letter to the council members requesting that they fully update residents of the hilltop communities as negotiations take place. He said he had heard from many residents that they feel like negotiations are being carried out on their behalf without any effort to keep them abreast of the situation.
That written, Ro’eh praised the council’s efforts to bring about the authorization of the communities. “This could give a serious boost to the settlement movement by removing the clouds of doubt hanging over the heads of the hundreds of families living in outposts.”
Binyamin Region Mayor Pinchas Wallerstein, a member of the Yesha Council, told Arutz-7’s daily radio news-magazine that there are contacts with officials in the Defense Ministry. He said the aim of the contacts is to coordinate the state’s response to the Supreme Court ahead of its verdict on whether Migron must be destroyed.
The court has ordered the state to explain why it has not yet destroyed the hilltop community.
Wallerstein said negotiations are being conducted along two basic principles: A comprehensive solution to the issue of “unauthorized outposts” is being sought, not just one dealing with Migron; and that every established community should be allowed to remain intact, even if expelled from their homes.
The Binyamin Mayor and old-time settlement activist says that a huge majority, 98 percent, of the communities lack naught but the signature of the Defense Minister to become regular, fully “authorized” communities. He admitted that on other communities, “where they tricked us in the sale or the land’s acquisition is not complete – we are prepared for a solution, within the context of our requirement to maintain the integrity of the community.”
“If in the context of a solution we have to move a community a few hundred meters then there is what to talk about. This, of course, after we received the agreement of the majority of the public settlement leaders.”
The anti-Jewish settlement group Peace Now called the Yesha Council’s tour of the outposts a “provocation,” with Director-General Yariv Oppenheimer saying in a statement: "Yesha Council leaders have proven that there is no one to talk to about enforcing the rule of law. Defense Minister Barak must realize that the settler leaders do not intend to evacuate even a single trailer. The tour they conducted today is a provocation that reveals their true faces.”