Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer announced last night that he plans to dismantle ten \"illegal\" outposts in Judea and Samaria today, as well as several more in the days following. He said he would do so \"with or without\" the consent of the designated evacuees.
The minister apparently knew, however, that there would in fact be no objection, following an agreement his office reached last week with the Yesha Council last week over the peaceful dismantling of \"minor\" outposts. In fact, the residents of two outposts south of Hevron made no objection this afternoon when security forces came to evacuate them and their total of four temporary structures. The two now-barren fledgling settlement points are adjacent to Maaleh Hever and near Beit Haggai. Shortly afterwards, a caravan was removed from a third hilltop outpost; this one was near Talmon in the western Binyamin area. Several other outposts, generally populated only at night, are expected to be dismantled by the Yesha Council itself over the coming days.
It is not going over so easily in the public, however. Several dozen people demonstrated today outside the Prime Minister\'s Office against the evacuations. A Land of Israel group in Haifa filed suit in the Supreme Court against Ben-Eliezer, charging him with being politically motivated and giving the army \"clearly illegal orders\" to destroy houses and blanketly banish residents. The petitioners say that the army must present the residents with lawful demolition orders and give them a chance to register legal appeals.
On the political front, MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) is working to gain a consensus among the right-wing parties to warn Prime Minister Sharon that \"if he does not thwart Ben-Eliezer\'s political, irresponsible, and anti-Zionist plans, the entire nationalist camp will work together to topple the government.\" Even Interior Minister Eli Yeshai of Shas said that this is a matter for the government to decide, not the Defense Minister.
An official statement by the Yesha Council announced that dismantling the new residential areas would be a \"prize\" for terrorism. Labor MK Chaim Ramon, who recently announced his candidacy for Ben-Eliezer\'s position as party chairman, said this morning that he was happy if his party\'s internal political activity had woken up Ben-Eliezer to the presence of the outposts. \"Either he didn\'t know about them all this time, or he made believe he didn\'t know,\" Ramon said, \"and both possibilities are bad.\"
Herut MK Michael Kleiner\'s response to Ben-Eliezer\'s threat today: \"He is transferring Jews. It is impossible to understand why he is jumping on the Jewish outposts in Yesha, while within [Green Line] Israel illegal Arab settlements are being established and thickened in Jerusalem, Lod, the Galilee, and the Negev, and the Government of Israel displays weakness and does not evacuate them.\" Shimon Ricklin, who has been instrumental in the establishment of the outposts, says that all of them are in one stage or another of being legally approved.
The minister apparently knew, however, that there would in fact be no objection, following an agreement his office reached last week with the Yesha Council last week over the peaceful dismantling of \"minor\" outposts. In fact, the residents of two outposts south of Hevron made no objection this afternoon when security forces came to evacuate them and their total of four temporary structures. The two now-barren fledgling settlement points are adjacent to Maaleh Hever and near Beit Haggai. Shortly afterwards, a caravan was removed from a third hilltop outpost; this one was near Talmon in the western Binyamin area. Several other outposts, generally populated only at night, are expected to be dismantled by the Yesha Council itself over the coming days.
It is not going over so easily in the public, however. Several dozen people demonstrated today outside the Prime Minister\'s Office against the evacuations. A Land of Israel group in Haifa filed suit in the Supreme Court against Ben-Eliezer, charging him with being politically motivated and giving the army \"clearly illegal orders\" to destroy houses and blanketly banish residents. The petitioners say that the army must present the residents with lawful demolition orders and give them a chance to register legal appeals.
On the political front, MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) is working to gain a consensus among the right-wing parties to warn Prime Minister Sharon that \"if he does not thwart Ben-Eliezer\'s political, irresponsible, and anti-Zionist plans, the entire nationalist camp will work together to topple the government.\" Even Interior Minister Eli Yeshai of Shas said that this is a matter for the government to decide, not the Defense Minister.
An official statement by the Yesha Council announced that dismantling the new residential areas would be a \"prize\" for terrorism. Labor MK Chaim Ramon, who recently announced his candidacy for Ben-Eliezer\'s position as party chairman, said this morning that he was happy if his party\'s internal political activity had woken up Ben-Eliezer to the presence of the outposts. \"Either he didn\'t know about them all this time, or he made believe he didn\'t know,\" Ramon said, \"and both possibilities are bad.\"
Herut MK Michael Kleiner\'s response to Ben-Eliezer\'s threat today: \"He is transferring Jews. It is impossible to understand why he is jumping on the Jewish outposts in Yesha, while within [Green Line] Israel illegal Arab settlements are being established and thickened in Jerusalem, Lod, the Galilee, and the Negev, and the Government of Israel displays weakness and does not evacuate them.\" Shimon Ricklin, who has been instrumental in the establishment of the outposts, says that all of them are in one stage or another of being legally approved.