The Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz agreed yesterday to uproot four Yesha outposts in the coming days, including a populated one in Ofrah. The latter, Ginot Aryeh, is a neighborhood that was established in memory of Ofrah resident Aryeh Hershkovitz, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in January 2001. Three months later, his son Assaf was similarly murdered; the small outpost community of Givat Assaf, on the turnoff between Beit El and Ofrah, is in his memory.



The four outposts slated for uprooting are:

* Chazon David near Kiryat Arba, which comprises two large shipping containers;

* Bat Ayin West West, in Gush Etzion, with two sheds;

* the Shaked Farm, near Yitzhar in central Shomron, with a chicken coop and a shed;

* and the Ofrah neighborhood of Ginot Aryeh, with ten families.



No struggle is expected over the first three, but Ginot Aryeh might be a different story. Officials in Ofrah say that the neighborhood has received unofficial recognition from various government bodies, and that it is unfair to call it "illegal."



The extreme left-wing organization Peace Now is not happy with the decision to remove Migron from the list of outposts to be uprooted. Peace Now claims that this is a way to "launder" the 43-family community, which is situated five miles north of Jerusalem, and retroactively legalize it. Six various government ministries have funded Migron during the four years of its existence.