'Illegal outposts' get status

2003-10-27 13:51

Jerusalem - Israel was accused on Monday of breaching the terms of the Middle East peace "roadmap" after granting "permanent settlement" status to at least five illegal outposts in the West Bank.

A senior advisor to Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said the decision would allow the settlements to obtain grants for education and infrastructure projects as well as making them eligible for protection by security forces.

"We need to give the minimum services to these people who are on the ground, especially for security and education," Ron Sheshner, senior advisor to Mofaz on settlements, told Israeli radio.

"These people must be able to survive and we will provide them a solution."

The radio said several of the outposts set to be accorded "legal" status had earlier been dismantled by the army.

In addition, the radio reported that parliament's finance commission would unlock about $29m worth of funds to build apartments in West Bank settlements.

Freeze settlement

Under the terms of the internationally drafted "roadmap", Israel is obliged to freeze settlement activity in general and dismantle around 60 outposts in the West Bank that have been set up since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power in March 2001.

Since the roadmap was officially launched in June, the number of settlement outposts has remained largely unchanged.

Around a dozen were dismantled by the army in a blaze of publicity, but new ones have been since been set up by radical settler groups.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the latest move illustrated that Sharon's government was determined to kill off the roadmap.

"Israel is continuing to bury the roadmap," Erakat told reporters.

He called on the sponsors of the roadmap - the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia - to pressure Israel to reverse its decision, which he described as part of a wider aim "to destroy the peace process and the Palestinian Authority and prolong the occupation".

Dror Etkes, of the leftist Israeli group Peace Now's Settlement Watch programme, said the move was a "blatant" breach of the roadmap.

"According to the roadmap they are expected to dismantle these outposts. Instead what we are seeing is that they are being integrated," he said.

"They (the Sharon government) are very committed to the peace process - on condition that they don't have to dismantle the outposts and end the occupation."

The decision comes just four days after Israel also sparked accusations of flouting the roadmap by inviting tenders to build more than 300 apartments in West Bank settlements.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian who was seen approaching a security fence in the Gaza Strip was shot dead by Israeli troops early on Monday while another three Palestinians were wounded, Israeli military sources said.

The latest fatality brings the death toll since the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000 to 3 586, including 2 671 Palestinians and 849 Israelis.

- AFP