|
Settlers create new outposts
30/09/2007 22:01 - (SA)
Halhul - Hundreds of Israeli settlers and right-wingers set up four sites throughout the occupied West Bank on Sunday during a Jewish religious holiday, aiming to create new wildcat outposts.
Activists had announced their intention last week to set up five new outposts across the Palestinian territory in defiance of Israeli authorities who had declared the sites closed military areas.
The army, which had deployed dozens of officers at the sites, planned to allow the settlers to pass the night at the spots before evacuating them on Monday, Nadia Matar, one of the organisers, told AFP.
Activists set up tents
Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said: "For the moment, we have not received any orders from the army about removing the activists."
In the southern part of the West Bank, on a hill near the town of Halhul, about 400 activists set up four tents traditionally used during the Jewish Sukkot holiday (Feast of the Tabernacles) which runs until Wednesday.
In the Bethlehem region, about 600 people got ready to spend the night on another hill near the Efrat settlement, witnesses said.
In the north near the town of Nablus, 200 activists settled in on a hill near the Eilon Moreh settlement and 500 near the Kedoumim settlement.
Trying to create five new outposts
The only place where the settlers' plans appeared to go awry was in the Ramallah region, where several hundred settlers were attempting to bypass police and army blocks to climb a hill near the Hashmonaim settlement.
Settler and right-wing groups had announced they would attempt to create five new wildcat outposts - settlements not authorised by the Israeli government - across the West Bank on Sunday.
According to Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlement movement, the West Bank has more than 100 such outposts. Israel has pledged to dismantle them, but has yet to follow through.
Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal.
|
News
