The Reporter: Two new settlement outposts planned for West Bank
The Jerusalem Report Staff
West Bank settlers plan to establish two new outposts in the coming weeks, The Jerusalem Report has learned, and they claim to have the backing of the local government body for settlements south of Jerusalem. Creation of the outposts could embarrass Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, especially at a time when he is seeking $8 billion in new U.S. loan guarantees, since Israeli governments have repeatedly promised the U.S. that no new settlements will be established. The promise was renewed by Shimon Peres when he served in Sharon’s government as foreign minister.
"The Gush Etzion Regional Council is looking for pioneering families… in order to set up a settlement point," says a flier shown to The Report. At the number on the flier, a man named Yair, who identified himself as a regional council staffer, told an interested caller that two new outposts were in the works. At one, near the settlement of Bat Ayin, three or four families and several singles are set to arrive in April, Yair told the caller, who has asked to remain anonymous.
A second outpost, Yair said, would be established southwest of Neveh Daniel in the next month or two. The timing, he said, was partly dependent on receiving "oral approval" from various authorities. The effort was also held up, he said, by a Supreme Court case.
That’s apparently a reference to an appeal filed by the Nassar family of Bethlehem, which is fighting a decision to declare several hundred dunams southwest of Neveh Daniel "state land." The Nassars say the land has been listed in their name since the 1920s. The state attorney’s office promised that no changes would be made on the ground till the Court hearing, scheduled for April. Much of the land is planted with olive, peach and apricot groves worked by the Nassars. Its location matches the area described by Yair.
At the end of January, Gush Etzion Regional Council workers using heavy equipment began cutting a road through land claimed by the Nassar family. Police stopped the work after they were told of the state attorney’s commitment. The Nassars say, though, that the road actually cuts into a parcel where the state recognized their ownership, and which is therefore not even part of the appeal.
A source in the regional council, who requested anonymity, said the road was intended only to allow the local body to keep intruders off state land. He insisted there were "definitely no plans" for an outpost. But he added that the council had the right to create an outpost if it wished, since the land is part of the approved Neveh Daniel master plan.
In fact, settler activists have claimed that many scattered hilltop outposts created in recent years are not new settlements, but extensions of old ones. However, the government commitment to the U.S. is that new construction will be contiguous with existing settlements, and will be enough only for "natural increase" in the population.
March 10, 2003
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