JERUSALEM: Israeli security forces on Friday evicted a small group of Jewish settlers from an outpost they erected hours earlier in the occupied West Bank, upsetting pro-settler members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The group had built a handful of small temporary structures on rocky terrain near a larger Jewish settlement, according to footage carried by Israeli media. Similar outposts have been built and taken down many times over the years.
Although there were no reports of violence or injuries between settlers and security agents, Friday’s eviction was a test for Netanyahu’s new government, which took office about a year ago. month and includes far-right senior ministers.
A member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party heads the Defense Ministry, which heads the authority that coordinates policy in the West Bank, although he has ceded some settlement policy to hardline politician Bezalel Smotrich.
On Friday, Smotrich had ordered the authority that coordinates the policy not to remove the outpost until a discussion next week, according to a statement from his office.
The statement said Defense Minister Yoav Galant went ahead regardless and ordered his removal, “in complete contradiction to the coalition agreements that form the basis of the government’s existence”.
Netanyahu issued his own statement afterwards, saying that “the government supports settlement, but only when it is carried out lawfully and coordinated in advance with the prime minister and security officials, which has not been done in this case”.
Most countries view the settlements Israel built on land captured in a 1967 war as illegal and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, as they eat away at the land Palestinians claim for a future state.
Israel disputes this and cites biblical, historical and political ties to the West Bank, as well as security interests.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, prior to the outpost’s withdrawal, had condemned its construction, calling it “a blatant defiance of international and US demands that Israel’s unilateral and illegal measures must cease”.
There were minor clashes with stone-throwing at the site between Jewish settlers and Palestinians from a nearby village, according to Palestinian witnesses.
The group had built a handful of small temporary structures on rocky terrain near a larger Jewish settlement, according to footage carried by Israeli media. Similar outposts have been built and taken down many times over the years.
Although there were no reports of violence or injuries between settlers and security agents, Friday’s eviction was a test for Netanyahu’s new government, which took office about a year ago. month and includes far-right senior ministers.
A member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party heads the Defense Ministry, which heads the authority that coordinates policy in the West Bank, although he has ceded some settlement policy to hardline politician Bezalel Smotrich.
On Friday, Smotrich had ordered the authority that coordinates the policy not to remove the outpost until a discussion next week, according to a statement from his office.
The statement said Defense Minister Yoav Galant went ahead regardless and ordered his removal, “in complete contradiction to the coalition agreements that form the basis of the government’s existence”.
Netanyahu issued his own statement afterwards, saying that “the government supports settlement, but only when it is carried out lawfully and coordinated in advance with the prime minister and security officials, which has not been done in this case”.
Most countries view the settlements Israel built on land captured in a 1967 war as illegal and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, as they eat away at the land Palestinians claim for a future state.
Israel disputes this and cites biblical, historical and political ties to the West Bank, as well as security interests.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, prior to the outpost’s withdrawal, had condemned its construction, calling it “a blatant defiance of international and US demands that Israel’s unilateral and illegal measures must cease”.
There were minor clashes with stone-throwing at the site between Jewish settlers and Palestinians from a nearby village, according to Palestinian witnesses.
