By Chaim Levinson, Haaretz
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1108080.html
Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday urged Israel to consider resettling the evacuated West Bank settlement of Homesh, calling it a strategic asset in the face of Palestinian terrorism.
During a tour of West Bank outposts, the minister called the area “significant territory,” adding that the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank in 2005 gave “tailwind to the Islamic jihadism.”
Homesh was one of four West Bank settlements that Israel evacuated during the disengagment. Settlers have of late taken up campaign to return to their homes and re-establish the community there.
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During the tour, Ya’alon also urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to reeexamine the policies of his ministry and of the High Court, which define every settlement established without municipal planning as unlawful and as therefore slated for removal.
Ya’alon was accompanied on his tour by Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas), who deemed the unauthorized outposts as legal settlements set up by the State of Israel.
“These are not unlawful outposts, but rather legal settlements established by the government of Israel,” Yishai said while visiting outposts in the Shomron Regional Council area.
He added that he would fight against the 2005 Sasson Report, which concluded that state bodies secretly diverted funds to build illegal West Bank outposts.
Yishai said last Monday that Israel must continue with plans to expand a settlement enclave near Jerusalem despite U.S. objections. He made the comments while touring the E-1 corridor between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, house trailers are playing a major role as West Bank settlers try to create facts on the ground before the United States and Israel reach any decision on a construction freeze in the settlements. In recent months, settlers have been trying to assemble trailers quickly.
After the release of the 2005 Sasson Report on illegal outposts, the Israel Defense Forces’ Civil Administration in the West Bank has been limiting the movements of house trailers around the territories. To circumvent the restrictions, trailer parts are being moved to the settlements and put together on site on pre-prepared lots. Efforts by left-wing organizations and human rights groups to impede the construction have failed.
In early July, Haaretz reported on such preparations for 10 trailers in the settlement of Eli. A little more than a month after initial work at the location, most of the trailers have been built and appear to be ready to accommodate residents shortly.
The site is defined as state-owned land and lies within the settlement’s municipal boundaries. But because Eli does not have a development plan, the construction is considered illegal.
Construction of 12 trailers on private Palestinian land has begun near the settlement of Kochav Yaakov near Ramallah. The rights group Yesh Din filed a petition to the High Court of Justice last week to halt the construction, and a hearing on the case is expected shortly.
