RAMALLAH, West Bank, 5 July 2007 — The Israeli rightist settlers in the West Bank are planning to establish several illegal settlement outposts on the hills surrounding the settling bloc of Gush Etzion, south of West Bank city of Bethlehem, a report said yesterday.
According to a decision by settler leaders, a group of settlers will establish the first outpost on Efrat’s Eitam hill, south of Bethlehem, in about three weeks. In the weeks to follow, four other outposts are expected to be established.
According to the Israeli settlers, the hill in question is within the borders of Efrat in Gush Etzion settlements. However, the hill will become Palestinian property upon completion of the separation wall in the area, which will exclude it from Efrat.
For fear of losing the land, extreme right-wing Israeli organizations have begun spreading notices calling for a renewal of settlement activity.
According to a report of the anti-settlement Israeli watchdog Peace Now, the West Bank is home to approximately 121 official Israeli settlements. These settlements are built on confiscated Palestinian land and, as a direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, have been declared illegal by various UN Security Council resolutions and a number of international legal bodies, including the International Court of Justice.
In a related atrocity of Israeli settlers against Palestinians, the attorneys of Mohammed Moqbel, a Palestinian land owner who had 300 olive trees uprooted by settlers from his property in the West Bank and replanted in the outpost Adei Ad, north of Ramallah, several weeks ago, said that Israeli security forces may have been involved in the uprooting of his trees.
Moqbel’s attorney Michael Sfard, the legal adviser of the Israeli human rights group “Yesh Din,” has asked the Israeli police in the area whether the internal affairs department is investigating the incident. Moqbel, a resident of the West Bank Village Qaryout, said last week that he planted the trees in 1965.
