JERUSALEM, 24 March 2004 — Israel’s Supreme Court has paved the way for dismantling unauthorized Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank in line with a US-backed “road map” for peace, officials said yesterday.
The court rejected a petition by settlement groups to overturn a government decision to remove two outposts, a ruling that set aside legal challenges stalling plans to tear down more of the hilltop trailer enclaves.
Persistent Israeli-Palestinian violence has left the road map at a dead end.
Palestinians said a revival of peacemaking had become even less likely following Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Monday.
The Israeli Defense Ministry could not immediately say when the removal of the outposts would begin following Sunday’s ruling and there was no immediate comment from settler leaders.
Israel is required under the road map to uproot more than 100 outposts built without government approval since right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in March 2001. The road map calls on Palestinians to dismantle militant groups to qualify for a state in occupied territories.
So far only a few outposts have been cleared out, most of them consisting of some uninhabited caravans. Some have been quietly rebuilt when public attention turns elsewhere. “There are no more excuses,” said Yariv Oppenheimer, spokesman for Peace Now. “This is a green light from the Supreme Court to dismantle outposts.”
