Ramon to convene ministerial c'tee on outposts report - Haaretz

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Sun., September 02, 2007 Elul 19, 5767

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Last update - 01:08 02/09/2007

Ramon to convene ministerial c'tee on outposts report

By Barak Ravid

The ministerial committee on illegal outposts is scheduled to convene today to establish rules for building in the West Bank, the committee chair, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, said yesterday.

The committee's meeting - the first after a year's hiatus - comes amid new data, gathered by Peace Now's settlement monitoring team. According to the data, numerous West Bank outposts have expanded in recent months.

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Aerial photographs obtained by Peace Now show that 18 trailers have been added since May to several outposts, mainly in the Shiloh region. For example, there are four more trailers at the outposts Ahia and Esh Kodesh; two more trailers at Adei Ad and Amona.

Peace Now's findings indicate that at least six permanent structures are in the process of going up at existing outposts - near Itamar, at the Nof Harim outpost near Eli and also near Tekoa.

It also seems that two small new outposts have been established, at this stage consisting of tents, but showing preliminary signs of stone construction. One of these, set up east of the settlement Ma'on in June, consists of a tent surrounded by stone walls, and even has running water. A similar outpost named Ohel Hasdei Shem was set up close to the settlement of Susia in the Hebron Hills.

The Civil Administration recently demolished a small outpost established by Braslav Hassidim on Mount Grizim.

The ministerial committee on illegal outposts has not convened since Ramon resigned as justice minister in August 2006. Throughout the past year, his replacement Daniel Friedmann refused to deal with the issue.

Prior to his resignation, Ramon began working on an agreement with the settlers to "legalize" 34 outposts if all the rest were voluntarily vacated. According to Peace Now data, there are currently 104 illegal outposts in the West Bank, 52 of which were established after March 2001. Israel promised the American administration to remove the outposts set up after that date.

Ramon sounded optimistic yesterday: "I hope that within three months the committee will be able to set clear regulations regarding planning and construction in these areas, after 40 years without clear rules on the matter. The committee's work will enable the government to determine officially which of the outposts are legal and which are not," he said.

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