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Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Dan Keinan)
Last update - 16:02 01/01/2008
Defense Minister to IDF: Place illegal outpost residents on trial
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: illegal outposts, West Bank 

The state has been filing indictments over the past two months against right-wing activists and settlers for occupying an illegal outpost, following orders from Defense Minister Ehud Barak to security forces to file police complaints against the activists.

So far some 70 complaints have been filed, which have led to about 20 indictments against young people and teenagers who moved in batches to the outpost Shvut Ami, near the Kedumim settlement in the West Bank.

Shvut Ami has in recent months become a new symbol of the fight over the outposts and, in the eyes of the security forces, an extreme example of the settlers' ability to harass them. The outpost is located on private Palestinian land, a few hundred meters south of Kedumim, on the other side of the Kedumim-Alfei Menashe road. Activists occupied it a dozen times, and were removed by the Border Police, army and police. Attempts to occupy it continue, despite the fact that an IDF brigade is headquartered less than a kilometer away.
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Barak, who kept hearing about this matter in the weekly situation assessments in his office about the territories, directed the army and the police to file complaints for entering a closed military zone, against those manning the outpost.

The Samaria and Judea District Police initially claimed that this did not warrant an indictment, saying indictments are appropriate for more serious crimes, such as assaulting a police officer or preventing him from carrying out his job. However, officials at the State Prosecutor's Office sided with Barak, ruling that complaints can be filed.

Barak reportedly hounded IDF and police officers, demanding weekly updates on the legal steps taken. Since November, Border Police officers began taking down the names of the young people at the outpost. To remove any doubts that the activists knew they were in a closed military zone (it is not clearly fenced), it was decided to try only serial offenders who were caught in the area again after having been warned previously.

Some trials are already in process, at the Kfar Sava Magistrate's Court.

In several cases, underage girls were arrested who refused to identify themselves. Their indictments cite them as "anonymous."

All of those arrested in the case were released, under restrictive terms.

Defense Ministry sources told Haaretz that the plan is to extend such measures to those who repeatedly occupy other outposts. Taking legal action might help deter the activists, the sources said, so they stop badgering the security forces with futile operations.

Barak on several occasions has expressed frustration at the helplessness the state evinces in the face of those who establish the illegal outposts. In his opinion, the prosecution ought to demand prison terms for the serial offenders among outpost dwellers. He maintains that this is an effective means of combating the phenomenon, even before the government acts to remove outposts, as per the promise made to the U.S.
several years ago and again at the Annapolis Conference in November.

Related articles:
  • Police remove 60 right-wing activists from W. Bank outpost
  • Lieberman: Gov`t can't discuss outposts, ignore Negev building
  • Lieberman: All outposts in W. Bank approved by the gov't
  • Peace Now asks Egged to halt bus lines to illegal W. Bank outposts
  • Religious outpost takes over secular settlement in West Bank
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