Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., March 07, 2008 Adar2 1, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:26 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Settlers agree to evacuate some illegal West Bank outposts in deal struck with Barak By Barak Ravid and Jonathan Lis Several illegal outposts will be evacuated in the next few days, under an agreement reached between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and settler leaders. This is the first stage of dismantling 26 outposts built on private Palestinian land after March 2001. Israel had promised the United States that it would evacuate these outposts to meet the conditions of the first stage of the diplomatic road map leading to a final-status agreement with the Palestinians. Advertisement The evacuation agreement was reached after prolonged covert negotiations between the Yesha settlers' council and Barak and his adviser for settlement affairs Eitan Broshi. It is based on relocating the West Bank outposts into either the large settlement blocs or in settlements near Jerusalem, under the assumption that these will remain in Israeli hands after a final-status arrangement. The first three or four outposts will be evacuated voluntarily and relocated to other settlements nearby, as long as this does not contradict the prime minister's instructions restricting construction in the territories. The evacuated settlers will receive no compensation. "Our intention is not to solve one problem and create a new one, so the outposts will only be relocated to settlements on which there is a consensus," a security source said. One of the outposts earmarked for evacuation is Migron, which the state has recently promised the High Court of Justice to evacuate by August. Migron is the largest outpost and consists of more than 60 families. The settlers and defense officials are expected to find a place for Migron's residents within the next few days. The source said that the 26 outposts will be evacuated in stages. "Some places are still being debated and the settlers' leadership will be tested," he said. "We believe the settlers will have an interest in relocating the outposts to legal places that can be developed and prevent them from appearing illegal." The U.S. demanded it The American administration has demanded for years that Israel evacuate the illegal outposts. Since the Annapolis conference and the resumption of peace talks, the Americans have repeated this demand, as have the Palestinians. The U.S. even appointed a special envoy to examine the implementation of the road map's first stage, which includes the evacuation of outposts. Yesha council head Danny Dayan, who is conducting the negotiations with his colleagues Pinhas Wallerstein and Ze'ev Hever, said yesterday that the talks are intended "to create confidence building measures with the Defense Ministry and solve the outposts issue by agreement as opposed to conflict." He said they were drafting an agreement "to evacuate a number of structures in two or three outposts. We want the government to authorize outposts that were built on state lands." During the process the government would have to make confidence building measures toward the settlers, he said. He refused to say which outposts would be relocated. "Their names are not clear yet. In any case you wouldn't know any of the names. They're not outposts that families live on," he said. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Girl power Female MKs learn martial arts in order to defend themselves against sexual assault. Not Jewish enough U.K. Jewish school gets sued for barring pupil over mother's non-Orthodox conversion.

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