How do settlers avenge removal of outpost? They build another one

Settler youths from the West Bank enclave of Kochav Shachar erected a new outpost Thursday morning to protest the removal of three caravans from the outpost of Bnei Adam.

The new outpost near Kochav Shahar, a settlement that sits just northeast of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, was given the name "Ba'al Hatzor Hamizrach." Ba'al Hatzor is the highest mountain in the chain that runs through the spine of the West Bank.

The new outpost includes a wooden structure and a number of youths inhabiting a tent-like shack.

"The establishment of the outpost is a fitting response to the evacuation that was carried out overnight in Bnei Adam," Yonatan Rahamim, one of the founders of the outpost, said. "No evacuation will break us, and we will continue to answer this government of wickedness by erecting new settlements in the Land of Israel. Every evacuation is a shot of adrenaline for the building of new communities."

The evacuation of Bnei Adam was the result of heavy pressure applied by the Yesha council of West Bank settlements and a settler non-government organization.

Two weeks ago, the head of the Binyamin regional council, Avi Roeh, held negotiations with the outpost inhabitants over the voluntary removal of caravans that the Israel Defense Forces intended to demolish.

The compromise between the Yesha council and the outpost inhabitants drew criticism and accusations from dozens of settler youths.

Rabbi Haim Druckman, an influential religious leader among West Bank settlers, decreed that the inhabitants should abide by Roeh's instructions and evacuate the caravans in the coming days. In response to the rabbi's decree, posters condemning the rabbi were plastered all over the West Bank.