Peretz slams PM's policy on illegal outposts

Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy regarding the removal of illegal outposts in the West Bank. Earlier in the day, settlers erected 14 such outposts across the West Bank as an act of defiance against the government.

"The fact the Sharon is considering reaching a compromise between the rule of law and the Yesha council [of West Bank settlements] is an unheard of scandal. No one is authorized to mediate with a wholesale disregard of the law," Peretz said.

"The outposts are damaging Israel's image as a lawful state. While Sharon continues funneling resources to the outposts he ignores the periphery towns, the Negev and the Galilee," he went on to say.

"Sharon can't go on ignoring the law every time the law doesn't serve his interests," he said.

Peretz's team is currently outlining Labor's political agenda that will include a clause on the illegal outposts, under which the Sasson report, which recommended dismantling some 140 outposts, would be fully implemented.

Youths erect 14 illegal outpostsHundreds of settler youths erected 14 illegal outposts in the West Bank on Tuesday in a campaign to show their strength after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, a spokeswoman said.

Datya Yitzhaki, a spokeswoman for the settler group the Land of Israel Faithful, said that a total of 25 new outposts, all of which would eventually become permanent communities, would be standing by the end of Hanukkah.

Yitzhaki, a former Gaza settler who helped erect the Maoz Yam outpost in Gush Katif, added that hundreds of youths had begun building wooden and stone houses and pitched tents at sites close to a dozen older settlements.

"We intend to expand and build on these, we will build on what has been destroyed and show that settlement will resume," she said.

The outposts were erected next to existing settlements in the hopes that this will increase the chances that the new enclaves will be recognized as legitimate neighborhoods instead of illegal outposts.

The largest outpost was set up next to the settlement of Beit El, where settlers claim some 200 youths were working to raise structures.

The Yesha council and settler leaders disassociated themselves from the move and doubted whether the youths? outposts would last.

Israel Defense Forces sources dismissed the developments in the West Bank, saying the youths were merely enjoying "a holiday resort of children that will disperse itself," and that the military does not currenly have plans to evacuate the outposts.

Israel is meant to remove dozens of settler outposts in the West Bank not formally authorized by the government under the U.S.-backed road map for peace with the Palestinians, but has failed to do so.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said, "Settlement activities severely hurt Palestinian efforts to maintain calm." He urged Israel "to cease these activities and uproot the outposts."

Candle lighting ceremonies will take place around the country Tuesday night, the third night of the Hanukkah festival, to demonstrate solidarity with the youths.

	Flags flutter on a hilltop where settlers on Tuesday built a new illegal outpost near the West Bank settlement of Efrat. (Reuters)