Rightist MK to Defense Min.: Tackle illegal Palestinian construction

National Union-National Religious Party faction whip MK Uri Ariel has urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to tackle unauthorized Palestinian construction in the West Bank's Area C, which are under full Israeli security and administrative jurisdiction.

Ariel submitted to Barak a dossier of aerial photographs, showing dozens of houses that were built without the prior approval of the IDF's Civil Administration. All of them are adjacent to Jewish outposts slated for removal.

The information was handed over to Ariel from the National Land Protection Trust, a non-governmental watchdog that monitors Arab construction patterns.

Ariel said that it is outrageous that Jewish outposts are slated for demolition while Arab illegal construction is overlooked.

"The prime minister does not even try to pretend the question of the outposts is handled fairly and legally," Ariel said.

"It's not law and order which is at stake, but narrow, political, selfish considerations," he added.

Echoing Olmert's statement that the existence of illegal outposts is a disgrace, Ariel said that "the real disgrace is that the authorities fail to tackle tens of thousands of illegal constructions in Arab and Bedouin villages."

The National Land Protection Trust maintains that there are over 40,000 illegally built houses in Area C, and that the Civil Administration dealt with less than 20 percent of them.