Settler leader presses outpost residents to evacuate

Residents of an unauthorized outpost in the West Bank are expected to evacuate their caravans voluntarily, after a settlement council leader threatened to quit supplying them with gas for their generator.

The residents of Bnei Adam had agreed last week to voluntarily evacuate the three caravans, following advice of leading rabbis of the national religious movement.

The decision had come after the High Court of Justice ruled that the outpost would be evacuated within five days, after hearing a petition from Bnei Adam residents who oppose the move.

However, when the director of the Yesha settlement arm Amana, Ze'ev Haver, tried to get them to do so, he was expelled by the residents. On Thursday night, he told them that if they did not agree to evacuate, they would lose their electrical power.

Haver is considered "the father of the outposts," and Bnei Adam itself was established by Amana activists from the Yitzhar settlement and from the Land of Israel Youth movement. The mobile homes were not removed, and the ground is now set for a struggle.

Haver claims that as his movement started the outpost, all of the caravans in fact belong to him and he has every right to decide their fate.

Bnei Adam residents met Thursday evening with settler leaders and agreed that the cost of forcible evacuation would be too high. The residents said, however, that if they do leave their caravans, they plan to stay in the area and resettle a nearby hilltop.