Labor MK founds Knesset lobby to evacuate West Bank outposts

MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) is forming a Knesset lobby for evacuating illegal West Bank outposts, in the wake of the U.S. administration's demand that Israel stop settlement construction and evacuate outposts.

The lobby will track the outposts' growth and expansion, raise public awareness about the issue and call on MKs to support the cabinet in measures against the outpost residents, Pines-Paz said.

"There are more than 100 illegal outposts, which constitute a mark of Cain on Israeli democracy in terms of the rule of law and proper conduct in the West Bank," he wrote to MKs, inviting them to take an active part in the lobby.

"The outposts are sabotaging Israel's efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority and embarrassing Israel in the international arena. They have caused a crisis in our relations with the United States," he wrote.

"In recent years, the illegal outposts have been incessant hubs of violence and intolerable verbal abuse toward Israeli soldiers and police, as well as Palestinians. Israel has been dragging its feet and doing almost nothing to implement its commitment to evacuate the outposts," he wrote.

Pines-Paz is one of four "rebel" Labor MKs who object to their party's joining Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Labor chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is leaving for the United States today, will not be addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee debate today as scheduled.

	Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz.
	Photo by: (David Bachar)