PM: Plan outpost evacuation this month

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has asked Defense Minister Amir Peretz to prepare a plan by the end of May for evacuating illegal outposts, the State Prosecutor's Office told the High Court of Justice.

The statement was given in response to a petition before the High Court by the residents of two northern West Bank Arab villages, Dir Dibwan and Burka, against the illegal outpost of Migron. The villagers, represented by attorney Michael Sfard, say the outpost is built on their land.

The plan Olmert asked Peretz to prepare includes the evacuation of Migron.

The plan would call for a gradual evacuation of illegal outposts from simpler to more complex evacuations, based on a number of parameters. These include the expected amount of opposition; outposts that have already been served with legal notices, allowing for their immediate evacuation; small outposts; and outposts on private Palestinian land.

Olmert also asked Peretz to coordinate the plan with the Public Security Ministry and to learn the lessons of the destruction of the outpost of Amona last year. Attorney Aner Helman from the State Prosecutor's Office also asked for two more months before the petition is heard to allow the office to provide an "update statement."

Peace Now, which is among the petitioners to remove Migron, said yesterday "the government is trying to gain time; instead of setting a precise date for the evacuation of the outposts, it is postponing it for two more months. The state is avoiding the issue by not saying which outposts are involved."

The spokesman for the Yesha Council of settlements, Yishai Hollender, said the state's response to the High Court was "very surprising since the prime minister knows the issue of the outposts can be solved through dialogue with the settlement leaders. The prime minister knows the defense minister can't do everything and he should appoint a team to solve the problem."

The settlers' group Homesh First said that as long as illegal Arab construction was not being dealt with, the demand to remove the outpost constituted "persecution of the settlers for the sole purpose of political survival. Not only will Olmert fail in this mission, Homesh will be rebuilt." Homesh was one of the four northern West Bank settlements evacuated in 2005 along with the settlements in the Gaza Strip.

In December, the defense minister instructed the Israel Defense Forces to come to an agreement on voluntary evacuation of the illegal settlements "soon." If the talks do not produce results, Peretz intends to order the evacuation of Migron within six months.

The State Prosecutor's Office has conceded to the High Court in the past that "because Migron was built on private Palestinian land there is no legal way to come to terms with its existence in the long term."

Migron, which was established in 2001, apparently has 43 families and 60 prefabricated homes and two permanent structures.