No sooner had the Israeli border police gone than the young Jewish settlers were back, to rebuild the unauthorized outpost that had just been evacuated and torn down for the ninth time in recent months. …
The scene at Shvut Ami last week demonstrated the challenge that unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank pose to the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as peace talks with the Palestinians resume. It also was a display of what many see as the ineffectual response by Israeli authorities to lawbreaking by militant settlers.
There are more than 100 unauthorized outposts scattered over the West Bank, some no more than a trailer or tent, others clusters of homes hooked up to power and water grids, with paved access roads.
Often extensions of established settlements, the outposts have been going up for more than a decade, frequently with support of government agencies, some on private Palestinian land, in an effort by the settlers to frustrate attempts to create a territorially viable Palestinian state. Access the full article>>
