No decision will be made this week on the fate of 22 Jewish settlement outposts erected on Palestinian land in recent months without Israeli Defense Ministry permission. At the earliest, the government will consider the issue at next Sunday's cabinet meeting, reported Haaretz.
The paper said that security officials met Wednesday to formulate recommendations as to which setlements ought to be dismantled.
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer was quoted as saying the same day that he told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in advance of his intention to dismantle 15 of the outposts. Ben-Eliezer was responding to criticism aired by Likud ministers, and by anonymous members of Sharon's entourage in Washington.
"I'm sorry that this topic has picked up momentum," Ben-Eliezer said. He had in recent weeks been critical of the Israeli Army, saying they had done nothing to confront settlers at such an explosive time, sources told Haaretz.
But a high-ranking army officer rejected this interpretation Wednesday night. The military did not slow-down handling of the outposts issue, he told Haaretz. "The defense minister ordered that there would be discussion with the settler leadership prior to the dismantling of outposts," the officer said. "This is, by definition, a long process. We weren't told to evacuate the outposts on a specific day - we would have, of course, had we been ordered," the officer said.
He added: "Evacuation without settler consent will not be a simple matter in the current, difficult period."
Ben-Eliezer had contemplated ordering that the settlements be taken down by the end of this week. However, complying with the prime minister's inclinations on the matter, Ben-Eliezer agreed in the end to defer the issue until next Sunday, said Haaretz – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
