Binyamin regional council, the Israeli body responsible for West Bank settlements, announced the launch Monday of a project to settle 1,000 new families using military outposts, evacuated years ago under agreements between then-prime minister Ehud Barak and the settlers' council, Haaretz daily reported.
"The council has set itself a goal to bring some 1,000 families to the Binyamin area in order to bring renewed momentum to the settlements, and to give new life and new impetus to all that is called settlements," said Elazar Sela, head of the settlement project, adding that "to my amazement, there is 150 percent momentum toward the outposts, that is, there is desire on the part of many, many young people to go to the outposts, and we don't have enough caravans to populate them.”
However, responding to the media reports that settlers had re-occupied these outposts Israel’s Defense Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Monday that he would not allow any re-population of these sites.
"There will be no new settlements, this will not happen, because we have absolutely ruled out new outposts," Ben-Eliezer said Monday. "I will not allow this to occur, because this government was established on the basis of agreements and policy lines, and we will insist on this, and there will be divergence from this."
Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio that the decision to forbid any new settlements remained in effect, "and I am not even speaking here of the extraordinary damage that can occur as a result of resettling this land, at a time when we are speaking of a diplomatic horizon, and at a time of a war on terror."
The defense minister added that the housing needs created by population growth among settlers could be accomodated within plans approved for construction in existing settlements. (Albawaba.com)
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