OCCUPIED JERUSALEM —
Jewish settlers have agreed
to quit a remote outpost that has become a flashpoint for clashes with
Palestinians who also claim the land, officials said, under a deal aimed at
addressing an awkward political test for the new Israeli government.
اضافة اعلان
Under the agreement with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the
settlers will leave Givat Eviatar outpost in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank.
But it seemed likely that at least some of the outpost's new
buildings would remain, locked and under military guard, an outcome that is
certain to anger Palestinian protesters who demand it be removed.
The hilltop settlement outpost near the Palestinian city of
Nablus was established without Israeli government permits in May and is now
home to more than 50 settler families.
The Israeli military ordered it to be cleared, presenting an
early challenge for the new prime minister. Bennett was once a leader of the settler
movement and heads a pro-settler party, putting him at odds with some of his
own voter base if the settlers were forcibly evicted.
But his ruling coalition only survives with the support of
left-wing and Islamist Arab parties, making sensitive policy decisions on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict difficult.
An official with Israel's Defense Ministry, which
administers the settlements, said the Givat Eviatar families had agreed to
leave voluntarily by the weekend.
Troops would stay on and a land survey conducted to
determine if a government-backed settlement can be established there, the
official told Reuters.
Settler leader Yossi Dagan said the families would leave on
Friday under the deal. The structures serving as their homes would be locked,
he said, suggesting they would not be dismantled. The Defense Ministry official
did not confirm that.
On Wednesday Moussa Hamayel, deputy mayor of the nearby
Palestinian village Beita, said: "We will continue our popular activities
(protests) until the settlement is removed and our land is returned to
us." Beita's residents claim ownership of the area on which Givat Eviatar
sits.
Most world powers deem all of the settlements, built on land
Israel captured and occupied in a 1967 Middle East war, to be illegal. Israel
disputes this, citing historical ties to the land on which they sit, and its
own security needs.
Israeli soldiers have shot dead five Palestinians during
stone-throwing protests since the outpost was set up, Palestinian officials
said. The military did not comment on fatalities, but said troops used live
fire only as a last resort.
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