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Netanyahu wins approval for plan to relocate disputed settler outpost

06 June 2012 18:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday secured approval for his plan to salvage a disputed Jewish neighborhood in the West Bank by removing it intact to a nearby settlement, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Israeli Supreme Court in January ruled that the five buildings in Beit El’s Ulpana neighborhood were illegally built on private Palestinian land and ordered to demolish the buildings by July 1, sparking altercation within Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, in a late night meeting with Netanyahu, approved the government’s request to uproot the houses and transfer them to a defunct army base, less than 1 km from their present location, according to senior officials in Netanyahu ’s office.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu also announced that he will personally head a ministerial committee that would revoke the authorities of the Defense Ministry on matters concerning the approval of settlement building, the Ha’aretz daily reported.

Such a committee would deprive the country’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, of the authority to issue construction permits or to order the demolition of existing settler outposts.

Barak, ironically, was prime minister when the 30-family Ulpana neighborhood was built a decade ago with the encouragement of his government.

When the issue was first debated in the cabinet in late April, Barak opposed the proposals by its rightist members to defy the court’s ruling on Ulpana and leave the buildings in-situ, telling ministers that Israel must maintain law and order.

"It eventually becomes clear that these are private ( Palestinian) lands, there will be no choice but to either evict ( the settlers) or purchase them, there is no other way," Barak said.

Netanyahu has echoed that sentiment in official remarks, saying that the government aims to balance between its desire to strengthen the settlement enterprise, maintain the rule of law, and satisfy the international community’s demands concerning settlement building.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu warned that he would fire any minister or deputy minister who votes in favor of the bill.