Tuesday, December 02, 2003

West Bank Outposts Slowly Diggin In:
"Just six months after Israel committed to a peace plan requiring it to dismantle scores of illegal Jewish settlement outposts, an Associated Press inspection of 18 of the encampments found the settlers have expanded significantly.

New roads, additional trailer homes and construction on stone villas were among the striking signs of permanence."

The creation of the outposts -- many of which began with only an antenna, a water tower or a few trailers on a hill -- mirrors the birth of some older West Bank settlements, which began decades ago as unauthorized homesteads of a few trailers before the government legitimized them, gave them financial aid and installed public utilities.

The outposts -- none of which house more than a few dozen families -- are so far unauthorized, and are widely viewed as a separate issue from the 150 established West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements where some 220,000 Israelis live.

At Mitzpeh Danny, six miles from the Palestinian town of Ramallah, residents easily smuggled four large trailer homes into their burgeoning community over the last four months, well after the U.S.-backed ``road map'' peace plan was accepted.

The trailers were brought into the outpost under the cover of darkness -- not out of fear the government would stop them, but as part of an effort to avoid protests and unwanted attention, resident Reuven Gafni said.…

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Seeds-of-Settlements.htm

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