RAMALLAH – The anti-settlement Israeli watchdog Peace Now said Wednesday that Jewish settlers have constructed two new illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank. Peace Now said in a statement the settlers constructed the Tzofim North outpost which is located outside the built up area of the Tzofim settlement to the north of Qalqilyah. The group said that the second outpost, Nahalei Tal, was constructed outside the built up area of the Talmon settlement to the northwest of Ramallah. Peace Now said that Tzofim North was built in an attempt to prevent the rerouting of the separation wall that is supposed to begin soon, in accordance to the Israeli High Court of Justice's ruling. The court ruled that the route of the separation wall built north of Tzofim settlement was illegal, and was built for the purpose of enabling the expansion of the settlement and not due to security reasoning. According to Peace Now, Nahalei Tal was built on lands that were declared to be “State Lands.”
During 2002 the first attempt to create an outpost in the area was made by placing two unmanned containers. Those were later repositioned to a nearby settlement. Hagit Ofran, head of Peace Now's settlement tracking team, said the outposts include mobile homes, infrastructure, electricity, water and roads (and even air conditioning), mostly under the auspices of the Council of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories (Yesha). This was the first time since 2005 that outposts have been connected to the national infrastructure, she said. Ofran added that she feared that the two illegal outposts are part of a renewed push by the settlement movement to resume building outposts in Palestinian territories. Ofran blamed the construction of the two new outposts on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy, declared in March 2011, that the government was looking to legalize unauthorized construction on “state land”. The policy has emboldened settlers to build illegally on state land in the West Bank, she said. “PM Netanyahu began his tenure with the Bar Ilan (university) speech promising to promote the two-state solution, and is now ending his term, after breaching almost all his promises, with a discordant chord. After the government rewarded the lawbreakers who built on private Palestinian lands in Migron and the Ulpana with alternative homes and other benefits, the government continues to make a mockery of the rule of law and to allow a radical minority to establish new outposts, which create facts on the ground that harm the possibility of an agreement with the Palestinians”. A spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the (Palestinian) Territories confirmed that the two outposts were illegal. He added that demolition orders had been issued against both outposts two or three weeks ago. However, Ofran said that from the Israeli Civil Administration's response to Peace Now's complaint it is apparent that at this stage there is no intention to evacuate the outposts.
