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June 26, 2006 - Vol. 7, Issue 47

Peace Now Briefs Israeli Government On Outposts: The Israeli Peace Now movement testified before an Israeli ministerial committee on illegal settlement outposts, chaired by Justice Minister Haim Ramon. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Culture, Science and Sport Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog, and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter...

Peace Now Briefs Israeli Government On Outposts: The Israeli Peace Now movement testified before an Israeli ministerial committee on illegal settlement outposts, chaired by Justice Minister Haim Ramon. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Culture, Science and Sport Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog, and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter also participated in the hearing, at which representatives of the Settlers Council spoke as well. Peace Now's secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said the hearing was "an important meeting and about official recognition by the state that Peace Now is a trustworthy and credible source of information regarding what is being done in the settlements and the outposts." Peace Now representatives provided the committee with an updated list of outposts that are on the ground today (around 100 of them), including the exact dates that each outpost was established and the ownership of the land upon which each outpost was built. Peace Now testified that since March 2001, 51 outposts have been established, not 24, as the government claims. (According to the Road Map, Israel is obligated to remove outposts established after March 2001.) Further, around 80 outposts are located on private Palestinian land. In his opening comments, Pines-Paz stated, "The government must evacuate the outposts and change the [current] situation, in which people take the law into their own hands." Ramon instructed Peace Now to present him with information on how many outposts have been built since the release of Talia Sasson's report on the subject, the percentage of each outpost that is located on private Palestinian land, and additional aerial photographs that can compare the situation in the West Bank today with the one that existed in March 2001. Peace Now pledged to provide the requested information.

Representatives of the Settlers Council also held a meeting with Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who called settlers who break the laws "weeds" that need to be uprooted. Peretz informed the settler leaders that outposts whose residents have clashed with security forces in the past would be evacuated in the coming weeks. Defense officials estimated that the Maon Farm outpost in the southern Hebron hills would be the first to be evacuated by the IDF, since the settlers there repeatedly broke the law and clashed with security forces who were needed on a daily basis to protect Palestinian children who went to school nearby. The three other outposts scheduled to be dismantled are Scali Farm near Elon Moreh, Hill 725, and Arusi, defense officials have said. Referring to the Maon Farm, Peretz told the settler leaders that the residents of the illegal outposts were not only breaking the law but were disgracing Jewish tradition, which they claim to live by. "We will evacuate the places where the residents break the law as well as go against Jewish tradition," he said. "It is my job to enable the settler population to carry on living a normal life, while at the same time enforcing the law and cracking down on those who break it." However, some settlers have vowed to nix any deal that the Settlers Council may cut with the government for evacuating the four illegal outposts mentioned above. "Yesha representatives can reach any deal they want on paper. In fact, we will not respect their agreements," settlers said. Settler leaders have vowed to resist evacuation forces, saying "what happened in Amona needs to be doubled and multiplied." (Peace Now Report, 6/20/06; Jerusalem Post, 6/18-19/06; Ma'ariv, 6/18/06; & Ynet, 6/21/06)

Wasted Breath: Commenting on the outpost situation in a lead editorial, Ha'aretz said, "The evacuation of the West Bank settlement outposts is not just a matter of fulfilling a promise to the Americans. It is primarily one of fulfilling a promise to Israelis who voted for the Olmert-Peretz government, as well as to those who are strictly law-abiding and have been gnashing their teeth for years at the sight of the lawlessness that prevails on the other side of the Green Line. Within the Green Line, people are required not to violate construction permits, not to trespass, not to raise their hands against another, and not to turn their weapons on their neighbors. But at the outposts, it appears that everything is permissible. Serial lawbreakers occupied a hilltop, set up a tent, turned it into a home, hid their faces from journalists' cameras so that they would be difficult to identify, mocked the evacuation orders-and still dare to claim that they are being persecuted and should be treated leniently. Now representatives of the Yesha Council of settlements are being sent to speak to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, in the names of the outpost residents, about a limited, delayed mutually agreed evacuation, a `nice' evacuation with multiple stages. This dialogue could easily overturn the entire operation.

"But it makes no difference what is said during the meeting between Peretz and residents of the four outposts slated for immediate evacuation, because there is actually nothing to talk about. What they are asking for matters not one whit, because all discussions with outpost lobbyists, every effort on their part to generate compassion, to charm or to threaten, has already been attempted, and time ran out long ago. Perhaps this time, for the first time in many years, the outpost residents are finally up against a brick wall, in the shape of the defense minister and Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who have so far proven that they are not impressed and are not capitulating. We must hope that the prime minister offers his full and firm support, to ensure that the mediation talks do not last more than one day. The injunctions have been issued, the army is prepared, and in effect there is no need to postpone the immediate evacuation of the first outposts.

"Evacuating the outposts is not a particularly important security move, but we should also not minimize its value. Israel is finally acting in accordance with international law and deciding to take law and order and the welfare of the occupied territories' permanent residents into account. The security hassles involved in safeguarding these outposts, the hours the soldiers spend there, and the settlers' harassment of the security forces and their neighbors is finally being taken into consideration. This is about applying basic law to a place that has suffered for years from total contempt for both Israeli and international law. This is also a moral debt that we owe to the Palestinians, who have suffered from the cruelty of these mischief-makers, whom the Palestinians saw as emissaries of the state. Whether it was residents of Skali's Farm, near Elon Moreh, who attacked Palestinians, or other people who happened to be operating from within the illegal outpost-which functioned as a violent summer camp that attracted the rabble-there is no reason to let this outpost continue to exist for even one more day. This applies not just to Skali's Farm, but also to other outposts, like Maon Farm, which has a notorious reputation. There is no room for compromise. Whoever is unable to evacuate four outposts will not be able to implement any future withdrawal. All eyes are on this operation, and its success will serve as a precedent for those to come." (Ha'aretz, 6/19/06)

Guns & Ammo: Shmuel Seth, a 39-year old American settler living in the radical West Bank settlement of Kfar Tapuah, was indicted last week at the Haifa District Court for attempting to smuggle weapons into Israel. Seth, originally form North Carolina, was arrested by the Shin Bet on June 11th, when he arrived at Haifa's port to claim a package from customs. Two others were detained in the case, but released. The gag order that had been placed on the case was lifted on Wednesday. Among the items found during the search were two sniper rifles, crossbows, a machine for making shell casings, gun powder, 6,500 empty bullet cartridges, and 49 boxes, each containing 100 bullet caps. Seth had a ban on carrying weapons, though this did not stop him from ordering arms. Further, some of the arms were found hidden in double side panels of the container. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that since Seth moved to Tapuach several months ago, he made connections with extremists there. Seth claimed he was innocent, and that he intended to give the weapons to the IDF snipers unit as a gift. Right. At an earlier hearing, Seth said that he was a hunter and that the thought of "hunting Arabs" crossed his mind every time he saw a suicide bombing.

Perhaps a little more light was shed on this case in an email sent by a leading Kahanist, Yekutiel Guzofsky, in which he wrote that Seth (whose birth name is Jeffrey) is a convert to Judaism and arrived in Israel several months ago. According to Guzofsky, "He came to Israel during these critical times to help secure `settlements' with his specially trained tracking dogs." Far from describing the weapons as a potential gift for the IDF, Guzofsky said he finds "it hard to condemn anyone for taking basic measures to defend himself, his community or his family, especially when the government refuses to offer all the necessary defense to its citizens for political reasons in order to appease the Arabs and international community." Guzofsky identifies himself in his email as a former co-leader of Kahane Chai and founder and editor of Voice of Judea, both of which are listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. In January, large Israeli police forces raided buildings and institutions in Tapuach and Jerusalem affiliated with the Jewish Legion paramilitary organization, another group listed by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. Police closed the group's headquarters in Tapuah and its canine unit, which provided guard dogs to nearby settlements. IDF soldier Cpl. Eden Natan Zada, who murdered four Israeli Arabs in a Shfaram-bound bus last summer, lived in Tapuah and mingled with members of Kahane Chai and the Jewish Legion. (Jerusalem Post, 6/21/06; Ha'aretz, 6/21/06; & Judean Voice Email, 6/9/06)

Peace Now Calls For Halt To Air Attacks: The Israeli Peace Now movement sent a letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz last week calling on him to order a stop to all air strikes. "The continued incidents over the past week where innocent civilians were killed is not acceptable, the loss of human lives are not `misses,'" the letter said. "The continuation of attacks plays into the hands of terrorists and will not solve the Kassam problem." (Jerusalem Post, 6/22/06)

Pinpoint Cooperation: The Israeli defense establishment has laid down rules for contact with the Palestinian Authority (PA), under which all direct contact with Hamas officials is barred, but talks are permitted with PA functionaries not associated with Hamas over issues deemed essential by both sides. Civil Administration officers are forbidden to speak to PA ministers and ministry directors general, because these are affiliated with Hamas. However, talks are being held with lower-ranking officials who are politically unaffiliated. There have also been extensive contacts with unaffiliated municipal chambers of commerce and trade unions, as well as with district governors, who are aligned with Fatah and answer directly to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Talks are also permitted with municipal functionaries in various towns, such as department heads who are not clearly affiliated with Hamas. The IDF has prepared a database of key PA contacts who are not suspected of belonging to Hamas and with whom contacts may continue. Several central issues are seen as requiring talks with the PA, either because this is in Israel's interest or in order to address urgent humanitarian needs. These include fighting epidemics, other health care issues, environmental issues, life and death security issues, and population registration, as well as education. On the other hand, the Civil Administration has been told to sever ties with the PA on things like infrastructure projects, road development, and cooperation in returning stolen Israeli vehicles. Security coordination has been sharply reduced, and no weapons are allowed to reach the PA's security forces from abroad. Israel is also ignoring most Palestinian requests to transfer policemen from one place to another.

One example of Israel moderating its approach to the PA is its recognition that the international boycott against Hamas has led the U.S. to freeze four projects aimed at repairing Palestinian sewage systems, which could lead to extensive pollution in many places in Israel. As a result, Israeli officials have been putting heavy pressure on the U.S. State Department to make renewal of the repairs possible. Israeli officials fear that if the deadlock continues, it could soon lead to a health crisis in Beer Sheva, Jerusalem, and Ashkelon. In recent weeks, residents of north Jerusalem have been suffering from a plague of mosquitoes due to the halt in the restoration of Ramallah's sewage system, which the U.S. was funding. Sewage from Ramallah threatens to reach the outskirts of the Ramot and Pisgat Zeev neighborhoods in the near future. Three other restoration projects, in Bethlehem, Hebron, and the northern Gaza Strip, have also been suspended. Dangerous effluent is expected to pollute the Dead Sea and Nahal Kidron, Beer Sheva, and the Ashkelon beaches, and this will also force Israel to shut down desalination plants in the region A political source said, "Environment Minister Gidon Ezra has been trying in the past few days to persuade the American representatives that it is possible to maintain mutual relations with technocrats in the Palestinian Authority, without coming into contact with representatives of Hamas." (Ha'aretz & Ma'ariv, 6/20/06)

Route In Review: Defense Minister Amir Peretz has decided to review the route of the security barrier to make sure that it allows for the everyday needs of the Palestinian population. He also wants to discuss the route of the fence in Jerusalem, with the goal of reducing the number of Palestinians left on the western side-currently some 200,000-by as much as possible. Peretz directed defense staff to see if there are other cases like the one of the fence east of the settlement of Tzofin, in which the route annexed lands for the purpose of expanding the settlement. Peretz hopes to avoid further embarrassment following the High Court's recent ruling in favor of a petition against the route near Tzofin. Several more petitions are pending before the court claiming that the fence route, under the cover of security considerations, is being used to pillage Palestinian land for settlement expansion. In fact, Col. (res.) Danny Tirza, the defense aide responsible for the fence route, openly admitted to the Court that the route of the fence south of Jerusalem was not intended at all for the purpose of providing security for Israelis inside the Green Line, Jerusalemites, or even settlers in Ma'aleh Adumim, but solely to ensure the safety of a few dozen settlers in the settlement of Kedar. Tizra confirmed that a more modest route could provide security for Ma'aleh Adumim, as well as Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. Not surprisingly, Peretz fired Tirza on Monday because he was unhappy with Tirza's performance. Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said that Peretz is mounting a serious effort to change the route of the barrier, one that could bring him into conflict with other members of the coalition government. "I think that Amir Peretz will take this very seriously.He's trying to [fix] the mistakes the last government made with the route of the fence," said Oppenheimer. (Ha'aretz, 6/19-20/06; Jerusalem Post, 6/19/06; & Globe and Mail, 6/20/06)

Shaky Proposition: According to the latest survey of Palestinian public opinion from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), 74% of Palestinians support the Prisoners' Document as one package, while 23% oppose it. In terms of individual parts of the document: 85% support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in all areas occupied in 1967, a guaranteed the right of return, and the release of all prisoners; 85% support a new PLO National Council being established in which all factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would be represented; 85% support a national unity government with the participation of all factions, especially Fatah and Hamas; 73% support the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation by all means, with resistance concentrated in the lands occupied since 1967; 70% support a national consensus program based on international and Arab legitimacy; 69% back the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, wherever they are located; and 62% think that negotiations with Israel are the responsibility of the PLO and the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

However, support for conducting a referendum on the Prisoners' Document only reaches 53%, and despite overwhelming support for the proposition, if the referendum were held today, just 47% would favor it and 44% would vote against it. 56% think PA President Mahmoud Abbas has the right to call for a referendum, but 44% would boycott a referendum if Hamas called for a boycott. If a referendum was conducted and the document approved, 67% think Hamas would still reject the proposal. In that situation, 65% would support taking steps against the Hamas government. If the referendum was conducted and the document rejected, 60% believe that the Abbas and Fatah would not accept Hamas' program and would not form a national unity government. In that situation, 61% said they would support either the reduction of powers and responsibilities of the president or his resignation. Finally, five months after Hamas came to power, if elections were held today, both Fatah and Hamas would receive 39%. Three months ago, Hamas would have won by 8%. (PSR Press Release, 6/19/06)

Sharpening Their Knives: Over the past week, two meetings of top Hamas leaders were held in Nablus, following political tension with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. One of the meetings was conducted by Yasser Mansour, leader of Hamas in Nablus and a parliamentarian, with Hamas political bureau director Khaled Mashal joining via telephone from Damascus. Mashal's first demand was to thwart Abbas' referendum at all costs. Mashal said he is personally holding talks with all Palestinian factions to shoot down the referendum in the legislative council. "We won't let anyone topple us," said Mansour. He added that Hamas has identified cracks in the international economic siege placed on the Hamas government, and Hamas has been recruiting Fatah members and buying their loyalty. For the day of reckoning with Fatah, Hamas is also preparing intelligence dossiers on senior Fatah and security service officials, focusing on supporters of Mohammed Dahlan and commanders of the security services, Rashid Abu Shubak and Tawfik Tirawi. Transferring the kidnapping tactic from Gaza to the West Bank was discussed, and at Mashal's instructions, Hamas decided to form and train cells to abduct senior Fatah members, if necessary. Mashal will be directly responsible for this sensitive operation. It was also decided to transfer funds to the Hamas security service, which will be subordinated directly to Mashal. It was further determined to strengthen Hamas' terrorist capabilities in the West Bank. At the second meeting, led by Adnan Asfour, the Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, the recent acquisition of 3,000 new M-16 rifles by Abbas' personal guard was discussed. Asfour dismissed the extra arms, saying, "Abu Mazen can put an F-16 jet in front of his house, but if we want to kill him, we will kill him." (Ma'ariv, 6/23/06)

Power To The People: The Palestinian government plans to build an electrical facility in Egypt that will allow it to take power from Egypt and wean itself off of more expensive electricity from Israel. A Palestinian official said that Egyptian authorities have approved the project, which would cost $15 million and cut the electricity bill for Gaza by 44%. The Kuwait Development Fund would pay for the plant, which would be built three miles into Egypt. (Ynet, 6/18/06)