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Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff September 3, 2007 |
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The IDF is preparing to evacuate 26 unauthorized West Bank outposts in an operation that could be carried out within weeks following government approval, according to the Jerusalem Post. Defense officials say that the army is in its final stages of outlining an operation plan.
"There will be extreme violence," said a high-ranking defense official involved in planning the evacuations. "Once the evacuation date is determined by the political echelon, we could begin the evacuations in a matter of weeks."
Meanwhile, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman is urging the prime minister to examine illegal Palestinian construction in those areas in the West Bank that are under full Israeli control. Lieberman has proposed setting up a committee to investigate the construction, according to Ynet.
"Palestinian construction is equivalent to unauthorized outposts," Lieberman, chairman of Yisrael Beitenu, wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Olmert.
"According to certain reports, Palestinian construction in Area C is far greater in scope than the unauthorized outposts, and especially worrying is the illegal building along bypass roads in the West Bank, which endangers the Jewish residents' lives," he added.
Lieberman asserted that he did not oppose evacuating the outposts, but demanded that it not be carried out violently.
"There are those in the government who want to see aggressive evacuations of West Bank outposts, in the style of Amona, because of upcoming party primaries and [desire for] ratings," he told Israel Radio, Haaretz reported. The MK was referring to clashes between police and thousands of settlers and right-wing activists at the evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona in February 2006.
Lieberman's aides said that the MK was not seeking to undermine the prime minister, "he just wants to prevent another schism in the nation as was the case during the disengagement."
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