Settler activists hold protest in support of illegal outpost

Settler activists converged on the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon, to demand that the state refrain from demolishing buildings at the Migron illegal West Bank settlement outpost.

According to Israel Radio, security forces intend to demolish the settlement outpost as required by a 2011 Supreme Court decision if the sides do not come to an agreement on an orderly relocation to a nearby state-owned site.

The protest came despite substantive reported progress, after nearly a month of back and forth, on a proposed compromise deal for the evacuation of the 50 Migron families.

Negotiations between the government and settler representatives had been stuck on the terms of the outpost’s relocation to a government-owned plot of land some 2 kilometers from the Migron site, north of Jerusalem.

But the government’s negotiator, Minister Benny Begin, said at a press conference on Monday afternoon that the government is seeking an extension from the Supreme Court that would allow the settlers to remain in their homes in Migron until 2015 while new permanent residences are built. He added that a request for such an extension cannot be made without the consent of all of Migron’s 48 families — and urged them to do so. He denied that there was any decision to evacuate the outpost forcibly.

Itai Chamo, the spokesman for the Migron outpost, told Arutz Sheva after the press conference that “the Israeli government and the residents of Migron see eye to eye on the issue, and want to reach an agreement. The main points of disagreement are behind us.”

Nonetheless, the demonstration went ahead — because of evident mistrust among settler activists over what may now unfold. Some settler representatives have claimed that the government wants Migron evacuated before claims of ownership on the land have been settled, and say they are worried that the outposts’ buildings could be demolished. That the settlements’ buildings remain standing is a point insisted upon by the residents of Migron, and one that had reportedly been agreed upon two weeks ago.

Begin opened the conference with a paean to the settler enterprise. “If things develop, by the end of 2012 there will be 360,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “This enterprise is dear to us all and the more deeply rooted the communities become in their land, the better for the State of Israel.”

Migron, located in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem and home to 48 families and some 200 children, has been the subject of fierce debate for years. In August 2011, the High Court of Justice ordered the demolition of Migron by March 31, 2012. The ruling stated that the land on which the outpost’s houses were built was land belonging to Palestinian citizens.

In a January 19 decision, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court allowed a group of Palestinians to drop their 2008 suit against the State of Israel and Migron following the Supreme Court decision ordering the evacuation of the outpost. The Palestinian group citizens was ordered to pay court costs for both sides.