Published on Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Agence
KOKHAV HASHAHAR, West Bank - Israeli police said they razed a tiny Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank on Thursday in what media called a gesture to US President Barack Obama after his talks with
![[A Jewish settler (R) shouts at border police officers after the demolition of the Maoz Esther outpost near the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Hashahar, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 21, 2009. Israeli police broke up an unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, bulldozing makeshift cabins, police said. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)]](cid:image001.jpg@01C9DAB9.7A35F050 "settler_maozesther.jpg")
A Jewish settler (R) shouts at border police officers after the demolition of the Maoz Esther outpost near the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Hashahar, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 21, 2009. Israeli police broke up an unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, bulldozing makeshift cabins, police said. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
"We dismantled seven tin huts," said police spokesman Danny Peleg, specifying that the outpost had been built without government authorisation.
No violence was reported as police, backed by army troops, evacuated settlers from the Maoz Ester outpost, near the Kokhav Hashahar settlement east of Ramallah, the political capital of the
The international community considers all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory illegal, while
Obama told right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during White House talks on Monday that
"Evacuating illegal outposts in the West Bank is expected to be the Netanyahu government's first gesture toward Obama and the Palestinian Authority," the Haaretz daily said, linking Thursday's operation to the talks in
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have agreed on a plan to evacuate illegal outposts in the West Bank, the newspaper said.
On Wednesday Defence Minister Ehud Barak told a delegation of settler leaders
The settlers met Barak to protest what they claim is a continuation of a
Israeli settlements in the
Israel reiterated at the 2007 Annapolis, Maryland peace conference it would freeze the activity but Israel's anti-settlement Peace Now movement says that 1,518 new structures were built in settlements and outposts in 2008, compared to 898 structures in 2007.
Peace Now says more than 280,000 people live in 120 settlements and about 100 outposts in the West Bank.
© 2009 AFP
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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