and today ...
Israel Says It Will Dismantle 2 More Settlements[size=7]The Israeli government has taken down about 10 outposts since the peace plan was launched last June, but several have been re-established. More than 50 are in place, according to Peace Now.
Settlers have filed legal appeals and say they will resist attempts to take down the outposts. On several previous occasions, hundreds of settlers have converged on the isolated, hilltop outposts and scuffled with the Israeli security forces as they dismantled mobile homes and makeshift structures.
The government has not said when it will dismantle the six outposts, but Israeli media reports said it could happen in the coming days.
Palestinians regard the settlements as one of the main obstacles to the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel has built about 150 formal settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the unauthorized outposts sprang up in recent years.
Meanwhile, Israel's deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, contradicted a fellow Cabinet minister and said the government has not approved plans to increase the number of settlers living in the Golan Heights, land that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz said last week that the government had decided to build homes for 900 families in the Golan, which could add several thousand residents to the 18,000 Israelis already living there.
But Mr. Olmert said: "All news about a comprehensive expansion of the Israeli buildings in the Golan Heights is untrue. There is no such program. The government has not approved it."
A senior Israeli official said recently that Israel does intend to invest about $90 million in the Golan in the next couple of years. However, he played down the talk of increasing the number of settlers, saying the money would focus on developing agriculture and tourism in the picturesque but thinly populated region.
Syria, which has called for renewed peace talks on the Golan, said the Israeli action would undermine attempts to resolve the dispute. And the United States has sought a clarification of Israel's intentions in the Golan.
In another development today, Israel said it would now permit 29,000 Palestinian workers and businessmen to commute each day from the West Bank and Gaza.
Before the fighting began three years ago, up to 150,000 Palestinians entered Israel daily. Israel reduced the number to just a few thousand as part of an effort to halt Palestinian attacks. The number has been rising over the past few months as the level of violence has decreased.
Also, an Israeli military court sentenced five Israeli teenagers to a year in prison for refusing to perform the military service required of most Israelis after they finish high school.
In the past two years, some military reservists have refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, and have received short prison sentences, usually of a month or less.
However, this case was considered unusual because very few Israeli teenagers have refused their initial period of service, which is three years for men and about two years for women.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace