Israeli officials propose moving outpost to confiscated lands

Israeli defense officials are studying a proposal to move residents of a settler outpost to a nearby area confiscated by the Israeli military for an army base, Israeli media reported Friday. Israel's high court ruled in May that the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El settlement, near al-Bireh, must be evacuated by July 1, 2012, after the Israeli government sought an extension to an earlier May deadline. Israel's Civil Administration, the military department ruling civil affairs in the occupied West Bank, is examining the possibility of moving the settlers to an 11-dunams area, confiscated in 1970, and housing an evacuated army base, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. Meanwhile, right-wing Israeli parliamentarians have threatened to pass a law bypassing the court's evacuation order if the government does not prevent the demolition, and the settlers have refused to negotiate their evacuation, Haaretz said. The newspaper said the Civil Administration's proposal appeared to breach a Israeli Supreme Court ruling against the confiscation of land for building settlements. All Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. Israel distinguishes between illegal settlements it has approved and illegal outposts which were never granted official authorization. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live on occupied Palestinian land.