Israeli settlers protest ahead of vote on outpost

Hundreds of settlers demonstrated outside Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday evening, on the eve of a crucial vote in the nearby parliament. MPs opposed to plans to raze a West Bank settlement outpost built on private Palestinian land are introducing a private member's bill seeking to sidestep a court order to demolish it by July 1. The court ruling has sparked huge opposition from the settlers and their political backers in parliament, who are sponsoring the bill to retroactively legalise the Ulpana outpost ahead of the deadline. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the draft legislation but some hardliners within his largely right-wing coalition support it. Media reports said that the bill was expected to fail, after Netanyahu warned that he would fire any cabinet minister who voted in favour. The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz newspapers both quoted public diplomacy minister Yuli Edelstein, of Netanyahu's Likud, and science and technology minister Daniel Hershkowitz, of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party, as saying that they would vote for the bill despite Netanyahu's warning. The vote is expected at around midday (0900 GMT) on Wednesday. Ulpana, on the edge of the Beit El settlement, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, consists of five buildings and is home to some 30 families, totalling 142 people, 82 of them children, Ulpana residents told AFP. Netanyahu has said he backs the idea of physically relocating the five buildings, moving them stone by stone to a new location, in a plan which is being examined by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.