Israeli settlers living in unauthorised West Bank outposts are prepared to leave if they are offered government-sanctioned alternatives in the area, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported on Tuesday.
The conditional offer marks a departure from the settlers’ longheld policy of fighting all West Bank evacuations. The decision was taken during a secret meeting of their leaders on Monday, the paper said in its front-page report.
In response to the report, the settlers’ governing body, the Yesha council, confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that its leaders had met and discussed various options concerning the wildcat settlements, but denied any decision had been taken.
However, one hardline settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein insisted the subject had not even come up for debate.
”We won’t make any concessions over the wildcat settlements which are an integral part of the existing settlements,” said Wallerstein.
”We will fight against any attempt to evacuate them.”
According to Yediot Aharonot, the settlers’ idea is to ”sacrifice” the wildcat settlements in order to save established settlements elsewhere in the West Bank which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has earmarked for evacuation as part of a unilateral partial withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian areas.
Olmert told the first meeting of his new Cabinet on Sunday that he intended to put an end to the wildcat settlements.
Olmert’s plan envisions the uprooting of tens of thousands of settlers from the occupied West Bank while in turn cementing Israel’s control of the large housing blocs which are home to the vast majority of the quarter-of-a-million-strong settler population.
The potential for trouble ahead was seen in the West Bank town of Hebron on Sunday when the Israeli security forces evicted dozens of hardline settlers who had taken over a Palestinian house in the West Bank city.
Even though the police and army managed to prevent widespread violence breaking out, settlers and their supporters hurled eggs and paint at the forces.
According to an official report, there are 105 wildcat Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The international community views all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as illegal.
Olmert, whose government was sworn in last week, wants to establish permanent borders for Israel by 2010 whether or not the Jewish state has reached a peace agreement with the Palestinians. – Sapa-AFP