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Israeli settlers evicted from outpost

September 2, 2012

Israel has complied with an order issued by the country’s highest court, by moving to evict dozens of settlers from the unauthorized Migron outpost. The move came two days before a deadline for the settlers to leave.

https://p.dw.com/p/162N8
A Jewish settler carries a child after walking out of a house in the unauthorised Israeli settler-outpost of Migron, near the West Bank city of Ramallah September 2, 2012.
Image: Reuters

By the afternoon, all of the approximately 50 families had complied with the eviction orders issued by police early on Sunday.

This was confirmed by police spokesman Luba Samri, who told the AFP news agency in the afternoon that "everything is quiet here." Some police officers had assisted the settlers by helping them to pack up their things.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing government had held negotiations with the settlers in an effort to avoid violence, expressed satisfaction at how smoothly the operation came off.

"This is how it should be, and how it will also be in the future," Netanyahu said in a statement released by the prime minister's office.

While the operation was largely peaceful, there were some scuffles between Israeli police and around 70 radical activists, before the latter were placed on buses and removed. Some had to be physically removed from rooftops. Eight people were arrested.

The United Nations regards all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, but the government has approved more than half of the around 220 settlements in the territory that Israel captured in the 1967 war.

pfd/jr (Reuters, dpa, AFP)