The settlers who will move into these caravans are evacuees from Mirag Settlement of the Gush Katif settlement block.
The so-called Civil Administration Office, which is under military control in the occupied West Bank, confirmed that the Israeli authorities had approved the mobile homes and that the home had been set up.
Eitan Broshi, Barak’s aid for settlement affairs, stated in response to a question by member of Knesset Avshalom Vilan from the Meretz party, that the mobile homes had been approved and will be placed within the an area which has a valid housing construction plan, Haaretz reported.
Teneh Omarim illegal settlement is located east of the Annexation Wall and is not part of any large settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Vilan said that placing the mobile homes violates the Israeli government’s pledge of not expanding existing settlements. The placement of these mobile homes also violates a pledge by the Government of Ariel Sharon to the US administration in which he vowed that evacuees of Gush Katif settlement would not be relocated in the West Bank.
Vilan described the decision as a shameful surrender to the extreme right wing in Israel, and demanded Barak to remove these mobile homes.
Under the Road Map Plan, Israel pledged that it would not construct in existing West Bank settlements, even if this construction is intended to accommodate natural population increase.
Moreover, several settler families who were evacuated from the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim, which was also evacuated under the Disengagement Plan, has moved recently to Ariel settlement in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Other groups of settlers are currently awaiting to be settled in illegal settlements in the Jordan valley area of the West Bank. The settlers were granted an order from the Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, in which he decided that 30 more homes would be built for settlers who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
Haaretz stated that Peretz subsequently retracted his decision, but the settlers started building homes without permits and some families moved into these homes at the beginning of March 2007. The Civil Administration Office issued an order to demolish seven of these homes but the order was never implemented.
Israeli Peace Now group reported recently that construction of houses for settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem is ongoing.
The projects included a 4.840.000 NIS housing project in Maali Adumim settlement, and hundreds of houses in Givat Ze’ev settlement, as well as ongoing constructions in Har Shmoel settlement, Alfei Menashe, Neveh Daniel, Rosh Tzurim, Har Gilo, Karnei Shomron and other settlements, Haaretz reported, Peace Now stated.
Peace Now added that settlers are placing mobile homes and are building permanent homes in several outposts in the West Bank.
