Israel: Vice PM Says Settler Removal To Collapse Government – Report
By Maan
Israel’s vice prime minister said Saturday that the government could fall apart if it follows through with plans to remove a neighborhood in Beit El settlement, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
“We have said that we must not remove the neighborhood,” Moshe Yaalon was quoted as saying by Haaretz at a meeting in Beersheba.
“If that happens, the government will fall apart,” he added.
In 2011, Israel’s high court ruled that the neighborhood of Ulpan in Beit El settlement, near al-Bireh, must be evacuated by May 1, 2012.
On Wednesday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Prosecutors office whether a request to delay the evacuation could be lodged, Haaretz said.
In 2008, Israeli rights group Yesh Din petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court on behalf of Palestinian residents who owned land that Beit El settlement was constructed on.
Five buildings in the Ulpan neighborhood are slated for removal.
About 500,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. All settlements are illegal under international law.
In March, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to launch an investigation into Israeli settlements.
Israel severed contacts with the UN body as a result of the decision.
