Haaretz
Sivan 1, 5765
The Housing Ministry
allocated at least NIS 70 million to build infrastructure and erect public
structures in 82 illegal outposts in the West Bank during the prime
ministerial terms of Benjamin Netanyahu (1996-1999) and Ariel Sharon
(2001-2004), Haaretz has learned from an appendix to attorney Talia
Sasson's report on the outposts.
The document also shows that most
of the illegal outposts reported by Sasson were established on privately
owned Palestinian land.
According to the Sasson report's appendix,
15 of the outposts are located entirely on private land; 39 are partially
on private land and partially on state-owned land, or on land whose
ownership rights are in question; and 26 lie entirely on state-owned land.
Sasson writes in the appendix that an outpost built even partially on
privately owned Palestinian land cannot retroactively receive legal
status.
As a result, 54 of the 87 outposts reviewed - out of a
total of 105 outposts - are "irreparable," the appendix
concludes.
The figures in the appendix, correct for June 2004,
reveal that the funds were allocated to 753 families and a few dozen
bachelors and students who settled in 61 illegal outposts during
Netanyahu's term in office, and another 600 individuals who settled in
outposts that were established during Sharon's period as prime minister
and are slated for immediate evacuation according to the road map peace
plan.
The appendix also reports that five outposts that were set up
during Yitzhak Rabin's term as prime minister received more than NIS 10
million in funding. Sasson writes that in addition to the 87 outposts
about which she managed to accumulate data, there are another 18 outposts
about which no clear figures exist.
The sums noted in the appendix
do not include tens of millions of shekels allocated to the outposts by
the Defense Ministry, the Jewish Agency Settlement Division, regional
councils and donors from Israel and abroad. The Jewish Agency did not
furnish data on the funds it invested in the outposts and said only that
it funded initial encampments, planning, production means and
generators.
The Housing Ministry allocated the largest sum - NIS
5.2 million for infrastructure and NIS 750,000 for public structures - to
the Nof Harim outpost that was set up in 1995 when Labor MK Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer held the position of housing minister. The outpost was
established in part on privately owned Palestinian land - without the
approval of the cabinet, the defense minister or planning and building
authorities.
The same year saw the unauthorized establishment, also
on private Palestinian land, of two outposts in the Ofra-Beit El area -
Pisgat Yaakov and Emunah. In the initial years after their establishment,
these two outposts received funding to the tune of more than NIS 6
million, half of which came from the Housing Ministry. The Horsha outpost,
set up that same year on land whose ownership has yet to be determined,
received NIS 1.56 million from the Housing Ministry.
Sasson writes
that the Migron outpost, set up in May 2001 and slated last year for
evacuation, lies entirely on land belonging to the adjacent Palestinian
villages of Ein Yabrud and Burka. The Housing Ministry spent more than NIS
3.5 million on infrastructure and NIS 800,000 on public buildings for
Migron.
The Israel Electric Corporation said it connected Migron to
the electricity grid after it received misleading information from the
Civil Administration on the legal status of the outpost. The Mekorot
national water utility reported that the Matte Binyamin Regional Council
had requested the installation of the water system at the
site.
According to a Peace Now report, some 1,834 dunams, or 457
acres, of built-up area or area-under-development were added to
settlements in 2004. The same year saw the publication of government
tenders for the construction of 962 housing units on settlements. Building
sites in 21 settlements lie outside the existing built-up areas of the
communities.