A Model for Future Outpost Evacuation?

Roi Sharon in Ma'ariv

If the agreement over the evacuation of the illegal settlement outpost Migron is upheld by the High Court of Justice, it is expected to serve as a model for the consensual evacuation of the 22 settlement outposts Israel is committed to evacuating.

The Migron model entails relocating the residents of the illegal settlement outpost inside other extant veteran settlements in Judea and Samaria. With that goal in mind, certain extra construction in the settlements might be permitted, such as the 50 new housing units that are going to be built in the settlement Adam. A Defense Ministry official said that some of the settlements had the capacity to absorb the residents of the outposts without requiring any new construction.

Next week the High Court of Justice will rule on the agreement. Defense Ministry spokesmen have said in the past number of months that the 22 settlement outposts that were built after March 2001 will be evacuated, but underscored that it was preferable if the evacuation were done in the framework of an agreement with the Settlers Council. No such agreement has yet been reached because, among other reasons, Settlers Council officials have refused to engage in negotiations before restrictions on construction in Judea and Samaria are lifted.

MK Otniel Schneller, who was the liaison between the previous government and the settlers, spoke yesterday about the Migron model and said: "A model of evacuation by means of relocation into existing settlements is necessary. If the High Court of Justice doesn't approve the agreement, it will prevent any possibility of reaching a future agreement with the settlement [movement]."

Settlers Council Chairman Danny Dayan, who supports the Migron solution, criticized the notion of applying that solution to additional settlement outposts.