US embassy cable - 04TELAVIV1946

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001946 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA FOR BURNS, IPA (BLOME) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/30/2014 
TAGS: PBTS, KPAL, KWBG, IS, SETTLEMENTS, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS 
SUBJECT: FIRST OUTPOST REMOVED UNDER NEW LEGAL PROCESS 
 
REF: TEL AVIV 1391 
 
Classified By: DCM Richard LeBaron for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
This is a joint Embassy Tel Aviv/ConGen Jerusalem Cable 
 
1. (C) IDF forces succeeded early Wednesday March 31 in their 
second attempt within 24 hours to remove the outpost of Hazon 
David near Kiryat Arba in the West Bank.  The IDF had failed 
the previous evening to remove the outpost, reportedly little 
more than a number of tents and a makeshift synagogue, when 
it encountered organized settler resistance and backed off. 
The successful evacuation Wednesday morning followed IDF 
action forcibly blocking most settler access to the areas 
around the outpost.  According to the settler website Arutz 
7, settlers have vowed to reestablish the outpost.  Settler 
activists attempting to get to the site clashed with border 
police and IDF units later in the day, leaving a policewoman 
and a teenage boy lightly injured. 
 
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GOI Moves the Ball Forward, Slowly 
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2.  (C) This action moves the process of GOI removal of those 
outposts established after March 2001 a small but significant 
step forward.  It is the first outpost removed under PM 
Sharon's December 2003 decision to base GOI challenges to the 
establishment of illegal outposts on security and political 
grounds, rather than on violations of zoning and building 
laws (reftel).  This decision was enshrined in the March 4 
High Court of Justice decision specifically authorizing Hazon 
David's removal that was immediately appealed by settler 
groups.  The High Court rejected this appeal, lodged by 
settlement groups such including Amana and the Gush Emmunim, 
on March 22, thus paving the way for the March 31 removal. 
IDF action against the Hazon David outpost, and the court 
decision that made it possible, could thus presage the 
removal of other established outposts.  (Note: Hazon David 
was not one of the 49 sites listed as still present on the 
list of post-march 2001 outposts passed by the Ambassador to 
the IDF on January 14 because we could not confirm its 
location.  Therefore there are still 49 outposts present from 
the January 14 list, and many of these are occupied and 
growing.  The test of the Hazon David action will be whether 
it is followed by action against the more established 
outposts. 
 
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Palestinians and Settlers Downplay 
Evacuation's Significance 
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3.  (C) Palestinian and settler officials largely downplayed 
the IDF action.  Sa'eb Erekat, PA Minister for Negotiations, 
derided the evacuation as "cosmetic."  "Settlement activity 
goes on, and the war goes on," Erekat said in a public 
statement.  Elyakim Haetzni, a hard-core settler activist in 
Kiryat Arba, largely shared Erekat's assessment.  "This place 
is a joke; it's nothing," Haetzni told PolOff March 31. 
"It's part of a cat-and-mouse game" between the settlers and 
Sharon, he added.  "It will be a losing battle for the 
government because they will need to keep 100-200 soldiers at 
the site for months to keep us away," said Haetzni.  "This 
place was just four walls made of simple stones with a 
tarpaulin for a roof," he said, laughing. "If they try to 
remove a larger place, there will be much more resistance." 
Haetzni said that the settlers who clashed with police in the 
area hours after the evacuation were intending to rebuild the 
outpost. 
 
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Settlers Preparing to Resist 
Future Evacuations 
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4.  (C) Shaul Goldstein, vice chair of the YESHA Council and 
head of the Gush Etzion council, told PolOff March 31 that 
Bat Ayin West-West, one of the outposts in Gush Etzion, had 
received IDF evacuation orders yesterday, but he did not know 
when or if the orders would be carried out.  Goldstein said 
he couldn't be sure the settlers will be able to re-establish 
the outpost if it is removed.  "We don't have so much money 
right now," he said. "And we don't have the money for a PR 
campaign, like the Geneva Accord people do."  (Note: Both 
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been plastered recently with 
high-quality posters opposing the evacuation of settlements 
as part of the "disengagement plan.")  Goldstein predicted 
that the settlers would save their resistance efforts for 
larger, populated outposts, and that the settlers would make 
Sharon pay a political price for this and any other 
evacuations.  For Goldstein, the stakes seemed high: "Today 
is the beginning of the destruction of Israel." 
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