JEWISH SETTLERS yesterday destroyed 40 trees owned by Palestinian West Bank farmers amid tension over reports that the Israeli government was planning a widespread operation to dismantle some two dozen illegal outposts erected by settlers throughout the West Bank.
The Ha'aretznewspaper said the defence ministry drew up plans for 23 hilltop communities, populated by 1,200 settlers, to be destroyed in a single-day operation, the largest of its kind ever planned against Jewish communities in the West Bank.
Right-wing politicians warned that such an operation would lead to unprecedented civil strife.
Militant settlers, who believe in the right of Jews to live throughout the Biblical land of Israel, have erected scores of illegal outposts on West Bank hilltops.
Israeli leaders have promised to dismantle 23 outposts, built after March 2001, as part of ongoing contacts with US officials aimed at reviving the stalled peace process.
Previous efforts to remove hilltop communities have led to clashes between security forces and settlers, or revenge attacks by Jewish residents against their Palestinian neighbours.
On Monday settlers burned olive trees, stoned Palestinian vehicles and allegedly attacked Palestinians in response to the dismantling of three outposts.
Militant settlers, who often act independently, in defiance of the official settler leadership, confirmed that a “price tag” policy exists under which revenge attacks will be carried out against Palestinians every time the government acts to remove outposts.
Military officials said they had still not received orders for a major operation against the outposts, although training exercises had taken place.
Some soldiers and police who would take part are themselves settlers, or sympathetic to the cause, and therefore the orders would probably be kept under wraps.
But right-wing politicians, including members of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own ruling Likud party, warned of the consequences of any major clampdown against the outposts.
Likud Knesset member Danny Danon urged the government to engage with settlers. “I don’t believe that a Likud government headed by Netanyahu would lend its hand to a mass evacuation of Jewish settlers,” he said.
National Union Knesset member Arieh Eldad warned that a mass eviction could lead to bloodshed.