Settlers flock to new outpost on Shabbat eve

Some 30 right-wing activists on Friday flocked to a new outpost named Mitzpe Ami, set up near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim just before sunset.

Following a riot which broke out in the area and after most of the activists were evacuated, a Border Guard force remained in the area to guard a small number of activists who decided to spend the night there.

The outpost was built shortly before the beginning of Shabbat. Security forces dispatched to the area managed to remove most of the activists, apart for a very small group. According to defense officials, the evacuation was stopped due to the small number of people who stayed there and because Shabbat had already begun.

An Israel Defense Forces official said that the army viewed the settler's activity as a serious provocation with a security risk. Soldiers were working to evacuate the activists from the outpost, and according to the army, some of the settlers were throwing stones at Palestinian vehicles.

The outpost issue overshadowed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting this week with US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell. At the same time, rightist youths were working to set up structures in 11 outposts across the West Bank.

Some 1,000 settlers and right-wing activists marched this week in Jerusalem in protest of the American administration's increasing pressure on Israel to halt construction in settlements and in east Jerusalem.

Yesha Council head Pinchas Wallerstein said during the rally, "This week the American pressure reached new highs that are a shame to democratic societies. We are brought here by America's treatment of Israel as if it were a banana republic and its willingness to abandon us in order to gain the support of public opinion within the Islamic world."