Israel Orders Settlers Out Before U.S. Mission

By Dan Williams

GINOT ARYE, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel told Jewish settlers to leave nine West Bank outposts Thursday or be evicted, in what political sources called a calculated gesture by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his U.S. visit.

Settlers vowed a last-minute appeal to Israel's highest court to block any attempt to remove them from unauthorized outposts that have long been slated for removal under the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" to peace with the Palestinians.

The settlers said they would not go quietly even if the High Court upheld eviction orders first issued two months ago.

"We plan to bring as many people as possible to resist passively," settler spokeswoman Ruchie Avital said at Ginot Aryeh, a cluster of caravans listed for removal.

U.S. envoys are due in Israel next week to discuss Sharon's proposal that Israel take unilateral steps to "disengage from" the Palestinians, by removing most Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, if the "road map" process remains blocked.

Palestinians fear Israel may then take a permanent hold on large parts of the West Bank, depriving them of land seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and where they want a state.

The road map, a series of reciprocal steps meant to lead to peace and a Palestinian state, requires the Palestinian Authority to rein in militants; it foresees Israel freezing settlement building in the occupied territories and taking down more than 100 outposts built since March 2001.

A spokesman at Sharon's office said Thursday that nine outposts erected without government consent faced removal "at any time" after settlers failed to overturn an eviction order. The order to quit the West Bank outposts may be "a good way of showing good faith" before Sharon's expected visit to Washington this month, a senior Israeli political source said.

PALESTINIANS SKEPTICAL

Palestinians were skeptical of seeing outposts removed: "We are used to announcements from the Israelis that never happen," Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan al-Khatib said.

Most countries regard all the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as illegal, but Israel disputes this.

Some 7,500 settlers live in the Gaza Strip, home to 1.3 million Palestinians. About 230,000 settlers live in the West Bank, among more than two million Palestinians.

Many settlers believe they are cementing biblical claims to the land. "As prime minister of Israel, he (Sharon) should not be uprooting Jewish communities," Avital said.

A helicopter strike killed three militants from the Islamic Hamas group near a settlement in the Gaza Strip Wednesday. Israeli police were on high alert for possible suicide bombings after Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel, vowed revenge.

Thursday, Israeli forces raiding the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah shot dead a 14-year-old Palestinian boy during heavy gunfire, medics and local witnesses said.

Hours earlier, a leading militant was killed in a mysterious explosion in Rafah. The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees said their commander was killed by an Israeli missile. The army denied it.

The deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians has embarrassed the U.S. administration, which had hoped its road map would revive Middle East peace talks that stalled in 2000.

Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, Stephen Hadley, President Bush's deputy national security adviser, and the council's Middle East chief Elliot Abrams are expected in Israel next week to prepare for a White House meeting between Bush and Sharon in late March or early April, officials said.