The Defense Ministry has decided to establish 40 military “lookout posts” throughout the West Bank, staffed by young soldiers taken from Nahal units doing their agricultural service in kibbutzim. The decisions was apparently taken by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon personally, and, as a military move, does not require discussion by the Cabinet or the Ministerial Defense Committee.
But such army posts can and have frequently in the past formed the basis for later civilian settlements. As army posts, they do not require the legal requisitioning of land. The kibbutzim from which the young soldiers were taken have protested to the Defense Ministry at the sudden withdrawal of manpower without any advance warning.
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