Peace Now activists clashed with Gush Emunim militants Tuesday at the site of a new settlement hastily erected in the West Bank.
It was the second new settlement in a week to be planted clandestinely in disputed territory, in a deliberate challenge to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, who is in the midst of his third Middle East peace mission since mid-March.
Baker has made clear that the United States considers new settlements in the administered territories to be an obstacle to peace.
The latest one, consisting so far of eight mobile homes, was put up Monday by Amana, Gush Emunim’s settlement organization, and is called Talmon B.
Like Revava, a settlement built during the night of April 16, some 48 hours before Baker’s last arrival in Israel, Talmon B was clearly intended to confront the American secretary, who had been expected to return to Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, following visits to various Arab capitals.
But Baker changed plans and will not return until the end of the week, after a surprise stop in the Soviet Union.
Unlike Revava, Talmon B was never authorized by the government.
Gush Emunim claims it is not a new settlement but an “expansion” of an existing settlement called Talmon, near Ramallah.
Talmon B, however, is located on a hilltop quite distant from its namesake.
GOVERNMENT NOT OPPOSED
The government said it was not officially notified of the timing of either of the new settlements.
But Michael Dekel, the prime minister’s special assistant for settlement affairs, admitted that he had a pretty good idea of the activity in advance.
“Had I been asked, I would have suggested a different date,” Dekel told an army radio interviewer.
But he stressed his objection was to the timing, not to settlement proliferation in principle.
That, in fact, is the policy of the ruling Likud bloc and its right-wing and religious coalition partners.
About 15 Peace Now activists visited the newest settlement Tuesday after reading about it in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz. They claimed that as they approached, settlers were trying to run down a Visnews television cameraman with a bulldozer.
“When we tried to protect the photographer, we were also beaten,” said Eran Hayat, a Peace Now spokesman.
An Israel Defense Force patrol that arrived at the scene separated the clashing groups and ordered the Peace Now activists and the journalists out of the area. The settlers and. protesters have each filed assault charges against the other.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
