The IDF dismantled a Palestinian tent outpost northwest of Jerusalem on Monday,
which had been erected in protest of Israeli settlement construction plans in
the area.
A military source said that four tents were dismantled and one
building bulldozed. The source also said that the IDF seized equipment from the
area.
Palestinians said that a large contingent of Israeli security
personnel accompanied bulldozers to the site, and activists were prevented from
reaching the area, according to Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
The
outpost, dubbed Al-Karamah (Dignity), was the second of its kind in as many
weeks, and could mark a new form of Palestinian protest against Israeli
construction in the West Bank.
“The idea of building this village
extension is to protect [Palestinian] legally owned lands and for it to be the
second such village built to protect from growing efforts at transforming Arab
Jerusalem,” said Kamal Hababa, who heads the Beit Iksa village
council.
The dismantling of the Al- Karamah outpost came just days after
Israeli security forces bulldozed the Bab al-Shams encampment, erected by
Palestinians on an undeveloped area in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, known as
E1. The activists had been targeting E1 to protest Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu’s November 30 decision to advance plans to build 3,500 Jewish homes on
the site.