Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) said Saturday that the government should seek other solutions in the West Bank instead of settlement evacuations.
The government is considering ruling to demolish the West Bank outpost of Ulpana near the Beit El settlement, which was built from 2002 to 2008 on land purchased from Palestinians in 2000. The paper work for the sale was later judged to be unauthentic and the structures there – which house some 30 apartments – are scheduled for demolition by the end of the month. Netanyahu, however, is seeking to make homes in Ulpana an authorized part of Beit El, thus saving them from demolition.
Speaking at a 'Shabbat Tarbut' function in Kfar Saba, Sa'ar said: "Is there no reasonable solution that does not include the expulsion of Jews? The perception that peace entails the expulsion of Jews from their homes has been tested recently in Gush Katif. We've seen the results of that."
More than 8,000 settlers were evacuated from their homes in Gush Katif in 2005. Since then, rocket fire emanating from Gaza has continued unabated, often forcing Israel's southern population into bomb-shelters.
"There is an extraordinary obsession with the destruction of settler homes in the West Bank," Sa'ar said.
Earlier Saturday, Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon warned that should the government rule to demolish the West Bank outpost of Ulpana, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition would likely be toppled.
Speaking at a cultural event in Beersheba, Ya'alon said that "we are a government that is strictly observant
to the rule of law. But we are faced with a problem like that of Ulpana,
which the Defense Ministry and the State Attorney's Office want to
destroy. If the demolition of Ulpana necessitates that the coalition
should be broken up, then let the coalition be broken up," Ya'alon
stated.
The strategic affairs minister attacked Defense Minister
Ehud Barak for his handling of settlements, saying he acted according to
his own political agenda, which is not in concert with the rest of the
coalition.
Ya'alon made the comments a day after fellow Likud
Minister Yisrael Katz visited the neighborhood, saying that the
government should not demolish any Jewish homes in Ulpana.
"I
came here to express clearly that the houses here should not be
destroyed," Katz said in Ulpana, which is nestled in the hills north of
Jerusalem. "The government must amend its position concerning the Ulpana
neighborhood."
"There is no doubt that when the government gave
its answer to the Supreme Court it did not consider all the consequences
of that decision," Katz said, referring to the court case in which the
government had promised to evacuate the controversial homes in Ulpana.
The
transportation minister - an active proponent of the settlement
movement who most recently spent time in Hebron as the government
planned to evacuate a Jewish home there - said he was working to
establish a ministerial committee that would oversee settlement affairs,
explaining that it would be "a formal body in which ministers can
express their positions."
"The Defense Ministry, of course, will
be part of this [committee] but it will not be determining policy by
itself," he said, reiterating criticism of Barak, who Katz charged was
turning the Defense Ministry into a political tool "at the expense" of
settlers.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.