Families will join 15 others who already peacefully relocated to modular homes inside the Beit El settlement.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUlpana outpost near Beit El 370 (R)(photo credit: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Eighteen families are scheduled to move out of their apartments in the Ulpana outpost on the outskirts of the West Bank Beit El settlement on Thursday.They will move into modular homes in the Beit El settlement. Already on Tuesday, 15 families relocated peacefully to modular homes at that site with the help of workers from the Defense Ministry.The High Court of Justice had ordered the state to evacuate five out of the 14 apartment buildings in the Ulpana outpost because they were built without permits on land classified by the state as belonging to private Palestinians.The state plans to relocate the buildings, rather than destroy them, so that the families can keep their homes, in their new location. The process will take a year. Physically taking apart the homes to allow them to be pieced back together will take three months.The state has asked the High Court of Justice to allow them that time. The court had wanted the site cleared by July 1.Ulpana residents had initially threatened to resist the evacuation, but opted instead to leave their homes peacefully after reaching an agreement with the Prime Minister’s Office, which included a promise to build 300 new homes in Beit El.The Prime Minister’s Office also promised that it would no longer support the removal of Jewish homes in the West Bank in state responses to High Court of Justice petitions.Right-wing activists who opposed the deal, however, protested Wednesday in the Beit El settlement outside the home of its Rabbi Zalman Melamed.Violence broke out between the group and residents of the outpost, during which Yoel Tzur, one of the founders of Ulpana, was lightly injured.Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
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