`Evacuated' outposts are alive and well

Dovish lawmakers and peace activists visited unauthorized Israeli outposts to refute claims they were demolished by the Israeli government under the terms of a US-backed peace plan.

Among the outposts visited on Sunday by lawmakers from the opposition Meretz Party was Havat Gilad -- number 33 on the list of 43 outposts the Defense Ministry said were dismantled since December 2001.

A ministry demolition list claims Havat Gilad was evacuated between July 13 and July 15 last year -- though it was still occupied when the army raided the camp in October last year.

The settlement was alive and well on Sunday, with several trailer homes occupying a hilltop. Residents carrying pistols confronted the group of unwanted visitors.

"These are biblical lands!" they shouted.

According to the "road map" peace plan, Israel is to freeze all construction in existing settlements and remove unauthorized outposts erected since March 2001 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said the whole list of 43 evacuated outposts, which he received on Dec. 11, is "a combination between a joke and a lie."

Meretz opposes Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the ministry insisted that Havat Gilad had been evacuated and no one had returned to the site.

In several well-publicized operations, Israeli soldiers have dragged settlers and their backers off hilltop sites, and in recent days the ministry has reported dismantling other sites, all of them uninhabited and consisting of a shipping container or an abandoned vehicle.

The group also visited East Yitzhar, number 24 on the demolition list, where settlers were busy building permanent housing on Sunday.

Havat Gilad was founded after settler Gilad Zar was shot and killed by Palestinians near Nablus in May 2001.

His father, 67-year-old Moshe Zar, wearing a gray T-shirt with a handgun protruding from underneath, fell into a shouting match with 50-year-old peace activist Amiram Goldin, whose son was killed last year after a suicide bombing.

"My son was killed like your son was killed. You have to respect us and the Palestinians," Goldin said.

"Our demand now is that the minister of defense and the prime minister and the deputy prime minister will admit the fact that it was a lie ... and apologize," Sarid said.