Palestinians dismissed Israel's latest list of 28 settlement outposts to be dismantled under a US-backed peace plan as inadequate and deceptive, while a former Israeli security chief said the settlements no longer have a strategic defense role.
Security sources said on Tuesday that the 28 outposts were slated for removal under the US-backed "road map" peace plan, which requires Israel to take down all outposts built since March 2001.
The Peace Now watchdog group says there are at least 60 of them. Several dozen others established earlier are not addressed by the "road map."
Palestinians charge that the outposts -- and the foot-dragging in removing them -- are part of a larger effort to make it impossible for them to set up a state in the West Bank and Gaza. They view all Jewish settlements in the areas as illegal.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was dismissive of the list.
The list was disclosed a day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a convention of his hawkish party that even some of the larger veteran settlements would have to be torn down under a peace accord or moved as part of a proposed unilateral plan to disengage from the Palestinians.
Speaking on Tuesday in Jerusalem, Efraim Halevy, a former head of the Mossad secret service, said that the willingness to remove settlements was connected to the US toppling of Saddam Hussein, which removed the threat of attack from the east -- one of the key reasons some in Israel wanted to hold on to the West Bank.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
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