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Settler movement to launch three new outposts today

Jerusalem24 – Hundreds of Israeli settlers and right-wing activists plan to begin the construction of three new illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank.

The settler movement Nachala has mobilized its followers today, Wednesday, for the construction of the new outposts, a project it has dubbed Operation Tower and Stockade since April when it originally planned 10 new outposts in one day. It now plans to establish three new outposts at undisclosed locations.

The project, which has already led to severe violence, has received significant backing from right-wing and religious public figures, including MKs, former ministers, rabbis, and settlement mayors.

Nachala raised five million shekels for the operation in three days through affiliated groups, Facebook apps, and a Chabad crowdfunding platform

New settlements in the West Bank can only be legally established via a cabinet resolution, and with the authorization of the defense minister. Unauthorized settlements or outposts established outside of this framework are illegal.

The Peace Now organization is rallying its own supporters to confront and stop the settlers.

The Nachala Movement, which young Israeli recruits can work with in lieu of doing their mandatory National Service, is the group behind the Evyatar illegal outpost established last year on land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Beita, Qabalan and Yatma.

This led to nightly protests by Beita residents and solidarity activists, dubbed the “Nights of Confusion”, during which the protestors waved lasers at outpost buildings and lit fires to cover the hill with smoke.

A total of eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during the months-long protests.

The Evyatar outpost was eventually evacuated in July in coordination with the Israeli army, pending the outcome of an Israeli judicial process to retroactively legalize the outpost. The outpost’s buildings and the Palestinian land it is built on remain under the protection of the Israeli army.

A member of Nachala told the audience at a conference at the offices of the Binyamin Regional Council in the West Bank last May, they planned on conducting trips to locate land for the outposts from May 31 through June 2. “We will do a three-day trip that will go through all of Judea and Samaria at the beginning of the month of Sivan. We will examine the sites on the consideration of the roads, legal issues and the abilities of the core groups – and from there, we’ll set up.”

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