Inquiry- Israel financed 105 illegal West Bank outposts

JERUSALEM -- Israeli governments have helped build and expand 105 illegal West Bank settlement outposts in a flagrant violation of official policy and promises to the United States, an official inquiry found Wednesday -- confirming long-standing complaints by the Palestinians.

The study recommended investigating civil servants involved in what was described as systematic deception by several government ministries that funneled large sums of public funds to the outposts.

However, the report stopped short of blaming Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or other leading politicians, who settlers say gave them support and money for outposts in the past decade.

Settlers established the outposts -- usually starting with a few mobile homes, a generator and a water tank -- to break up Palestinian areas and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. In 1998, as foreign minister, Sharon exhorted them to seize West Bank hilltops and build more outposts.

Today, about 235,000 Israeli settlers live in some 150 veteran settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. About 2,000 live in the outposts, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now.

U.S. officials reiterated Wednesday that they expect Israel to dismantle the outposts immediately, in line with the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.

However, Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said Israeli troops would be busy in coming months evacuating Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and four veteran West Bank settlements. "I don't think this report will be implemented immediately," he told Army Radio.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has denied she agreed to delaying the dismantling of outposts until after the planned Gaza withdrawal this summer.

However, it remains unclear how much pressure Washington will exert on Israel to remove the outposts quickly. Sharon is battling hard-liners over the planned Gaza pullout, and the dismantling of outposts could increase his troubles at home.

The 340-page study was written by former chief state prosecutor Talia Sasson, at Sharon's request.

Several Cabinet ministers praised Sharon for his courage, implying the Israeli leader was aware Sasson would discover government complicity. Last year, Israel's state comptroller determined the Housing Ministry funneled money to illegal settlement construction in the West Bank, and the attorney general froze the transfer of funds.

Sharon's critics said they believe he assigned the report as a stalling tactic to try to defuse U.S. pressure, at least temporarily. Settlers dismissed the study as hypocrisy. "It's obvious that the one who sent us ... is the prime minister," said Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader.

Sharon was not expected to comment until the Cabinet discusses the study Sunday.

Sasson said she did not receive all the information she requested from government offices, and that her authority was limited. Opposition leaders called for an official commission of inquiry, with the authority to subpoena witnesses.

Sasson said the Housing Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the Israeli military's government in the West Bank, or so-called civil administration, were involved in setting up outposts.

The Housing Ministry, for example, supplied more than 400 mobile homes to outposts and spent at least $16.7 million on outposts between 2000 and 2004, the study said.

The civil administration shirked its oversight duties and disregarded demolition orders, she said.

She accused the government of "double-talk," saying it abetted illegal activity with one hand and demanded it be stopped with the other. "Such a blatant violation of the law from so many different directions is liable to hobble Israel's democratic regime and must be redressed," Sasson said.

Sasson said she handed the study to the attorney general, who would decide whether to launch criminal investigations.

The Labor Party, Sharon's main coalition partner, called for the immediate dismantling of outposts. "They are like cancers in the body of our land," Labor legislator Ephraim Sneh said on Israel TV. "There can be no peace as long as they exist, so they should be removed as soon as possible."

Under the road map, Israel is required to remove only those outposts established after Sharon came to power in March 2001. By Sasson's count, 71 outposts were built before March 2001, including during the Labor government of Ehud Barak. Twenty-four were established during Sharon's administration, and in 10 cases the date is unclear, the study said.

She said the Israeli military has removed 81 outposts, but many were quickly rebuilt by settlers.

In recent years, Israeli governments retroactively legalized some of the outposts. However, Sasson said all are patently illegal, since they did not receive government approval as required by law.

In setting up the outposts, settlers used a method they often applied successfully in the early days of their movement -- establishing facts on the ground and obtaining retroactive approval. Since the early 1990s, Israeli governments have assured the international community they would not build new settlements, and would only expand existing ones. The outposts were seen as a way around the promise.