User:Factomancer/test

Illegal Israeli outposts are Israeli settlements that are unauthorized and are regarded as illegal by the Israeli government. There are more than 100 such settlements in the West Bank. Authorized settlements may also be regarded as illegal by some groups and individuals.

According to the Sasson report, an official report commissioned by the Sharon government, the government of Israel has funded the creation of such Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank even though the government itself regards them as illegal. The report of the Sasson investigation found “blatant violations of the law” by officials and state institutions. Many of the more than 100 outposts investigated added at state expense paved roads, permanent housing, power lines and other infrastructure. According to the report, some of the outposts were established on private lands owned by Palestinians with the help of Housing Ministry architects, the Housing Ministry funded many of the trailers used to start the outposts, and Defence Ministry officials allocated such private land to the quasi-official Jewish Agency.

As part of the 2003 "Road map" for peace, Israel committed itself to remove about two dozen such settlements, an obligation it has yet to fulfill.

In response to settler violence directed towards Israeli security forces, Israel declared it would no longer fund illegal outposts from November, 2008. Settlers claim the violence was sparked by the beating of a settler child, while border police spokesman Moshe Pinchi said he had no knowledge of the alleged beating and accused the settlers of "cynically" sending minors to attack the police. However there is evidence that support continues unabated for illegal outposts. At one illegal settlement, Eli there has been recent work on a new road that cuts through Palestinian territory.

According to a report of the Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry, waste water management is "virtually nonexistent" in illegal Jewish settler outposts and some other settlements, thus raw sewage is contaminating the ground water in parts of the West Bank. Accoridng to the report, the main cause of the contaminated water is that raw waste water flows from Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and other villages, without proper treatment. The report blames Israeli settlements for pumping contaminated water into the sewars, not Palestinian villages. 70% of the Jewish communities east of the Green Line are connected to treatment facilities, so "illegal outposts" are the main source of the untreated water, according to the Israeli report.