Netanyahu Orders Palestinian Squatters Removed

Activists raise tents where Israel intends to build settlements

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday ordered the immediate evacuation of Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun), the make-shift tent city erected by Palestinain activists between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim in the controversial E1 corridor.

On Friday, approximately 200 Palestinians from villages in the West Bank erected about 20 large, steel-framed tents on the disputed land, in order to prevent Israel from building thousands of new housing units in the area. The Palestinians claim the E1 plans would sound the death knell to a two-state solution by breaking up the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state.

The High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction against the evacuation of the make-shift tent city on Saturday.