Palestinians Reclaim Old Settlement

Rare legal victory for them

BURKA, West Bank -- Palestinian farmers on Thursday reclaimed lands they had lost decades earlier to an Israeli settlement, celebrating a rare legal victory their lawyer said illustrates that Israel's settlement enterprise is reversible.

In the 1970s, Israel had seized several hundred acres from residents of the West Bank village of Burka to build the Israeli settlement of Homesh. The settlement, along with three others in the West Bank, was razed in 2005, in connection with Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip at the time.

However, Palestinians were not allowed to return to their lands after the 2005 demolition of Homesh because the military did not rescind the land seizure order and prevented access to the area, said attorney Michael Sfard.