The Civil Administration announced Sunday morning that an illegal Arab encampment which had been set up on Jewish-owned land in Samaria would be evacuated. On Friday, local residents together with Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan protested and blocked the illegal construction in the encampment. The Palestinian Authority carried out the evacuation itself following the Civil Administration's announcement. Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan welcomed the evacuation of the encampment. "We will be wherever the Palestinian Authority takes over Israeli-controlled land. This absurd theater cannot be continued. In the western bloc alone, 20 illegal structures of the murderous Palestinian Authority have been built in the last two months. On the other hand, every encampment of Israeli pioneers whose entire purpose is to protect the lands for the State of Israel receives a prompt response and evacuation by the authorities without delay." "This abandonment in Judea and Samaria will not continue. I support the residents of the localities who did not give up, and together we will continue the fight against illegal construction in Samaria. I call on the Israeli government to wake up and seize the territories that belong to it, otherwise we will find ourselves in a tangle that will be difficult to get out of," Dagan added. Jewish residents in the area have been waging a campaign in an attempt to stop the illegal Arab takeover of land under Israeli control. To date, the residents have worked with the Civil Administration and elements in the defense establishment, but since the construction continued and the security forces refrained from intervening, the residents decided to go out into the area and stop the construction themselves on Friday. In recent months, 70 illegal Arab structures have been built on state lands in the western bloc area. About 20 of them have been built in the last two months. Last week, another line was crossed, and an illegal structure was built near the Trans-Samaria Road, in a place far from any village, in order to take over lands in the area that are under Israeli control.
