JERUSALEM, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Israel's State Attorney-General' s Office (SAO) on Monday ordered the eviction of an illegal West Bank outpost, in response to an appeal by its residents hoping to prevent its destruction.
The Supreme Court outlawed the Migron outpost in 2011, but faced several petitions against the eviction, which stalled the decision. The eviction is set to be carried out on Aug. 28.
Some 300 Israelis live at the outpost, erected north of Jerusalem in 1999.
In 2006, the Peace Now NGO monitoring construction in the settlements appealed to evacuate the outpost, which is situated on privately-owned Palestinian land.
The court decision prompted several violent attacks by irate Jewish settlers against soldiers and left-wing activists.
In March, the government tried to stall the eviction and petitioned to delay the eviction for another three and a half years, but the court denied the request on the grounds that "all are subject to the law."
The demolition was then further delayed by a petition filed by residents in August, claiming they bought the land from the Palestinian owner who died this year. The allegations were ridiculed by Peace Now, who charged that the papers were forged.
"Accepting the petitioner's request to allow them to go on living on these plots means harming the private property of the Palestinians in the outpost of Migron and its vicinity on a daily basis," the SAO said in its official response Monday.
"There is no legal feasibility for the residents of Migron to go on living in the outpost, therefore we accede to the Supreme Court's ruling, which necessitates the outpost's eviction," it added.
The state said that residents have until the Aug. 28 deadline to submit any appeals.
The outpost's residents expressed their resentment over the outcome to the Israel National News website, which supports settlement activity.
They charged that the decision will remove "a standing community that has been paid for" from its turf and will result in the "forcible eviction of loyal and upstanding citizens, the eviction of an entire community."
The international community largely considers settlements in the West Bank, an area that Israel captured in the 1967 war, illegal under international law and a major stumbling block to achieving Middle East peace.
The Palestinians want the area as part of their future state, and have conditioned a return to negotiations with Israel on a complete halt to settlement construction.
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