JERUSALEM - Palestinian and Israeli activists built a mock "Palestinian outpost'' in the West Bank on Saturday to protest Israel's ongoing settlement expansion.
In an area between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, demonstrators set up a small house, complete with a concrete foundation, and raised Palestinian flags.
The fake outpost was meant to draw attention to Israel's continued settlement activity, including the more than 100 settlement outposts that were set up in recent years.
The outposts were ostensibly built without official approval, but received millions of dollars government funding and other support.
About 30 Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners participated in Saturday's protest.
Police said the protesters had 60 days to remove the house.
The fate of Israeli settlements will be on the table when Israeli-Palestinian peace talks formally resume in Jerusalem next week. As part of immediate peace obligations, Israel has to freeze all settlement activity and to remove dozens of outposts, while the Palestinians must disarm militants and dismantle violent groups.
Despite such commitments, Israel announced last week that it plans to build 307 new homes in Har Homa, a neighborhood being build in east Jerusalem.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem and neighboring areas of the West Bank after it captured the land in the 1967 Mideast War. However, the move is not internationally recognized, and Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their future state.
