OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel plans to declare legal four unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, a court document showed Thursday, days before US Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the region to try to restart peace talks. Israel has been sending mixed signals on its internationally condemned settlement policy as Kerry pursues efforts to revive negotiations Palestinians quit in 2010 in anger over Israeli settlement building on occupied land they seek for a state. In a reply to a Supreme Court petition by the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, the government said it had taken steps in recent weeks to authorize retroactively four West Bank outposts built without official permission. Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the move. “Israel continues to put obstacles and to sabotage US efforts to resume negotiation,” he said. “Our position is clear and that is all settlement is illegal and must be stopped.” Peace Now said in a statement that “The intention to legalize outposts as new settlements is no less than a slap in the face of Secretary Kerry's new process and is blatant reassurance to settler interests.” Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was also captured from Jordan in 1967. About 2.7 million Palestinians live in those areas. — Reuters
