ZAIM (Palestinian Territories), Jan 11: Palestinian activists on Friday began setting up an ‘outpost’ in E1, a strip of West Bank land east of Jerusalem where Israel said it would build thousands of new settler homes.

The move was welcomed by a senior Palestinian official who described the step as a “highly creative and legitimate non-violent” way of protecting Palestinian land from Israeli settlement activities.

“We have set up 20 tents, and have enough equipment to stay here for a long time,” said Abir Kopty, spokeswoman for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.

Kopty said more than 200 Palestinians had set up the new ‘village’ called Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun in Arabic), in a corridor of land between the edge of annexed east Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim settlement.

“We are willing to stay here until we ensure the right of the (Palestinian) owners of the land to build on their lands,” she said.

“This is a message that we will not remain silent anymore in the face of settlement expansion.”E1 falls within Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli civilian and security control and where Palestinians find it almost impossible to obtain building permits.

The move is a twist on a tactic used by Jewish settlers who have frequently established new settlement outposts overnight by setting up camp on hilltops across the West Bank.

At the site, activists had set up around 25 large frame tents and many were cooking over camp fires as large Palestinian flags fluttered in the wind, an AFP correspondent said.

During the day, Israeli police visited the area and handed the activists an eviction order, declaring the area to be a closed military zone off-limits to civilians, a correspondent said.

A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration, the defence ministry unit responsible for planning in Area C, confirmed the eviction order, but the activists quickly managed to obtain a high court injunction against it, Kopty said on her Twitter feed.Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee, hailed it as a “great initiative” which had the full backing of the leadership.

“This initiative is a highly creative and legitimate non-violent tool to protect our land from Israeli colonial plans,” she said.

“We have the right to live anywhere in our state, and we call upon the international community to support such initiatives, as well as to protect those who are being threatened by Israeli occupation forces for exercising their right to peaceful resistance against the illegal Israeli occupation.” Six weeks ago, Israel announced plans to build thousands of settler homes in the highly sensitive but as yet largely uninhabited E1 area, in a move that sparked a global outcry.—AFP