Removal of West Bank outpost tests Israel’s new coalition

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities have dismantled a small settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, a day after it was erected. Friday’s move triggered a dispute between the ultranationalist wing of Israel’s new government and its partner, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. The outpost of Or Chaim was built on Thursday and its swift removal could shake Netanyahu’s new coalition, which has set expanding settlements as its priority. Defense Minister Yoav Galant ordered the outpost evacuated but Bezalel Smotrich, head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party and a Cabinet minister with jurisdiction over some Israeli activities in the West Bank, said this went against his directive to postpone any actions on the new outpost.