Ha’aretz, 12.01.2013, Barak Ravid and Chaim Levinson

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday ordered Israel’s security forces to evacuate a tent camp set up by hundreds of Palestinians in the E1 area, east of Jerusalem.

Netanyahu’s decision contradicted a temporary injunction ordered by Israel’s High Court on Saturday preventing the state from evicting the Palestinians from the outpost.

The Prime Minister’s Bureau said in a statement released on Saturday that the state would submit a request to the High Court on Saturday night asking it to cancel the injunction.

According to the statement, Netanyahu has ordered that the site be declared a closed military zone and that all access roads leading to the site of the tent camp be closed by security forces until the High Court decides on the matter, in order to prevent additional people from gathering at the site.

Some 200 Palestinians and international peace activists set up the tent camp on Friday morning, giving it the name “Bab al-Shams.”

On Saturday, Israel Police kept additional activists from reaching the site. Police also prevented senior Palestinian officials Saeb Erakat and Hanan Ashrawi from visiting the area.