Police removed dozens left-wing activists and Palestinians who built a mock Palestinian outpost in the West Bank on Saturday to protest Israel's ongoing settlement expansion.

Nine activists were arrested, including five Israelis and one Swedish citizen.

In an area between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh 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. As part of renewed peace effort, Israel has to remove dozens of outposts, but has failed to take any action.

The Palestinians fear that continued settlement expansion will make it increasingly difficult to establish their state. Some 450,000 Israelis live on war-won land the Palestinians want for their state.

About 30 Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners participated in Saturday's protest.

One man shoveled concrete around the small house to reinforce it. Others tried to work out how to fit a glass window into its ready-made gap.

"We are trying to make a new Palestinian suburb on land that is threatened with expropriation," said Abdullah Abu Rahme, a protester.

During the protest, an Israeli man carrying his country's blue-and-white flag began arguing with the protesters. "This is Israeli land," he said. "Go to Jordan, he told Palestinian demonstrators."

A non-governmental right-wing group is planning on Sunday to set up three new unauthorized outposts and reestablish five that were evacuated by security forces in recent months.

The IDF has reportedly begun preparations to prevent the reestablished of the evacuated outposts.

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 300 new homes in Har Homa, a neighborhood being built in East Jerusalem.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and neighboring areas of the West Bank after it captured the land in the 1967 Six-Day War. However, the move is not internationally recognized, and Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of their future state.

The announcement for the tender came just days after both sides agreed to restart peace negotiations, immediately stoking accusations of bad faith.