[ad_1]
The government will promote a proposal to legalize dozens of outposts in the West Bank, many of which are built on private Palestinian land, Settlement Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi announced on Wednesday.
Responding to a query on the matter in the Knesset plenum, Hanegbi said he received the prime minister’s approval to discuss the matter with Defense Ministry Minister of Civil and Social Affairs Michael Biton of the Blue and White party.
“I am pleased to announce for the first time that we agreed that together we will formulate a draft resolution for the government to promote all the legal movements at our disposal in order to [legalize West Bank outposts]Hanegbi said.
Get The Times of Israel Daily Issue By Email And Never Miss Our Top Stories Sign Up For Free
“I am convinced that the government will seriously weigh the issue. After 20 long years during which the brave pioneers acted on behalf of all of us, the time has come for us to act on their behalf as well, ”he said of the Israeli settlers, who built their homes in the West Bank illegally without the necessary permits. All outposts classified as illegal today were founded in the last 20-30 years.
However, Biton told Walla News that Hanegbi did not clarify the announcement with him and that he will only endorse such a move if he has the approval of the attorney general; a broadly worded resolution is unlikely to win the backing of legal superiors.
Settlement Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi at the Knesset on October 21, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
The announcement follows weeks of pressure from far-right settler leaders and lawmakers who have pushed for the legalization of wild hilltop communities in recent weeks while US President Donald Trump is still in The charge. The Trump administration has avoided criticizing the settlement expansion and has taken various steps to put a stamp of its own approval on the Israeli presence beyond the Green Line.
This has included repudiating a State Department legal opinion that considered the settlements illegal, signing an agreement last month expanding scientific cooperation to include academic institutions in the settlements, and a State Department directive announced last week by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while visiting a settlement. that all US exports originating from Israeli-controlled territories in the West Bank are marked as “made in Israel”
While Hanegbi stated that the proposal would be advanced while Trump is still in office, Biton told Walla that would not be the case. “This process, unfortunately, will take several years,” he said, seeming to take the air out of the proposal.
While the international community considers all settlement activities illegal, Israel distinguishes between legal settlement houses built and permitted by the Ministry of Defense on state-owned land, and illegal outposts built without the necessary permits, often in Palestinian private land.
There are about 120 outposts in the West Bank. About a dozen of them look like established towns with hundreds of families. Around 60 outposts are small agricultural communes that are often home to a handful of families with little infrastructure. A similar number of outposts are small “settlement points” that often consist of a makeshift structure or two where ultra-nationalist teenagers known as hilltop youth live.
Almost all were established by national religious settlers bent on expanding the Israeli presence in the West Bank while avoiding Palestinian territorial contiguity.
Border police descend on the illegal outpost of Shevah Ha’aretz near Yitzhar to facilitate the demolition of a couple of structures there on October 24, 2019 (Sraya Diamant / Flash90).
Hanegbi did not specify whether all of these various forms of outposts will be legalized as a result of the move, which will likely face legal challenges in the High Court of Justice given the illicit nature in which these communities were established.
Blue and White President Benny Gantz had indicated during election campaigns that isolated settlements should be evacuated in a future peace agreement with the Palestinians. But since entering Netanyahu’s government, he has met with settler leaders and last month his office approved approvals for roughly 5,000 Israeli homes throughout the West Bank. Blue and White also backed the High Court’s decision to reconsider its decision to order the demolition of the Mitzpeh Kramim outpost.
The fact that Biton was involved in the formation of the outpost legalization proposal indicates that the centrist party that garnered considerable support from center-left Israelis during the elections will likely support the move that would mark the latest blow to the prospects for bleeding from a two-state state. solution.
In response to Hanegbi’s announcement, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said this would be a “historic” achievement, but stressed that “the only test will be implementation.”
Yamina No. 2 Bezalel Smotrich said he too hopes this is not “a nonsensical statement.” He adds: “Twenty thousand [outpost] residents are not second-class citizens and deserve to have the same rights. “
US President Donald Trump, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk to a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on January 27, 2020 (AP Photo / Evan Vucci).
Yesha’s general council of settler mayors said the announcement was “exciting news for anyone for whom the issue of Israeli settlement in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley is close to their heart.”
“For many years, hundreds of families living in [outposts] I have not been able to enjoy the most basic things: running water, regular electricity, the Internet and an adequate security apparatus, ”the group said, adding that they looked forward to working with Biton, Hanegbi and Netanyahu to advance the proposal.
Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party criticized the move. “The Likud intends to process a license for land theft in the Wild West [Bank], and how surprising it is that it is being done with Blue and White, who would not recognize the values of their voters if they were hit in the face.
“Rather than harness the momentum fueled by our new relations with the Arab countries to further normalize relations with our neighbors, the government chooses to put up with the settlers for the sake of a political battle with Bennett while fatally damaging the State of Israel. “
[ad_2]
