Right Wing Lawmakers Seek to Legalize Largest West Bank Outpost

[Israeli]

Habayit Hayehudi to push a bill that would allow the expropriation of private Palestinian land on which outposts have been illegally built.

Jonathan Lis Jul 17, 2016

Habayit Hayehudi will attempt on Sunday to advance a bill regulating the expropriation of private Palestinian land in West Bank settlements, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opposition to such a bill.

The proposed law is intended to legitimize the Amona outpost, which was built illegally on private Palestinian land, and must be evacuated by December by order of the High Court of Justice.

Netanyahu has scuttled several previous attempts to pass such a bill, which enjoys strong support among Likud ministers.
Netanyahu recently appealed to Likud members, asking them to propose other ways of legitimizing the Amona, which is the largest outpost in the West Bank. A senior Likud official believes that if no solution is found and the outpost is moved, the coalition may fall apart.

The bill was resubmitted in June by Habayit Hayehudi whip MK Shuli Moalem, and will be brought to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, along with an identical proposal by Likud MK Yoav Kish. Netanyahu blocked and criticized a similar bill three years ago. “We respect the rule of law, yet strengthen the settlements, with no contradiction between the two,” he stated. “This bill will achieve the opposite, leading to evacuation of the outpost and harming the settlement enterprise.”

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.731369

[Israeli]

1. Israeli AG Deems Bill Legalizing Settlement Building on Seized Palestinian Land Unconstitutional

Senior Likud official says coalition would disintegrate if Amona outpost were evacuated.

Jonathan Lis Jul 18, 2016

The coalition faction heads on Sunday postponed by a week a vote on a bill meant to legalize the expropriation of private Palestinian lands for settlements, after the attorney general told them the proposal was unconstitutional.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said the bill would not withstand petitions against it to the High Court of Justice, and that it would ultimately harm the settlement enterprise.

The bill aims to give legal status to the Amona outpost, which the High Court ordered evacuated and demolished by the end of the year, and parts of other settlements.

Senior Likud figures believe the coalition will not advance the bill despite its broad support in the cabinet.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.731643

[Little Tich]

2. I actually feel a bit guilty for wishing that the Israeli government fell apart.

Nevertheless:

[Israeli]

3. An outpost tries to hold its ground

Ten years after the confrontation that has become a symbol, the residents of Amona are preparing for the next round; approaching the High Court of Justice's deadline for the evacuation of the outpost, the settlers are recruiting thousands of supporters to protest on the deadline and are pressuring right-wing ministers to find a way to circumvent the order.

By Oded Shalom, Elisha Ben-Kimon
Published: 21.07.16

The raspberry bushes are laden with juicy fruit. The grapevines, entangled in one another, are also weighty with clusters of grapes. We're at Avichai Buaron's home in Amona, standing in his back yard, which is looking like a small Italian farm with olive trees and the mountainous vista that surrounds it.

We stood on the exact opposite spot from which we overlooked the outpost two weeks prior with his Palestinian neighbors, the owners of the land on which Amona was established.

It's easy to fall for the charms of the beautiful scenery and the fresh grapes and raspberries, to fill one's lungs with the clean mountain air and forget that this outpost is actually an oil barrel, with a brush fire making its way towards it, threatening to set the entire area aflame.

Amona, which is located on one of the extensions of Tall Asur about 900 meters above sea level, is the biggest illegal outpost in the territories right now, with 40 families and some 200 children living in it. It started out as an archeological excavation site and later became a location for the national water company Mekorot to house giant water tanks for the nearby settlement of Ofra. And, like in many of the other outposts that have sprung up in the West Bank, the State of Israel invested millions of shekels in building infrastructure and preparing the ground for construction. One hand of the government was raining funds at the outpost, while the other was declaring at court that the lands on which it was built were private lands belonging to Palestinians.

More @
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4829476,00.html

[Israeli]

4. Treating Amona and Tira as equals

Op-ed: The Knesset's new "regularization bill" seeks to legalize the status of a few dozen homes in Amona. But if the people of Amona can get retroactive legal approval for their illegally-built homes, why can't the people of Israel's Arab towns?

Yaron London
Published: 02.08.16

Our political language-laundering mechanism has a new favorite term: Regularization. According to MK Yoav Kish (Likud) and the other signatories of the new "regularization bill," a small number of robbers are to be allowed to hold on to their loot, despite a court decision to the contrary. The old term for this kind of thing is "anarchy."

The people in question are about 40 Jewish families who have established homes and businesses in Amona, a 98-acre land area registered with the authorities as belonging to residents of the Palestinian village Silwad in the West Bank. Following a long legal battle, the land was ordered to be returned to its owners, and the Jewish families' homes were ordered demolished. The High Court of Justice (HCJ) determined that the settlers be given a two-year period to prepare. The state did not push them very hard, and time ran out. Now, with the sound of the bulldozers' engines in their ears, the settlers are wishing for some sort of legislative reprieve.

I'm all for it. When you remove the lies, excuses, forged documents, and threats they tried to use during their legal battles, the residents of Amona are left with an indisputable claim: The Israeli government aided them, in practice, and with a wink in its eye. If our world was one of poetic justice, the property of politicians and government clerks who drove the people of Amona to do their deeds would have been used to compensate the aggrieved Palestinian land owners.

Since this kind of step is not possible, the state needs to pour a river of money onto the legal land owners from Silwad. If the regularization bill is approved, we'll be spared a violent confrontation (the settlers aren't hiding their intentions in this regard), and we'll be spared the unpleasant vision of an act of contempt towards the HCJ. A retroactively-enacted bill is quite a disaster, but it seems that without one, we're in for an even bigger calamity.

However, a law must apply to all civilians equally. While MKs work on the regularization bill, the government is demanding that 50,000 buildings, constructed without permits, must be demolished before it releases an aid package to Arab towns across Israel. These towns and buildings are also worthy of a "regularization."

Unlike the people of Amona, who forcefully and manipulatively took their neighbors' property, the people of Israel's Arab towns built on their private lands, using what little they had left in hand after the state confiscated vast swaths of land in its first years of existence. Yes, they violated state law, but the people of Amona are being given regularization after a double violation of state and international law, which doesn't allow the transference of a state's population onto conquered lands.

The convicted fellon's motives are usually used as a factor in sentencing, and here too the Arab people of Israel have a clear advantage. The Amonans didn’t do their deeds because they were experiencing some housing crisis, but because they desired nice home with great views, and they built these homes while aiding the efforts of those who desire annexation of these territories. In contrast, most Arab people who built their homes illegally did so because they had no real choice in the matter

Continued @
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4836117,00.html

[Israeli]

5. U.S. to Israel: Relocating Amona Outpost Diverges From Netanyahu Commitment to Obama

Americans view plan to move outpost to West Bank land abandoned by Palestinians as diverging from Netanyahu's commitment to Obama that Israel would not appropriate Palestinian lands for settlements.

Barak Ravid Aug 14, 2016

Washington opposes Israel’s plan for the West Bank outpost of Amona that would have the settlement’s homes moved to land that apparently belongs to Palestinians who abandoned the site in 1967.

A senior U.S. official noted that Washington had recently approached the Israeli government to strongly protest the matter.

The official noted that the administration had held a series of discussions with Israelis at working and senior levels on Amona. The Americans view the plan as diverging from commitments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to President Barack Obama that Israel would not appropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank to establish new settlements or expand existing ones.

Continued @
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