Attorney General Menahem Mazuz
Photo:Niv Calderon
Attorney General Menahem Mazuz sent a letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz
in which he expressed his shock and concern for the lack of action taken by the defense minister against the continuing building of illegal outposts in the West Bank. Mazuz's letter was first published in the newspaper Ha'aretz.
The attorney general mentioned that he had already turned to Peretz's predecessor Shaul Mofaz, and later, to Peretz himself with a request to order legislative amendments to grapple with the phenomenon of illegal building in the settlements.
Continued Building
Rumors of upcoming evacuation haven't deterred outposts in Binyamin region in West Bank from expanding. Ynet tour of area reveals new permanent structures being built, and introduction of new trailers as civil administration, meant to be upholding policy of Israeli government in West Bank, looks on in silence. Peace Now: Government continues to allow settlers to do whatever they wish
Mazuz even requested that prosecutors be appointed the civil administration that will be responsible for enforcing the legislative amendments. Mazuz noted that until now such steps had yet to be taken and that "enforcement has yet to truly be carried out in this important field."
Statistics from the civil administration in the West Bank show that the building trend in the illegal outposts continues, including building permanent structures at a significant rate. The attorney general noted that illegal building is also occurring on a large scale in the Palestinians sector in the West Bank.
The letter reveals that "the quantity of dismantling by the civil administration in the Palestinian sector is much larger than that in the Israeli sector." (Between 1997 and 2006, the civil administration has dismantled 1519 structures in the Palestinian sector, and only 150 structures in the Israeli sector.)
The attorney general continued, writing, "The statistics of the civil administration on the continued illegal building necessitates the immediate legislation of orders to enforce the law on illegal building and to reinforce the man power in the supervision units and in the civil administration in order to prevent illegal building."