Mazuz: Authorities aided illegal construction

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said on Wednesday that the state aided those who illegally built houses following the Gush Katif disengagement. "If we were mindful of the law, these people would have not gotten a penny. However, we took a different approach toward them," he said.

While testifying in front of the state commission of Inquiry dealing with the evacuees from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, Mazuz said the authorities knew about the illegal construction taking place, and even assisted at times: "The state authorities aided illegal actions, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly."

"If we were mindful of the law, these people would have not gotten a penny, but rather stand trial for violating the law and forced to finance the demolition of the structures.

"However, we took a different approach. We are talking about the duty of a country, which decided to evacuate lands, to care for its public by means of compensation or relocation," Mazuz added.

'Small step away from mutiny'

Mazuz spoke about the government's concerns prior to the disengagement, and noted that it was not clear at the time whether the authorities would be able to execute the government's decisions.

"The true concern was – will the State of Israel reach a point where the government makes a decision, the Knesset approves it, but the authorized institutions are unable to execute it?"

According to Mazuz, these concerns stemmed mainly from the calls for insubordination and acts of protest by different elements across the country.

"It was only a small step away from mutiny," said Mazuz. "I thought – and still believe today – that the greatest challenge facing the system was preventing the failure to execute decisions on the on hand, and allowing an effective and legitimate manifestation of protest by those opposed to the disengagement on the other," he added.

Mazuz said his office received dozens of daily inquiries by citizens requesting to know why he did not probe Rabbis that called for insubordination and rebellion.

Mazuz compared the period prior to the disengagement to the one that followed former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, and said that in both times "there was an extremely enflamed atmosphere within the Israeli public."

"In a complex and systematic process involving all enforcement agencies, we managed to find the golden path, between protest within limits –sometimes even exceeding the limit – and drawing the red lines against forms of protestation that borderline violence and violation of the law," said Mazuz.

Mazuz did not comment on the settlers' acts of violence following the latest government decision to temporarily halt construction in the West Bank.