Illegal outpost in West Bank
Photo courtesy of Peace Now
Above the law in Samaria
Op-ed: While law is strictly enforced in Tel Aviv, illegal outposts enjoy different reality
An acquaintance of mine who lives in a south Tel Aviv home built an entrance with a gate in his backyard. One of his neighbors apparently snitched, and municipal inspectors quickly showed up and demanded that he remove the gate and revert to the previous state of affairs. The inspectors also imposed a fine and threatened my friend with criminal charges.
There are quite a few classes of nobility in Israel: The wealthy nobility, the media nobility, and so on. However, it appears that the most exclusive group is the law nobility: Members of this prestigious group can manage their lives for long years in a blatantly illegal manner, while counting on the government not to bother them too much.
My acquaintance paid the fine and apparently learned the lesson. However, he did not give up his hope for a gate. Now he plans to build it again, but this time he will do it legally. Getting all the required permits and eliciting the neighbors' approval will apparently take him a few years.
West Bank
Yair Altman
Five rightist MKs want probe following clashes between security forces, settlers
This is not only a matter of class, but also a matter of geography: If you live in central Israel, you can be sure that a city inspector and a police officer will be all over you if you only dare throw a cigarette butt on a Tel Aviv sidewalk. On the other hand, if you enjoy life in an illegal outpost, you are allowed to burn a whole olive grove and return home for the evening prayer session without anyone asking you to explain your actions.
Why is it happening? Only because the State of Israel has not yet decided what it wants to do with itself. Defense Minister Ehud Barak indeed found time Tuesday to express his support for the evacuation of the outpost in Havat Gilad and even referred to the conduct of the settlers as a "provocation" – yet he was not asked to explain how such outpost, and dozens like it, was ever established and remained in place for long years in the first place. This happened right under the army's nose, while outpost residents were not asked to evacuate it or even explain what they're even doing there.
So it's easy and simple to say that the State of Israel needs to immediately evacuate all illegal outposts. Yet in order to do it, the State of Israel must undergo a huge change. This is not a question of a leftist or rightist government, but rather, a decision on what we are – and perhaps no less importantly, on what we're not.
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