Defense Minister Ehud Barak
Photo: AP
Yariv Oppenheimer
Photo: Gil Yohanan
State to increase building enforcement in West Bank
Defense Ministry to file response to Peace Now petition over illegal outposts in West Bank, tell court rapid eviction of illegal outposts underway. Home of fallen soldier to be spared
The State is expected to inform the High Court of Justice that it will order the razing of all illegal outposts built on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Still, Sunday's court brief is expected to note a special exception for the home of Major Eliraz Peretz Peretz, who was killed in Gaza in 2010, 12 years after his brother Uriel Peretz was killed in an explosion in Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one to make the decision to spare Peretz' home.
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The area will be given a Defense Ministry permit, even if a land survey will find that it was built on private Palestinian land.
Nevertheless, the Defense Ministry will also take steps to increase its enforcement against illegal building in the West Bank.
The Civil Administration is expected to begin rapid eviction proceedings of all illegal outposts built on private Palestinian land, be it by agreement or – if needed – by force. The State is expected to tell the court it will pursue these evictions "over a short period of time and with the necessary determination."
The State will simultaneously begin the necessary proceedings to regulate the outposts built on government land according to decisions made by previous governments. Nevertheless, this move will require all outposts reviewed in the process to cease any construction pending a decision in their matter.
The state is expected to demand all Yesha Council heads to commit to a construction suspension, pending the Defense Ministry's final decision.
Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer said in response that "Despite stating that we do not demand the Peretz and Klein homes razed, the government is using this satiation in order to permit dozens of illegal housing units in the West Bank… an outpost can be made legal only through a government decision to allow the construction of a set settlement, and we hope Netanyahu will avoid such a politically lethal move."
Knesset members Zeev Elkin (Likud) and Arieh Eldad (National Union), heads of the Land of Israel Lobby, on the other hand, welcomed the decision "to lift the threat of destruction and allow the normal development of communities built legally in Judea and Samaria.
"The Lobby urges all the limitations placed on communities and outposts in Judea and Samaria to be lifted. They should be put under Israeli sovereignty, in light of the new political reality."
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