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Photo: Gil Yohanan
The High Court had to draw a red line on Amona
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Ben-Dror Yemini

Rule of law has been crushed, but enough is enough

Op-ed: The ball is in the Israeli government’s court. It has implemented High Court rulings in the Bedouin sector despite the left-wing protest, and it must implement the ruling on Amona despite the right-wing protest.

Once it’s the Left and once it’s the Right. They don’t like the High Court’s rulings. The Left didn’t like the decision to evict the Bedouins from al-Araqib . It has been trying to violate the decision again and again. It has gone to the area and built homes or sheds there. It has organized petitions. And to hell with the rule of law. Ideology is much more important than obeying a judicial decision.

 

 

It doesn’t matter if the Left has learned from the Right or if the Right has learned from the Left. It’s the same result. Radical right-wing activists, not necessarily the residents of Amona, are discussing how to take a similar path. They can receive advice from the Left’s “rights organizations,” which are helping violate the law. They are already familiar with the tricks. They speak highly of ideology, while crushing the law in their actions.

 

Amona. An ongoing affair of circumventing and violating the law (Photo: Tomeriko)
Amona. An ongoing affair of circumventing and violating the law (Photo: Tomeriko)

 

Nonetheless, woe to us if the State of Israel is run by the enemies of the rule of law. The High Court wasn’t rightist when it decided to evacuate al-Araqib  despite the Left’s protests, and the High Court isn’t leftist when it decides to evacuate Amona despite the Right’s protests. There is only one thing which is worse than a bad High Court decision: Failure to obey the ruling. This is what the political groups, both from the left and from the right, are trying to do. The decision made by the court on Monday against a delay, another delay, in the implementation of judicial decisions is a red stop sign, and it’s a good thing it has been placed.

 

It should be mentioned that Amona is an ongoing affair of circumventing the law and violating the law. Step by step, again and again. There was no good faith there to begin with. The community was established on private land. The settlers were well aware of that. Demolition orders were issued at a very early stage, more than a decade ago. They were not implemented. The law was crushed.

 

Since then, for more than a decade, the community of Amona has gone in and out of the High Court many times. Different panels have accepted petitions asking to postpone the evacuation. But enough is enough. The High Court must draw a red line.

 

It should be clarified that the High Court rulings on Amona have nothing to do with the legal debate, which is also political, between Talia Sasson’s report on illegal outposts and late Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy’s Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria, which is as legal and as political. The establishment of a community without a permit and against demolition orders would have received a similar response had it been a community within the Green Line.

 

Bedouin communities built on private lands have occasionally received repeated evacuation delays. But the regulation of the Bedouin settlement is part of a much more complicated process. After all, the High Court has ruled time and again against unjustified Bedouin ownership claims, and has also approved forcible evacuations, like in the al-Araqib case.

 

This is a critical hour. The ball is in the Israeli government’s court. It has implemented court rulings in the Bedouin sector despite the Left’s protest. It must implement the ruling on Amona despite the Right’s protest.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.15.16, 15:15
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