Right demands AG halts settler home demolitions following Regulation Law passing
Left wing NGOs demand attorney general and military advocate general to instruct authorities not to implement law, after the Mandelblit himself said it was unconstitutional.
The law, which passed in the Knesset on Monday night, retroactively legalizes some 2,000 settler homes built with the involvement of the Israeli government on lands owned by Palestinians.
The law is expected to be met with petitions to Israel's High Court of Justice demanding its cancelation. But as long as no such petition has been filed, Mandelblit's job is to instruct authorities on how to implement the new law.
But while the right wing seeks to halt demolitions, Yesh Din, Peace Now and The Association for Civil Rights in Israel have turned to Mandelblit and to the Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, demanding to instruct authorities not to implement the law, as it stands in contradiction to Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and to international law.
In their letter to Mandelblit and Afek, the NGOs claimed that implementing the law would lead to the expropriation of almost 2,000 acres of privately-owned Palestinian lands in what they dubbed "unilateral theft."
"When the attorney general and the military advocate general—who are the top officials entrusted with protecting the rule of law in the state and the army—believe a law is defiantly unconstitutional and in serious violation of international law, they must instruct public authorities not to implement it," the NGOs wrote.
As of Tuesday night, the opposition parties in the Knesset have decided not to petition the High Court against the Regulation Law.
While technically such a petition could only be filed in eight days, officials in Meretz, Yesh Atid, Zionist Union and the Joint List said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the High Court to strike down the law, and that they had no intention of doing Netanyahu's job for him.
Left wing organizations have already announced their intentions to petition the High Court against the legislation, with two of them—Adalah and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center—appealed to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday asking to overturn the Regulation Law.
"This sweeping and dangerous law permits the expropriation of vast tracts of private Palestinian land, giving absolute preference to the political interests of Israel," said Suhad Bishara, an attorney for Adalah.
Tova Tzimuki, Itamar Eichner, Amihai Atali, Telem Yahav and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
