State to ask court to delay Ulpana evacuation

Ministerial committee instructs Prosecutor's Office to ask court to postpone razing of neighborhood in Beit El settlement; same panel legalizes three West Bank outposts

Attila Somfalvi |Published: 04.24.12 , 00:23

A ministerial committee decided Monday that the State Prosecutor's Office will turn to the High Court of Justice and ask that it delay the planned evacuation of the Ulpana neighborhood, located in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. In the interim, a special committee will be set up to examine the issue, the ministers said.

The Prosecutor's Office will apparently turn to the court in the beginning of the week.

The committee consists of ministers Ehud Barak, Moshe Ya'alon, Eli Yishai, Benny Begin, Yuval Steinitz, Yisrael Katz, Dan Meridor and Gideon Sa`ar.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein also took part in the meeting. The PM and Minister Ya'alon both said the neighborhood should not be evacuated, while Barak reiterated that the state must raze Ulpana and relocate its residents to an alternative site in Beit El.

On Sunday it was reported that Attorney General Weinstein was exploring legal options in an effort to prevent an eviction. However, senior legal sources estimated that the State Prosecutor's Office will have a hard time finding a solution. "The State has pledged to evict the neighborhood in the past, on the basis that it is built on private (Palestinian) land," one source said.

Earlier, the ministerial committee decided to legalize the West Bank outposts of Rechalim, Bruchin and Sansana.

"These communities were founded in the 1990s based on the decisions of past governments," the committee said in a statement.

The committee's decision came just a day after the government authorized it to legalize the outposts.

Panel member Eli Yishai, Israel's interior minister, called the decision "important and just.' He urged the government to legalize more Jewish communities in the West Bank.