Haaretz
Iyar 29, 5765
Not a thing has changed
in the government's handling of illegal settlement outposts in the three
months since a comprehensive report on the issue was completed, the
report's author, attorney Talia Sasson, said Sunday.
Speaking at a
seminar on the settlements organized by Ben-Gurion University, Sasson said
that building in the West Bank outposts was continuing just as before.
"Since the report was submitted, nothing has happened," she said. "It was
well publicized, and that's good, but everything is continuing. Perhaps
the Housing Ministry has closed a few taps, but there has been no
operative decision and construction continues in the
outposts."
"The goal of the report was to end the illegal
construction," the former government attorney added. "This is not a matter
of political outlook; we are talking about the state violating its own
laws, and when a state's own authorities break the law, this is a severe
blow to the rule of law. When such things happen, the democratic system is
liable to be undermined."
A Haaretz investigation confirmed
Sasson's statement that outpost construction continues as usual; the only
change it found is a slight improvement in the defense establishment's
gathering of information about such construction.
Following the
Haaretz report, Interior Minister Ofer Pines-Paz said a government that
does not respect the law encourages people to violate it. "The current
reality is a result of inaction by the government, which is blocking the
implementation of the Sasson report's recomendations, and the evacuation
of six outposts immediately."
In the wake of the Haaretz
investigation, Yahad MK Haim Oron called Monday for an urgent Knesset
section to discuss the matter.
"Under the umbrella of disengagement
and the shelter of the government, Yesha leaders and elements within the
military continue to get around the law," Oron said, referring to the
Yesha Council of settlements. "It hardly makes sense that the government
conducts a war against illegal building in the Arab sector even as
flagrant violations of the law continue in the settlements and outposts."
Defense establishment data shows that during the first five months
of this year, there were 197 incidents of illegal Jewish construction in
the West Bank, of which about two-thirds occurred after the Sasson Report
was published. But the illegal buildings were destroyed in only 37 cases -
mostly by the settlers at the army's request, rather than by the Israel
Defense Forces themselves.
Sources knowledgeable about the outposts
said that the construction figures are slightly higher than they were in
previous years, but this does not necessarily mean that the amount of
illegal construction has increased. It is also possible, they said, that
the defense establishment has simply started paying more attention to the
phenomenon.
However, they added, nothing has been done that would
signal to the settlers that the state has changed its attitude toward
construction in the outposts, despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
adoption of Sasson's scathing report - which he commissioned - and his
establishment of a ministerial committee to discuss the implementation of
the report's conclusions, which is supposed to finish its work next
week.
While the IDF has issued orders to halt construction in the
outposts, it has not tried to enforce them, because the government does
not want to pick a fight with the settlers over the outposts during the
run-up to the disengagement. The government has said that it will start
dealing with the outposts only after the withdrawal from Gaza and the
northern West Bank is completed. It first committed to dismantle the
outposts in the 2002 road map peace plan and has reiterated this promise
many times since, but to date, only a few inhabited outposts have been
dismantled - and in some of these cases, the residents later rebuilt
them.
The defense establishment's only real success thus far in the
battle against illegal building in the outposts has been in preventing
mobile homes from being brought into the outposts. Even here, however, the
settlers seem to have found a way around the problem: Instead of living in
mobile homes, many outpost residents are simply building permanent houses
- and government agencies are turning a blind eye, and sometimes even
providing indirect assistance.
Most of the outposts where
widespread permanent construction is taking place are in the Ramallah
area, under the jurisdiction of the Benjamin Regional Council. These
include Palgei Mayim, near Eli, between Ramallah and Nablus, and Amuna,
near Ofra, north of Ramallah. Security sources define Amuna as "blatantly
illegal," but it nevertheless finished building nine houses recently and
is even offering them for sale. There is also widespread construction in
Bruchin, between Peduel and Alei Zahav, west of Ariel.
Last week,
GOC Central Command Yair Naveh sent an angry letter to the head of the
Yesha Council of settlements, Bentzi Lieberman, after the council
distributed a letter to all the settlements in which it defined Brigadier
General Ilan Paz, the head of the Civil Administration in the West Bank,
as persona non grata and urged residents to keep him and his inspectors
out of their settlements.
In his letter, Naveh stressed that Paz is
an integral part of the army and said the council's decision "constitutes
a severe and unacceptable injury to the IDF and everything it represents
... We will continue to act according to the laws of the country, while
also continuing to support the settlements. The IDF views your letter very
gravely and expects you to rescind its contents."