Israel Matzav

Israeli Supreme Court orders illegally built homes destroyed

There's nothing new about the Israeli Supreme Court ordering illegally built homes destroyed except that this time - for the first time ever - they're 'Palestinian' homes.

In Wednesday's decision, Justices Edna Arbel, Elyakim Rubinstein and Hanan Meltzer ordered the state to implement demolition orders that the civil administration had issued against two Palestinian houses near the villages of Sauya and Yatma in the West Bank. It also ordered the state to prepare a schedule for demolishing other illegally built Palestinian houses against which it had issued but failed to execute demolition orders.

The decision came in response to a petition filed by Regavim, which describes itself as "a non-political movement whose aim is to protect national lands and properties and to prevent other elements from illegally taking over national land resources."

It is the first time that the High Court has ordered the state to demolish Palestinian buildings against which demolition orders have been served. Regavim's lawyer, Amir Fisher, said in the wake of the ruling that "as of tomorrow, we will file more petitions pointing to illegal construction and Palestinian outposts [a reference to clusters of illegally built housing] in Judea and Samaria."

The court has already ordered the state to submit timetables for the demolition of illegal construction by Jewish settlers in many settlements and outposts.

Just imagine what would happen if the court got more right-wing judges.

Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:47 PM