JINO's protest David Friedman's nomination to be US Ambaassador to Israel
Several 'as a Jews' protested David Friedman's nomination as US Ambassador to Israel in a Senate hearing on Thursday.
Let's go to the videotape.
One of the things that upsets the JINO's is David's connection to the yeshiva in Beit El (a connection that is likely the result of one of his children studying there - that's usually how these connections are formed).
As the Senate holds a confirmation hearing Thursday on the nomination
of David Friedman, he could face grilling about his ties to Beit El, a
community north of Jerusalem located in the heart of the occupied
territory Palestinians demand for an independent state.
A bankruptcy attorney from the Five Towns area of Long Island,
Friedman is a major donor to Beit El and serves as the president of the
American Friends of Beit El Yeshiva, the U.S. fundraising arm of the
settlement’s Jewish seminary and affiliated institutions, including high
schools, an Israeli military prep academy, a newspaper for the
religious Jewish settler community and the right-wing news site Arutz
Sheva.
They make the entire town sound like shnorrers (beggars). In fact, the 'American Friends' setup is entirely legal - nearly every school in Israel that raises money in the US has one in order for donors to qualify for 501(c)(3) deductions. Each of the other institutions likely has its own 'American Friends' with the likely exception of Arutz Sheva, which the last time I checked was a commercial venture.
But even by Trump’s new standards, Friedman appears to be extreme.
Friedman is a fervent supporter of the settlements and an outspoken
opponent of Palestinian statehood.
“I have expressed my skepticism about two-state state solutions
because of what I perceive as the Palestinians inability to denounce
terrorism and recognize Israel as a legitimate state,” Friedman said.
If that's 'extreme,' I don't many Orthodox Jews in the United States or Israel who aren't extremists.
In Beit El, the Friedman Faculty House, which bears his and his wife’s
names on the facade, is built on private Palestinian land without
permission from its Palestinian landowners, according to the
anti-settlement watchdog Kerem Navot.
And now CBS is accepting claims by Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily as 'facts.' Prove it.
Beit El to IDF: 'Protect us or we'll do it ourselves'
Residents of Beit El are fed up with what they feel is a lack of protection from the IDF. On Tuesday, they went out to demonstrate to tell the IDF to protect them, or they will take matters in their own hands.
I doubt that any of you will be too surprised at this, but US Secretary of State John FN Kerry's 'framework agreement' includes an Israeli 'settlement freeze.' But what's puzzling about this report is what it says about Jerusalem.
Officials in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office have yet to
officially respond to the request, Army Radio reported. While there has
been no official response from Jerusalem, government officials have
resigned themselves to the fact that Israeli gestures are necessary in
order to entice Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas back to
the negotiating table.
According to Army Radio, Israel would declare an "unofficial" freeze to
all construction in the isolated Jewish settlements that lie outside of
the major population centers under Israeli control in the West Bank.
While an official freeze on construction requires a government edict, an
unofficial freeze could be implemented by placing bureaucratic
obstacles and red tape on building plans or having the defense minister
order the Civil Administration, which is charged with approving
construction plans in the territories, to cease deliberating on such
plans. In addition, the interior minister could instruct the Jerusalem
Building and Planning Council to halt all plans in sensitive areas of
the city, and the prime minister could order the housing minister to
cease publishing tenders.
An unofficial freeze would enable government officials to deny its
existence while in practice halting all construction, according to Army
Radio.
Emphasis added is mine. Two questions here: First, there are 'Jewish settlements' that are not isolated but that lie outside of the major population centers under Israeli control in the 'West Bank.' For example, anything in the Jordan Valley. Or the Beit El - Shilo - Ofra area (which was not originally considered a 'major settlement bloc' but Netanyahu has hinted that it might be considered one). Or the Hebron area.
Second, if the only place in which we are being asked to freeze 'settlement construction' is in 'Jewish settlements' that lie outside of the major population centers under Israeli control in the 'West Bank,' why would we have to halt construction anywhere in Jerusalem? Is it not under our control? Is Jerusalem not an area that Israel intends to keep (another criterion given earlier in the same article)?
A report indicates that Prime Minister Netanyahu has demanded that Israel retain the Beit El bloc (including Shilo, pictured above) in any 'peace agreement' with the 'Palestinians.' It goes without saying that the 'Palestinians' have rejected the demand.
In most discussions of the blocs, there are three that are
generally mentioned – the Ariel bloc, which includes most of the towns
of central Samaria; Maale Adumim bloc, encompassing eastern suburbs of
Jerusalem; and the Gush Etzion bloc. But a report on Army Radio Thursday
said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was demanding that Israel
retain a fourth bloc – the area around Beit El, north of Jerusalem.
According to the report, Netanyahu told Kerry that Israel could
not give up these areas, which played a major role in Jewish history.
Shilo, for example, was the home of the temporary Sanctuary (mishkan)
before the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Nabi Samuel is the
burial place of the Prophet Samuel, and Beit El itself was the site of
the famous dream of the Biblical Jacob, in which he saw angels ascending
and descending from heaven.
If that's the case, how does he plan to give up Hebron or Bethlehem? Or does he include them as part of the Gush Etzion bloc?
Netanyahu also has another demand, which is rational, but which is unlikely to get a fair hearing.
In addition to demanding the fourth bloc, the report said,
Netanyahu has nixed the idea of a “centimeter for centimeter” land swap,
as the PA has demanded. At least part of the swap would come in the
form of cash, or in the value of the land, cities, and industrial base
that Israel would be surrendering to make the plan work.
Of course, the 'Palestinians' have rejected both demands. I wish our government had the courage, the conviction and the unity to just dig in and keep to our positions like the 'Palestinians' do. We're constantly running around looking for concessions we can make, while they just keep saying no.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is promising that if he forms the next government, he will not uproot 'masses of Jews.' Will he keep that promise? What's a 'mass'?
As he sought to stop voters leaving Likud Beytenu for Naftali Bennett’s Bayit
Yehudi party on his right, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told The Jerusalem
Post this week that a “real and fair” accord with the Palestinians cannot
include driving masses of Jews from their homes in settlement blocs beyond the
Green Line.
“I think that there is recognition that ultimately there has
to be a real and fair solution, and that certainly doesn’t include driving out
hundreds of thousands of Jews who live in the suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the
suburbs of Tel Aviv, in the Ariel bloc,” Netanyahu said in an interview in his
Jerusalem office.
“I think that is unrealistic.”
It's unrealistic because it won't satisfy the 'Palestinians' - who seek the extirpation of the Jewish state - anyway. But what's a 'mass' of Jews? The number of Jews who live outside the 'settlement blocs' is ten times or thereabouts the number of Jews who lived in Gaza. Are they considered 'masses of Jews'? Would Netanyahu try to force them from their homes?
Meanwhile, Bibi continues to live with the delusion that the 'international community' is going to silently accept Jewish construction in 'east' Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
Asked whether Israel
could withstand the intense international pressure against building in east
Jerusalem and the settlements, Netanyahu said, “I think that many recognize that
while there are differences inside Israel, there is a common acceptance that the
so-called settlement blocs will remain part of Israel in any settlement, and
that’s where the majority of construction is taking place.”
That should be 'recognized.' Until the schmuck in the White House disavowed the Bush letter and told the 'Palestinians' and the 'international community' that America was going to stand by and let them have it all. I'm all in favor of construction, but we have to be realistic that we are going to take a lot of abuse because of it and that we have to ignore the abuse and just go on doing our thing.
When asked how Likud Beytenu, with Feiglin No. 23
on its candidates list, could throw the “extremist” epithet at Bayit Yehudi, he
said: “I think everybody knows what the Likud list consists of. And to be
honest, I think Feiglin is an exception. All our people support military
service, reject military disobedience, and oppose vehemently separation of
women.”
That's harsher than what he had to say about Naftali Bennett.
Netanyahu – who knows Bennett well from when the Bayit Yehudi
leader served as his chief of staff from 2006- 2008 – dodged a direct answer
when asked whether he thinks Bennett is “extreme.”
“I’m not rating
anyone, and I am not disqualifying anyone,” the prime minister said. “But I
think it’s important for people to realize that the only way we can lead the
country is to have a very strong ruling party.”
I've had this one sitting open for a while, but it was pushed aside for Operation Pillar of Defense. It's still relevant.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court gave the State of Israel and an alleged Arab landowner four months to address the question of whether private building on land taken by the state for military purposes before 1979 is illegal and must be demolished. The question relates specifically to Beit El, which is in Samaria (and which has already had one neighborhood demolished for similar reasons), but there are 40 Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria where land was originally taken for military purposes before 1979, and subsequently housing was built upon the same land. The magic of 1979 is that a Supreme Court ruling from that year related to Elon Moreh, in Northern Samaria, made it illegal for Jews to build upon private land that was originally taken by the government of Israel or the IDF for military purposes.
This is from the first link.
The court cautioned the plaintiff and the defendant against
viewing the decision as a sign of support for one side or the other. At issue
are five apartment buildings, two of which are already under construction and
three others which a developers hope to build.
The nongovernmental
organization Yesh Din, which represents the Palestinian land owner, attacked the
state.
The state’s argument as already partially stated,
both in a September brief to the court and in a hearing on Sunday, runs counter
to 33 years of legal interpretations with respect to a 1979 High Court Decision
that dealt with the Elon Moreh settlement. In that ruling, the court prohibited
Jewish construction on private Palestinian property seized for military
purposes.
Following Alon Moreh, the government turned its focus to the
development of state land for West Bank settlements.
The state is trying
to upend 33 years of legal precedent, Yesh Din said.
It added that if the
state’s “new” arguments, as they referred to them, are validated by the court,
it would impact private Palestinian property located within the boundaries of 40
West Bank settlements.
Yesh Din first filed a petition with the court in
December 2010, on behalf of a resident of the nearby Palestinian village of Dura
al-Quara. In April 2011, the state promised to remove the buildings, but has
subsequently changed its position, and is now looking to legalize
them.
The court’s interim decision on Sunday was that the state would
have four months, until March 11, 2013, to elaborate on its position.
The
state said that its request to continue with the building and legalize the land
are not a question of an old or new position.
According to the state,
until recently, not all of the legal tools available for legalizing and
promoting building in the West Bank were being used.
Attorney Chani Ofek,
representing the state, said that military orders applying to the structures in
question had been issued prior to the 1979 Elon Moreh decision.
Ofek
added that the same military orders that apply to these structures were the
basis for the entire Beit El settlement.
Thus, according to Ofek, the
idea of fulfilling the “potential” of the Beit El settlement and the rights to
use these lands predated the Elon Moreh decision, and cannot be “reversed” by
that decision.
My guess is that no one has a clue how many people would be impacted if the court decided to expel all the Jews who live on land like this, and that's one of the issues that needs to be addressed. But either way this is not good. At some point, you have to see that use of land for a certain amount of time is enough to create ownership rights (it's called adverse possession in the US). 33 years and up ought to be more than enough time, regardless of whether the buildings were built legally or not. It's outrageous to expel people from their homes due to technicalities so many years later.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, a Jewish municipality in Samaria is allowed to expand
It was disclosed on Thursday that this week, the IDF signed the orders allowing the municipality of Beit El to expand onto state lands that were outside its boundaries. I believe that this is the first time since the Oslo Accords in 1993 that the state has allowed a Jewish city in Samaria to expand beyond its municipal boundaries.
The expansion was part of the agreement with the residents of the Ulpana neighborhood pursuant to which they were expelled voluntarily from their homes in late June. Another part of that agreement was the construction of 300 new housing units in Beit El - ten times the number of families who were expelled. It is likely that 150-200 of those units will be built in the newly expanded part of the municipality. 'Peace Now' is seething, and undoubtedly the 'Palestinians,' the Europeans and the Obama administration will also seethe once they find out.
Yariv Oppenheimer, executive director of Peace Now, said that to the best of his knowledge, the land on which the Border Police base was located was state land, and did not belong to the nearby Palestinian village of Dura al-Qara.
Still, he attacked the expansion plan, which he said awarded a prize to settlers from Beit El who had built the Ulpana outpost without permits on private Palestinian property.
“They broke the law, and now they are getting more space from the government,” Oppenheimer said.
He added that expanding the boundary line of a settlement also flew in the face of Israeli pledges to the international community not to take more land for West Bank settlements.
But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has supported settler construction on state land. He has, however, taken a stand against unauthorized Jewish building on private Palestinian property.
It's time to admit the reality that the 'peace process' has failed and to stop keeping 22% of Israel's land mass and 10% of its population in limbo. Nineteen years is long enough. We cannot wait forever.
Sixteen families are being expelled from their homes in Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood on Tuesday morning in accordance with the Supreme Court's diktat that they be expelled. Most of the families are expected to leave peacefully. The government will build them new homes... eventually....
Immediately after the prayer service, 16 families from the Ulpana outpost on the outskirts of the community will relocate to modular housing in Beit El, in keeping with the High Court of Justice mandate that their homes must be relocated by July 1.
On Thursday, another 17 families will leave.
The court has ordered the state to act against five apartment buildings and three caravans in Ulpana, which were built without permits on private Palestinian property. The state plans to move the structures onto an authorized tract of land in Beit El, in a process that will take a year.
Residents agreed to peacefully leave their homes in an agreement reached with the state last week. They did so in exchange for assurances from the government that it would build 300 new homes in Beit El and that the state would no longer support the demolition of Jewish homes in the West Bank in its responses to High Court petitions.
Ulpana residents objected to the term “voluntary evacuation,” since theirs was a forced and painful removal even if they were leaving peacefully.
They promised to continue to build and develop Judea and Samaria with the same determination which had brought them to Ulpana.
It is time to end the dictatorship of Israel's self-perpetuating leftist 'Supreme Court.' It is time for the representatives of the people of Israel to take control of the judicial selection process and to end the tyranny of the unelected court.
After a late meeting Tuesday night residents of five apartment buildings in Ulpana outpost, located on the outskirts of the West Bank settlement of Beit El, agreed to voluntarily evacuate their homes by July 1.
They did so only after the Prime Minister’s Office pledged to build 300 new homes in Beit El and to amend its policy with respect to the removal of unauthorized settlement homes on private Palestinian property, according to a statement to the media by Ulpana residents.
In May, the High Court of Justice ordered the state to demolish the buildings, which house 30 families. Three caravans have also been included in the mandate, so that in total 33 families are due to leave their homes.
Ulpana residents noted that building 300 housing units hardly compensated them for the loss of their initial homes.
They quoted a statement by the rabbi of Beit El, Zalman Melamed, in which he said that just as a father who lost a son cannot be compensated by ten new ones in exchange, so too, “the pain of losing these (initial homes) won’t lessen and the stain (this action creates) on the government won’t lessen.”
In their media statement Ulpana residents said they had agreed to voluntarily evacuate, because “we are peaceful people.”
They added that, “this battle between brothers is tearing apart the Israeli public in general, and our population in specific.”
They had agreed to leave, they said, after receiving guarantees from emissaries form the Prime Minister’s Office for 300 new homes in Beit El, along with a promise that the homes they live in now will be relocated.
In addition, they said, “the prime minister’s office, the prosecutor’s office and the Defense Ministry won’t send out statements about absurd decisions to destroy developing neighborhoods and settlements.”
They asked for this last pledge in hopes of preventing future demolitions of settler homes.
It remains to be seen whether this changes the fate of Migron and Amona, and whether the homes are ever actually built. My bet is that it will have no effect on the former, and that the homes will be built (or at least started while the current government is in power), but that it will take many years before they are ready.
The government is close to a deal that would see the 30 families resident in the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El leave their homes voluntarily in exchange for the construction of ten new buildings (double the existing five) with 30 apartments each. That would be a total of 300 new apartments, ten times the number being destroyed.
Beit El Chief Rabbi Zalman Melamed said Monday evening that a deal on the voluntary evacuation of five homes in the settlement's Ulpana neighborhood was imminent.
Melamed, who has been negotiating with the government on behalf of the neighborhood's residents, said all activity surrounding the settlement will be frozen for the next 24 hours, adding that the agreement, if finalized, would include "significant achievements" for the settlers.
...
According to the agreement, 10 apartment buildings consisting of 30 units each will be built in Beit El. The buildings will be constructed on the grounds of a Border Guard base situated at the entrance to the settlement. The base will be evacuated.
A leader of the teenagers who planned to resist the evacuation said in response to the agreement, "We are very angry. If it's true – we were sold out.
"They are doing to us exactly what they did to Gush Katif (in Gaza) and Migron. We haven’t learned anything," he told Ynet Monday night.
I'll believe that those buildings will be built when I see it. I can't believe any government with Ehud Barak having a veto over 'settlement construction' is actually going to build 300 apartments in Beit El.
“We have to defend these homes with our bodies,” said Itzhik Shadmi, who heads the Binyamin Citizens’ Committee.
“Everyone for whom the nation of Israel is dear, should come here,” he said.
“If thousands are here there won’t be any demolitions. This business that it is easy to tear down Jewish homes when thousand of unauthorized [Palestinian] homes are being built nearby in Area C. This terrible discrimination has to be stopped,” he said.
Shadmi, along with the Beit El Council head Moshe Rosenbaum and residents of the Ulpana outpost spoke with the media at a press conference they held in a large tent, which was set up outside the homes.
Some supporters have already set up sleeping tents in the parking lot outside the homes. They have also begun stockpiling tires, which were lined up Thursday night by the walkway in back of the Ulpana structures.
At the press conference, settlers warned against a civil war even as they said that they planed to conduct a non-violent protest.
The danger of a civil war is the result of the decision to destroy the homes, said Beit El Council head Moshe Rosenbaum.
“The person who is responsible for this situation is the one could neutralize this situation. It is in his hands,” said Rosenbaum, referring to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“It is the right of the residents and the thousands who support them to sit in their homes and to passively protest this immoral, unjust and inhuman decision, and that is what is going to happen,” Rosenbaum said.
He said he opposed violence against soldiers and those who were there would do their best to prevent it.
“We are not an army. We are citizens,” Rosenbaum said.
Israel Television reported on Thursday night that the government is not disclosing when the expulsion will happen. I have a sick feeling that it will happen on the Sabbath - this week or next.
If you are staying in the Ulpana neighborhood, please drop me a note via email.
Some 300 people have moved in to Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood since the Knesset voted down a law that would have vitiated the Netanyahu-Barak government's agreement to expel its residents by July 1.
Hundreds of people have been flowing to the neighborhood of Givat HaUlpana in Beit El since the Knesset voted down a law that was intended to try to save it from destruction after the Supreme Court ruled that it should be demolished since the state prosecution did not present objections to an Arab's claim that the sale of the land to Jews was fraudulent.
About 300 people came to the neighborhood on Sunday, to raise the residents' spirits and to join the struggle for saving the neighborhood. Most of the visitors came from outside Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron). A group of about 100 people came from Ramat HaSharon, and another 50 came from Tzfat.
The organizers of the struggle say there has been a massive outpouring of support that is reminiscent of the struggle for Gush Katif.
"Twenty families already live in the location in tents and in the last few days we have received requests from additional families and groups that want to coordinate their arrival," an organizer said. "We are preparing logistically and organizationally to take in anyone who wants to help with the struggle."
Let's go to the videotape.
Hot fun in the summertime indeed.... You would have thought that the government would have learned by now not to do these things when the kids are off from school.... Let's hope that this time the results are better than Gush Katif.
Haaretz reports that the government plans to legalize 13 of the 18 contended 'outposts' in Judea and Samaria because they were not built on 'private Palestinian land.' The other five 'outposts' will be destroyed and their residents expelled from their homes over the next few months.
Because the 13 outposts are not built on privately-owned Palestinian land, the legalization process could presumably make the petitions against them moot.
The remaining five outposts cannot be legalized, because they are located on privately-owned Palestinian land, and so are slated for evacuation.
The first to go will be Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood, which the court has ordered dismantled by July 1. Next in line is Migron, an outpost near Ramallah, which must be dismantled by August 1.
Givat Assaf, an outpost close to Migron that houses 25 families, will likely be evacuated at some point this summer, though it's unclear when.
...
After that will be Amona, an outpost of 50 families located near Ofra. The government has promised to dismantle this outpost by the end of the year.
Mitzpeh Kramim is also slated for evacuation, but the government has not announced when that is slated to occur. Nor has it announced a timetable for the legalization of the other 13 outposts.
I doubt that it is going to be this simple - either for the 13 or for the five. What could go wrong?
For those trying to figure out the definition of 'private Palestinian land,' go here.
What the old yishuv would have done about the Ulpana
Previously, I related an anecdote I heard on Israel Radio about Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt"l, the 'anti-Zionist' leader of the old Yishuv during the pre-state period. Here's another one that has bearing on the government's decision this week to dismantle the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El.
Rav Gellis explained the story took place in the time of HaGaon HaRav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ZT”L and he felt that from this event one may extrapolate what should have been done concerning the Ulpana homes.
There was a property in Meah Shearim that belonged to sheikh, a resident of Kfar Lifta located in the Jerusalem corridor. One day, a member of the old yishuv decided to purchase that property for a number of families. 100 people became involved in the effort to make the purchase of 170 dunams (42.5 acres) to construct homes for 100 families.
It was realized that the actual property was too small to accommodate the new area that was to be constructed for the families, so each night, a number of people went out and moved the border markers a bit to enlarge the property on the south and west sides.
The sheikh was not present in the area and he did not measure the property. Apparently he did not become aware of the nighttime activities, which in actuality resulted in the borders being moved into an adjoining plot of land.
One of the old yishuv residents was not comfortable with what was taking place and decided to approach R’ Sonnenfeld to ask if the gezeila of the property is permitted.
The Sonnenfeld responded that it was not gezeila, but “pediya” (redeeming). “We are not stealing land but rather redeeming land. We are paying the Arab because this is the galus and there is no alternative but in essence, it is not his land”. Therefore, the actions are permitted and that area has become known as Meah Shearim.
The anti-Zionists led by Rav Sonnenfeld would have done a better job of running a country than the modern-day successors to Ben Gurion. For starters, they wouldn't have listened to the Supreme Court - only to God.
The NJ-9 Democratic primary and the Ulpana neighborhoods: Two different displays of Alinskyism
Caroline Glick discusses the Democratic primary in New Jersey's 9th Congressional district, along with the decision to destroy the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El. Caroline reports that they are both displays of Alinskyism.
Saul Alinsky, the godfather of subversive radical political action, had a very clear strategy for undermining and destroying his enemies: Infiltrate, divide and destroy.
Since his disciple Barack Obama was elected US president in 2008, Alinsky's impact on Obama has received a fair amount of attention.
Less noticed has been the adoption of Alinsky's methods by radical leftist Jews in the US and Israel for the purpose of undermining the American Jewish community on the one hand, and Israel's nationalist camp on the other. This week we saw the impact of both campaigns.
...
SO IF Netanyahu doesn't oppose the communities of Judea and Samaria, why is he supporting the destruction of Givat Haulpana? The answer is that he and his angry constituents were set up by the radicals who run the state prosecution.
True, the leftist-dominated Supreme Court ordered the government to destroy the neighborhood. But the state prosecution gave the court's justices no other choice.
The case regarding Givat Haulpana exposes several of the pathologies of Israel's legal system. But by far the most glaring pathology it reveals is the politicization of the state prosecution by the radical leftists who run it.
While the prosecution did leave the Supreme Court with no choice, the Knesset and Netanyahu did have a choice. Unlike the US, where all three branches of government are equal, under Israel's governmental system, the Knesset is supposed to be the sovereign. The Knesset has the right - indeed the duty - to overrule the Supreme Court when it believes that the court is wrong. Unfortunately, the Knesset has fled from that power every time there has been a critical issue for the last several years (e.g. the 'security fence' route).
In addition to Caroline's prescription, the Knesset needs to stand up and reclaim its own birthright. Perhaps if Knesset members were held accountable to the voters rather than to their parties, they would be more willing to stand up and be counted.
Netanyahu green lights 850 housing units in Judea and Samaria
This might discourage the 'Palestinians' from bringing lawsuits to establish ownership of land in Judea and Samaria. Prime Minister Netanyahu has approved the construction of 850 new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria. 300 are in Beit El, which is where the Ulpana neighborhood is located, and the rest are elsewhere.
Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias announced Wednesday evening that his ministry would approve the construction of 551 housing units in the West Bank.
They will comprise 117 units in Ariel, 92 in Ma'aleh Adumim, 114 in Adam, 114 in Efrat and 84 in Kiryat Arba. The new housing units will be built in addition to the three hundred that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has already promised to build in Beit El following the evacuation of the apartment buildings in the West Bank outpost Ulpana.
This decision was reached in a conversation Wednesday between Netanyahu and Atias.
"Increasing the supply of land helps young couples, and construction in the West Bank strengthens the settlements. Although 30 apartments will be evacuated, 850 will be built instead. Under the circumstances, this is the appropriate solution," said Atias.
If they ever get built.... If these numbers hold up (and YNet is currently reporting that the places that will get new homes are 'Efrat, Gush Etzion and Karnei Shomron'), what would be most impressive is building in Kiryat Arba, which is beyond the 'security fence.' If YNet's formulation is correct, Karnei Shomron is also beyond the fence. And as to Adam (mentioned by JPost in the first link), I would bet that some of those homes are intended to be used by people expelled from Migron when and if that happens.
After the Knesset turned down the bill that would have saved the Ulpana earlier on Wednesday, the revenants vowed that the fight is just beginning.
"Netanyahu's government has shown its true, disgraceful colors," Amona resident Yehuda Efrat, who heads the settlers' protest tent, told reporters. "The fight is just beginning."
After the vote, some 1,000 right-wing activists blocked the entrance to the Knesset building, having walked there from the protest tent they set up outside the Supreme Court. Officers and security guards tried to prevent them from entering the Knesset and several clashes were recorded. Five people were detained.
"Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat, the prime minister and members of the cabinet suddenly came out with the claim that Israel will face international prosecution," the bill's initiator MK Zvulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) said.
Representing the coalition's stance, Minister Benny Begin said that the bill would weaken the settlement enterprise instead of strengthening it.
He stressed that the government would continue to promote and expand settlements, but noted that the bill would not hold water and would only harm the settlement enterprise.
Many of the bill's proponents withdrew their initial support and voted against it, largely due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissal threat. Members of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu faction voted against the bill, in line with Netanyahu's instructions, with the exception of David Rotem, who voted in favor, and three MKs who chose not to attend the vote.
Among those who did not attend the vote were Shas ministers Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias, deputy ministers Yakov Litzman and Menachem Eliezer Moses (United Torah Judaism), Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi); Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud); and deputy ministers Gila Gamliel and Ayoob Kara (Likud).
Eight Likud MKs including Miri Regev, Danny Danon and Yariv Levin endorsed the bill.
Dozens of settlers gathered at Highway 1's entrance to Jerusalem and set tires on fire in an attempt to block the city's main gateway. Police forces dispersed them.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of teens blocked a Jerusalem road in protest of the government's intention to evacuate Ulpana. They chanted "A Jew does not expel a Jew" and "Muhammad is dead" and carried signs slamming Netanyahu and his cabinet.
Seven years ago, the revenants were played for suckers. It won't happen again.
Netanyahu creates committee to approve Judea and Samaria construction as bill to save Ulpana rejected
In a move that is intended to mollify Israel's Right for the upcoming expulsion of thirty Jewish families from Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood, Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria out of the exclusive control of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and placed it into the hands of an as-yet-unappointed committee.
The Prime Minister’s office has yet to publicize the committee’s composition. It has said, however, that Netanyahu would head the committee and that Defense Minister Ehud Barak would be a member.
Settlers and right wing politicians have long called for Netanyahu to create such a committee, which had existed under past governments.
But a bill that would have saved the Ulpana and two outposts in Samaria from destruction was rejected earlier today by the Knesset 69-22.
By a vote of 69-22, the Knesset has rejected the bill proposed for retroactively legalizing a number of West Bank outposts, including the Ulpana outpost.
Notable was the absence of Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz and Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein from the vote.
Both ministers had previously publicly declared that they would vote for the bill even though they would be fired from their cabinet positions.
Despite their public declarations, ultimately they absented themselves from the vote.
Also noteworthy was that most of Yisrael Beytenu voted against the bill, although some Yisrael Beytenu MKs, such as Minister of Infrastructure Uzi LandaU absented themselves from the vote.
Some commentators had predicted that the party would absent itself from the vote entirely.
Shas leaders absented themselves from the vote, as predicted by many commentators.
Shameful. Just shameful.
The most amazing thing about this is listening to the pious platitudes on the radio about how we must obey the unelected, self-perpetuating 'Supreme Court.' Who the heck elected them?
There are some ministers and deputy ministers who are going to vote to legalize the outposts on Wednesday despite threats to fire them. One party - HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) appears to be on its way out of the coalition. And one Likud minister and three deputy ministers have said that they will vote for the bill, and let Netanyahu dare to fire them.
Habayit Hayehudi's leader, Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz, vowed to vote in favor of the bills despite Netanyahu's threat. Sources close to him left open a small possibility that he could back down at the last minute, but they said the most likely scenario would be that he would quit and take his party out of the coalition with him before Netanyahu got a chance to fire him.
"I am choosing between bad options, not good ones," he said in a meeting late Tuesday with his loyalists who tried to persuade him not to quit.
While a dozen Likud ministers expressed support for the bills in the past, it appeared Tuesday night that the only minister from the party ready to be fired over the issue was Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, who is the only Likud minister who lives over the Green Line.
"Yuli has not changed his mind that he will not vote against bills that could save the Ulpana neighborhood from destruction," a source close to him said.
Along with Edelstein, three Likud deputies will be fired for voting for the bill: Deputy Regional Development Minister Ayoub Kara, Deputy Pensioners Affairs Minister Lea Ness, and Gila Gamliel, who is in charge of women's issues in the Prime Minister's Office.
"I was not born to be a deputy minister," Kara said. 'I am voting on principle. I have a path and I will stick to it. I don't believe that destroying Jewish homes is the way to solve the conflict with the Palestinians."
Gamliel said she was 'loyal to the prime minister but even more loyal to her conscience.'
Coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin could also be fired for pushing for the legislation. Elkin said that rather than threaten ministers, Netanyahu should adopt policies that would prevent "a tsunami of destruction."
Shas ministers intend to leave the room to avoid getting fired but the party's MKs who are not ministers will vote in favor. Yisrael Beytenu is expected to do the same, but a party spokesman said no decision would be made until an official ruling about the Ulpana outpost is given by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.
The residents of Ulpana are already preparing for their expected evacuation. A few days ago a truck delivered dozens of tires to the neighborhood. The tires may be used by those who oppose the eviction if and when security forces arrive in the neighborhood.
The locals did not say who was responsible for the delivery.
The extent of the opposition on the day of the evacuation will apparently be determined by local rabbis, but extremists may resort to violence regardless of the community leaders' directives.
Matan Fishman of Rishon Lezion, who attended the demonstration in Jerusalem, said "it appears that Ulpana will be evacuated. If it does, we'll travel to the neighborhood and lie on the ground. We'll prove that we are not suckers."
Opposition grows within the coalition to Netanyahu plan to expel Jews from Ulpana
Eli Yishai (Shas). Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). Yisrael Katz (Likud). Reuven Rivlin (Likud). Tzipi Hotovely (Likud). Otniel Schneller (Kadima). Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich (Kadima). All of these MK's - members of the coalition - have come out and announced that they will vote in favor of a bill that would circumvent the Supreme Court ruling that requires the government to destroy the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El by July 1 (and Amona and Givat Assaf by August 1), and to expel the Jews currently living therein from their homes. If coalition discipline is invoked, Yishai, Lieberman and Katz could yet change their votes to preserve their seats in the government. But whether or not that happens it is not yet clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu, who opposes the bill, has the votes in the bag.
Netanyahu had indicated earlier that he might vote in favor of the bill if attorney-general Yehuda Weinstein would not approve a compromise allowing the five buildings of the controversial Ulpana outpost to be moved within the settlement Beit El.
Despite reports that Weinstein told the prime minister there would be legal problems with such a plan, Netanyahu said the attorney-general would defend his plan in court.
"We are a government that abides by the rule of law and strengthens settlement,” Netanyahu told the Likud faction. “There is no contradiction between the two. Even if the Court's decision is tough for some people, we must respect it.”
...
"The bill could be disqualified by the Court and cause problems internationally, which would result in the outpost being evacuated and damage to the entire settlement enterprise,” Netanyahu said. “We are bringing solutions that strengthen settlement. The alternative of passing this legislation would harm settlement.”
The prime minister said his solution is possible “practically, economically and legally.”
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Netanyahu received support for his stance from his Likud colleagues, Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, who announced today that they would oppose the bill.
But Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said he would back the bill and Transport Minister Israel Katz said he would leave early from Europe to vote in favor. MK Tzipi Hotovely asked Netanyahu to enable ministers to vote their conscience on the issue rather than enforce coalition discipline.
“The law must be just, and an injustice should not be fixed by another injustice,” Rivlin said.
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Mofaz said he understood the pain of the settlers but the law must be kept. He added that “the bill would harm the Jews in Judea and Samaria, who are overwhelmingly there legally.”
But Kadima MKs Otniel Schneller and Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich said they would vote in favor of the bill. Whether the bill will pass could be determined by the votes of Likud, Yisrael Beyteinu and Shas ministers, which will not be decided until Netanyahu rules on whether coalition discipline will be enforced.
Netanyahu held a late-night meeting with Weinstein about the Ulpana Sunday. Weinstein reportedly told the prime minister that while many of the structures can physically be relocated, it is unclear whether he can endorse moving the structures to an area currently under the IDF's jurisdiction but considered disputed territory under international law.
Yishai said in the Shas faction meeting that "after meeting with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Shas faction has decided to support the law."
Lieberman said earlier Monday at a conference in Eilat that "we think that it is better to find a solution and not create a crisis. But if we can't find any reasonable arrangement, we will vote in favor of the settlement regulation bill. I support the prime minister's position that if a home in the West Bank is evacuated, 10 other homes will be built to strengthen the message that settlement in the West Bank can't be stopped by such tricks."
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin also supports the settlement regulation bill. "This is a matter of conscience of the top priority," Rivlin said at a meeting of the Knesset leadership. The speaker also announced that the bill would be brought before the Knesset plenum for a vote on Wednesday.
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MK Tzipi Hotovely told her fellow Likud members "this is not a battle over five homes; it is a battle against the delegitimization of the settlement enterprise. Likud was burnt by the uprooting (of Jewish settlements) in Gush Katif."
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
