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.”
LATMA interviews 'Palestinian' Minister of Uncontrollable Rage on Iran and sings about Israel's prosecuting attorneys
LATMA interviews Tawil Fadiha, the 'Palestinian' Minister of Uncontrollable Rage on Iran (with English subtitles), and sings about Israel's prosecuting attorneys.
Video: SWAT team commander orders officers to shoot Jewish teenagers during Migron expulsion
My apologies in advance - this deeply disturbing video is in Hebrew with Hebrew-only subtitles. If I find it in English, I will repost it.
In this video, you will see five teenage boys, who look to be about 14-16, on the roof of a 'caravan' in Migron, the Jewish outpost whose residents were expelled last week. An officer of the SWAT team that came to expel the Jews (most of whom had already left) orders his officers to kill the boys, but the officers say they won't do it because there are cameras there.
Toward the end, as the boys are being shoved into a police van, the commander says to one of the boys that he's lucky there were cameras there, and another boy asked what would have happened if there were no cameras there. The officers pull the commander away.
Let's go to the videotape.
At the very end, there's a story that MK Michael Ben Ari has called for indicting the police commander who ordered his officers to kill the boys. There's a similar story in English here, which includes a much longer version of the video seen above.
The protesters had gathered on the roof of one of the structures in the area. Residents did not offer any resistance to the eviction, and there were no reports of exceptional incidents or violent resistance on the part of anyone, resident or protester. The protesters on the roof shouted slogans against the eviction and in support of the continued Jewish presence at the site.
Police, meanwhile, gathered around the roof, demanding that the protesters leave. They refused, and the tones police used to demand that they leave grew progressively harsher, until police started shouting “pull them down off the roof,” and “kill them.” One officer is seen telling a youth “come over here. You're dead, you're going to die" (the incident can be seen about 12 minutes into the video, linked below).
About 8 protesters were arrested. One of the detained youths reported that the officer who took him in told him that he was “lucky that he was caught on film,” leaving to the imagination what would have happened o him if he had not been so “lucky.”
In a statement, police said that the eviction of Migron residents and protesters “had been conducted with cooperation of all, ensuring the privacy and dignity of residents.” The protesters, whom police said had gathered on the roof the night before the eviction and had poured liquids off the roof in order to “defend” themselves, were removed legally. “In the event that a complaint is filed regarding improper behavior by police, it will be dealt with accordingly,” the statement said.
Commenting on the video, MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) demanded that the threatening officers be suspended or removed from the force altogether. In a letter to Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovich, Ben-Ari wrote that “even if the youths were acting in a manner that made officers very angry, there is no place in the Israel Police for such officers. It would be best if, before legal action is initiated, if the officers in question are removed from contact with the public.”
I guess having video can work both ways, can't it?
Caroline Glick describes the shocking (unless you live in Israel and understand how the system works) story of how Migron was lost.
On the face of it, Weinstein's defiance of a legally binding government decision was unlawful. Certainly it would appear to be grounds for his immediate firing. But while shocking, Weinstein's rank insubordination was not unique.
As relates to Israel's legal rights in Judea and Samaria, Weinstein is guided not by the law but by the ideology of the far Left. This ideology received formal expression in a 2005 report on unauthorized Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria authored by former assistant state attorney Talia Sasson. The Sasson Report represented a wholesale renunciation of all Israeli claims to legal rights over Judea and Samaria. It was unhinged from both Israeli and international law.
And it was embraced by the legal fraternity.
After Sasson finished her report, she joined the post-Zionist Meretz Party. In 2009 she ran unsuccessfully for Knesset.
In an attempt to mitigate the damage Sasson's report caused to Israel's legal position in Judea and Samaria, in February Netanyahu commissioned retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy to lead a task force of distinguished jurists and present the government with a report setting out Israel's legal rights to Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu asked Levy to also offer recommendations for implementing those rights in relation to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Weinstein didn't even wait for the Levy Commission to begin its work before he sent Netanyahu a letter informing him that the commission's report would have no impact on his handling of issues related to Israel's rights to the areas. And as his decision to ignore the legally constituted ministerial committee's position on Migron made clear, Weinstein continues to behave as though he and his colleagues sit above Israel's democratically elected representatives.
Many on the Right are urging Netanyahu to adopt the findings of the Levy Commission as official government policy. While such a move certainly can't hurt, it is hard to see what difference it would make in practice. Weinstein has already pledged to defy the government. So even if the report is adopted, the government's lawyers will refuse to defend its positions.
Weinstein is only able to behave as he does because he operates in an environment where the Supreme Court has usurped the power of Israel's elected governments to determine state policy.
One of my regular readers often calls for a land registry that would provide evidence of claims to property rights, particularly in Judea and Samaria. After you read this article, you might conclude that won't help.
The Supreme Court ordered the residents of Migron - including those who have purchased the plots on which their homes are located - expelled from their homes no later than this coming Tuesday, September 4, despite the fact that their new homes in Psagot will not be ready for a month. The court also ordered all of the buildings - except for those with respect to which the purchase claim was made - demolished by September 11.
On Wednesday, however, the HJC rejected the petition by the 17 families. It also set a date, prior to the full completion of the site.
According to the World Zionist Organization the homes are ready, but work is still being done on the public buildings and security features such as guardrails. The Binyamin Regional Council, under whose auspices Migron and the new site is located, however, has argued that the site won’t be completed for another month.
Migron residents held a press conference Wednesday night to react to the decision, slamming the Supreme Court over its decision and condemning Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for going along with the court. They also refused to say whether or not they would resist the evacuation.
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein appealed to the residents of Migron for a peaceful evacuation. "Relevant actors should avoid inflaming the situation and must act responsibly. They must respect the rule of law and evacuate their homes peacefully," Weinstein said.
MK Danny Danon (Likud) called for an emergency ministerial meeting on the settlement issue following the court decision. "The Likud government must stop ignoring our citizens that reside in Judea and Samaria," Danon said. "The Supreme Court would not have ordered the evacuation of the homes (in Migron) if they had belonged to Arabs or Sudanese."
When we voted for the Likud, we didn't think we were getting the 'settlement policies' of Labor and Meretz. Aren't Israeli politics strange?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the IDF to expel Migron residents from their homes on Tuesday before a hearing at the Supreme Court in which 17 of the families will attempt to convince the court that they have legally purchased the land on which their homes sit.
Migron residents and the Binyamin region on Saturday night said they are holding firm to their understanding that the evacuation of the West Bank outpost is not scheduled to occur until after a High Court of Justice hearing on the matter on Tuesday.
...
On Thursday night, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot sent a letter to Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Ro’eh advising him that he must evacuate the outpost by Tuesday morning.
He told Ro’eh that his office and that of the Defense Ministry had made every effort possible to facilitate a peaceful evacuation, including providing an alternative site for the families to live.
He added that the two offices were willing to help the families with the move.
But he warned that the IDF would forcibly evict the families if they had not relocated by Tuesday morning.
He said that security officials would have to reconsider whether to allow them to move into the new homes, which are located two kilometers away near the Psagot winery.
But Ro’eh said it was his understanding that the families did not have to move until after the court hearing. He added that he had plans to move them, but was only planning to execute them later this week.
Ro’eh said he remained hopeful that the court would delay the evacuation, or at the very least allow the 17 families to remain.
Asking families to leave their homes is not something that should be done lightly, he said, and it is important to do so only after every option for a reprieve has been exhausted.
On Friday morning Migron families held a small protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence asking him to halt the evacuation.
Migron resident Shuki Sad said that residents were waiting to see what happened in court. He added that the only boxes to be found in the outpost these days were ones that belonged to two new families who had just moved in.
Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. If only we lived in a normal country without the tyranny of the 'Supreme Court' and the Leftists.
Migron residents who bought land urged to 'resist' court order
The Supreme Court has ordered the expulsion of 50 Jewish families from the 'outpost' of Migron by August 28. That includes 17 families who have strong claims that they purchased the land on which their homes sit from the putative Arab landowners. Residents of nearby Jewish towns are urging the 17 families not to go quietly.
Givat Assaf outpost residents this week called on 17 families in the nearby Migron outpost to resist a High Court of Justice mandate that they must leave their homes by August 28.
"We the Givat Assaf residents, together with the nation of Israel will stand by your side,” they said in a letter they sent to Migron residents, which was leaked to the media Thursday.
Both outposts are located near each other, in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank.
“With Gods help, "we will be strong and be strengthened for our nation and for God's cities," they said in the letter.
In the document they made a distinction between the status of the other 33 families who live in the outpost, and a group of 17 who claim to have purchased the property on which their homes are located.
The High Court of Justice has ordered the state to evacuate the 50 outpost families next week, because their homes were built without permits on private Palestinian property.
Last month 17 Migron families petitioned the court to annul that verdict in their case, given that they have since bought the property, on which their 17 homes are located, from its Palestinian owners.
...
But the moment the state in its response to the court said that the residents had to leave even if their land was legally purchase, the situation changed significantly, the Givat Assaf residents said.
They noted that this state document set a precedent that did not bode well for future cases in which disputed land is purchased in Judea and Samaria.
There's a frequent commenter on this blog who often says that we need title surveys and ownership histories to prove our rights to the land. That's all well and good, but how do you fight back when you have all those things, you can prove that you bought the land from its putative 'rightful owners,' and the government decides to throw you out anyway?
The 'rule of law' in Israel is a farce. The 'Supreme Court' has no clothes, nor does it have a legal leg on which to stand. It and the government protect the rights of everyone but the country's Jewish citizenry. What could go wrong?
On 28th August the Supreme Court of Israel will decide the fate of 300 Jewish souls living in Migron a thriving community just 14 kilometres north of Yerushalayim. Migron is situated in a very strategic position overlooking Route number 60 in Binyamin located on Government sanctioned land given to the community by the then PM Ariel Sharon in 1999.
Attorney Howard Grief has highlighted that: "Migron was .....never private Arab property".
This video titled "Let Migron Stay!" is a plea to both PM Binyamin Netanyahu and Chief Justice Asher Grunis to leave Migron alone to continue its "peaceful co-existence" with its Arab neighbours acting as a role model for other parts of Eretz Yisrael.
Please pass on to your email/Facebook/Twitter friends.
State won't oppose petition to keep Migron in place
The government's new Ministerial Committee on 'settlements' decided on Tuesday that the government will not oppose a petition to the High Court of Justice by the Jewish residents of Migron asking that the Court cancel its order that they be expelled from their homes no later than August 1.
Last summer, the High Court of Justice issued a binding order mandating the state to evacuate the outpost by August 1, because it was built without proper permits on land classified by the state as belonging to private Palestinians.
But early this month, outpost residents announced that they had purchased 2.5 out of 5 hectares on which the outpost is located from its Palestinian landowners.
Migron residents then petitioned the court to rescind its order given that they had documents proving recent proof of purchase.
The court agreed to hear their petition next Sunday. In advance of that hearing, the Ministerial Committee on Settlements – headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – met for over an hour Tuesday to decide on the state’s position, which the prosecutor’s office is scheduled to submit to the court on Wednesday.
According to a participant in the meeting, the ministers stood by the policy that homes built without permits on private Palestinian property, such as in the case of Migron, must be removed. But the ministers believe if the court authenticates the land purchase, than there was no reason to remove the homes.
They noted that the state was not party to the petition, nor had it initiated it. But that if it is asked to give its opinion, the state does not plan to oppose it.
And a reminder of the neighborhood in which we live....
After Migron residents filed their petition, the court placed a gag order on any details, which might identify the Palestinian property owners.
The Palestinian Authority imposes a death sentence on Palestinians who sell property to Jews.
Maybe the State will get its act together and pay for the land on which it told people to build after this one.
In bid to stave off expulsion, American Jewish philanthropist buys 80% of Migron lands
In a bid to stave off the expulsion of the outpost's Jews, an American Jewish philanthropist has purchased the land on which 66 of the 70 buildings in Migron sit at a cost of 'hundreds of thousands' of dollars (Hat Tip: Sunlight NM via Twitter). That comes to about 80% of the land.
In a last-minute attempt to prevent the evacuation of Migron, the largest illegal outpost in Judea and Samaria, representatives of the outpost recently bought more than 80 percent of its land from Palestinians claiming ownership over it, Israel Hayom has learned.
Residents of Migron hope that the move will now render unnecessary the High Court's order to evacuate the outpost by 1 August.
According to a source involved in the transaction, the land was acquired "in a completely legal and valid manner." While representatives of the community have refrained from publishing details of the transaction, the source said "more than one seller" was involved.
Both sides involved in the deal have also kept the identify of the donor secret, but revealed that he is a Jewish-Zionist American philanthropist who paid hundreds of thousand dollars for the land.
The deal was kept under such heavy secrecy that even Migron residents did not know all of the details of the transaction and were only likely to find out about it on Thursday.
Sounds like Irving Moskowitz to me. If it's him, more power to him.
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.
This video is in Hebrew, but if you click on "cc" you will get captions in English. For those of you who are finding the Migron story confusing, it might help you to understand it.
The court ruling is an obligation, not a choice, Supreme Court President Asher Dan Grunis said.
"This is a necessary component of the rule of law to which all are subject, as part of Israel's values as a Jewish and democratic state," Grunis added.
Migron residents may harbor justified resentment against the state and its authorities, Grunis said.
However, the Supreme Court President said that the state had made it clear all along that settlements cannot be built on private Palestinian land - something that Begin himself had clarified in Thursday's hearing, the justices added.
"As the state has made clear, no body is authorized to permit the establishment of a settlement on private land," they said.
In Sunday's court ruling, the justices cited former Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch's words at the end of the court's August 2011 ruling.
“We can only wish that the residents of the outpost will come to their senses and agree to accept their duty not to appear as lawbreakers, and that they will settle any other site that the state deems fit to allow them,” Beinisch had written.
...
civil rights group the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel slammed the court.
"The High Court justices could have made a decision to avoid conflict in Israeli society," said Forum director attorney Nachi Eyal. "Clearly the court thinks human rights are only for Palestinians, not for Jews."
"What do you expect from a panel containing a justice who won't sing Hatikva?" Eyal added, in a dig at Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who declined to sing the national anthem at Supreme Court President (emeritus) Dorit Beinisch's retirement ceremony.
Eyal called on the Knesset to strengthen legislation to resolve land disputes in the West Bank in different ways.
Right-wing parliamentarians said they planned to turn to the Knesset and urge it to legislate a solution that would nullify the court decision.
Both MK Danny Danon (Likud) and MK Uri Ariel (National Union) called on lawmakers to approve legislation which would legalize all the outposts, including Migron.
Danon said he planned to ask the Knesset to hold a special session on the matter during the Pesach break.
"There is no reason why Jews should be evacuated from their homes under a Likud government," he said.
"We must make use of the responsibility given to use by the people to lead the nation and the settlements in Judea and Samaria according to the values of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and [former prime minister] Menachem Begin," Danon added.
MK Uri Orbach (HaBayit HaYehudi) said the court's judgment clarified the irrelevance of setting a date for new elections.
"There is no need to advance the elections. We should eliminate them. Any which way it is clear that the judges believe they run the country," he said.
Indeed. As I have discussed many times, one of the fundamental problems with 'Israeli democracy' is the self-selected Supreme Court, which believes that it can interject itself into any issue and make any decision it pleases while mouthing pious platitudes about 'protecting Israeli democracy.'
Meanwhile the 'Palestinians' Leftist Jewish attorney was celebrating.
Attorney Michael Sfard, representing the Palestinian petitioners who claimed ownership of the land, said that by adhering to the compromise agreement the State would be "surrendering" to the Migron settlers. Delayed justice is not justice.
"Today the court made it clear to authorities that no one – including the government and the settlers - is above the law," he said.
No one is above the law, except the 'Supreme Court.'
Supreme Court seethes over 'last minute' Migron deal
One of Yogi Berra's more famous sayings was 'it ain't over 'til it's over.' Israel's Supreme Court lives in its own fantasy world where that saying doesn't apply if it favors what the court doesn't. The court, which has turned itself into the arbiter of blatantly political questions over the last 20 years, seethed on Thursday, over the 'last minute' deal made by the residents of the Migron 'outpost' with the government, which would allow the revenants to stay on the site until 2015, and then move two kilometers away to another location in Samaria - thereby ensuring that the court's real goal of reducing the number of revenants will not be met.
Justices Salim Joubran and Miriam Naor slammed the state, saying that they made their request at the "last minute," after the court had already ended its discussion of the petition. They also criticized the state for failing to include the Palestinian landowners in its negotiations with the settlers.
Yes, that would be the same Salim Jubran who refused to sing HaTikva - the country's national anthem - at the changing of the Supreme Court's guard last month.
And by the way, why did the 'Palestinian landowners' need to be part of the negotiations? Has their ownership ever been proven? (The revenants argue that it has not been proven). But even if it has been proven, why should they be a party? So that they could refuse every offer and make sure the deal would not happen? Are they going to decide whether the revenants move two kilometers away or 20 kilometers away? If they're entitled to compensation, let the state pay them compensation! In fact, in a normal country without a 'Supreme Court' like ours, the revenants would have been allowed to stay and the landowners - if their ownership is proven - would have been paid compensation.
The outpost, located in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, 5 km. north of Jerusalem, was first constructed in 2002, with NIS 4.3 million from the Construction and Housing Ministry but without the proper authorization.
That's the problem with this country. The government (and the branja) don't have to live with the consequences of their mistakes. They just say 'ta'inu' (we made a mistake) and take back whatever it is that they accidentally gave you. Throwing people out of their homes is not an acceptable solution, even if they spent the last five and a half years fighting about it.
Migron settlers have argued that the outpost was built with initial approvals from the government, even though final permits were never issued. They have said the status of their land was never properly adjudicated.
And that is probably true (I don't have firsthand knowledge). There are literally dozens of places in this country that lack proper title. One of my regular readers keeps telling me that we ought to produce a title map. Well, I doubt that the government could do it even if it were inclined to do so. I have been living in my home for nearly 16 years and am still waiting for the piece of paper that says we own it. And technically, all we own is an interest in a 99-year ground lease and the building on top of it.
You can't make this stuff up. And the 'Supreme Court' is complaining that the government only reaches solutions at the last minute. Feh,
Forward disappointed: Army not breaking Jewish heads in Migron
The government has reached an agreement with the residents of Migron, an 'unauthorized outpost' that has benefited from government support in the past. Under the terms of the agreement, the residents will stay there until 2015 by which time the government will build them a new town in a new location. The purported reason for expelling the residents from their current location is that Migron is built on 'private Palestinian land' except that no 'private Palestinian' has ever come forward and proven ownership.
The Forward finds all this distressing. They were looking forward to the IDF or the Yassamnikim (the special police SWAT unit which includes a lot of Bedouin soldiers) coming in and knocking some 'settlers' on the head. Now, that's not going to happen (Hat Tip: John K).
To almost every country in the world, all of Israel’s settlements on the occupied West Bank are officially illegal. Israel rejects this view but does consider one group of settlements illegal under its own laws. Yet, less than a handful of these unauthorized outposts have been evacuated since June 2004, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President George W. Bush to remove them. Of those that were evacuated, most were repopulated within days.
Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has decided to ignore Sharon’s promise for at least another three years. On March 11, the cabinet reached an agreement with Migron — the oldest of the unauthorized settlements, located near Ramallah — to allow residents to stay put until 2015. In the meantime, an authorized settlement will be built nearby, and that is where they will move in three years.
To Dov Weissglass, a senior aide to Sharon who was deeply involved in the commitments his boss made to Bush, the reason is simple: “My impression is that the present government does not feel it is bound by previous obligations,” he told the Forward. “They simply leave it as it is while all sorts of initiatives to legalize [the illegal outposts] pop up.”
As noted in the flyer above - which was being handed out to motorists around Jerusalem ten days ago - the 'outpost' of Migron has an order of the Supreme Court hanging over it, which calls for it to be destroyed and its residents expelled by the end of March 2012. There is probably a majority in the Knesset for 'legalizing' the outposts, but the Netanyahu-Barak government doesn't want to go that route. Instead, Minister Benny Begin was sent to make a deal with the residents that would see them moved to land that is not 'privately owned.' (Of course, those of you who read Hebrew already know from reading the flyer above that the land on which Migron sits is not privately owned - no actual land owner has ever been proven).
On Monday morning, word came through that the compromise that was worked out by Begin has fallen apart. The residents of Migron say that Begin went back on his word. And Begin said that the government will ask the country's real rulers - the 'Supreme Court' - to put off Migron's destruction until 2015. This is from the first link.
The deal was set to be signed this week but negotiations ultimately failed. Is has yet to be officially determined who owns the land on which the Migron outpost sits.
According to agreements reached between the parties, the court was meant to rule on who owns the land before any permanent structures would be razed. It was also agreed that the residents would move to the new location only after the completion of the construction work. The government promised to finish planning the construction of permanent structures in the new location within nine months, after which infrastructure work will commence.
Binyamin Regional Council's Migron is the biggest outpost in the West Bank and includes 60 structures. Palestinian residents and Peace Now petitioned the High Court against the outpost's legality in October 2006. Last August judges ruled that the State must clear Migron by the end of March 2012.
Negotiations on the evacuation have been going on for the past year and a half, during which various compromises were raised. The dispute over house razing ultimately prevented any agreement from being signed.
In any normal country, if ownership by someone else could be proven, given that the government built all the infrastructure and sent these people there (yes, that's what's been left out of the article - for those who read Hebrew, go read the flyer at the top), you would compensate the proven landowner and let these people stay in their homes. But this is not a normal country.... Here's what Benny Begin had to say.
Likud Minister Benny Begin on Monday called on residents of the West Bank outpost of Migron to sign a deal to relocate their homes 2 kilometers away, saying he would ask the High Court of Justice to give the settlers until 2015 to do so.
Begin held a press conference on the issue after Likud MK Danny Danon and National Union MK Uri Ariel said Sunday evening that that talks broke down over the conditions under which the homes would be relocated.
...
Danon said Sunday that the state insisted that the outpost must be relocated within two-and-a-half years, irrespective of whether new homes have been built for the Migron residents.
Ariel added that the state balked at accepting a condition by the settlers that the status of the land be adjudicated first, before the homes are destroyed.
Begin said that he would ask the High Court of Justice to allow the settlers until November 30, 2015 to relocate in order to give them time to build new homes. He said that following the relocation, the Migron outpost land would be turned over to the Civil Administration.
The Likud minister said that all 48 families in Migron must sign the agreement before the government can present it to the High Court.
In other words, the actual status of the land on which their homes are located has not been adjudicated, but the State wants these people to agree to move without knowing when their promised replacement homes - 2 kilometers away - will be ready. It's been six and a half years since the government expelled nearly 10,000 Jews from Gaza and most of them don't have homes yet. Why would anyone trust the Israeli government to carry out this kind of deal?
LATMA: 92 days since Gilad Shalit was released and Noam isn't in the Knesset yet
I hope you'll all forgive me for highlighting a skit which LATMA did not highlight, because I thought that the campaign ad for Noam Shalit (in the video you are about to watch below) was hysterical.
LATMA highlights this week include Peace Now's Yariv Googleheimer fighting against Migron and the Supreme Court deciding on... you'll see what.
On Sunday, the government proposed a compromise which would see the residents of Migron voluntarily move elsewhere - to nearby land. YNet is reporting that as a result of the compromise proposal, Netanyahu's opponents on the Right within the Likud are calling for a boycott of next week's primaries. Huh?
Activists affiliated with the Likud party's rightist camp urged faction members to boycott the primaries in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intention to evacuate Migron outpost.
Netanyahu on Sunday called on the residents of the illegal West Bank outpost Migron to accept a compromise offer by which permanent structures would be relocated to State-owned land, while the evacuated land would be turned over to the Civil Administration.
However, members of the Likud party's National Headquarters expressed dissatisfaction with the compromise, claiming the prime minister was thwarting a vote on the "outpost bill" at the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs.
The bill is meant to regulate the status of outposts build on private Palestinian land that has not been claimed for four years.
"This is a blow to democracy, because there is a majority in the committee that supports the bill, and because the prime minister discriminatorily approved 60,000 illegal Bedouin homes in the Negev and hundreds of apartments for Arabs in Lod in his current term in office," the activists wrote in a petition.
"Unfortunately, Netanyahu has been acting in contradiction with the values of the Likud movement, while giving Ehud Barak a free hand in implementing policies against the Jews settling in their country. This is not the policies of the Likud and the national camp."
The petition stated that "in the current primaries, Netanyahu is an irrelevant candidate whose ideology we do not share. We, the heads of the Likud National Headquarters urge you to preserve the democracy within the faction and strengthen the values of the Likud, and not participate in this farce, whose results are known in advance."
I suspect there may have been a mistranslation here from Hebrew to English. Here's the poster in Hebrew.
That seems to say "don't vote for Netanyahu" and that makes a lot more sense to me than staying home. "Go vote and vote for Feiglin" strikes me as a much better response than staying home.
But if you read the whole thing, you will see that YNet is consistent (other than the poster) in saying that there actually has been a call to stay home next Tuesday.
There have been a lot of foreboding items in the media lately about how the government is going to expel all the Jews from the village of Migron, and how it's going to be like the 'disengagement' from Gaza. But the pictures that go with those articles are typically not pictures of Gaza. They are pictures of the violent expulsion of Jews from Amona that took place shortly after the Olmert regime took power six years ago. And the prospect of another Amona should cause far greater concern.
"This is not another outpost eviction," he said. "Migron is a community. This is an unprecedented eviction compared to everything we have done until now."
The officer further estimated that unlike outpost evictions, the destruction of Migron will not be over in one night. "I think the reaction of the settlers will also be more meaningful," he said. He added: "This step will also hurt the security aspect" – possibly meaning that IDF forces will have to be set aside to deal with Jews, thus compromising the anti-terror effort.
The officer admitted that the press coverage of the Jewish riot at the Ephraim Brigade Base had been disproportional. "The subject received greater attention because of the spotlight that was pointed at the area that night. Events like this have happened in the past."
The officer said that the IDF is worried about the rise in terror attacks on motorists in Judea and Samaria. Both rock attacks and firebomb attacks are increasing, he said.
The technique of throwing rocks from inside a passing car at another car is relatively new, he said. "The phenomenon started last August. There appears to be a cell in Gush Etzion, and another one in Binyamin, that we have not yet put our hands on. The murder of Asher Palmer and his son gave terror groups a boost."
Another dangerous and new terrorist technique, he said, is that of terrorists disguised as Israeli police who put up roadblocks and use a police strobe light to complete the illusion. The purpose seems to be abduction of Jews.
At the height of the Ramat Shlomo controversy in March 2010, I did a post where I explained how Ramat Shlomo looks down on the highways that connect different parts of Jerusalem. This picture lets you visualize it better than any I have ever posted. Let me give you a quick tour.
The mountain with all the buildings on top that is dead center in the picture is Ramat Shlomo. The highway that seems to start at bottom right, runs under the two bridges and then runs below Ramat Shlomo is known as the Arazim tunnel road until it becomes Road #9 under the first bridge. It connects the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway to the northeastern end of the city. After Ramat Shlomo, there are turnoffs to the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Zev and French Hill, to the Jewish towns in Samaria, to Maaleh Adumim just east of Jerusalem and to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. Although the Arazim tunnel part was opened just five years ago, this road is a major artery.
The first bridge is the Ramot road. If you were to turn left (north), it runs right through the five neighborhoods of Ramot (1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 - please don't ask me why there is no 5) and then out to the prophet Samuel's tomb and Givat Zev before linking up to Route 443 near Ramallah. If you turn right, it runs to Har Hotzvim (one of our two major high tech office parks) and then to the center of the city and the Old City.
The second bridge is Route 443 on the left and the Begin (as in Menachem Begin) highway on the right. The Begin highway cuts across all of Jerusalem to its southern end, coming out near the Malcha mall, a hop, skip and jump away from the tunnel road that leads to Gush Etzion and Hebron. Route 443 is a back road heading toward Tel Aviv, joining the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway near Ben Gurion Airport.
So as you can see, Ramat Shlomo is more than just a Jewish suburb of Jerusalem. The fact that 20,000 Jews live there is protection for a main point in Jerusalem's highway system.
What's true in Jerusalem is true outside Jerusalem as well. Giulio Meotti talks about Migron, which I have discussed several times before, and how the battle for Migron and other so-called 'illegal outposts' is the same battle as the battle for Jerusalem. Like Ramat Shlomo, Migron sits atop a major highway, Route 60, which runs North-South through Judea and Samaria. Meotti fears - justifiably - that giving up the outposts will make the lives of residents of Judea and Samaria much more hazardous, and will open the possibility of giving up similar assets in Jerusalem like Ramat Shlomo. In a word, the battle for Jerusalem and the battle for Judea and Samaria are one and the same, and we need to stop pretending otherwise.
The army and the government have perhaps forgotten that many outposts were necessary for security to protect the core settlements and roads. Some outposts were constructed at dangerous junctions in the West Bank where terror attacks had occurred. Many of them were built with government support to the combined tune of more than NIS 70 million.
The Migron outpost, now threatened for destruction, was built with military assistance because of its strategic location overlooking a main road. Nobody likes to say it, but Migron saved the IDF from having to be deployed there. Settlements and outposts are the forward defense line of the coastal plain and Jerusalem.
Compared to the hell of terror in Sderot, Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon and the other communities located in the area near Gaza, the Jewish communities of Samaria look like a bit of paradise, despite the threat of terror.
It's because those communities continue to develop and contribute significantly to the IDF’s control of the area. In consequence, the Arabs there don’t dare attack as they do daily in Gaza.
Barack Obama made it clear that there is no difference between outposts, settlements and towns inside pre-1967 Israel. Obama claims that even Har Homa and Gilo are “illegal” Jewish enclaves. Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods (Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev or East Talpiot) is the American version of the Sasson’s report for the outposts.
These neighborhoods, which house about one-third of Jerusalem’s population, protect the city.
The neighborhood of Ramot serves as a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria protect Jerusalem’s east.
To decide, as a matter of policy, not to endorse the building of Jewish homes within existing Israeli areas is the abrogation of the right of Jews to live wherever they wish in Israel.
Migron and Gilo are the two laboratories where terrorists and peaceniks sought to discover whether they could force Jews into abandoning their homes. If the Jewish homes are abandoned and/ or handed over to the Palestinians, the latter will see it as confirmation of their belief that terrorism pays off and that they are on the right road in a war that will eventually return them to Jaffa, Haifa, Zichron and Jerusalem.
"Migron: Everyone's struggle", states the placard stretched along the road from Jerusalem to the Binyamin region. Destroy the outposts and you will see the domino effect: all Israel will be in danger.
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
