by Shlomo Cesana, Gideon Allon and Yair Altman
Avichai Mendelblit says passing the outpost regulation bill at this time may make other solutions impossible • Kulanu MKs refuse to accept article retroactively granting permits to contested outposts, including Amona.
Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said
Monday that if the outpost regulation bill passes, it will present an
obstacle to the proposed alternative solution for residents of the Amona
outpost that is slated for demolition next month. The controversial
bill is set to undergo its first Knesset reading Wednesday.
The bill would allow the government to
retroactively grant permits to contested Judea and Samaria outposts. It
is being pushed as a possible solution to prevent the eviction of Amona
residents, who live on privately owned Palestinian land.
Mendelblit presented his opinion to the
government, saying that in one solution, Amona's residents could be
temporarily relocated to three plots of land north of their current
homes, where they would be able to stay for about eight months. This
solution was previously proposed to -- and rejected by -- Amona
residents.
The alternative land is "absentee property,"
meaning that its owners fled after 1967 and have not returned or made
ownership claims. A 1988 legal opinion by then-IDF Military Advocate
General Uri Shoham stated that the use of such property was legitimate
in cases of urgent public need.
Mendelblit warned that if the outpost
regulation bill passes, this rationale will no longer be valid, and the
Defense Ministry will be forced to immediately clear out any structures
on the absentee properties currently set aside to house the residents.
For now, the High Court's Dec. 25 eviction date for Amona stands.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Avigdor Lieberman are of the opinion that, since the court has
refused to postpone the eviction date, the only remaining option is to
move the residents to the alternative plots as a matter of urgent public
need.
However, the decision by Amona residents to
reject any solution that involves leaving their homes -- even if it
would mean re-establishing the community just a few kilometers away,
near Shvut Rachel -- along with calls from community leaders and rabbis
to oppose eviction have prompted police and defense officials to make
special preparations ahead of the expected eviction date.
Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon joined
Mendelblit in his opposition to the outpost regulation bill, with both
seeing it as unconstitutional and unlikely to stand up to High Court
scrutiny. They believe the bill may also lead to claims against Israel
at the International Criminal Court. The Justice Ministry and Defense
Ministry have been unsuccessfully searching for a solution that does not
involve the controversial bill.
At the same time, Netanyahu's and Lieberman's
efforts to have Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) and
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) stop the bill's
progress have also failed.
Meanwhile, the Kulanu faction opposes a clause
in the bill that would retroactively grant approval to settlements,
including Amona. This clause would allow for a two-year postponement of
the High Court ruling to demolish homes built on private Palestinian
land. The Habayit Hayehudi faction is firmly insisting that the clause
remain a part of the bill.
In an effort to bridge differences in opinion
among the coalition factions, Coalition Chairman MK David Bitan (Likud)
suggested a compromise in which there would be an alternative version of
the bill without the contentious clause, in addition to the one
including it. The final decision on which version will pass will be made
ahead of the bill's second and third readings, expected to take place
on Dec. 14 -- only 11 days before the scheduled eviction.
Officials from Kulanu said they were waiting
for the results of a Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meeting Tuesday, in
which other non-legislative solutions from the government, Defense
Ministry and attorney general were to be discussed. Without Kulanu's
support, the outpost regulation bill will not get a majority vote in the
coalition.
On Monday, the joint committee tasked with
preparing the bill for its first reading held a marathon meeting, with
the team's legal adviser, Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, stating that "we
are seeing significant difficulties with the bill, both from an
international law perspective and a constitutional perspective."
Knesset members Yael German (Yesh Atid),
Michal Rozin (Meretz), Omer Bar-Lev (Zionist Union), Yousef Jabareen
(Joint Arab List) and Osama Saadi (Joint Arab List) asked Committee
Chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) to hold a discussion on
Stern's opinion. Jabareen said that he had met with the Palestinian
landowners and wondered how discussions could move forward without
including them.
German accused Slomiansky of silencing opposition after
he said, "Advisers will advise, and we as a sovereign can decide whether
to accept that advice or not."
Shlomo Cesana, Gideon Allon and Yair Altman
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=38389
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