Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A High Court
justice asked the government Sunday, “Where were you 10 years ago” if
you wanted to save the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El?
The three-judge panel poured cold water during the first hearing
Sunday on a government petition to delay by 60 days an order to destroy
several homes that allegedly are built on Arab land.
The government explained that the issue of the buildings, like many
in Judea and Samaria, is “complex and that the Prime Minister, the
Cabinet and the Defense Minister (Ehud Barak) want to review government
policy concerning the distinctions between the older neighborhoods of
Beit El and the Ulpana community." ustice Salim Jourban
responded, “The government knew of the consequences a year ago, so what
has changed? Where is your respect for the law? Where were you 10 years
ago?”
There was no question raised about the land at the time of the
construction. Previous Israeli governments built the infrastructure in
the Ulpana neighborhood after they recognized that the land was sold
legally.
One of the possible reasons was not stated – the Netanyahu
coalition now is facing heavy pressure from members of the Likud party
and other nationalists in the government to stop a wave of expulsions
that the court has ordered in Beit El and several other areas in Judea
and Samaria. Carrying out the order to demolish the homes in Beit El
could severely damage support for the Likud in the elections that
apparently will be held in September.
Lawyers for the petitioners, the left-wing Yesh Din organization,
argued that the government has an obligation carry out the court order
to expel the Jewish families from the homes. “I know the respondents and
they will not carry out their obligations,” they said. “The government
is trying to buy time.”
“Ten years later someone comes along, waving a piece of paper and
saying, ‘It’s mine,’” Judy Simon, coordinator of Beit El Tourism, told
foreign journalists who visited the neighborhood last week.
She added that the residents of Beit El have chosen not to reveal
the name of the Arab man who sold the land because of the Palestinian
Authority law which states that any person who sells land to a Jew gets
the death penalty.
“We could show [the proof of sale], but we won’t, because we value
life,” she said. “That is the way it stands today: If a Palestinian
sells land to a Jew, he’s got the death penalty. So we have protected
the Palestinian who sold us the land because we value his life, perhaps
more than his brothers do.”
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