Really ugly, if truth be
told. That's the situation in Migron. The High Court released its
decision yesterday:
The residents -- all of them,
including the 17 who re-purchased the land on which their homes are sitting --
must be evacuated by next Tuesday. By September 11, all buildings must be
razed except for those on the plot of land that had been re-purchased.
Once again, if I am a bit
vague on details it's not a reflection of insufficient effort on
my part to secure information, so much as a function of garbled
reports. This is in particular with regard to those 17
families. The court acknowledged that they did make the
purchase legally, but chose anyway to deny them the right to live on that land
that they own. This apparently has something to do with this ownership not
complying with the original plans for that area -- which sounds terribly like
legal double talk to me.
In fact there seems some
internal contradiction in the ruling with regard to whether the homes of those
17 families will be razed.
See Michael Freund in "Tyranny
Begins in Migron," on the rights of these people:
~~~~~~~~~~
This ruling is an outrage of
considerable proportions. There are three aspects to it.
One has to do with the automatic
assumption that the land on which the community was built is "Palestinian" land
just because Peace Now came to court with an Arab making claims, even
though the ownership by this Arab or his family has never been legally
documented.
Two has to do with the re-purchase
of some part of that land. Even though the legality of that purchase
was documented and acknowledged as legitimate by the court, it still denied the
owners the right to reside on their land.
~~~~~~~~~~
Understand this: An Arab says,
this is mine. The government says, oh! then this must be Palestinian land the
Jews built on, and the court rules in this regard without adjudication of
the ownership of the land -- without seeing legal documentation of that Arab
ownership. I am not making this up: The system works for the Arab who
is represented by and coached by (and, I would venture to guess, may have been
recruited as a representative of the local Arab community by) Peace Now.
There are various categories of
land in Judea and Samaria, which is not governed by the laws of Israel but
rather by a Civil Administration appointed by the Ministry of Defense.
These rules -- some going back to Ottoman times -- are exceedingly
complex. What I will simply say here -- with full intention of returning
with more later -- is that the ownership by the Arab should not have been
blithely assumed, when neither that Arab nor his family had been farming or
living on that land and there was no documentation.
Compare how the Arab verbal claim
was given credence with the fact that Jews who provided legal documentation
of ownership were still prevented from remaining in their
homes.
~~~~~~~~~~
The third aspect of the outrage
has to do with the fact that the alternate site to which the residents are
supposed to be moved next week -- Givat HaYakev, about two kilometers down the
hill from Migron -- is not ready. Some houses lack electricity, and
some water. Public buildings such as the school, synagogue and medical
clinic are not completed.
And clean-up has not been done so
that construction materials dangerous to young children have not been
removed.
Over 200 children, half of them
aged five or less, are in the families to be moved to the new site.
Does this look like a place for little children to play? In fact, it's
even worse than this picture indicates because railings to protect the children
have not been installed either.
The residents had implored the
Court to allow sufficient time for the new site to be properly prepared.
Would something horrible have happened if they had been granted that
time?
There is no place here for
equanimity. Outrage truly is the appropriate response. And I shall
return to this issue.
~~~~~~~~~~
On a different note, news that
is more positive. This is from an Egyptian site, with Google
translation, provided by IMRA (emphasis added):
"Egyptian army forces
began yesterday to withdraw its heavy equipment from the restricted area
according to the peace agreement signed between Cairo and Tel Aviv in a move
seen by observers as evidence of Cairo's response to Israeli and American
pressure...
"The Egyptian army has operated in
the area known as Zone C, which includes the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid
east of El Arish, in the wake of killing of 16 soldiers earlier this month, and
began to implement a wide security operation to hunt down militants believed to
be responsible for it.
"Security sources said they were
withdrawing tanks not needed in operations in Sinai now in pursuit of jihadist
elements, and they will be stationed near El Arish."Witnesses said that four tank carriers were seen carrying four Mi 65 American-made tanks departing from Sheikh Zuwaid toward El Arish, while additional eyewitnesses saw tank carriers arrive at Rafah to start transferring tanks out of the area . Israel has complained that Cairo did not coordinate the heavy equipment with Tel Aviv and also expressed surprise at the need of the Egyptian army for tanks to pursue the armed group."
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=58073
As those of you who read my report on the operation in the Sinai know, tanks were never needed to go after the jihadists, as they are hiding in mountain caves where tanks cannot go.
This most certainly seems to be a backing down, and with this we can let out something of a sigh of relief.
~~~~~~~~~~
From another, English, Egyptian site comes the information that in the operation against the terrorists, 23 suspects have been arrested now and 11 killed.
They may want this to sound like a major accomplishment, but as I have picked up reports about thousands of jihadists hiding in those mountain caves, this amounts to close to nothing. Another indication, perhaps, that actually taking out the terrorists (as versus buying their quiet via their Bedouin protectors) is not the way that the Egyptians will proceed.
The report says that troops will be stationed throughout the Sinai until "all terrorist and criminal activity is quashed."
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=58064
~~~~~~~~~~
In the wake of the statement by Egyptian President Morsi that the peace treaty would be honored, Foreign Minister Lieberman, discussing ways to solidify that peace treaty, said, "...we hope to see President Morsi receiving Israeli delegates. We want to see him give interviews in the Israeli media and we want to see him in Jerusalem as President Peres' guest."
The Brotherhood has already put out a statement indicating that this would not be possible. Even Mubarak, they pointed out, only came to Israel once, for Rabin's funeral. All the more so then....
Nice try but no surprise.
~~~~~~~~~~
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Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner,
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