BICOM

President of Israel’s Supreme Court Asher Grunis yesterday suggested that a long-running dispute over the eviction of Palestinian villagers to make way for an IDF firing zone should be resolved through mediation at a special hearing on the case yesterday.

The issue dates back as far as 1999, when the IDF issued eviction orders against Palestinians who were using the 26,000 dunams in question in the south Hebron Hills area of the West Bank, in order to construct a firing zone. The case lay largely dormant until 2011, when the IDF once again sought to evict the Palestinians from the land, who the Defence Ministry claim had in the interim built numerous illegal dwellings “taking advantage of the pending legal proceedings in relation to the firing zone.”

Tamar Feldman, counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which is acting on behalf of the Palestinians slated for eviction explained, “We’re talking about 1,000 people, 170 families who are living in eight historic villages.” However, the state told the Supreme Court earlier this year that they had “conducted a thorough examination of the area before declaring it a firing zone” which showed “showed no permanent residence in the area.”

At a special session in the High Court of Justice yesterday in Jerusalem, Justice Grunis stopped state attorney Illil Amir-Kasif as she outlined her argument and suggested that retired Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Zamir serve as mediator between the state and the Palestinians living in an area. Grunis described the dispute as “a special case.” An ACRI spokesman said “We were pleased by the suggestion” and that the Palestinians would accept the suggestion of mediation. Grunis gave the state until 7 October to issue its response to his suggestion.