BICOM

Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled that 17 unauthorised homes in the Derech Ha’avot outpost in the West Bank must be removed.

The ruling, in response to a petition by the left-wing group Peace Now, gives the government until March 2018 to remove 15 of the homes. The remaining two homes, which are empty, must be demolished by the end of this year.

In her ruling, Supreme Court President Miriam Naor said: “Nobody contests that the buildings in question were built illegally, without the area having been authorised for an outpost, or the appropriate permits obtained.”

She also noted that a previous agreement to remove some of the buildings had been ignored. Naor also acknowledged the “significant difficulty” in removing long-term residents from their homes.

However, the ruling brings to an end a 15-year dispute. The Derech Ha’avot community is comprised of around 40 families. They consider themselves part of the nearby community of Elazar, but their homes are located beyond Elazar’s boundaries. While many of the buildings are built on state land, residents from the nearby Palestinian town of El-Khadr have long contended that they own the land on which seventeen homes are built. A state survey clarified that this is the case.

Yesterday’s decision sparked sharp criticism from a number of Likud and Jewish Home politicians. Education Minister and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said that “radical left-wing organisations that have despaired of persuading the people […] have opted to detour around the public and exploit the legal system as a tool to impose the minority’s policy on the majority”.

However Tzipi Livni, head of the HaTnua faction within Zionist Union, countered by saying: “The education minister must understand once and for all that democracy isn’t the tyranny of the majority, with no restrictions, but a system of values and the rule of law, which the high court [Supreme Court] upholds.”