ISRAELI HIGH COURT SPEAKS ON OUTPOSTS: Israel's High Court of Justice lambasted the Israeli government's failure to enforce the law and demolish 18 structures built in West Bank outposts in violation of Israeli law. "It's the state's basic duty to uphold the law and enforce it," the court said in a judgment handed down today on a petition filed by the Peace Now movement.

 

Peace Now filed the petition four years ago. It asked the High Court to instruct the government to enforce the law regarding six buildings at the outpost of Harsha and twelve buildings at the outpost of Hayovel.

 

The justices voiced frustration with the Israeli government's inaction in the case. Noting that more than four years had passed since the case was filed and that the government's consistent position was that the buildings should be demolished, the ruling stated that "under these circumstances, the state should have - consistent with its position - implemented the [demolition] orders discussed in this petition or have at least created a definitive timeframe for their implementation."

 

The court ordered the Israeli government to begin the preparations for the demolitions and to provide a timetable for them within four months.

 

Responding to the High Court ruling, Peace Now leader Yariv Oppenheimer said that "it's saddening that the defense minister needs High Court rulings in order to do his duty and to demolish illegal structures in the territories." (Ynet, 7/13/09; High Court of Justice, 7/13/09)

 

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT OUTPOSTS, PART I: The Israeli Peace Now movement petitioned Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Friday to investigate the illegal activities of two groups that organize young people to build illegal settlement outposts.

 

"These games of cat and mouse of the Hilltop Youth cost the taxpayer thousands of shekels," Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer told Ynet. "Without anyone claiming personal responsibility for these hooligans, the outpost phenomenon will only continue to get worse."

 

The two organizations named in the Peace Now letter, the Land of Israel Faithful and the Youth for the Land of Israel, are responsible for a series of outposts established recently, including Shvut Ami, Maoz Ester, Ramat Migron, Oz Yehonatan, and Hill 18. Activists of the two groups have also allegedly engaged in violent confrontations with Israeli security personnel.

 

Peace Now's letter to the attorney general noted that "the youths do not act spontaneously and that the illegal activity is funded and organized by a number of groups."

 

Moreover, Peace Now argued that "establishing outposts on hills in the territories is not activity fitting for protest or for expressing a political position and does not withstand the test of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. In practice, these activities are intended to wear down the security forces and to establish new towns throughout the West Bank illegally."

 

"The hilltop activity of right-wing activists and the evacuation of outposts damages the work flow of the police and security forces," the Peace Now letter added.

 

Israeli law sets a fine and a two-year prison sentence for construction in settlements without a permit. (Ynet, 7/10/09; PeaceNow.Org.Il, 7/9/09)

 

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT OUTPOSTS, PART II: Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit opened Thursday by recalling that "Figures provided by Peace Now show that 80 of the 100 outposts in the West Bank were built wholly or partly on private Palestinian land. Sixteen outposts are located entirely on private land, and more than half of the other outposts are on private land. Seven thousand of the 16,000 dunams [4,000 acres] occupied by the 100 outposts are privately owned."

 

"You cannot argue with facts," continued Shavit. "Nor can you argue with basic moral imperatives. Settlements that were lawfully built on public land are subject to ideological, political and security debate. Outposts that were illegally built on private land are robbery. The thousands of Israelis living unlawfully in the territories on lands that do not belong to them are lawbreakers. Israel must address their extensive, methodical law-breaking."

 

"The outpost outrage also has a political aspect," Shavit argued. "The uncontrolled construction of mini-settlements in the last decade has fundamentally damaged national security. Instead of defining its just borders, Israel has entangled itself in a delusional and criminal settlement act. Consequently, even Israel's greatest friends have lost their patience. The illegal outposts robbing the Palestinians' lands are also robbing Israel of its legitimacy."

 

There are indications that Israel may soon take some action against the construction in settlements which took place in violation of Israeli law. Defense Minister Ehud Barak told U.S. officials last week that Israel would evacuate 23 outposts within "weeks and months, not years." Israeli police provided a local settler council yesterday with a list of 11 buildings that Israel intends to demolish in the near future.

 

Some settlers are preparing to resist. Dov Lior, rabbi of the settlers in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, sanctioned the desecration of the Sabbath to respond to Israeli law-enforcement efforts.  He reportedly told activists that if any of them "sees movement of the army and police on the Sabbath and it is feared that expulsion troops are on their way to destroy outposts, then one may use a telephone on the Sabbath in order to report it to the regional activity coordinators, who will examine whether they are expulsion troops and issue instructions accordingly." (Haaretz, 7/9 & 7/13/09; Israel Army Radio, 7/12/09)

 

AMERICAN INFLUENCE: The extent to which Israeli Jews value their country's special relationship with the United States was evident in a recent poll by the Tami Steinmetz Center at Tel Aviv University.

 

61% of Israeli Jews initially told pollsters that they supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's position that Israel will not establish new settlements but will expand existing ones to accommodate natural growth.

 

Jewish Israelis, however, were likely to change their view when the pollsters mentioned the possibility that implementing Netanyahu's position could cause a worsening of relations with the U.S. government. Under that scenario, support for limited settlement expansion dropped to 40%, while 48% of Israeli Jews said they would oppose Netanyahu's policy.

 

"In other words," write pollsters Ephraim Yaar and Tamar Hermann, "more than one-third of those who, in principle, support Netanyahu's policy on the settlements issue would oppose, in this context, risking a deterioration of relations with the Obama administration."

 

The poll results did not include Arab citizens of Israel, who account for 20% of the Israeli population. (Tami Steinmetz Center, 7/7/09)

 

RENEWING ISRAEL-SYRIA TALKS? Fred Hof, a senior member of U.S. envoy George Mitchell's team will reportedly meet today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other senior Israeli officials.

 

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Hof is looking into the possibility of resuming the talks between Israel and Syria.  Hof is expected to travel from Israel to Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad and with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

 

Israel and Syria held peace talks with Turkish mediation last year during the tenure of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (Yedioth Ahronoth, 7/13/09)

 

ADVANTAGES OF FEWER ROADBLOCKS: Removing roadblocks and checkpoints from the West Bank saves Israel "friction and moral problems," a senior IDF officer told Ynet last week.

 

The military officer went on to explain that any risk Israel is taking by removing roadblocks "is very calculated."

 

In the past month at least two Israeli soldiers have refused to serve in the West Bank until their charges, that their unit abused Palestinian civilians, are investigated.

 

Rising Israeli confidence in the efforts of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security services is one reason Israel is removing roadblocks. On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that "thanks to the cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 140 [West Bank] roadblocks have been removed over the past few months. These measures may double the growth rate of the Palestinian economy from 5 to 10%." The precise number of roadblocks removed by Israel remains contested.

 

Israel is also reportedly considering enabling the PA to create a small, elite unit that would be trained and equipped to confront militias. The current PA police force, trained by American General Keith Dayton, has been taught to conduct regular police operations. It was not provided with military training.

 

Dayton plans to have six police brigades operating in 2010, in addition to a presidential guard force.

 

Israel has recently turned down requests to supply the Palestinian police with explosives training and advanced communications equipment. (Ynet, 7/9 & 7/10/09; Jerusalem Post, 7/10/09; Haaretz, 6/28/09)

 

DANGERS LURK IN GAZA HUMANITARIAN CRISIS: "Every time Gazans sit down for a meal, they face a depressing reality," writes Hadas Ziv is the director of Physicians for Human Rights, Israel in Friday's Haaretz. "The selection of foods available to them is dictated almost entirely by a harsh policy imposed by the Israeli government, which, as of late, has even refused to allow such innocuous-seeming foods as pumpkins, pasta or beans to cross the border. The goal behind Israel's tight control of Gazans' dietary regime is definitely not improving their health. Rather, the government argues that allowing 'luxury' foods into Gaza would only add to the popularity of Hamas' leaders, enabling them to better feed their constituency. But, in the eyes of many observers, Israel's policy of limiting foods that enter the Strip is almost tantamount to starvation, and comes dangerously close to collective punishment, both of which are not only illegal and immoral methods to use in pursuit of Israeli security, but also do little to improve that security."

 

"The restrictive Israeli policy only encourages the opening of unofficial - and potentially more dangerous - routes into Gaza," continues Ziv. "When foodstuffs cannot enter the Strip through official channels, they are smuggled in through Hamas-controlled tunnels and thus mainly reach Hamas associates or those Gazans able to pay the smugglers' prices. The poor are left at the mercy of the fluctuations of a market in which supply is severely low and prices ever-rising."

 

"Such a situation clearly contradicts the best interests of Israelis and Palestinians who want their societies to be open and egalitarian," Ziv declares. "Indeed, what long-term Israeli interest is served by having pregnant women and children suffer anemia, which causes well-documented damage to fetal and juvenile development? Limiting their access to iron does not improve Israeli security. Rather, it constitutes a gross violation of our own basic human values and the morality of Israeli society."

 

Ziv concludes that the issue "boils down to a simple message that was repeated by some during and after Operation Cast Lead: While Israel may have the right to do something, it does not have the green light to do anything at all. We must ask ourselves seriously whether the menu for Gaza is truly a necessary security measure that Israel has a right to employ, or whether it is an unnecessarily vindictive policy that may, in the long run, actually endanger the state's security and morality. For me, this is a rhetorical question." (Haaretz, 7/12/09)