After law change, court tosses charges against Israelis for entering illegal outpost
Indictment dropped against head of Homesh yeshiva and several others in light of partial repeal of 2005 law ordering evacuation of four northern West Bank settlements
At the request of prosecutors, a court has thrown out indictments against several Israelis charged with entering a wildcat outpost in the West Bank following the partial repeal of a law making it illegal to stay there.
Rabbi Elishama Cohen, who heads a makeshift yeshiva at Homesh, was indicted along with other rabbis and students at the religious seminary for violating the 2005 Disengagement Law ordering the evacuation of four settlements in the northern West Bank, as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
In March, the Knesset rolled back part of the legislation as part of efforts to legalize the outpost at Homesh, which activists have repeatedly tried to reestablish since it was evacuated. The new law — which ended the ban on Israelis entering and residing in those areas without authorization — only applies to the area around Homesh and the other three settlements.
In light of the change, the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court ordered the closure of the cases against Cohen and the others.
The decision was hailed by lawyer Moshe Polski of the far-right legal aid group Honenu, who represented the defendants.
“Along with our happiness over the cancellation of the Disengagement Law, we still expect the yeshiva to soon be approved,” said Shmuel Wendy, another leader of the Homesh yeshiva.
The dismissal of the charges was also praised by Yossi Dagan, a member of the ruling Likud party who heads the Samaria Regional Council where Homesh and the other evacuated settlements are located.
“The indictments against the Homesh yeshiva students should never have been filed to begin with,” he said.
“We will continue to act and will not be silent until Homesh and Sa-Nur are permanent settlements,” Dagan added, referring to another dismantled community.
The Yesh Din anti-settlement group denounced the court for throwing out the cases, saying the move sent “a clear message that the State of Israel encourages stealing from and banishing Palestinians.”
Homesh and the other destroyed settlements have been a symbol to supporters, who viewed the ban on entering the land as an injustice they sought to undo, while to Palestinians the areas are viewed as another section of West Bank territory stripped from them.
Israel’s rollback of the Disengagement Law last month was met with heavy criticism by the United States, which in response took the rare step of summoning Israeli Ambassador Mike Herzog for clarifications.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later put out a statement portraying the new legislation as symbolically righting a historic injustice, while stressing his hard-right government will not build any new settlements in the northern West Bank. It was not clear if the definition of new settlements applied to Homesh and three communities evacuated in 2005.
