AG says bill circumventing High Court rulings ‘unacceptable’
Mandelblit rejects proposed law to recognize illegal settlements and save West Bank’s Amona outpost: ‘We cannot accept legislation that hinders decisions of the High Court’
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Monday sent a stern warning to legislators seeking to circumvent a High Court ruling to evacuate a contested West Bank outpost, saying “We cannot accept legislation that hinders decisions of the High Court of Justice.”
Earlier in the day the High Court of Justice denied a request by the government to postpone Amona’s evacuation. But some coalition lawmakers, in an effort to prevent the evacuation, have been advancing a bill that would recognize certain illegal building in the West Bank. And on Sunday several ministers defied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and gave their backing to the effort.
Mandelblit, who has previously denounced the bill as legally indefensible, said Monday that while he was “committed to assisting the government” in enacting its policies “and finding legal solutions to complex problems…We cannot accept solutions that are outside the boundaries of the law, and we cannot accept legislation that hinders Supreme Court rulings.”
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party brought the so-called Regulation Bill to a vote Sunday despite efforts by the prime minister to delay, and repeated statements from Mandelblit that the legislation runs contrary to international law and would be indefensible in the High Court of Justice.
It was not immediately clear which of two parallel versions of the bill passed, one submitted by Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, or a later “softened” version submitted by Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich and also signed by Likud MKs David Bitan — the chairman of the coalition — and Yoav Kisch.
Both MKs claimed their bill had passed and it was possible they had been bundled together as a package to be untangled later.
Both bills have been deemed indefensibly by Mandelblit.
The measure still must pass the Knesset, but Sunday’s vote means it will enjoy coalition support as it moves through the stages of legislation.
The bill will likely be brought to its first reading in the plenum on Wednesday.
The High Court, in its ruling Monday, denied a request by the government to postpone the evacuation of the outpost by seven months.
“The evacuation must occur before December 25,” the court said in its ruling, the latest twist in an incendiary battle between Israel’s judiciary and the right-wing governing coalition. “The court rejects the delay requested by the state.”
After over a decade of delays and legal wrangling, the High Court ruled in 2014 that the outpost, which lies east of Ramallah, was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished by December 25.
“In this case, as with previous ones, we have been asked ‘at the last minute’ to extend the date of an evacuation that was set by a judgment,” the court said in a statement on Monday. “It appears that any time limit given, generous as it may be, is not enough (for the government). We must be careful not to allow deadlines set in rulings to become recommendations” rather than orders.
The government requested the extension to give it time to reach an agreement with the residents of Amona for a peaceful evacuation.
But Supreme Court President Miriam Naor, along with Justices Esther Hayut and Hanan Melcer, were not convinced that the threat of violence justified a change of plans, saying such action would only serve to prove that such threats could prevent court rulings from being carried out.
“This is a message that is unacceptable in a state governed by rule of law,” they said.
