Seeking solution to Ulpana crisis, Liberman eyes Cyprus

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has asked Foreign Ministry attorneys to research whether a European court’s 2010 ruling on compensation for contested homes in Northern Cyprus could be applied to the Givat Ulpana illegal outpost, according to Haaretz.

Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in May that the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El, built on property claimed by Palestinians, was illegally constructed on private land and therefore must be dismantled. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed that the buildings in question be moved several hundred meters away, but Liberman is considering supporting a settlement regularization bill that would circumvent the High Court of Justice ruling that the buildings must be razed.

In seeking a solution to the problem of the Ulpana neighborhood that satisfies both the Beit El residents and the government, Liberman requested that the Foreign Ministry legal department look for any similar cases in the world, to see whether there is any international legal precedent for the prime minister’s plan. He has asked specifically about a European Court of Human Rights verdict regarding homes evacuated by Greek Cypriots and later occupied by Turks in Turkey’s 1974 invasion of the island nation.

Northern Cyprus is considered occupied territory by most governments around the world; only Turkey recognizes it as a sovereign state.

“The ruling established that it is possible to be satisfied with compensation,” Liberman told Haaretz. “You can not evacuate everyone and return the property to everyone. Also, the political reality is such that it is impossible to return property, and so the solution is compensation for the land. This verdict is very relevant for us.”