AG repeats warning to ministers against legalizing outpost

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has issued a legal opinion opposing Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to legalize the Mevo’ot Yericho outpost in the Jordan Valley at the Sunday cabinet meeting, saying the proposal was drawn up with “electoral consideration.”

Mandelblit releases the opinion hours after signing off on a similar recommendation made by the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser to government ministers, in which he warned them that “there is legal impediment to this decision during an election period.”

The attorney general writes that while the government has a right to advance decisions to strengthen Israeli settlement in the West Bank, doing so when it is in a transitional stage is more problematic.

“During an election period, the outgoing government is obliged to act with restraint when it comes to the decisions taken and the allocation of resources,” Mandelblit says.

He argues that the reasons for this are twofold, saying that a transitional government should avoid making irreversible decisions unless absolutely necessary. Moreover, he argues that “one must be wary” of ministers electioneering with such decisions.

— Jacob Magid