Bennett accuses ‘radical’ NGOs of using court to force policy changes

Jewish Home party leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett slams the “radical left-wing” NGOs who, he argues, are attempting to achieve through legal means what they cannot do in government, due to their dwindling public backing. Attempts by groups such as Peace Now to force policy changes through the court system “is not legitimate,” he says.

The regulation bill, which will recognize some unauthorized West Bank construction, is the “only realistic law” to combat this trend, he says.

Bennett hails the ministerial approval of the bill to legalize some West Bank outposts, while thanking the prime minister — who opposed it — and other Likud ministers who voted for the it last night.

“We sent them there, and we won’t forsake them,” he says of the residents of the Amona outpost, who under a court order, must be evacuated from the West Bank hilltop by late December. The regulation bill, deemed indefensible by the attorney general, is being presented by Bennett’s party as the only way to avert the demolition.

— Marissa Newman