Justice Ministry green-lights expropriation of Palestinian land for Israeli outpost

A legal opinion from the Justice Ministry has given the green light for the expropriation of private Palestinian land in order to legalize an Israeli outpost in the central West Bank.

The opinion, which was drafted due to “requests from the political leadership,” allows the temporary seizure of land by Israeli authorities in order to pave an access road to Haresha, an outpost near the Talmon settlement.

While Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit ruled in November 2017 that the Palestinian land could be permanently expropriated so long as the original owners were compensated, the Justice Ministry legal opinion recommends that the access road be paved in the form of a tunnel underneath the private Palestinian land leading to Haresha.

The alternative method would allow for a temporary, rather than permanent, seizure of the private land until the paving of the tunnel is completed. The Palestinian landowners would still ostensibly compensated over the project.

The paving of an access road is the last step required by the state before it can legalize Haresha, which over a decade ago alerted the High Court it intends to do.

Mandelblit’s legal opinion — on which today’s was based — relied heavily on a ruling made by now-retired Supreme Court justice Salim Joubran.

Responding to a petition regarding the legality of establishing a temporary living area for the evacuees of the Amona outpost while they wait for the new Amichai settlement to be built for them, Joubran ruled that abandoned private Palestinian land could be seized for the grounds as long as the original owners are compensated.

But earlier this year, Chief Justice Esther Hayut ruled that the state cannot rely on the precedent set by Joubran, placing at risk the likelihood that today’s legal opinion from the Justice Ministry will hold up.