Netanyahu seeks ways to legalize four disputed settlement enclaves
PM asks the attorney general to find a legal solution to the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El and says three other sites will soon receive permits
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the attorney general to “find a solution” for the Ulpana neighborhood in Beit El, which was scheduled for demolition no later than May 1. He further informed cabinet members Wednesday that he will soon submit the necessary permits legalizing the status of three other West Bank settlement enclaves.
The declaration comes amid controversy regarding a group of settlers who purchased, occupied and were then evicted from the Beit Hamachpela house in Hebron earlier on Wednesday afternoon.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said after the surprise evacuation that he would “continue to uphold the law and democracy.”
Further eviction and demolition orders loom in the future, including in the 50-family outpost of Migron, which the High Court of Justice has ordered to be demolished by August 1.
The prime minister informed cabinet members Wednesday morning that he has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein “to find a solution for the Ulpana neighborhood [in Beit El] that would obviate the need for demolition.”
Founded in 1999, during Barak’s term as prime minister, the neighborhood is home to some 50 families. Five of the buildings, however, are situated on land belonging to a Palestinian man who claims that the person who sold the land to the settlers was never the true owner.
The other three settlement enclaves — Bruchin, Sansana and Rehelim — are all situated on state land but have not been formally approved by the cabinet, a mandatory move in the authorization process that would have significant diplomatic repercussions.
Instead Netanyahu promised Wednesday that he would “submit to the cabinet soon, with the recommendation of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the necessary permits for providing for the status of the communities.”
According to Haaretz, these permits would officially annex the three settlements to already authorized settlements in the region.
Sansana is a religious settlement in the Hebron Hills of about 40 families, Rehelim is an outpost near Ariel with 35 families and Brochin lies across the Green Line from Modi’in and has about 100 families
The Times of Israel Community.