Peace Now chief: PM will never adopt settlement report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will never adopt the recently published Levy report, which legally justifies Israel’s West Bank settlements, because he knows the paper’s positions are indefensible in the international community, the head of the dovish Peace Now organization said Wednesday.

“The prime minister will never officially accept the document,” Yariv Oppenheimer said at a debate about the report, which was published earlier this week. “This paper is unacceptable around the world, and it will in some way harm the people here that would like to have continuous building of settlements.”

On Monday, a panel of three jurists appointed by Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman released their report on the legality of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. In their 89-page report, the jurists — headed by retired Supreme Court judge Edmund Levy — assert that the settlements are legal under international law and that Israel’s actions in the West Bank should thus not be considered an occupation. The report also proposes legalizing many unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank.

While many human rights groups and left-wing pundits slammed the report, Netanyahu merely said that he would submit it to the Ministerial Committee for Settlement Affairs, which will “discuss it and make a decision.”

Last month, the cabinet approved the creation of this committee, which is chaired by Netanyahu himself and whose decisions have the status of cabinet decisions, meaning that individual ministers are unable to appeal them.

“This report, in my opinion, discusses the question of the legality and legitimacy of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria on the basis of the facts and claims that merit serious examination,” Netanyahu said about Levy’s legal opinion.

A PMO spokesman told The Times of Israel on Thursday that no date has been set yet for a discussion of the report in the ministerial committee.

Oppenheimer said the fact that the report was handed over to the government about three weeks before it was made public showed Netanyahu’s uneasiness about its controversial content.

“The Prime Minister’s Office understands that this report is going to damage Israel’s standing and is going to [cause a] clash between Israel and international law and that therefore it will be better not to publish it,” he said. “The best way to understand why this report is so difficult is looking at the PMO’s response,” he added.

Oppenheimer was speaking in Jerusalem during an event sponsored by MediaCentral, on organization assisting foreign journalists in Israel. He was debating American-Israeli lawyer Marc Zell, who represented the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, a hawkish group based in Jerusalem.

Zell, who himself lives in the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, called the publication of the Levy report an extraordinary, even “historical” event: “Whether it become the policy of the government or not, the fact that is was written is in itself an extremely important statement,” he said. “The statement is, listen to this: the Jewish people has a legal right to live and settle in the Land of Israel, Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.”