Controversy over Ulpana Hill deepens strains in coalition

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said prior to Sunday’s cabinet meeting that if the homes on Ulpana Hill, a contested neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, were found to be built on private Palestinian land, the government has no choice but to evacuate them, Israel Radio reported.

Barak said during the meeting: “If the land turns out to be privately owned, we will have no choice but to evacuate or purchase it. There is no other way.”

The controversy surrounding the evacuation of Ulpana Hill has degenerated into a series of personal attacks on the government officials involved in the decision-making, and right-wing parliamentarians have warned that the proposed evacuation could cause the ruling coalition to collapse.

The defense minister, an ex-Labor Party leader who heads the small, centrist Independence party, also told government members Sunday: “We are responsible for the rule of law and for Israel being a normative country among other developed countries, and also responsible for finding a way to solve the issue of the Ulpana neighborhood.“

He continued: “We need to understand that a 21^st century democratic government concerned about its future cannot act differently.”

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud), speaking to Army Radio on Sunday, accused Barak of violating the very rule of law that he claimed to be upholding.

“It will be very bad if the neighborhood is evacuated, in terms of government policy, public trust in the government and the rule of law, which people are hiding behind but in fact are harming,” Ya’alon said.

The High Court ordered the Ulpana neighborhood to be evacuated by May 1, and the government has pledged to demolish the 30 homes located there.

Prime Minister Netanyahu repeatedly sought a legal solution for the Ulpana neighborhood controversy, looking both to the attorney general and more recently to his aides, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

“The prime minister is seeking a legal alternative to avoid the settlers’ evacuation,” a source familiar with the matter told the Hebrew daily.

An Ulpana neighborhood spokesman said in response to Barak’s comments during the cabinet meeting, “We are not Ehud Barak’s pawns. As prime minister he placed us here, now as defense minister he has decided to move us. Thankfully, he is defense minister and not prime minister,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

Einat Wilf, the chairwoman of Barak’s Independence faction in the Knesset, responded to Ya’alon’s statement: “There is great cowardice here with relation to criticism of the prime minster. The defense minister has become the government’s favorite punching bag, and people are directing all the criticism at him.”

Ya’alon, who is also minister of Strategic Affairs, has stated repeatedly that he believed the evacuation of Ulpana Hill would cause the Netanyahu government to fall. “We said we wouldn’t evacuate the neighborhood. Should this happen, the government will be dissolved,” the minister said on Saturday

A number of ministers from the right, including Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, spoke out strongly over the weekend in support of the outpost.

Katz told Israel Radio on Sunday that he was certain that the government would prevent the evacuation of Ulpana Hill and the demolition of its homes.

Right-wing Knesset members will also participate in a demonstration on Sunday evening in solidarity with the residents, who are to be evicted from their homes in just over a week.