Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel to legalise colonies on private Palestinian lands
Owners may be compensated or even coerced
- By Nasouh Nazzal, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 October 12, 2011
Ramallah: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to set up a task force to explore ways to legalise outposts and houses in colonies that were built on private Palestinian land.
The instructions are in response to the heavy pressure of colonists on the government which had decided to demolish outposts built on private Palestinian land.
The colonists have proposed the owners to be compensated for any building erected on private land with the help of the Israeli government.
The colonists believe it can be done under the pretext of "security reasons" and owners can be handled individually if they pose a challenge, or they can be compensated generously. In other cases, they can be declared absentees, enabling their land to be used.
Retroactive legality
Israeli daily Haaretz reported yesterday that only outposts which were built on private Palestinian land will be handled this way, where the task force would work to retroactively legalise the outposts or any illegal construction by the Israeli colonists.
The Israeli government is already in the process of legalising all outposts and constructions in the colonies which were built on state land, but without master plans or building permits. The government will shortly end up with legalising 326 permanent dwellings and 344 temporary ones.
A senior official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) told Gulf News that the step revealed Israel's real intentions.
"The last thing Israel seeks is peace, which requires halting its colony-building activities in the Palestinian Territories," he said and added that the Israelis were not happy with annexing the main colony blocks in the West Bank.
"The Israelis want to build the colonies and outposts without any restrictions, which is not acceptable from a Palestinian perspective," he said.
"Only because the Palestinians know the Israeli policies, the leadership demanded an immediate halt to the colony activities before the start of serious peace talks," the official said.
Mosque the target
Israeli army forces raided the village of Yerza in the Northern Jordan Valley areas yesterday and demolished its mosque for the third time in a row for being constructed without obtaining the necessary building permit.
The mosque is built in the C Zone and serves the entire village of Yerza whose residents rebuilt it twice earlier after it was demolished by the Israeli forces.
The forces raided the village early in the morning and declared the area a military zone, giving a chance to the military bulldozers to demolish the mosque.
The Palestinian Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley areas issued a statement vowing to rebuild the mosque in a few days, and saying they would do so every time the Israelis destroy it. They also said they have been repeatedly denied a permit for the mosque.
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