Tag: Bil’in

Haaretz editorial, February 27th

The theft of private land and lawless construction, with the authorities’ collaboration, have long been routine in the land of the settlers. The scope of these deeds and their seriousness are described extensively in the report on illegal outposts compiled by Talia Sasson, formerly a senior state prosecution attorney. The report was buried almost two years ago.

However, the decision of the Supreme Planning Council (SPC) for Judea and Samaria, which was revealed in Haaretz on Sunday, to legitimize the plan to build the Matityahu East neighborhood in Modi’in Ilit, beyond the Green Line, marks a nadir.

The plan is to legitimize 42 high-rises, which are in various stages of construction, some of them on land allegedly stolen from the villagers of Bil’in. All of the high-rises being built contravene the planning and construction laws. Peace Now and Bil’in’s residents petitioned the High Court of Justice two years ago to have construction stopped. The legal counsel of Modi’in Ilit warned in writing of “construction offenses of such colossal proportions, ignoring the law and planning regulations, that words cannot describe [them].”

Following the petition, with the support of the State Prosecution, the High Court ordered a halt to construction and to the neighborhood’s occupancy more than a year ago. At that time the prosecution instructed the police to open an investigation into those involved in the affair.

The authorities responsible for enforcing the region’s planning and building laws knew what was going on and turned a blind eye. Instead, they recently decided to legitimize it retroactively.

Matityahu East is the latest in a series of such affairs in which the separation barrier, supposedly serving Israel’s security needs, is used to annex West Bank territory to expand the settlements. The defense minister is dragging his feet on everything concerning the evacuation of illegal outposts. At the same time, bodies he is responsible for – led by the civil administration – are colluding in land grabbing and legitimizing illegal construction throughout the West Bank.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is not fulfilling his duty by publicly denouncing the anarchy in the territories in everything concerning law enforcement. He must demand that the defense minister halt the implementation of the SPC’s plan until the inquiry into suspicions of land theft is completed.

The scope of the offenses and the advanced stages of building and selling of apartments most not provide shelter for scofflaws. Peace Now is to be commended for its legal aid to Bil’in residents – as are the Israeli and international peace activists who come every week to demonstrate against the fence being built there.

The High Court did not hesitate to halt the construction in Matityahu East until the planning procedures and inquiry into the ownership issue could be completed. If the government does not quash the planning council’s decision to allow construction to continue, the High Court will have no choice but to respond to the recent petition. It will have to abrogate that decision, to protect both the rule of law and the rights of those victimized by its breach.

by Akiva Eldar, February 25th

The Supreme Planning Council for Judea and Samaria recently legalized the largest-ever illegal construction project in the West Bank. Part of the project is situated on private land, which belongs to Palestinian residents of the village of Bil’in.

The project calls for the construction of 42 buildings containing approximately 1,500 apartments. The buildings, already in various stages of construction, are in the neighborhood of Matityahu East, which is located in the large ultra-Orthodox settlement of Modi’in Illit.

Peace Now and Bil’in residents filed a petition against the construction a week ago at the High Court of Justice.

About a year ago, following another petition by Peace Now and Bil’in residents, the High Court ordered a halt on the construction and occupation of the buildings.

Following an appeal to the State Prosecutor’s Office, the National Fraud Squad opened an investigation into those involved in the affair. The neighborhood is being built by Green Park and Green Mount, companies registered in Canada, along with two other companies: Ein Ami and Hefziba.

The laundering of the buildings’ construction allows members of the planning council, who were aware of the illegalities and did nothing to stop them, to avoid criminal charges and suits for damages.

The petitioners’ attorney, Michael Sfard, who asked that construction be halted, said the planning authorities knew about the illegal circumstances and did nothing to stop the construction.

He said the body administering the separation fence planned a route that would intentionally leave land for the neighborhood on the Israeli side of the fence. This move, apparently, came at the request of the Housing Ministry, which sought hundreds of dunams of Bil’in’s agricultural lands for Modi’in Illit’s expansion.

“The takeover of the lands was carried out by a conspiracy involving private developers and Israeli authorities. Thus, criminal companies that stole private Palestinian lands won the protection of the fence – which was intended as a means of security and became a tool for annexation – as well as backing from the planning authorities, whose approval laundered the offenses,” Sfard wrote in the petition. Justice Salim Joubran ordered the state to respond to the petition by March 6.

The petition stated that the planning council’s decision would “bury the criminal act and the impaired rights of ownership deep in the earth, and would quickly lead to continued construction of the neighborhood, as if no offense had been committed and there were never any rights of ownership.”

The planning authorities also refused to hear the claims of the residents of Bil’in who sought to prove their ownership of the land.

In September 2004, Moshe Moskowitz of the Civil Administration, the highest authority in planning and construction in the West Bank, wrote to Modi’in’s council comptroller that “construction authorization for the new project of Matityahu East was doubtless given against the instructions of the existing [master] plan and therefore was not within the licensing authority’s power.”

However, last week’s petition stated that Moskowitz and other members of the planning council, had a vested interest in legalizing the project, because the demolition of dozens of apartments would expose them to lawsuits by purchasers.

A lawyer for one of the settler’s associations is suspected of purchasing the land for the project with an affidavit from the mukhtar of Bil’in. The affidavit allegedly claimed that the security situation prevented the lawyer from entering Bil’in to obtain the property owners’ signatures.

In the decision to legalize construction on the new neighborhood, the planning council conceded that it had no master plan for Modi’in Illit, but cited an exception in Jordanian law – the basis for Israeli law in the West Bank – by which small communities do not require a master plan for the construction of new neighborhoods.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in September 2006, 33,200 residents were living in Modi’in Illit.

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