By Jonathan Lis
The government has approved the legalization of 13 outposts; five cannot be legalized, because they are on private Palestinian land, and are slated for evacuation.
posted June 07, 2012 by Haaretz
With the government announcing plans to legalize 13 of the 18 West Bank settlement outposts against which petitions to the High Court of Justice have been filed, the fates of a number of outposts hang in the balance.
While the government has already approved the legalization of 13 of the outposts, five cannot be legalized, because they are located on privately-owned Palestinian land, and are slated for evacuation.
The first of these is the Ulpana outpost, which the High Court has ruled, will be evacuated by the beginning of July, and Migron, which will be evacuated by August.
The government promised the court that Givat Assaf would be evacuated at about the same time as Ulpana, meaning by July 1. But unlike in the case of Ulpana and Migron, the court has not yet issued a final ruling on the petition against this outpost, though one is expected soon.
Givat Assaf, which is next to Migron, was built on regulated private Palestinian land, and is home to 25 families.
The government also promised the High Court that it would evacuate the Amona outpost by the end of 2012. Amona is next to the settlement of Ofra, built on private regulated Palestinian land, and home to 50 families.
Along with these outposts, the state has still not announced definite timetables for the evacuation or legalization of two further outposts: Mitzpe Kramim, home to 50 families, and Hayovel, which the government plans to legalize, only later to demolish the houses built there on private Palestinian land.
The state told the High Court that it plans to legalize the Haresha outpost, and declared the land that the outpost was built on to be state land.
Ma’ale Rehav’am, Mitzpe Lachish, Haroe, Ramat Gilad, and Mitzpe Yitzhar will be legalized, according to the government’s announcement, although a number of buildings built on private land in Ramat Gilad and Mitzpeh Yitzhar have been demolished.
At the same time, the state has already started regulating the outposts at Bruchin, Sansana, and Rachalim, Givat Havbrecha and Shvut Rachel. As for the Derech Ha’avot outpost, the state has promised to investigate whether or not there is any land that needs to be decided upon.
