Resource: Inventing retroactive ‘solutions’ for land theft

By +972 Resources May 20, 2014 | Edit

In February 2012, the Netanyahu government established a committee to provide retroactive approval for illegally-constructed outposts in the West Bank.

The Levy Committee, headed by Supreme Court Justice Edmund Levy, attempted to find a juridical solution to the growing number of petitions submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of Palestinian landowners demanding the state enforce its laws and demolish illegal construction on private land. According the Levy Report, the territories seized by Israel in 1967 are not considered “occupied,” and that legitimate legal tools exist for approving outposts constructed without permits, even if they were built on private Palestinian land.

A new report by Yesh Din reveals the ways in which the report was commissioned by the Israeli government in order to invent a retroactive “solution” for the problem of the illegal outposts. Adopting its recommendations, Yesh Din says, will serve to usurp privately owned Palestinian land, reward criminals who seized this land contrary to the law, and effectively eliminate Palestinians’ right to property.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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