MKs to present outpost bill to Knesset this week

According to coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) the bill is unlikely to be brought to the plenum on Monday.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Apartments in Ulpana oupost in danger of being evacuated (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Apartments in Ulpana oupost in danger of being evacuated
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Parliamentarians hope to present legislation to the Knesset this week to authorize West Bank outposts, such as the Ulpana, even though Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has yet to give his backing to such bills.
The bills, which could retroactively transform dozens of outposts into legalized settlements, could be debated by the plenum as early as Wednesday. It must pass a preliminary reading and three other readings before it passes into law.
According to coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) the bill is unlikely to be brought to the plenum on Monday.
At the Likud ministerial committee meeting, Netanyahu spoke of the complex situation facing 30 families in the Ulpana outpost.
The High Court of Justice has ordered the state to evacuate the outpost – on the outskirts of Beit El – by July 1. According to the court, the homes were built on Palestinian property without the proper permits.
Legislation is one of the few possible alternatives to avert an evacuation.
Netanyahu has yet to endorse or disavow the legislative attempts.
The problem facing the Ulpana families was “a complex” one, he said at the ministerial meeting.
“We have to deal with it in a logical and reasonable manner. It is a difficult problem. This is a hard nut to crack,” he said.
Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) on Sunday said that the Ulpana residents should not have to pay for the government’s mistakes.
“It is not just or normal to destroy homes that people purchased with money,” he said.
Landau, who in the past has spoken out in support of West Bank outposts, participated in a ministerial forum on the matter with Netanyahu on Friday.
Other ministers who were present Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Independence), Minister- without-Portfolio Bennie Begin (Likud), Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud), Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud), Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, as well as representatives of the IDF’s Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria.