Temporary homes can be built for all 50 Migron outpost families within four
months, at the new location for their community near the Psagot Winery,
Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias said on Monday.
“We can
work under emergency procedures, as we did after the [December 2010] Carmel fire
to create a temporary solution for the Beit Oren community,” he said.
His
spokesman clarified that the ministry had not been asked to prepare such a
solution, but that it could.
Attias spoke one day after the High Court of
Justice ordered the state to evacuate the West Bank Migron outpost by August 1
from its present location on land classified as belonging to private
Palestinians.
The court rejected a petition by the state to evacuate the
outpost by November 30, 2015, so as to allow time to build new homes for Migron
residents on state land 2 kilometers away, near the winery.
Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he would abide by the court’s new time
table. On Monday evening, he met with Minister- without-Portfolio Bennie Begin
to discuss options for the Migron residents until their new homes could be built
for them by the winery.
Begin had negotiated the relocation deal with
Migron residents (with the 2015 deadline) and is considered the prime minister’s
representative in this matter.
Right-wing lawmakers, however, continued
to argue that the best solution was to pass legislation that legalized existing
Jewish buildings situated on private Palestinian property in Judea and Samaria.
Such a law would provide compensation for the Palestinian property
owners.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said he supported such a
law.
He and other lawmakers are concerned with the larger issues,
particularly given that the state had promised the High Court that it would
evacuate other such outposts, including Ulpana, Givat Assaf and
Amona.
Peace Now said that if the Knesset approved such a law, it would
petition the High Court to overturn the legislation, which it claimed would
sanction land theft for settlement construction.
In an interview with
Army Radio, Begin said that he opposed a legislative attempt to authorize Jewish
building on private Palestinian property.
It would not succeed, he
said.
“It would become a stain on the settlement enterprise in Judea and
Samaria,” he said. Such legislation would be the equivalent of an open
declaration that “we are robber of private land belonging to Arabs in Judea and
Samaria.”
Begin added, that “this is nonsense. It will never
happen. It is a mistake to hang onto any hope of this kind of
solution.”
The government made a good agreement with the Migron
residents, he said.
“We did the best we could, everyone knows this, not
to make it too difficult for them,” Begin said.
The government and the
Migron residents petitioned the court together and both parties must now accept
the justices’ decision, “whether it is convenient or less convenient,” he
said.
Begin took a positive approach to Sunday’s court ruling, noting
that the the justices had dealt with the time table, but not the other aspects
of the offer to provide Migron residents with authorized, permanent homes. The
rest of the deal still stood, he said.
The deal gave the small community,
which until now had no options, the ability to relocate to a new neighborhood
that could flourish and grow to 200 families, he said.
It was important
to focus on this final goal of rooting Jews in the Binyamin region, not far from
Jerusalem.
“I am sure that the Migron residents who have gone along with,
will agree to this program,” Begin said.
He predicted that “we will be
together in a cornerstone laying ceremony for this neighborhood.
Migron
residents, however, have not agreed to relocate under the new
timetable.
At a press conference on Monday morning, residents said that
it was the state that had sent them to construct the outpost. They further said
that the Palestinians who had petitioned against the outpost with the help of
Peace Now, had only claimed ownership over land on which seven out of 50
structures stand.
“Even regarding this quarter of the community, they
have never presented a document that shows the land is theirs,” Migron resident
Haim Teitelbaum said.
“The court has determined that the state can send
its residents on Zionist missions without taking responsibility for its
results,” he said.
“The agreement [to relocate] does not exist anymore,”
Teitelbaum said. “We will not be partners any more to these kind of
agreements, we won’t be partners to the destruction of the place.
“We
sought justice and we still seek justice,” he said. “We are asking the prime
minister to ensure that justice is done. The ball is in his
hands.
Teitelbaum added that he did not believe that after 2005’s Gaza
disengagement, parliamentarians would be party to the destruction of another
Jewish community