The High Court of Justice on Sunday extended the deadline by which the state
must remove five stone apartment buildings in the Ulpana outpost, from July 1 to
November 15.
The court had initially ordered the removal of the
structures, located on the outskirts of the Beit El settlement, by July 1,
because they were built without permits on land classified by the state as
belonging to private Palestinians.
But already last Tuesday the state
asked for a delay, to allow it time to relocate the structures. Each has three
floors.
It explained to the court that it believed it had satisfied the
terms of its order, because the 33 families who had lived in the buildings would
leave by June 29, last Friday.
The buildings would then be sealed, the
state said.
It said it planned to break the structures into 18 pieces,
starting with the roof, moving on to doors and windows and then taking down the
various floors.
By Friday, as stated in the state’s request, the 33
families had relocated to modular homes on land authorized for residential use
in Beit El.
On Sunday, the court said that it saw no reason not to accept
the state’s request for more time to move the apartment buildings.