Less than 48 hours until the deadline for the court-mandated evacuation of all
50 families from the West Bank Migron outpost, Binyamin Regional Council head
Avi Ro’eh said on Sunday that the new modular site he was constructing for the
settlers was not ready.
Ro’eh made his statement in a letter that he
penned to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen
Eitan Dangot, in which he said that the public institutions were still under
construction, including the school and the mikve.
Ro’eh added that a
number of safety issues related to the site had to be addressed.
On
Sunday evening, he showed the site to cabinet secretary Tzvi Hauser, who came to
see for himself the plot of land near the Psagot winery, just two kilometers
from where the original outpost is located.
The hilltop, home to both the
new and old outpost sites is in the Binyamin region of the West Bank and comes
under the auspices of Ro’eh’s council.
New modular homes have been
installed, with pathways and roads at the site.
When The Jerusalem Post
walked into a home, it found running water, but no electricity.
The area
still looks like a construction site, with tractors and piles of construction
material.
Ro’eh’s letter came in response to a demand Dangot made in
writing late last week to evacuate the outpost by Tuesday morning, when the High
Court of Justice is set to hold a hearing on Migron.
Previously, on
Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on Migron residents to respect
the court decision and said that in return he would strengthen the settlement
enterprise.
“We did this in Beit El and we will do this in Migron,”
Netanyahu said.
He made his comments during the weekly meeting of Likud
cabinet ministers. Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon warned, in that forum, that Migron
families who do not voluntarily relocate won’t be able to move to the new
housing site.
But there is a difference of opinion as to when exactly
Migron must be evacuated.
Dangot believes it must be dismantled by
Tuesday morning.
Ro’eh is of the opinion that the evacuation is only
supposed to occur after a court hearing on the matter on Tuesday, and possibly
even later this week.
Last summer the High Court issued a binding ruling
in which it said the outpost must be evacuated because it was built without
permits on land classified by the state as belonging to private
Palestinians.
The court issued its ruling in response to a 2006 petition
by Peace Now on behalf of the Palestinian owners.
Migron residents
claimed they had purchased some of the property and that other lots could be
reclassified by the state as abandoned property. The court and the state have
not recognized this claim.
Last winter, Migron residents came to an
agreement with the state to relocate within two-and-a-half years to allow time
for the Binyamin Regional Council to construct permanent homes for the families.
The court rejected that timetable, and insisted instead that the families
relocate in August.
Ro’eh immediately began constructing modular homes
for the families on a new site.
Last month Migron residents claimed that
they repurchased lots on which 17 of the families live. They petitioned the High
Court to allow those families to remain.
The Ministerial Settlements
Committee initially said it had no objection if the purchase were validated. But
the attorney general’s office told the court that the stance was legally
problematic because it was not possible for Israelis to live on the site without
violating the rights of the Palestinian landowners.
Outpost residents
have called on the government to demand the court allow them to remain on the
outpost or at the very least to allow the 17 families to remain.
On
Sunday they held a small protest outside their outpost in which they mockingly
made its name sound Arabic. They put up a sign stating that this was Al-
Majroon, because they believe the government cares more for the rights of
Palestinians than Israelis.