Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch blasted the state on Wednesday over the the fact that a interim injunction the court issued on April 5, 2009, ordering a halt to construction of a road built partly on private Palestinian land, was violated and the state did nothing to prevent it.
Beinisch made her remarks during a hearing on an action by Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights, which petitioned the court in March 2009, demanding that the state implement orders issued by the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria to demolish the illegal road.
According to Yesh Din attorney Shlomi Zecharya, the petition was filed after the route had been laid out but before it was paved. The petitioners also said the road cut off access from farmers from the Palestinian village of Karyut to 1,500 dunams (150 hectares) of farmland.
The road is meant to link the illegal Hayovel outpost to the nearby Eli settlement.
In April 2009, the court issued an interim injunction ordering a halt to all work on the road. Nevertheless, construction continued and part of the road was paved. In fact, the paved part of the road is currently being used by the army despite the military administration’s order to demolish it.
“If the Hayovel outpost is illegal, and we know it is, and if the land is privately owned, how is it possible to pave a road on it,” Beinisch asked.
The state’s representative, Hila Gorney, said that only part of the
road was privately owned and that the ownership status of another
section was in dispute and had not been resolved. She said the army had
to make use of this part of the road, which was not privately owned.
When she was asked about another road nearby that could serve the same
purpose, Gorney informed the court that it no longer existed.
“Things are happening right in front of your eyes, Justice Esther Hayut
said. “You have such sophisticated sight equipment in the area and yet
you don’t see what is going on there. When one road causes injury to
private property, the solution must be found elsewhere. How can it be
that there was another access road and now there is not?”