38 MKs to PM: Don't raze settlements on Palestinian land

Legislators, including over half of Netanyahu's party, send letter to the premier demanding he save homes built on private Palestinian land.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Jordan valley settlement 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Jordan valley settlement 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Thirty-eight parliamentarians appealed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning not to demolish settler homes located on private Palestinian property.
More than half of Netanyahu’s Likud party faction, 15 out of its 27 MKs, signed onto the letter penned by Land of Israel group's Knesset lobby.
RELATED:Bill proposes compensating W. Bank Palestinian land owners Likud MKs seek to block further outpost destruction
Other signatories included eight MKs from the Shas party, six MKs from Israel Beiteinu, the four National Union members and the three members of HaBayit HaYehudi. One MK from Kadima and one from United Torah Judaism also signed.
Included on the list were five ministers, Eli Yishai of Shas, Daniel Hershkowitz of Habayit Hayehudi, Uzi Landau of Israel Beiteinu and Likud ministers Yuli Edelstein and Yossi Peled.
The letter comes on the heels of last month’s demolition of three homes at the Migron settlement outpost, and ahead of the anticipated demolition of the entire outpost, which the state says is located on private Palestinian property.
Right wing politicians fear that there are other demolitions pending, including at the Givat Assaf outpost and the Ulpana neighborhood of the Beit El settlement.
In their letter to Netanyahu, the politicians said that other solutions exist, such as compensating the Palestinian land-owners.
The MKs said they believed that the Migron home demolitions could have been prevented and that no further destruction of the outpost, or other settler homes, should occur.
"We urge you to protect the settlements in Judea and Samaria from those who use the pretense of law and order to persecute them,” the MKs said.
They urged Netanyahu to exhaust every possible legal solution to ensure that no more settler homes are razed.