Hanegbi: Gov't decision to legalize outposts ready, ball in PM's court
Hanegbi noted that it was likely that the Knesset would disperse, but he felt it was possible that a decision on the outposts could be made before the government fell.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: DECEMBER 9, 2020 22:35Higher Education Minister Ze'ev Elkin and Settlement Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi of the Likud Party attend a rally supporting the legalization of outposts.(photo credit: YOUNG SETTLEMENTS FORUM)
Authorization of West Bank outposts are ultimately up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, said Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Wednesday, as he announced that the text of a government decision on the matter was almost ready.“The wording for a government decision is almost 100% complete,” Hanegbi said. Once the decision is ready for a vote, “the ball” will be in Netanyahu and Gantz’s court, he told a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense subcommittee meeting on the matter chaired by Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar, who resigned on Wednesday after leaving the Likud as he plans to form a new Right-wing party.“I hope they [Netanyahu and Gantz] will back this decision. We have made an enormous effort to find a solution to every issue,” Hanegbi said.It is possible that a decision on the outposts could be made before the Knesset disperses and the government falls, he said.At issue are some 100 fledgling or small communities in Judea and Samaria, known as outposts, that were built without authorization during the last 28 years. The outpost residents have rejected the term, which implies an illegal status, and prefer instead the phrase “young settlements.”Hanegbi cautioned the parliamentarians that while he had begun with a list of 69 outposts, the government decision he and Strategic Affairs Minister Michael Biton had drawn up would probably only apply to 40-45.Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich told Hanegbi that this was a mistake and that all the outposts must be included, so that they could receive basic services and not be under threat of demolition.Lt.-Col. Mali Meiri, the head of the Civil Administration’s infrastructure department said her office had long been working on authorization of the small communities.Nine outposts have already been legalized and 16 others were in progress, but in some cases they needed a government decision in order to be recognized as new settlements, she explained. This included the Asa’el outpost, which has been waiting many years for such a declaration, Meiri said. Others that could be approved were Ma’aleh Rechavam and Havat Yair.In a past FADC conversation, the Defense Ministry’s Legal adviser on settlements, Moshe Frucht, said that a government declaration on an intent to legalize was needed to change his ministry’s treatment of them as illegal communities slated for demolition.During Wednesdays’ discussion, he noted that it would be inaccurate to believe that all issues would be resolved with such a declaration and that there were other steps that could take place.Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman called on both the Likud and Blue and White to put aside their differences and support a government decision to authorize the outposts.South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yohai Damri called on the government to authorize all the outposts in principle and to work out the technical details later.MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) noted the discrepancy between the treatment of illegal settler building and Palestinian building, where in the former the conversation was about authorization and in the latter, demolition. On a human level, she wanted to know if the parliamentarians did not feel something for the Palestinians who lacked basic necessities such as water.“Why do the Palestinians not deserve authorization?” she asked.
