The Supreme Court was scheduled to hand down a ruling this week on Migron, a Jewish community in Judea that Peace Now and local Arabs say is partly built on privately-owned Arab land. The Court was expected to order the State to raze the community, home to 43 Jewish families. However, a last-minute request by the State for a postponement is likely to be heeded.
The State maintains, in an update to the position it submitted two months ago, that it is engaged in dialogue with the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria towards agreeing upon an acceptable approach to the outpost communities.
Officials of the Yesha Council (Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria) have said that they can agree to the relocation of individual outposts, but only on condition that no other way can be found to legalize them, that they are not destroyed, and that all the others are absolutely legalized.
The State informed the Supreme Court that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has been in office only since June, has instructed his Assistant for Settlement Affairs, Eitan Baroshi, to oversee the outpost issue. Baroshi is to supervise the actions necessary to render operative the Defense Ministry's plan for destroying the outposts.
Barak: Talk With the Residents
Barak specifically instructed Baroshi to conduct dialogue with the settlement enterprise leaders in order to reach mutually acceptable decisions wherever possible.
"In light of these developments and the approaching holidays," the State's response concludes, "we ask to be able to submit another updated response by the end of October."
It thus appears that the fate of Migron and other pioneering communities in Judea and Samaria has been pushed off, yet again, for another two months.
History
Migron was founded in March 2002, on a strategic hilltop overlooking the highway leading from Jerusalem to Beit El, Shilo and northward. Within a few months, it grew to 30 families, and later to 43. Its Biblical name appears in Samuel I 14,2 and Isaiah 10, 28. Within a year of its founding, however, it began appearing on lists of outposts to be destroyed by the Ariel Sharon government, and has lived under the shadow of destruction every since.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, a strong force behind Migron's establishment, said at the time that it was strategically important for Israel to grab that spot - a high hilltop in the area of Psagot, Kokhav Yaakov, and Michmash.
In October 2003, Migron and other outposts were granted a form of government recognition, with Ron Shechner, the then-Settlement Affairs Advisor to then-Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, explaining, "This is a recognition of the fact that people who live in these places are entitled to basic services such as security and defense, lighting, children's nurseries, and the like. The fundamental question of the outposts' legality must still be decided by the government."
Just two months later, Defense Minister Mofaz gave the order to uproot and dismantle Migron. Within two weeks, however, when the government saw it would have to deal with thousands of people planning to come and defend the site, and when strong opposition arose within the Likud, Migron was taken off the immediate chopping-block list. The long-term threat was never removed, however.
Sometime afterwards, Peace Now sought out and found Arabs who claimed to own some of the land on which Migron was built, and a court suit demanding its destruction was filed.
Though Migron was a quickly-growing community in its first two years, its growth has been stunted at 43 families for the past several years, and its future - as is that of over 20 other outposts in Yesha - is still mired in uncertainty.
The State maintains, in an update to the position it submitted two months ago, that it is engaged in dialogue with the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria towards agreeing upon an acceptable approach to the outpost communities.
Officials of the Yesha Council (Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria) have said that they can agree to the relocation of individual outposts, but only on condition that no other way can be found to legalize them, that they are not destroyed, and that all the others are absolutely legalized.
The State informed the Supreme Court that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has been in office only since June, has instructed his Assistant for Settlement Affairs, Eitan Baroshi, to oversee the outpost issue. Baroshi is to supervise the actions necessary to render operative the Defense Ministry's plan for destroying the outposts.
Barak: Talk With the Residents
Barak specifically instructed Baroshi to conduct dialogue with the settlement enterprise leaders in order to reach mutually acceptable decisions wherever possible.
"In light of these developments and the approaching holidays," the State's response concludes, "we ask to be able to submit another updated response by the end of October."
It thus appears that the fate of Migron and other pioneering communities in Judea and Samaria has been pushed off, yet again, for another two months.
History
Migron was founded in March 2002, on a strategic hilltop overlooking the highway leading from Jerusalem to Beit El, Shilo and northward. Within a few months, it grew to 30 families, and later to 43. Its Biblical name appears in Samuel I 14,2 and Isaiah 10, 28. Within a year of its founding, however, it began appearing on lists of outposts to be destroyed by the Ariel Sharon government, and has lived under the shadow of destruction every since.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, a strong force behind Migron's establishment, said at the time that it was strategically important for Israel to grab that spot - a high hilltop in the area of Psagot, Kokhav Yaakov, and Michmash.
In October 2003, Migron and other outposts were granted a form of government recognition, with Ron Shechner, the then-Settlement Affairs Advisor to then-Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, explaining, "This is a recognition of the fact that people who live in these places are entitled to basic services such as security and defense, lighting, children's nurseries, and the like. The fundamental question of the outposts' legality must still be decided by the government."
Just two months later, Defense Minister Mofaz gave the order to uproot and dismantle Migron. Within two weeks, however, when the government saw it would have to deal with thousands of people planning to come and defend the site, and when strong opposition arose within the Likud, Migron was taken off the immediate chopping-block list. The long-term threat was never removed, however.
Sometime afterwards, Peace Now sought out and found Arabs who claimed to own some of the land on which Migron was built, and a court suit demanding its destruction was filed.
Though Migron was a quickly-growing community in its first two years, its growth has been stunted at 43 families for the past several years, and its future - as is that of over 20 other outposts in Yesha - is still mired in uncertainty.