High Court Judge Neil Hendel rejected on Thursday a request for a temporary stop-work order against construction of 60 housing units at Nili, a mixed religious and secular Israeli community in the Binyamin area north of Modi'in, off route 443, and part of the areas restored to Israel in the Six Day War.
The request was filed by residents of Dir Elkadis, an Arab village near Nili. The claimed that the land upon which the units are being built belongs to them.
The units will be built by the Bar-Amana construction company, in cooperation with the community of Nili.
Attorney Akiva Sylvetsky, legal advisor to the Samaria Regional Authority and the Benjamin area, who represented Nili, told the court that the construction is being carried out on state land that was declared as such in 1981. He noted that the Arab petitioners did not object to the declaration at the time it was made, and showed that the land was allocated to the community by the Zionist Histadrut cooperative society.
Sylvetsky wondered why the petitioners also did not object when authorities approved the zoning plan that includes the land in question. The construction is being carried out with permits granted on the basis of that plan.
Judge Hendel said that in view of the community's response, he does not see fit to grant the stop-work order and construction can continue..