Avichai Mandelblit
Avichai MandelblitYonatan Sindel, Flash 90

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Sunday evening recommended not using the Absentee Property Law for Judea and Samaria lands until Israel's Supreme Court made a decision in a current case regarding buildings which were built illegally.

According to Haaretz, in his answer to the two pleas against the law submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court, Mandelblit suggested not doing anything at all until the Supreme Court ruled on the buildings currently in question.

This recommendation included a warning against demolishing homes, as well as the warning against utilizing the Absentee Property Law.

At the beginning of March, the Supreme Court received a second plea to annul the Regulation Law.

This plea came from 23 Arab leaders, four landowners, and 13 leftist "human rights" organizations. The signatories to it claimed the attempt to regulate Judea and Samaria lands and compensate owners is "illegal" both in Israel and abroad.

Mandelblit has announced he will not represent or oppose the Israeli government in the expected Supreme Court case against the Regulation Law. Instead, the Israeli government will hire a private lawyer.

The Regulation Law legalizes and protects thousands of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria which were built in the past with government backing and were not subject to absentee land claims at the time, but against which there are now third-party property claims. It allows for 125% compensation or alternate land to be offered claimants who prove ownership.