MK Yariv Levin
MK Yariv LevinIsrael news photo: Flash 90

MK Yariv Levin (Likud) announced on Sunday that he intends to submit a bill to the Knesset which will fight the planned demolitions of Jewish homes in places such as Givat Assaf and Beit El.

Levin told Arutz Sheva that his bill would deal with issues of Arab landowners claiming that Jewish lands are theirs, and would compensate the Arabs either with money or with alternate land.

He added that such a bill would force the government to decide if it wants to encourage the settlement enterprise or vice versa.

“It will be a clear test for the government,” said Levin, adding that to date, instead of changing the policy in relation to the legal system’s attitude towards construction in Judea and Samaria, the government has simply said that nothing can be done against a court ruling and that it is therefore not responsible for what is happening. Such attitudes by the government, he said, justified the recent destruction in Migron.

“This proposal gives the government a clear solution,” he said. “If a person remembers decades later that he has rights to a land, he can prove it and be entitled to compensation or alternate land but no residents will be removed from their homes.”

As for the fear that such a law would bring about waves of illegal construction, Levin said that his bill would not speak of construction that was done without supervision, but only of construction that was done according to the law by people who are denied the ability to build or buy an apartment and live inside their own community.

Levin added that he is aware that getting the bill approved would be a long struggle and said that along with the parliamentary work there must be public calls for such a law to be passed. He said that the public must clarify to elected officials that if they continue to distance themselves from the policies for which they were elected, it will cost them their seat in the next election.