The Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided Sunday to postpone by three months a vote on a bill that would give young communities ("outposts") in Judea and Samaria immunity from destruction until a court had reviewed the residents' claims of ownership.
The fact that this bill needed to be brought up at all came as a surprise to the average citizen, who had no idea that the Supreme Court could decide an outpost is slated for destruction without checking the veracity of ownership claims. These are often proven to be false and if not, at worst, were unknown at the time of tacit government agreement to construction.
The bill, known by some as the Migron Bill, was proposed by the National Union's MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), Likud's MKs Ze'ev Elkin and Yariv Levin, and Yisrael Beitenu's MK David Rotem. If approved, it could delay or prevent the scheduled demolition of Migron in the Binyamin region.
Only two ministers – Daniel Hershkovitz of the Jewish Home and Yaakov Mergi (Shas) objected to the postponement. A decision by the Ministerial Committee to support a bill usually ensures its passage in the Knesset.
The bill could put an end to arbitrary demolition of homes in young communities, preventing raids by soldiers and police to force families from their homes. It might restore faith in Israel's democracy to the youth who attacked the army camp last week.
The law would require that a building or caravan placed on land be removed only if a court determined that the land on which the structure was located belonged to someone else.
The National Union issued a statement expressing its disappointment following the ministerial decision. "From day to day, it becomes apparent that the Netanyahu government is dancing to the beat laid down by Peace Now, which successfully forces a nationalist government to implement a radical leftist policy and cruelly renounce its voters," it said.
MK Katz said he would bring the bill to a vote in the Knesset plenum Wednesday. He explained that Netanyahu decided to postpone the vote until April because he plans to uproot the community of Migron in the meantime.