The Hevron-based Judea and Samaria Civil Rights Organization asks the 30 government ministers to implement “a policy of corrective discrimination, organized laundering, and intelligence enforcement” regarding the Jewish start-up neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria.
The quote is taken from a former Public Security Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami of the left-wing branch of the Labor Party, in his testimony before the Ohr Commission. The commission was assigned to deal with enforcement of planning and construction laws in the Arab sector.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that his motive in destroying Maoz Esther last week, and in his plans for future demolitions, is only “to enforce the law.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is said to be in agreement with him.
Response
“If the reason for evacuating new residential neighborhoods has only to do with law enforcement, and not political policy,” the organization writes to the Cabinet members, “then far-reaching changes vis-à-vis the start-up neighborhoods are required in the enforcement framework. The start-up neighborhoods are mostly not illegal, but rather unauthorized, [in the sense that] they simply do not have the official government permits – mainly as a result of American pressure or because of the policies of past left-wing governments.”
“Therefore,” the letter states, “correct political decisions can solve most of the start-up neighborhoods problems.”
The civil rights group, headed by Orit Strook of Hevron, enumerates a number of legal points buttressing her point of view:
- Special laws have been passed since 2003 – when Ariel Sharon promised the Americans not to build new neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) – that discriminate against the Jews of Yesha, compared to the Arabs in those areas.
- The justification for these discriminatory laws was “political,” as the State Prosecution explained officially in its response at a Supreme Court hearing.
“If the government now wishes to base its policies on law enforcement and not on politics,” the letter states, “the above discriminatory orders must be revoked, and the law must be enforced equally to both sectors.”
In addition:
- Politically-motivated demolitions of residential neighborhoods are in violation of a previous Cabinet decision. On May 25, 2003, the government approved the Roadmap plan – but with 14 binding reservations. Three of those reservations negate the evacuation of Jewish residential neighborhoods before the Palestinian Authority fulfills its obligations to stop terrorism, violence and incitement, and to dismantle the terrorist infrastructures.
- Sharon’s promise in June 2003 to destroy residential neighborhoods with no conditions is a total breach of the above Cabinet decision.