A Thursday night arrest shows police and IDF officers are trying to circumvent a court order giving legal status to full-time residents of outposts in Judea and Samaria. According to long-time land of Israel activist and attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, what police did is illegal.
In May 2012 a court ruled that Jewish residents of outposts have “permanent resident” status. The court ruling put Jews on an equal footing with Palestinian Authority Arabs, who were already exempt from Closed Military Zone orders based on residency.
On Thursday night, police entered the Ramat Migron outpost and arrested two young women. The women were shown a different kind of Closed Military Zone order than those issued previously – one that does not provide any protection to permanent residents, but rather, requires that everyone in the area leave.
The two refused to sign a release order in which they were asked to agree to restrictions on their movement. Instead, they went to court ,where a judge ordered that they be released unconditionally.
Attorney Ben-Gvir, who represented the two detainees, said the new order appears to be illegal. “After the IDF prosecution and police were made aware that they have a legal problem with the original order – because they were certain that the court would interpret ‘permanent resident’ to mean only Arab residents – they decided to change the rules of the game,” he accused.
“But the current order violates basic human rights, and does not stand up to the criteria set by the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty,” he added.
The law is also discriminatory, he noted. “If there is a need to evacuate the entire area with no exceptions, then the Arabs living nearby must be treated according to the same standards,” he said. “There must be no distinction.”