Beit El (file)
Beit El (file)Oren Nahshon/Flash90

The High Court heard a petition Monday from the leftist organization Yesh Din regarding the Dreinoff project, two of whose buildings were destroyed last year by order of the Supreme Court, in Beit El.

Yesh Din petitioned the court to rescind the 1979 military seizure of the land the project was originally constructed upon.

Two buildings from the project, containing 24 apartments, were demolished by the IDF in 2015.

Yesh Din said that it had brought the matter back to the courts after discovering that the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria had granted a master plan to that area - which effectively allows contractor Meir Dreinoff to rebuild the structures that the government had previously demolished.

Yesh Din claimed that the continued military seizure of the plots is only used for economic purposes and not defensive purposes. Therefore, Yesh Din argued, the military seizure ought to be rescinded.

In turn, if the military seizure is rescinded, the master plan cannot be applied to the destroyed lots and the structures cannot be rebuilt.

Attorney Akiva Sylvetsky, the legal adviser to the Samaria Regional Authority and to Beit El, criticized Yesh Din's approach, saying that they failed to examine the matter "holistically."

“A settlement is not built in a minute; it happens in stages,” he said, adding that the initial military seizure order never ruled out the construction of civilian structures at the site.

“It’s pretty clear that [the petitioners] are not just talking about these two buildings here,” Sylvetsky said, hinting that Yesh Din is using the issue to attack the entire city of Beit El.