Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky (Shinui) said yesterday that he plans to cut off electricity and water to the "illegal outposts" in Judea and Samaria. When he first took office several weeks ago, he turned to Peace Now and asked for a detailed list of the allegedly illegal outposts. 
He then turned to his underlings in the Infrastructures Ministry and asked them to investigate who approved the water and electricity connections to those places. Only those that were not properly approved by the Civil Administration will be cut off, he said today.
The outposts were connected to water and electricity during the term of one of Paritzky's predecessors, Avigdor Lieberman (National Union). Lieberman said today that Paritzky's latest attempt to harm the Yesha communities is "typical of the left-wing's double standard of ethics. In the Arab neighborhoods of Lod [within pre-1967 Israel] alone, there are more illegal structures than in all of Yesha." Lieberman also mentioned the fact that in the past, the Supreme Court ordered the government to provide water and electricity to illegally-built Bedouin housing.
Atty. Dudu Rotem, representing the Yesha Council in this matter, told Arutz-7's Kobi Sela that he has three points to make against Paritzky - and that he will make them in the Supreme Court if necessary:
"First of all, why he is getting figures from Peace Now, which has no authority to determine what's legal and what's not, instead of from the Defense Ministry, which is responsible for Jewish construction in Yesha? Secondly, the Electric Company is a company that supplies its product to whomever pays for it - what business is that of Minister Paritzky? Third, he has no right to use the Electric Company to implement his political philosophies. First let's see him cut off electricity to the illegal structures in eastern Jerusalem or elsewhere - not in Yesha, which is not under his jurisdiction... Would he cut off electricity to someone who built an illegal porch? And who ever determined that these outposts are not legal?"
He then turned to his underlings in the Infrastructures Ministry and asked them to investigate who approved the water and electricity connections to those places. Only those that were not properly approved by the Civil Administration will be cut off, he said today.
The outposts were connected to water and electricity during the term of one of Paritzky's predecessors, Avigdor Lieberman (National Union). Lieberman said today that Paritzky's latest attempt to harm the Yesha communities is "typical of the left-wing's double standard of ethics. In the Arab neighborhoods of Lod [within pre-1967 Israel] alone, there are more illegal structures than in all of Yesha." Lieberman also mentioned the fact that in the past, the Supreme Court ordered the government to provide water and electricity to illegally-built Bedouin housing.
Atty. Dudu Rotem, representing the Yesha Council in this matter, told Arutz-7's Kobi Sela that he has three points to make against Paritzky - and that he will make them in the Supreme Court if necessary:
"First of all, why he is getting figures from Peace Now, which has no authority to determine what's legal and what's not, instead of from the Defense Ministry, which is responsible for Jewish construction in Yesha? Secondly, the Electric Company is a company that supplies its product to whomever pays for it - what business is that of Minister Paritzky? Third, he has no right to use the Electric Company to implement his political philosophies. First let's see him cut off electricity to the illegal structures in eastern Jerusalem or elsewhere - not in Yesha, which is not under his jurisdiction... Would he cut off electricity to someone who built an illegal porch? And who ever determined that these outposts are not legal?"