On Thursday, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that a cluster of illegal Jewish settlements in the Mitzpeh Kramim outpost at the West Bank should be removed, since they were built on privately-owned land that belonged to Palestinians. The ruling currently applies to around 40 homes, with 10 more structures likely to be expropriated.
Mitzpe Kramim is a 20-year-old outpost on a hilltop that overlooks the Jordan Valley and is home to around 40 families who have been living on Palestinian-owned land plots, saying that they had received approval from Israeli authorities to settle there. The outpost was granted to residents by the semi-state-controlled Settlement Division of the World Zionist organization. In 2011, some Palestinians from the nearby village of Deir Jarir claimed ownership of the land and submitted a petition to remove the families from the outpost.
Previously, in 2018, the Jerusalem District Court had ruled in favour of the settlers, deeming them as legal owners as per an Israeli law that allows legally faulty transactions as valid if they are found to have been carried out in “good faith”. The Court claims to have found that Israeli authorities were not aware that the land was owned privately when they planned their mapping of the area.
However, the country’s top court overturned the District Court ruling, declaring that officials had not acted in good faith and had turned “a blind eye to the many warning signs given over many years” regarding the ownership of the land. The High Court of Justice acknowledged that the outcome of the ruling would be “painful” for the residents of Mitzpe Kramim, giving the relevant officials a 36-month deadline to look for alternative housing for the soon-to-be displaced. “A large part of the responsibility for the difficult and painful outcome for the residents of Mitzpe Kramim rests with the state and the conduct of the relevant parties in it both in real time and during the management of the various proceedings over Mitzpe Kramim in court,” said the judges.
The issue of unauthorized homes has been a major matter of contention, and the ruling on the issue was on hold as the status of these homes was still undecided. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his dejection at the verdict and promised that “all avenues will be explored to keep the residents where they are and we’re convinced that we will succeed in this”.
The ruling comes 2 years after the last court-ordered demolition of illegal settlements at the Netiv Haavot outpost. It comes at a crucial point in time, as the incumbent government seems to be backtracking from its plan to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank as per its diplomatic agreement with the United Arab Emirates. Internationally, most countries recognize Jewish settlements and the more than 450,000 settlers who live on land captured by Israel in the West Bank in 1967 as illegal.
Top Israeli Court Rules to Remove Illegal Jewish Settlement in West Bank
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the verdict
August 28, 2020
An aerial view of Mitzpe Kramim SOURCE: GIDEON MERMELSTEIN