[The government is not doing its job. Regavim is. Ted Belman]
The Civil Administration handed out demolition orders on Tuesday against 52 buildings and tents in the Palestinian Authority Arab outpost of Susya, which lies between Kiryat Arba-Hevron and Arad, according to a report in Haaretz.
The report said that the structures to be demolished include a clinic, a kindergarten and a solar power structure which is the only electricityprovider in the area.
The demolition orders were issued by the Supreme Court following a petition filed by Regavim, an NGO watchdog group for Jewish national property rights, against the massive illegal Arab construction taking place in Susya.
The judges, headed by President Asher Grunis, along with Justice Hanan Meltzer and newly appointed Justice Daphna Barak Erez, recently held an urgent hearing over the petition, after Ovad Arad, director of the Judea and Samaria section of the Regavim, documented the Arabs continuing to build illegally.
The judges expressed their anger and Justice Meltzer opined against the continued illegal construction by Arabs on state-owned lands, even after the filing of the petition. The judges then issued a temporary injunction, prohibiting the Arabs to continue to build in the area.
Regavim’s attorney, Amir Fisher, recently wondered in a conversation withArutz Sheva why is it that the Civil Administration knows how to enforce the law when it comes to Jews but does not do the same when it comes to Arabs.
“Palestinians everywhere are building freely without obtaining building permits and yet the Civil Administration ignores this,” said Fisher. “They built near an Arab outpost near Susya, on state land. Not only did the Civil Administration not remove them, they ordered local Jewish farmers to leave the area so as to prevent friction.”
Founded in 2006, Regavim seeks to “prevent foreign elements from taking over the Jewish People’s territorial resources,” but its permit is under development.
Aiming to see equal enforcement of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, Regavim serves as a counter-weight to the numerous left-wing and Arab organizations seeking the destruction of Jewish communities.
Susya’s residents have claimed that Arad has struck fear into them.
“He comes with small weapons and his camera, sometimes with armed forces, sometimes with settlers,” Susya resident Nasser Nawaja told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency of Arad last month.
“Wherever they find a Palestinian home, in Israel or Jerusalem or the WestBank, they ask the court to demolish it,” Nawaja complained.
MK Dov Khenin, who chairs the communist-based Hadash party, criticized the injunction against Susya, saying, “The Susya case is one example of the ongoing injustice of deepening the occupation through planning mechanisms. The Israeli government has a discriminatory and racist policy in Area C which violates international law. While new settlements are being built freely and with government support, the Palestinian villages suffer from a policy of strangulation and destruction, which is aimed at pushing them out of the area so it can be annexed.”
He added, “The government wants to establish facts on the ground by avoiding planning and by excessive demolition, which would thwart the feasibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement.”
- Legal Source: Ulpana Residents were Wronged
- Why is There No Enforcement Against Illegal Arab Construction?
- Women in Green Plant in the Face of Destruction
- Report: IDF to Uproot Netzer Plantings After Shavuot
- Bulldozers Roll in Oz Zion, Ramat Migron
- Arab Outposts Seek to Take Over State Land in Judea and Samaria
- Arab Susya Quakes as Regavim Walks Tall
- Civil Administration Helping PA Take Over Area C
- 250 Policemen to Face Illegal Negev Construction
- IDF Imposes Closure on PA-Controlled Areas
Whatever Obamas political positions are it is a separate issue from the way that electors choose their president. I cannot imagine the CEO of a major global corporation being given employment on the same basis that US voters employ their president. From the beginning it was obvious as to the contempt in which political parties hold their constituents. This is both parties perhaps for different reasons. In the case of Obama we have a candidate with almost negligible experience, of a term in the state senate and one in the national senate, being proposed by a party and elected by the voters. I would not make a dept store supervisor the CEO of a major international retail chain. The basis for most voters being how the candidate made them feel. A figurehead president could not even be chosen on this basis never mind an actual executive position. An inexperienced patsy is the perfect stooge to be a marionette for the real movers and shakers. When the voters get rid of the stooge the movers and shakers are laughing and saying ” after this one you’ll take anyone else I give you”, that’s when everyone usually gets the real austerity. Have you ever wondered as to the choice of the 2 presidential candidates capabilities out of a nation of 300 million? They always appear to be mediocre, corrupt or dumb. Perhaps it doesn’t matter who you choose because when the next election rolls around you’ll be ready to swallow the real deal. The superficiality of the voter is a problem, frankly, in both parties. Choosing between ideologies wont solve any real problems either.
@ bernard ross:
Bernie, what about those who elected Obama in the USA?
Chatting with old Muslim acquaintances in the North, they cracked up in mirth at the announcement. One complex illegally built in the entrance to Majd el Kurum nearby was “demolished” a few years back under the Internal Security stint of Dr. Landau.
Soon after he left the post, during Sharon’s disasters years, it was rebuilt and is today a booming business, still “illegally” built but never to be touched again.
The Sharon family and the Dabach “hamula”/powerful extended family, in those villages, (Dir el Assad and Majd el Kurum are in fact one large village), had and still have sheep and cattle business and other connections you see…
As to the purported “demolitions”, if those are not dummy structures meant as decoy, they will be immediately rebuilt and so on…
Jewish dictators have already decided the boundaries of the land they intend to throw away.
Only the GOI and Israeli citizens are to blame for electing leaders who act contrary to the wishes of their electorate without punishment.
Every building the Islamic Arab murderers own or use–should be demolished or permanently taken over by Jews!
@ Yidvocate:
Correction–Arab partners for the destruction of Israel–and murder of Jews!
Does this restore your faith in the administration of justice in the state of Israel and in particular, the Supreme Court? Not a bit. It’s a drop in the ocean as the preponderance of demolition orders are against Jewish homes. MK Dov Khenin should move to Ramalah and take his rightful place with his Arab partners for peace.