The Nazi regime was legal. It fastidiously followed German laws, and each one of its actions was legal under them. When it wanted to perform acts forbidden by those laws, the laws were changed. The Nazi regime was legal, but that doesn’t mean it was legitimate. I wouldn’t like to live in Nazi Germany, even if promised that everything would be legal. The same holds for any other place. The Bolivian government can claim it acts legally under its own legal system; however, it is clearly violent, consistently violating basic human rights despite being signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In friendly relations with certain Western powers, it can act freely knowing that no human rights organization will dare to interfere with it hidden agenda. Uncle Obama promised that. We cannot accept violent governments with private political agendas. Israel occupies a place of honor in this exclusive club of horrors. In the second week of June 2012, I reported on the Israel Supreme Court decision to demolish the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El; following it, settlers staged a rather violent protest at the entrance of the Benjamin Regional Brigade (see Netanyahu, Snow White, and Ulpana). Netanyahu announced he will respect the decision, but also that the homes will not be destroyed, but rather will be moved to a military area within Beit El. He announced also the construction of additional 300 homes in Beit El, 117 in Ariel, 92 in Ma’ale Adumin, 144 in Admam, and 84 in Kiryat Arba. Overall, this is many times the number of Ulpana houses to be moved; Netanyahu claimed a political victory. |  |
 Ulpana next to top arrow | Temporary neighborhood on bottom |
Israeli Deceitfulness
On June 28, I was surprised when the IDF evicted 15 families from Ulpana to a nearby improvised neighborhood; two families were left behind. Had Netanyahu decided to follow court rulings? Yet, the date itself carried an important hint that Israel didn’t mean to comply with the court ruling. After all, since Netanyahu didn’t plan to bomb the settlers’ houses, there was no time to destroy them until July 1, the date set by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the government approached the court and asked for time, since the houses needed to be sawed; apparently no faster destruction way was kosher enough. A document accidentally leaked by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to the Hebrew media disclosed that the destruction would end “in November; and in any case not after the beginning of December.” After all, dismantling houses is a delicate and complex task. If sawing them, shards could harm the workers; proper precautions should be taken.
Even those remotely acquainted with Israeli reality understood that this delay meant Israel wasn’t planning to accept the rulings of its own courts. Yet, it was impossible to understand what Netanyahu was cooking; simply, information was being hidden by the Israeli government. Today, July 9, the Israeli government disclosed the results of the Levi Committee. The report had been submitted in June, but for unclear reasons was kept secret until now.
Groundbreaking Decision
The Levi Committee had been headed by Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Edmond Levy, eventually as a result of the 2005 Sasson Report which had ruled 120 settlements and outposts as illegal under Israeli law. Unlawfulness in the West Bank has various layers. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this. The international community considers Israeli settlements a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory. Thus, they are illegal under international law. Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them. This view has been rejected by the International Court of Justice and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The vast majority of West Bank settlements are in between these definitions; they are considered illegal by the entire world, but legal by the Israeli government. However, sometimes they are considered unlawful even by the Israeli government. Now, this is about to change.
The Levi Committee ruled that the State must devise ways to legalize contested settlement and outposts in the West Bank. Moreover, it recommended easing land acquisition and zoning protocols for Jews residing in the area. This is important since many of the purchases are highly questionable. For example, in Migron, most of the land occupied by the outpost belongs to several Palestinian families living in the nearby villages of Burqa and Deir Dibwan. The Associated Press discovered in 2008, that Abd Allatif Hassan Sumarin, who supposedly sold a plot of land to the Binyamin Regional Council owned Al Wattan Ltd in 2004, had been dead since 1961. It is unclear if the new committee accepts such events as legal. It doesn’t matter, they are clearly illegitimate and unacceptable. A regime sanctioning such crimes renders itself illegitimate.
First reactions to the report were worrying. Committee member and Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan urged Netanyahu to call an urgent session of the Settlements Committee in order to “formulate a policy that will remove the uncertainty which is clouding the lives of thousands of families.” Settlement Committee member and Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz said that the government should "treat the Levy Report as its new creed and not deviate from it one iota.”
 | This is a groundbreaking decision. Netanyahu will be able to legislate new illegitimate laws allowing the robbing of lands, while claiming having been directed by a respectable committee led by a retired Justice. In November, Netanyahu will probably approach the court requesting that the ordered destruction of Ulpana be stopped because the new laws about to be passed will legalize it. The Supreme Court will probably accept the claim; after all it always seeks for a façade of righteousness instead of real justice. Next year, the evacuated settlers will return to Ulpana. A Palestinian dead since 1961 will be still selling lands to settlers. |
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