The Supreme Court of Israel has given the Jewish residents of Mitzpe Kramim three years to find a new place to live before the community in which they now live will be demolished.
Justices Esther Hayut and Hanan Melcer wrote the majority opinion for the Court on Thursday, in which they ruled the State has the responsibility of providing alternative land – and to help relocate their current, existing structures or to provide alternative structures on that land – for the evacuated residents.
Judge Neal Hendel wrote the dissenting opinion for the minority.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement late Thursday night the ruling was “mistaken” and that his office would do everything possible to leave the residents of Mitzpe Kramim in their homes.
“I regret the mistaken High Court of Justice decision on the evacuation of Mitzpeh Kramim,” Netanyahu said.
“I have instructed Prime Minister’s Office Director General Ronen Peretz to meet with representatives of the community. We will exhaust all processes in order to leave the residents in their place and we are convinced that we will succeed.”
According to the order that was handed down, “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.”
The order goes on to say, “The evacuation of the buildings will take place only after the residents have found, within 36 months from the date of the ruling, a proper and appropriate alternative solution by allocating alternative land on state lands and erecting alternative structures or relocating existing structures to the alternative land.”
All construction and preparation of the land in plots 13 and 23, in block 19 “in the lands of the village of Deir Jarrir” is to be stopped, the Court ordered. The four permanent homes, 30 mobile homes and several community buildings “that were illegally constructed” on the site are to be demolished by the State within the next three years.
However, the panel of judges approved the “market regulation” used by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to authorize via retroactive legalization numerous other homes in Judea and Samaria, as long as they were built “in good faith.”
The authorization could not be used in the case of Mitzpe Kramim, the judges ruled, because the state and private agencies involved in its establishment “should have been aware” of the circumstances of its location and the private lands involved.
National Union party chairman and MK Bezalel Smotrich said Thursday evening that the ruling handed down by the Court makes the disqualification of the Regulation Law on the grounds of proportionality “ridiculous.”
Smotrich said,”We have 3 years to complete the legislation and throw this High Court ruling in the dustbin of history, like many of its non-Jewish and non-Zionist rulings.
“I expect [Attorney General Avichai] Mandenblit to admit his mistake today and apologize for his severe opposition to the Settlement Law and his striving against the government and the Knesset and for joining forces with the High Court against the government and the Knesset,” the MK continued.
“Brother settlers, do not let our spirits fall. We went through bigger challenges than these, and we will go through that as well and come out strengthened!”