In two important, but strikingly different decisions the High Court of Israel ruled on the route of the security barrier in the area of Mod’in Ilit and the Palestinian village of Bil’in. Weekly protests had taken place there for over two years. The villagers have claimed that they were unjustly cut off from much of their agricultural land, without any security justification. They not only protested but took their case to the Israeli courts and were supported by Israeli human rights organizations and by Peace Now.
The first case challenged the routing of the fence and a three judge panel, headed by the Court’s President Dorit Beinisch, found unanimously for the villagers. Peace Now had long contended that the routing of the fence in certain areas constituted a land grab. Judge Beinisch pointed out that at Bil’in the government had actually ignored security considerations by building the fence through a valley, with the Palestinians occupying the high ground. She wrote that “the route of the separation barrier should not be planned based on the desire to include land earmarked for expanding settlements.” The court then ordered that the fence be moved within a reasonable period of time.
This ruling may constitute an important precedent. It in no way threatens the security of Israelis, quite the contrary, but it does recognize that the mask of security cannot be used for the unjust expropriation of Palestinian lands. In this instance the Court proved that it could be the major institutional bulwark of Israeli justice and democracy.
It is then, all the more surprising that a different panel of the court reversed course in its next decision affecting an adjacent area. Peace Now and the village council of Bil’in had petitioned the Court for the demolition of apartment construction in the Matityahu Mizrach neighborhood, east of the settlement. Whereas, only a year ago Justice Aharon Barak had issued an injunction against the project, the judges now have revoked the injunction despite recognizing “the very serious problem of mass building without any plans or permits.”
Much of the construction was built by Heftsibah, a company now in bankruptcy and with its CEO Boaz Yona presently in Italy trying to avoid extradition, for alleged corruption. The Court rested its decision on narrow technical grounds, that the petitions should have been filed in 1998 when the first plan for the neighborhood was deposited. It is possible that the Court deemed it easier to move a fence rather than to order the destruction of squatter occupied apartments. Still, it is a bewildering decision, standing along side the other Court panel’s ruling in the fence case. One can only guess that either the Court was trying to balance its two opinions or yielded to the settler’s usual tactic of creating “facts on the ground.” Still, the Palestinian villagers did get a half-measure of justice, which is more than they usually obtain.
On Tuesday, Sept. 25 Akiva Eldar, one of Israel’s most brilliant journalists speaks for Peace Now at the Gelber Auditorium, at 7:30P.M. His topic is “Rumors of Peace, Rumors of War: Israel’s Quest for Security in the ‘hood.”
