6-13-08, 2:16 pm

Petition to the High Court of Justice: Immediately halt construction on 9 houses in Ofra settlement

Five Palestinian landowners and human rights organizations Yesh Din and B'Tselem claim in first petition of its kind: Ofra is an illegal outpost built mostly on private land.

Human rights organizations Yesh Din and B'Tselem have today (June 4) petitioned the High Court of Justice, along with five Palestinian residents of the village Ein Yabrud who own land in the Ofra settlement, demanding that the court halt construction of 9 houses being built on their land and prohibit people from moving in to these houses. In the petition, filed against the Minister of Justice and the O.C. Central Command, the petitioners request that the authorities be instructed to uphold demolition orders issued on the houses in the past and to issue an interim order that will prohibit dwellers from moving into the houses and prevent the houses from being connected to electricity, water and sewage until a ruling issues on the matter.

9 new permanent structures are currently being built in the settlement of Ofra, situated east of Ramallah. The structures, not currently occupied, are constructed on privately owned land belonging to 5 Palestinians. The Israeli authorities have confirmed this to the petitioners, and even emphasized that cease and desist orders and demolition orders had been issued on the houses roughly 6 months ago. Despite this, the petition states, construction continues furiously, without the authorities taking any steps to implement the orders they themselves issued. 'In every instance that illegal construction by Jews is carried out in the West Bank on stolen private Palestinian land, as in this one, the law enforcement arm of the authorities is not felt at all,' the petition states.

In recent months, B'Tselem has conducted extensive research, to identify the Palestinian land owners and collect documentation of ownership of the land. The documents collected prove that most of the settlement of Ofra was built on private property owned by Palestinians residing in adjacent villages – Ein Yabrud and Silwad. The Civil Administration even confirms that Ofra has no jurisdictional area and no detailed outline plans from which it can approve any sort of building in the settlement. Therefore, the petition states that Ofra is the largest unauthorized outpost in the West Bank. The petition was filed as part of the joint efforts of the two organizations, with B'Tselem overseeing the research aspects and Yesh Din overseeing the use of legal channels.

The submission of the petition marks the beginning of Yesh Din's new project. The project, led by Dror Etkes, will operate through legal channels to strengthen the procedures against illegal construction by Israelis on private Palestinian land and on state land. 'As of today, we hope it will be impossible to construct new houses in settlements and outpost on private land,' says Dror Etkes, Yesh Din's Land Project Coordinator.

Research Director at B'Tselem, Adv. Avi Berg, says that 'the state's avoidance of enforcing the order that is the subject of this petition constitutes additional evidence of collaboration between the government and the illegal activities of the settlers, and adds to the criminal enterprise entailed by the settlements, in and of itself illegal under international law.'

'This is the first petition of its kind filed against construction inside an established settlement,' explains Yesh Din's legal consultant Adv. Michael Sfard. 'Each ruling by the High Court of Justice will have repercussions for Ofra and on the expanding practice of illegal construction on Palestinian land in the West Bank. In this case, the petitioners' ownership of the land is unquestioned, and exposes the methodological land theft and the blind eye turned to it by law enforcement officials in the occupied territories.'

From B'Tselem