Haaretz :State of settlements, not of law

 

 

 

 

State of settlements, not of law

The Israeli government may be strengthening its hold in the West Bank settlements, but it is losing its legitimacy.

HAARETZ.COM|Di Haaretz Editorial

 

 

The Israeli government may be strengthening its hold in the West Bank settlements, but it is losing its legitimacy.

 

Israel’s government is in the midst of an international struggle to thwart a nuclear agreement with Iran, while its economy is threatened by an official and unofficial boycott imposed by European companies and states. In these circumstances, Israel has decided that the best way to fight for its position is to approve the construction of hundreds of new housing units in the West Bank settlements.
The Civil Administration’s planning council on Wednesday approved plans to build 886 housing units in the West Bank. The council is also expected to launder 179 housing units that were built illegally 20 years ago, approve construction of hundreds of housing units near Beit El as well as two housing structures within it that the High Court of Justice ordered demolished. In addition, new housing units are expected to be authorized in Ma’aleh Adumim, Giv’at Ze’ev, Psagot and Beit Aryeh.
According to Chaim Levinson’s report in Tuesday’s Haaretz, this fast-and-loose construction package was apparently intended to mollify the settlers, who are protesting the High Court’s ruling. It was also meant as defense against their claims that the government has stopped permitting construction in the occupied territories.
Indeed, the construction plans’ approval shows that the government not only isn’t halting construction in the West Bank, it intends to make every effort to dispel any suspicion that it is.
There is nothing new in the assertion that the government has turned Israel into an extension of the settlers’ state. It is doubtful whether any group of people in Israel can demand any kind of compensation, not to mention such a generous one, for illegal construction. It is difficult to recall when the government has taken pains to manipulate the High Court of Justice in such a perverse way and void its rulings for a group living within the Green Line.

But to appease the extreme right, this government is willing to run roughshod not only over the state budget, but over the state’s highest judicial authority. This authority is still trying to preserve the state’s constitutional sanity.
Authorizing the construction plans cannot be part of a private dialogue between the government and the settlers, or between the right and extreme right. Nor can it serve as an arena for competition among the ministers. Building in the settlements is a dangerous gamble on Israel’s future, its relations with other countries in the world and its image in its own people’s eyes.
This government, which is creating two Jewish states – one inside the Green Line and another outside it – may be strengthening its hold in the settlements, but it is losing its legitimacy.