Security
Mideast: High Court asked to stop building freeze
Jerusalem, 30 Nov. (AKI) - A conservative Israeli action group has asked the country's High Court to end government plans to freeze construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the organisation which calls itself the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel lodged a formal appeal with the court after Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak ordered his ministry to appoint 40 supervisors in the Palestinian territories to ensure no new construction takes place.
"Setting building limitations only on Jewish settlements is a form of racism reminiscent of the dark eras in Jewish history," says The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel in a statement on its website.
"And for a country established in response to racial discrimination, it is completely unacceptable, immoral and illegal."
Representing the organisation, lawyer Yossi Fuchs said the government and not just the cabinet should have made the decision.
"A decision likely to bring serious harm to the assets of Israeli citizens and is unrelated to security cannot be made in an underhanded, covert way, by a secret security cabinet or predetermined without any chance for ministers to appeal," said Fuchs cited by Haaretz.
On Sunday, Barak called the cabinet's move an "unprecedented step".
However, hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the move last week.
"This step was not carried out in the (Ehud) Olmert government or in the (Ariel) Sharon government, not in my government and not in Yitzhak Rabin's government either," said Barak.
"The real significance is that for the first time, we are suspending all new construction for an extended period and therefore giving peace negotiations a chance."
However, the moratorium does not apply to areas in the West Bank that Israel annexed after the 1967 Six-Day war.
The first Jewish settlements - considered illegal under international law and a thorny issue between Israelis and Palestinians - were erected after the Six-Day war inside the so-called Green Line, demarcating a border between the West Bank and Israel.
Israeli human rights group, Peace Now, said in a report earlier this year that at least 285,000 settlers live east of the 1967 Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank.
The figures exclude East Jerusalem settlers which number over 191,000.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the organisation which calls itself the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel lodged a formal appeal with the court after Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak ordered his ministry to appoint 40 supervisors in the Palestinian territories to ensure no new construction takes place.
"Setting building limitations only on Jewish settlements is a form of racism reminiscent of the dark eras in Jewish history," says The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel in a statement on its website.
"And for a country established in response to racial discrimination, it is completely unacceptable, immoral and illegal."
Representing the organisation, lawyer Yossi Fuchs said the government and not just the cabinet should have made the decision.
"A decision likely to bring serious harm to the assets of Israeli citizens and is unrelated to security cannot be made in an underhanded, covert way, by a secret security cabinet or predetermined without any chance for ministers to appeal," said Fuchs cited by Haaretz.
On Sunday, Barak called the cabinet's move an "unprecedented step".
However, hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the move last week.
"This step was not carried out in the (Ehud) Olmert government or in the (Ariel) Sharon government, not in my government and not in Yitzhak Rabin's government either," said Barak.
"The real significance is that for the first time, we are suspending all new construction for an extended period and therefore giving peace negotiations a chance."
However, the moratorium does not apply to areas in the West Bank that Israel annexed after the 1967 Six-Day war.
The first Jewish settlements - considered illegal under international law and a thorny issue between Israelis and Palestinians - were erected after the Six-Day war inside the so-called Green Line, demarcating a border between the West Bank and Israel.
Israeli human rights group, Peace Now, said in a report earlier this year that at least 285,000 settlers live east of the 1967 Green Line that separates Israel from the West Bank.
The figures exclude East Jerusalem settlers which number over 191,000.
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