Top Israeli judge slams state for building West Bank road against court order
Dorit Beinisch demands explanation after government ignores Supreme Court ruling to halt link between settlements across private Palestinian land.
By Chaim LevinsonIsrael's Supreme Court president on Wednesday condemned the government's failure to enforce an order to stop building a West Bank road on private Palestinian land.
In talks with state lawyers, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch gave the government 45 days to explain why illegal construction was continuing and justify damage to private property.
Beinisch, who ordered the state to back up its explanation with aerial photographs, spoke out in response to a petition by the human rights organization Yesh Din.
The organization claims that the road, designed to cut travel time between the West Bank settlements of Givat Hayovel and Eli, prevents access by Palestinian residents in the village Krayot to 1,500 dunam (370 acres) of their agricultural land.
The road is being built without legal permission on land owned by Palestinian citizens from a neighboring village, Yesh Din said.
In April 2009, the state issued an interim order to stop paving the road. But thefirst violation of the order was reported just three months later.
In November, the state issued a general response to the petition, asserting that it had rendered the road unusable. During Wednesday's talks, state lawyers claimed they had no idea who was responsible for violating the order.
But Beinisch and fellow Supreme Court Judge Esther Hayut ruled it was impossible the state did know what "was happening under its nose".
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Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch |
| Photo by: Daniel Baron |
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who runs this country? i don't know and the world doesn't either.
Israel's judiciary has always been fair-minded when resolving disputes between Palestians, Israelis, and the IDF. The rule of law has been violated and those who built the road in defiance of the court's rulings should be held accountable! If illegal Palestinian houses can be torn down, then this illegal road should be ripped up!
But is ignored when it displeases political/military leadership.
Israel occupies the west bank, builds settlements on this occupied land, builds a road on occupied land to connect settlements built on occupied land, the highest court of the land issues an order to stop the road construction 13 months ago, the government says they have no idea who is violating the order, the international community states that Israel is a rogue state, breaks international law, breaks its own laws, is putting in place apartheid policies and the pro Israel groups claim these critics are antisemites, self hating Jews, or bleeding heart liberals. Israel insults the US VP, the US rebukes Israel, then 76 of 100 senators and 327 of 435 congressmen write letter to US admin in support of Israel. Something is wrong.
One wonders just how many court orders will have to be ignored before the court itself takes the next step ( what? you say there is none? That's a pretty pickle!) The court already is viewed like a shouting scold who is blithely ignored by the guys with power. The implications of an impotent court are too awful to contemplate, and the justices MUST erase that, in fact as well as perception.
Except their ego. Jewishness is not in their vocabulary. Goyishness, by all means.
If the court wants to stop things like this, all it has to do is jail any official who violates its orders. Bureaucrats get a lot more serious when it is THEIR ass which is on the line.
I don't get this. If someone blatantly is in contempt of court, they are normally jailed. The government of Israel is something special to watch. Continually breaking international law as well as breaking Israels own laws. How does the normal Israeli see this? I expect to see some responses and the justification of this ignoring of Israeli law.
You go, girls!!
and gives Jewish land to someone without ancestral rights. What did you expect? That Jews will renounce their historical bonds to the land and leave? There is no law that can force people to forget their origins.
No law can force people to forget their origins, but it certainly can stop them from acting out their fantasies.
If those in charge DID know this was going on, they should be jailed for being in contempt of court. If they DIDN'T know what was going on, they should be jailed for utter incompetence.
Perhaps supreme court in Israel is as much out of touch with reality on the ground as an American Supreme Court. Little difference is in a situation of tiny Israel surrounded by vicious, relentless followers of islam. Israel cannot afford to divide its land and as such submit to more terror and intimidations...
You whimper and whine about terror while you pretend to be unaware of its biggest underlying cause.
Is Israel a nation of laws or a nation ruled by right wing fanatics? In America the government cannot ignore Supreme Court rulings but in Israel apparently the political party in power can. No one doubts the hateful, poisonous incitement in Palestinian media or the horrific terrorism inflicted upon Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorists, but there will never, ever be a peaceful solution of the Israeli Palestinian conflict as long as the Israeli government sees nothing wrong with expropriating more and more Palestinian land. The government cannot see the forest thru the trees and lives in the present and cannot see what a dangerous future its bequeathing to future Israeli generations. There cannot be peace if more and more Palestinian land is added to the thousands already expropriated. All these actions do is feed the terrorist mindset and make any moderates left among the Palestinians believe Israel wants land, not peace. In this regard Israel and Syria share something in common. They both seem to want land but not peace.
What do you call a state that knowingly violates its own laws? Anarchy? What if the police doesn't stop state workers who commit crimes? What if you live in a country where the highest legal institute is given the middle finger by the state? what if you live in a country with all the above madness, and the entire nation DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN? brain wash nation?
Democracy in action. Shame some people don't want it.
Democracy in action. Who needs courts in the wild east.
I'll order you to explain in another 90 days.
A country where the goverment spits on the face of the highest court cannot call itself democratic. This is a travesty of justice suitable for a banana republic.
I always thought that when a judge or a court orders you to do or not do something that you obeyed. In Israel that apparently is not the case. The government, it seems, is permitted to operate lawlessly as it pleases. And you call yourself a "democracy"?
The supreme court has nothing to say about the West Bank but the building is illegal by international law. . Even if the supreme court would have the power, making things double illegal would not stop this government.
I continue to hear about "International Law," but I never hear what actual "International Law" is being cited. And who made up the "International Laws?" Please advise.
Don't mind international law. Under israeli law the government and all it's agency still do have to obey Court orders, whether they like them or not.
The int'l laws that prohibits this are the Hague Regulations IV, and the Geneva Conventions IV. As to "who made them up", the Hague Regs were ruled to be declarative of int'l customary law back in 1945, while the Geneva Conventions became treaty law in 1949.
This is worrying. Is the state lying? Or are settlers taking it upon themselves to build what and where they like, despite it being at the expense of the legitimate land-owners? I mean, you know, again.
...otherwise she's liable to qualify for breach of loyalty under the new Loyalty Bill of Liebermaniac.
The term for that is TREASON!
Anyone who disagrees with your point of view seems to be engaging in traitorous activity. Did it ever occur to you that YOU may be wrong?