AG Tells State to Remove Empty Structures at West Bank Outpost of Migron

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein told the state last week to remove the empty structures at the evacuated Migron outpost in the next few days.

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Migron was evacuated in 2012, but the structures - around 50 prefabricated homes - remained intact. The settlers, who were moved to a nearby site, had hoped to return.

The outpost was set up in 2002 on private Palestinian land on a hill near Ramallah, with considerable state funding. In 2006 Peace Now and the Palestinian landowners petitioned the High Court of Justice, which ordered the outpost's evacuation for September last year.

But in July, 17 of the outpost's settlers petitioned the High Court to revoke the evacuation, claiming they had bought the land their homes were on. The landowners denied selling the land and filed a police complaint, saying the settlers' transaction had been forged.

The court and state agreed to evacuate the settlers from the outpost, but to keep the structures at the site until the deal's validity could be ascertained.

The police investigation into the land purchase was closed due to a lack of evidence. The regional council submitted a plan to put farming structures up at Migron, but the Defense Ministry's Civil Administration rejected the idea, saying it would require access roads through private land.

"Since at this time the examination of planning options for Plot 10 has not yielded any breakthrough, you are requested to start implementing the verdict," attorney Dina Zilber of the attorney general's office wrote to the Civil Administration.