Two settler buildings – located on land that could be private Palestinian property situated within the West Bank settlement of Eli – will be razed, the Attorney-General’s Office told the High Court of Justice on Wednesday.
The eviction of the four families living in the two-unit structures would take place at the end of a three-year mark, the state explained.
This is the first statement of its kind to the court since the High Court in 2020 nullified the settlement regulation law, which would have retroactively legalized some 4,000 settler homes illegally built on private Palestinian property.
The pledge was made in response to a petition first filed in 2011 by Palestinians against 20 structures in the Eli settlement which they claimed were built on private Palestinian property. The two currently in question were built in 2010.
Any action regarding the claims was delayed so that a professional team under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office could conduct an investigation. The settlement regulation law slowed down any decisions. It passed the Knesset in 2017.
The professional team that was set to examine the legalization of such properties was disbanded in 2020, and the settlement regulation law was nullified.
The matter has now been returned to the court’s docket.
The state has asked the court to reject the petition, explaining that the arguments against 18 of the structures, including a school, were baseless.
It said, however, that no resolution could be found for two of the structures, which, due to investigations on their land status over the last decade, were discovered to be built outside the boundaries of the settlement’s master plan and on property not considered to be state land.
The Binyamin Regional Council – in whose territory Eli is located – has objected to the state’s decision and vowed to fight against it, noting that the resident families have no intention of willingly leaving their homes.