Settlers: Why is Netanyahu delaying outpost legalization?
“For the young settlements [outposts] there is only one solution: approve a government decision to authorize the communities."
By TOVAH LAZAROFFMK Nir Barkat (Likud) and South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri in the Avigail outpost in the South Hebron Hills.(photo credit: SOUTH HEBRON HILLS REGIONAL COUNCIL)
Settlers have called on the government to legalize over 70 West Bank outposts this coming Sunday.“Why has the Prime Minister delayed this?” the Young Settlement Forum asked on Sunday. “For the young settlements [outposts] there is only one solution: to convene the government next week to approve a government decision to authorize the communities and to provide them with rudimentary infrastructure,” the Forum said.It dismissed a response on the subject published Sunday by Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi who promised that the matter would come before the government soon, but did not set a date for when it would be on the government’s agenda.“The government has worked for years to regulate the status of the young settlements, where thousands of Israelis live who were sent to settle the land as emissaries, with the funding and support of [past] Israeli governments over the decades,” Hanegbi said.Hanegbi issued his statement in response to parliamentarians who turned to him as part of the Knesset Land of Israel’s Caucus campaign in which politicians who support this issue have been asked to adopt an outpost and help advocate for its legalization.Hanegbi’s response mirrored his statement in the Knesset two weeks ago in which he promised that the government with Netanyahu’s support would debate the best way to legalize the outposts.He has spoken of the complexity of the subject and cautioned that results would not be forthcoming overnight.But the Young Settlement Forum fears that these last weeks of the Trump administration might be the only time that the government can make a declarative statement on the matter. The specter of a fourth Israeli election has also pushed them to pressure the government to act.The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is set to hold a discussion on the matter this Wednesday.
