...the Defense Ministry plans to move their small hilltop community to the nearby settlement of Adam, just northeast of Jerusalem on the way to Ramallah...the decision to implement the plan was taken only on Monday, during a meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The Yesha Council Chairman is quoted
"It's nothing very dramatic," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Three months ago his council voted to approve moving Migron to a nearby legalized location in the West Bank.
So Monday's decision was simply another step in the process, said Dayan. He added that his council had yet to agree on its preferred option for relocating Migron.
But Avi Ro'eh, chairman of the Binyamin Regional Council, tobjected to the Adam move, he prefers
...instead to see the families relocate down the hill, next to a new winery under construction across the road from the gas station off of Route 60. "But it doesn't matter because the whole process will take years to sort out," Ro'eh said.
Up on Migron,
the families are so determined to stay put that they oppose even Ro'eh proposal to move them down the hill.
Although a voluntary move is the essence of the deal reached in August regarding Migron between state and Dayan's council, the Migron families have yet to agree to any relocation.
Dayan has argued that throughout the history of the settlement enterprise, boundaries have been adjusted to require families to move to alternative locations. What is happening here, he has said, is that by relocating slightly, a way has been found to legalize Migron's status.
But Migron spokesman Gideon Rosenfeld said the homes on their hilltop were already legal, despite the High Court ruling to the contrary.
To agree to move even a short distance would be tantamount to admitting that their presence there was illegal, he said. "The land in Judea and Samaria is ours," said Rosenfeld.
He feared relocating would create a domino effect and that the legalized settlements of Ofra and Beit El would be next.
"Where would it stop?" he asked.
Well, it should stop where is should have started, with a proper planning of the communities making sure all legal questions of ownership, zoning and other issues were assured.
When Shiloh was established, the legal advisor of the government, Pli'ah Albeck (*), personally toured the area to ascertain that no private Arab lands were to be utilized. This could, and should, have been done all over even when Sharon told us we should run to the hilltops.
We have the rights and we should use them properly and wisely.
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(*)
Pliah Albek, “What are State Lands? – The State Lands in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip,” Ha-Lishka (5759-1999) 46, pp. 9-11.
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