Dror Etkes Is So Right

Quoted:

"We could just end up with more settlements overall," Etkes said, adding that he doubted that the original Palestinian landowners would ever regain their property. "Sometimes you might find yourself in a position where you win legally but lose politically."

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See How They Lie

As I reported previously, Yesh Din and Peace Now are complaining about a "new settlement".

The truth is different but we can see the warped slimy behavior of Michael Sfard in this matter, behavior that incites and stirs up hatred for Israel.

The Defense Ministry is poised to authorize one of the largest West Bank construction projects in recent years, 1,400 apartments in the Adam settlement located just north of Jerusalem, according to Peace Now...Defense Minister Ehud Barak's spokesman dismissed Peace Now's claim as "nonsense." Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said no such building permits were pending.

A Defense Ministry document obtained by The Jerusalem Post and dated December 10, 2008, notes that an unauthorized plan exists to build such a project in an undeveloped part of Adam, known as Adam East...According to the December 10 document, a discussion took place at the Defense Ministry on the relocation of Migron's residents based on an agreement with the settlers' council.

It noted the bare details of the move and then immediately added that an unauthorized plan for 1,400 apartment units existed in that same area of Adam East.

Peace Now's attorney Michael Sfard said he understood the document to mean the ministry intended to approve this project as part of the relocation of Migron...Sfard said that even though the project fell within the municipal boundaries of Adam, by placing homes in this undeveloped area, "the Defense Ministry is advancing the construction of a whole new large settlement."

Barak's spokesman was quick to point out that the document states that the plan was unauthorized and that it was a stretch to think that this document was a statement of intent. The only plan that has been authorized for Adam is the one to build 50 new homes for the Migron families.

Source

On the Speigel Report on the Supposed "Settlements Built On private Land"

the Haaretz report [was defined] as “political” and “nothing new.”...in total, the settlements are built on 6 percent of the West Bank land, and that the issue of private land ownership is “complicated,” given the different administrations of the West Bank going back to the Ottoman Empire, the British mandate, Jordan and now Israel.

Israeli officials add that some Palestinians sold their land to Jews but cannot admit it for fear of being labeled collaborators, while others have no papers to prove ownership of the land they claim.

Source

Legality Can Become a Problem

From The Economist:-

...Peace Now is using satellite photos to track the growth of settlements and to show where building is going on without permits or in defiance of court orders to stop. B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organisation, has given small video cameras to Palestinians who suffer frequent attacks from extremist settlers...Also new is a shift in emphasis: turning the settlements from a political issue, which seems to have little traction with a cynical public, into a legal one. “We’re not saying that Israel shouldn’t have settlements,” says Dror Etkes, who headed the Peace Now anti-settlement project. “Go settle on the moon if you want to. Just show us that you are applying your own laws in what you’re doing.” Using the database he compiled, he is now working with B’Tselem and another group, Yesh Din. They plan to pepper the court system with dozens of cases of illegal building.

And as I commented there:

The legality of the Jewish communities has always been an issue but now, certain key officials in the state prosecutor's office have become more willing to allow Peace Now and/or Yesh Din the benefit of a court case. The problem with this, other than proving illegality of the technical sense, is that there are many more illegal structures in the Arab sector, whether in Israel of the administered territories.