Justice Ministry rejects recommendations of Sasson report

By Akiva Eldar

The Justice Ministry and security officials have rejected several fundamental recommendations of the Sasson report on illegal outposts, which are meant to prevent more outposts from being established and impose deterrent sentences on those who establish them.

The Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed that the ministry, along with the legal adviser for the West Bank, decided that four out of eight proposed amendments to security legislation "are not necessary due to various legal reasons." Talia Sasson, the attorney who compiled the report, said she was surprised by the decision. The rest of the proposals, meanwhile, have yet to be implemented. The ministry spokesman said the security establishment was dealing with them.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked for the outpost report. He is required by the road map to halt construction in the West Bank and dismantle all outposts established since March 2001. In his Likud resignation announcement, Sharon said the road map would be the sole basis of his new party's political platform.

The government's March 10 decision to adopt the Sasson report made the security establishment, in coordination with the Justice Ministry, responsible for "examining and formulating as soon as possible the amendments necessary in security legislation" and "present the new legislation to the special ministerial committee for implementing the report."

The committee, headed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, was required to submit its recommendations within 90 days. As a result of the disengagement plan, the committee received an extension, but that deadline passed more than three months ago. Security officials confirm reports that construction in illegal outposts has continued since the report was released and said that in some of the outposts, caravans have made way for permanent housing.

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Haaretz

It will be necessary to replace some of these weasels with the more obedient type, or the situation will remain as it is.

'State officially admits politics are preventing evacuation of illegal outposts

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

The State of Israel announced on Wednesday for the first time - in an official document - that political considerations such as the upcoming general elections are preventing the evacuation of illegal outposts, including those that have been established on private land taken from Palestinians.

The comments are included in the state prosecution's response to a High Court of Justice petition filed by the Peace Now movement regarding the illegal West Bank outposts Harsha and Yuval. The document says that in addition to its central legal argument, that the High Court does not tend to get involved in political issues and law enforcement, other factors include "the political circumstances prevailing at this time, mainly the fact that a real possibility exists that general elections will be held within about four months."

"The question of the feasibility of implementing the demolition orders and determining the priorities for implementing the demolition orders are subject, among other things, to political considerations," the state said. In another section, it cited "planning, political and other considerations."

The petitioners said Wednesday that political considerations should have sped up the outpost evacuation, not slowed it down, since the road map, which the government has adopted, obligated Israel to evacuate the outposts by May 2003. The government decision this March to adopt the Sasson report on illegal outposts also obligates it to have evacuated at least six of them, for which all appeal proceedings have been completed.

>snip

In response to an article published in Wednesday's Haaretz on the government's rejection of key Sasson report recommendations about enforcing the law in the territories, the Justice Ministry spokesman pointed out Wednesday that the report said the existing legislation appears sufficient for evacuating the outposts.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/649594.html

its the implementation thats the problem....therein lies the problem. The illegal outposts take advantage of the charateristics of an open society to do that messianic duty.

I'd say that was obvious, given that the Justice Ministry has rejected
half of them, & has yet to implement the rest. Implementing them would
indicate that the GOI was serious about trying to end the Occupation, or
creating a viable Palestinian state, or was concerned about not breaching
all Israeli law, so, I would say that it is clear that any proposals from the
Sasson report that would put the brakes on any increased settlement
expansion are not going to be implemented. It won't happen,
'open society', or not.

when i mentioned open society..what i meant was that its easy to "circle around" various rules by going other routes. Since ministrys have a certain autonomy they tend to make up various new "terminology" inorder to transfer funds to the westbank.

open societies as a character tend to give more power to the various levels of govt, making implementation of various controverisial polices difficult if the govt is fractured.