And of all the poignant issues, the tense relationship between the courts and the legislative and the executive branches have been the most turbulent. In a country without a clear constitution, much of the judicial precedence is based more on a unilateral land grab on the part of the High Court, than on the will of the voter. Israel probably has the most activist Supreme Court, which is also anti-democratic, in that it becomes directly involved in policy matters, to the point where it simply erases government policy decisions to enforce its own.
Like MK Danon, MK Miri Regev, Chairperson of the subcommittee for the Outlying Areas, promised that this state of affairs would be taken care of not after the next elections, but in the current Knesset session, with the Settlements Regulation Act.
“We’ll present only two bills before the coming Knesset session,” Regev said. “One – the enforcement of Israeli law on all the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, a bill which I will be presenting May 14 at the ministers’ Committee; Two – the Regulation Act: wherever we built, we do not destroy. Should a Palestinian come and prove the land belongs to him – we will compensate him, as we would everywhere else in Israel.”
“The Supreme Court only reaches those decisions” to evacuate areas within long standing Jewish settlements, “when policy is unclear. Wherever the policy is clear – the court doesn’t get involved.”
It is possible that this pushback will prove too much for Defense Minister Ehud Barak and for the AG, and the Ulpana Hill will be spared. But, short of passage of the dual legislation MK Regev promised the crowd, the war on the settlements will continue full on.
