Netanyahu Ignores High Court Decision, Defers Response on Illegal Khan al Ahmar Outpost

By: TPS Staff

After the High Court of Justice called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct “an embarrassment” and instructed him to submit a response by Sunday, 1 November, to Regavim’s petition in the Khan al Ahmar case, the deadline has passed and Netanyahu’s response was not filed.

Netanyahu was required by the High Court of Justice to submit an official response explaining the government’s position on the evacuation of the illegal Bedouin outpost known as Khan al Ahmar. The deadline, which had been extending numerous times, passed on Sunday, but no response was submitted.

This past September, when Netanyahu requested an additional six-month postponement in the Khan al Ahmar case, Justice Noam Solberg reacted with sharp criticism of Netanyahu’s conduct in the case.

Calling the government’s behavior “an embarrassment,” the High Court required the government to submit its response by 1 November.

“Two years later – there is nothing new under the sun. Despite the fact that the state’s representatives have argued before this Court in the past that the execution of judgment, in this case, is a pressing, even urgent, matter, and despite the fact that this Court has allowed the state latitude, time and time again, in carrying out its decisions, nothing has changed. What was is what will be, and what has been done continues to be done,” Solberg wrote in an uncharacteristically scathing decision.

“The government must honor its own pronouncements and enable others to take these pronouncements seriously, and not render them null or vacant promises,” he demanded.

In light of Netanyahu’s disregard for the High Court’s ruling and its failure to file an official response, Regavim’s attorneys Avi Segal and Yael Cinnamon submitted on Monday a request for summary judgment.

“This conduct is an embarrassment not only because of the current proceedings,” says Meir Deutsch, Director General of Regavim. “It is a reflection of Netanyahu’s indecisive conduct over the years, in the face of the Palestinian takeover of huge chunks of Judea and Samaria and their construction of tens of thousands of illegal structures in strategic areas under full Israeli jurisdiction. Khan al Ahmar is a test case, but it is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The Khan al Ahmar saga, more than a decade long, has been heard in six High Court of Justice petitions submitted by Regavim.

In 2018, the Israeli government announced its intention to complete the evacuation and relocation of this illegal outpost, the flagship of the Palestinian Authority’s systematic program of territorial dominance in Area C.

(TPS)