Israel officials weigh new tool to ‘legalise’ settler outposts

The Israeli military is weighing a new legal tool that would help authorise settler outposts, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

The paper says that “it could be used in cases where the only other options is a government decision to declare that they are new settlements”.

As Israel “is under international pressure not to legalise new settlements”, the report adds, “the only way to authorise an outpost is to declare it as a neighbourhood of an existing settlement”.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has, this year, “explored a possible reinterpretations or modification to the principle of ‘adjacent land’ as it is applied in some cases in [the West Bank].”

A modification of the understanding of “adjacent land” could also, in theory, strengthen the case of some Palestinian communities fighting for recognition by the Israeli occupation authorities.

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The Israeli state provided an insight into Mandelblit’s thinking on the issue as part of a response it issued to the High Court of Justice on Wednesday regarding the Palestinian village of Susiya, which senior Israeli officials have declared will be entirely demolished.

“The Attorney General has told the government that there is no legal impediment to prevent the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] from reexamining the standing and weight that should be given to the principle of adjacent land in Judea and Samaria,” the state said.

“As a result, the upper political echelon has instructed the Higher Planning Council to hold a discussion on this,” the state continued.

The Higher Planning Council is a part of the Civil Administration, the body which oversees the day to day management of the Israeli occupation and which is part of the Defence Ministry.