Yesterday, the High Court of Justice ruled on the evacuation of the Mitzpe Kramim outpost, which was founded on privately owned Palestinian land. (A Thread:)

But the settlers claim that it was all done “in good faith,” and therefore are demanding that the outpost be legalized through so called “market regulation,”

which is designed to mediate ownership conflict in situations where people bought real estate in good faith based on information in the Tabu registry that was later discovered to be incorrect.

In this case there is no purchase, but rather theft. Here there is no negotiation between buyer and seller, but rather violent invasion.

Here there are no equal sides doing business voluntarily, but rather nationalistic, armed settlers backed by a state and army whose goal is to strip a native, local population living under a military dictatorship of its assets.

We have previously broken down this claim of “good faith” by settlers in a series of posts ( https://bit.ly/2YI46Sw  | https://bit.ly/2EswcKS  | https://bit.ly/31yKC4C ). Here are a few key events that took place in the last 53 years:

- 1967 - The army signs an order to close off the area of ​​Firing Zone 906, which is located east of Ramallah, in good faith.
- 1975 - The army signs another order to close an additional ​​1,070 dunams off for a firing zone, in good faith.

- 1976 - The Nahal paramilitary brigade establishes the settlement of Kochav Hashachar on the area that was closed in good faith.
- 1979 - Civilian settlers move in to the Nahal's Kochav HaShachar settlement, in good faith.

- 1980 - To authorize the settlement's status, the army issues a seizure order for an area of ​​820 dunams, in good faith.

Meanwhile, the size of Kochav Hashachar stands at about 15 dunams, or 2% of the territory that the army seized for its use. These 820 dunams are located within the area closed by the military in 1975 (ie 1,070 dunams).

- 1981, the army allocates ​​1,070 dunams to the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division. In other words, the army illegally transfers territory amounting to ​​250 dunams to the Settlement Division, from land it seized for the settlement's "security needs," in 1980.

- 1995, The Settlement Division initiates a master plan for the settlement of Kochav Hashahar, in good faith. The plan includes an area of ​​1,420 dunams.

This means that the master plan approved for the settlement includes an additional 600 dunams beyond the seizure order from 1980.

- Toward the end of the 1990s, the outpost of Mitzpeh Kramim was established southwest of the Kochav Hashahar settlement, in good faith.

- 1999 - The outpost is evacuated. The site to which they planned to move Mitzpeh Kramim in good faith, is a privately owned hill belonging to Palestinians from Deir Jarir. The hill is located east of the settlement in Firing Zone 906.

- The Civil Administration begins the process of approving the master plan to relocate the outpost to this location in good faith,

despite explicit objections on behalf of the Civil Administration's legal advisors who understand that the entire ordeal is illegal. Ultimately, though the master plan was never approved the outpost is moved to the site, in good faith.

- The Civil Administration issues demolition orders for all the structures on site without exception, though never enforces them, in good faith.
- In 2011, the Amana settlement movement begins illegally constructing 14 permanent structures on site, in good faith

On August 27, 2020, the High Court ruled by a two-to-one judge majority that the outpost would be evacuated within three years, after alternative houses would be built for the settlers,

but the settlers are threatening, in good faith of course, that they will change the law and allow the Knesset to overturn High Court decisions that they dislike.

Picture: Doron Leshem facebook