The Zandberg Committee this week issued its report presenting legal guidelines to retroactively legitimize thousands of homes in dozens of neighborhoods and outposts in Judea and Samaria that are currently under the threat of eviction or demolition.
The committee was formed to find legal options to normalize construction in Judea and Samaria following a decision by the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet a year ago to remove the threat of eviction or demolition on some 7,000 unrecognized homes.
The team is headed by Dr. Chaya Zandberg, an esteemed District Court judge who in the past headed the State Attorney's Office Civil Department. The committee was established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the coalition agreement between his Likud party and Habayit Hayehudi, at the insistence of Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett.
The committee submitted its 200-page detailed report to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel. The three ministers worked in conjunction with the committee to provide solutions for the settlements.
Some of the construction was on lands declared 20 or more years ago as state property and termed by the Israel Defense Forces' Civil Administration as within the "Blue Line." A review by the Civil Administration in recent years discovered that some of these lands had been mislabeled as state lands, suddenly turning entire neighborhoods into "illegal" communities.
The team of experts recommended retroactively approving the construction of these buildings. Mendelblit has already notified the High Court of Justice that he agrees with this recommendation.
The Zandberg Committee also recommended putting an end to such "Blue Line" reviews in neighborhoods built under government-approved plans. The team said this had already been recommended by former deputy attorney general Mike Blass, offering a thinly veiled critique of the Civil Administration that carried out the "Blue Line" review.
Dozens of outposts and so-called "daughter communities" were established on state lands but lack territorial contiguity with recognized communities. In these cases, the team recommended being more flexible with the territorial contiguity principle, which stipulates that recognition of a community can extend to a neighboring one only if there is direct continuity between them.
Committee member Binat Schwartz, formerly head of the planning administration in the Interior Ministry, said that even without this, other factors can be taken into account, such as a topographical construction or government policy, to maintain municipal ties between the "parent" community and the satellite neighborhood.
The committee also said another way to solve the difficulty is by declaring a new town, as was done recently in Havat Gilad. The team also recommended digging tunnels or building bridges to communities established on state lands but are surrounded by private lands.
The team also suggested expropriating private land for the purpose of paving access roads into these communities. The suggestion rests on a ruling by former Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who said that "the Israeli residents of the area are also part of the civilian population," and that "the military commander is bound to ensure their welfare too … even if it means infringing on the rights of property owners."
This legal opinion was also adopted by the attorney general.
Another proposed solution concerns communities that have expanded into private lands, usually innocently and either assisted or approved by government authorities. Zandberg and her team said this is not unique to Judea and Samaria and offered examples of how this was resolved in sovereign Israeli territory.
Committee members also spoke of a crisis in dozens of unrecognized residential areas in Judea and Samaria that are deprived of basic municipal services. They proposed expanding a general's directive that currently allows local councils to provide services to those living outside their regional jurisdiction and allowing regional councils to do so too.
In addition to Zandberg and Schwartz, committee members include former Defense Ministry legal adviser Ahaz Ben-Ari, attorney Ronen Peretz of the cabinet secretariat, and legal scholar Dr. Hagai Vinitzki, who specializes in property law in Judea and Samaria. The previous head of the team, Mendelblit, left to begin his current position as attorney general.
Committee members said their proposed solutions strictly follow High Court rulings and stuck true to three principles: strictly securing the rights of Palestinian residents according to international legal guidelines, normalizing the housing in Judea and Samaria that was established with state support and adherence to current law in Judea and Samaria.
The committee members also cited former Deputy Chief Justice Elyakim Rubinstein in a case where Palestinians appealed against the state, which appropriated a property in the heart of a Jewish community they claimed to own. As the petitioners did not have a plausible option of using that property, Rubinstein wrote that "a broader – and more pragmatic – view for a solution" is needed, instead of just a "let justice be done" attitude.
In the introduction to the report, the committee reaffirms official government view that "the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people has a right and claim over areas whose status is disputed in the Land of Israel."
Shaked said that this is an important step in normalizing life in Judea and Samaria. According to her, "the committee has provided excellent legal tools to the government, allowing it to normalize dozens of outposts, towns and neighborhoods."
Lieberman said that reinforcing the settlement enterprise is "a security interest of Israel," and that within a number of weeks, his ministry will propose a comprehensive and methodical plan of action to legitimize outposts in Judea and Samaria.
Ariel called on Netanyahu to immediately adopt the recommendations of the report and "put an end to the unnecessary and painful destruction and ruin" of Judean and Samarian homes and communities, which were founded with the support and encouragement or successive Israeli governments.
