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Residents of Migron face expulsion and are being pressured by the government to leave peacefully and by neighboring communities to protest. Migron has been the victim of the same type of government policies that uprooted Gush Katif Jews from their homes after years of government support and promises they would never be forced out of their homes. Promises from the Netanyahu administration to back Migron fell, one by one, even when investors bought a number of land parcels from alleged Palestinian Authority owners. The High Court did not deny the recent purchases were legal but ruled the change in property...

Residents of the community of Migron told Arutz Sheva on Sunday that they did not understand why the State was demanding that they leave their homes right away, particularly when the Supreme Court has not even yet discussed their case and is not scheduled to do so until Tuesday. Video .....

"Official" name change ceremony held. Residents: If we were Arabs, we would not be treated this way. Video .....

Levy's committee has restored Israel's legal narrative about its rights in the "West Bank". There is a huge difference in how a compromise will look if Israel comes to the table as "foreign occupiers," or as a party that has just territorial claims. In January 2012, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yaakov Neeman, the justice minister, turned to former Israeli supreme court justice Edmond Levy to head a panel of legal experts that would look into questions of land ownership in the "West Bank" (biblical Judea and Samaria, located west of the Jordan River, ed) . The initiative came...

A fascinating development this week in Israel was the release of the report of a governmental commission whose assignment had been to define the legal status of the “occupied territories” for purposes of government policy. The commission was headed by Edmond Levy, an interesting former Supreme Court justice and one of the only ones who is not a judicial activist leftist. The Obama people are upset with the report (an indication of how good it is) and Israel’s moonbat Left is positively wetting itself in anguish. Basically the report says that the West Bank – Judea and Samaria – are...

Mahmoud Abbas Flash 90 Officials in Ramallah on Wednesday slammed the Netanyahu government's plans to accept the conclusion of the Levy Commission report on Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. "We will not sign any peace agreement if there is a [single] settlement on Palestinian Land," Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rodier said. The Levy report concluded Israel is not an occupying power in Judea and Samaria, and that Jewish communities in the region are therefore legal under international law. .....

Flouting international opinion, an Israeli government-appointed commission of jurists said Monday that Israel’s presence in the West Bank was not occupation and recommended that the state grant approval for scores of unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts there. The committee’s legal arguments, while nonbinding, could provide backup for the government should it decide to grant the outposts retroactive official status. But such a move would inevitably stir international outrage and deal a significant blow to prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. “The report relates to the question of legality and legitimacy of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria,” Prime Minister Benjamin...

In the late hours of Saturday night, the Chief Rabbi and other high-ranking officials from Russia visited Joseph's Tomb in Samaria. Chief Rabbi of Russia Rabbi Berel Lazar and close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin made a special trip late Saturday night to visit the Tomb of Joseph in the Samaria city of Shechem, in Shomron. The delegation was hosted at the tomb by Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, regional Rabbi Eliyakim Levanon, and IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rabbi Rafi Peretz. The small group did not hide their joy at having the privilege to be present at the...

To give up the 5,000-square-kilometre “West Bank” - roughly 50 kilometres wide and 100 kilometres in length - would be to put Israel in a totally indefensible position by giving up military advantages in four critical areas. Yitzhar is probably the most hated, headlined and demonized “settlement” in Samaria. Only passionately convinced people would visit this Jewish town. But anyone visiting it would also understand what would happen to Tel Aviv and Herzliya if, instead of Jews, the PLO-Hamas regime would be controlling Yitzhar. From Yitzhar, located high up in the hills near Nablus, the Biblical city of Shechem, you...

The Prime Minister's Bureau has contacted all ministers and deputy ministers and made clear that the government opposes the proposed Regulation Law that will come up for a vote Wednesday. The law would make it possible to compensate land owners who were wronged in construction of communities in Judea and Samaria, without having to hand over the land or tear down homes built upon it. Channel 2 News reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's men made clear to the ministers and deputies that if any of them vote in favor of the Regulation Law, they will be fired from the...

Palestinian Authority Arabs’ claims to land in Judea and Samaria are often meaningless, says Moshe Zar, one of the main land salesmen in the region. The reason goes back to King Hussein’s distribution of land decades ago, he said. “Hussain wanted to compensate the Palestinian families whose relatives he had murdered, so he gave them free land,” Zar told Arutz Sheva. “In reality, the distribution of land cannot be considered to be in effect, because it does not match the conditions on the ground.” The land was given out randomly by drawing lines on a map, he explained, and many...

In light of a wave of attacks and carjackings on Judea and Samaria highways, civilians in the area have begun taking over from the IDF. A newly established group of Binyamin-area Israelis aims to protect the roads where the military has failed, Tatzpit reports. The group conducts routine patrols and has its own vehicles on the road to show a stronger security presence. The volunteer guards expressed hope that they would not permanently replace the IDF, but rather, would serve as a temporary back-up while the army prepares to handle the threat itself. “The army is obligated to protect the...

Lag Ba’Omer celebrations overlapped with political protest in northern Samaria on Wednesday night. Residents of the Israeli town of Avnei Hefetz and neighboring towns lit their traditional Lag Ba’Omer bonfires in the middle of the street this year in protest of discriminatory policies regarding travel in the region. The main road to Avnei Hefetz has been opened to Palestinian Authority traffic, as have many other roads that for years were Israeli-only due to terror concerns. However, PA-only roads have not been opened to Israelis. “If the security situation is so good, why don’t they open roads for Jews?” one resident...

France and Jordan on Tuesday condemned Israel's decision to normalize the status of three communities in Judea and Samaria. The communities of Rechilim, Bruchin, and Sansana were built in the 1990's with government approval. The Foreign Ministry in Paris issued a statement that the move "sends a negative message, which is an obstacle to peace." According to France, all Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem is illegal. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh also condemned Israel for "legalization of three settlements and unilateral activity." Nonetheless, a special Ministerial team appointed by the government to determine the status of Israel's...

The government will stand or fall in the next two weeks depending on what happens in the Israeli community of Beit El, north of Jerusalem. Ministers have informed Netanyahu that if the Ulpana neighborhood of Beit El is destroyed, his coalition will follow. The warning came during a cabinet meeting in which the timetable for Judea and Samaria demolitions was revealed. Ulpana is scheduled to be demolished on May 1, the Givat Assaf community several weeks later, and Migron on August 1. Ministers told Netanyahu that the timetable is irrelevant, because if the May 1 destruction of Ulpana were to...

The town of Itamar in Samaria has been particularly hard-hit by Palestinian Authority terrorism over the past decade, losing 20 of its 1,000 residents to various attacks. The Fogel family, five members of which were massacred brutally by terrorists as they slept in their beds, lived in Itamar. But in a bizarre twist, residents of the town found themselves accused of being perpetrators of terrorism by Haaretz journalist Neri Livneh in a televised appearance by her last year. Livneh termed Itamar “a settlement populated by particularly violent people,” and claimed, “Someone there commits murder roughly once every two years.” Livneh...

I never thought I would say this, but those of us on the Israeli Right owe a debt of gratitude to Mahmoud Abbas. I never thought I would say this, but those of us on the Israeli Right owe a debt of gratitude to Mahmoud Abbas. By forging a unity agreement with Hamas earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority president has inadvertently corroborated one of the central tenets of our political philosophy: the Palestinians cannot and must not be granted a state. Ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, we have warned against...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu faction, said Monday that the attacks against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron, or Yesha) are wrong and hypocritical. "There is no justification, and no excuse can be accepted with regard to hurting IDF soldiers," he said, in reference to the incident a week ago in which Yesha youths allegedly vandalized an IDF base. "Between that and shooting protesters – and it doesn't matter if they are Jewish or not – there is a great difference." "In the media frenzy regarding the outposts, too, the media is not...

Germany called on Israel to refrain from publishing construction tenders in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem saying it sends a "devastating message" for peace efforts. "The Israeli government must be aware that the continuous announcements of new settlements convey a devastating message with a view to the current efforts and resumption of peace negotiations," government spokesman Georg Streiter told reporters. "We strongly urge the Israeli government to refrain from inviting tenders for housing units," Streiter added. Israel's housing and construction ministry said Sunday it would publish tenders for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units to meet natural growth needs...

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday will discuss a bill proposed by Minister of Welfare and Social Services Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) seeking to normalize the status of most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of third-party petitions filed by left-wing NGOs seeking to destroy Israel's settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria by demanding the destruction of communities and neighborhoods they claim were built on privately owned Arab land. The Justice Ministry, Civil Administration, and Supreme Court have maintained the exclusive remedy in these cases is the demolition...