The entire Israeli government is locked in a heated debate over Beit Yonatan -- the "House of Jonathan" -- a seven-story building housing eight Jewish settler families in the mostly Arab neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
The building is funded by Ateret Cohanim, a right-wing settler organization, and named after Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. And it's illegal: It was built without a permit in 2004.
The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, was ordered by Israel's Supreme Court to shutter the building -- nearly two years ago. Prosecutors, police, members of Knesset and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have all weighed in on the verdict, and Barkat has simply refused to enforce it, insisting that the court doesn't have jurisdiction over such municipal matters.
He's done so over the objections of state prosecutors, like Moshe Lador, who reminded Barkat last month that he isn't above the law.
"Acceptance of the situation in which court orders are not carried out expresses a biting failure," Lador said, adding that "Israel is a law abiding country, and in lawful countries court orders must be carried out.
Barkat finally announced last week that he would seal Beit Yonatan. But he also plans to demolish more than 70 "illegal" Palestinian homes -- in the interest of "applying the law fairly." (I use scare quotes around "illegal" because it's almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain construction permits in East Jerusalem -- leaving them with little choice but to build "illegally.")
The building was supposed to be closed this week, but Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai, intervened at the last minute (عربي), offering a plan to legalize the building. Yishai's bid will probably fail -- but until then, the Jerusalem municipality has stopped handing out eviction notices. So the building will probably remain open for at least a few more weeks.
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Categories: Israel, Israel & Palestine, Palestine, Regional News
Tags: Ateret Cohanim, Beit Yonatan, East Jerusalem, Eli Yisahi, Israeli settlements, Jonathan Pollard, Moshe Lador, Nir Barkat, Silwan
2 Comments
"The building is funded by Ateret Cohanim, a right-wing settler organization, and named after Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. And it's illegal: It was built without a permit in 2004."
If the building had a permit, would it made any differnce to you?
I still think building Jewish homes in Arab parts of East Jerusalem is needlessly provocative and counterproductive.
But the real problem here is that Beit Yonatan was built illegally, and the mayor of Jerusalem is ignoring a legitimate court order to seal the building. This is a basic rule of law issue: Barkat doesn't get to ignore a court order that he doesn't like.
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