Construction in Beitar Illit (archives)
Settler leaders ban 'Bibi's inspectors' from communities
Yesha Council, local community heads hold emergency meeting, call West Bank construction moratorium 'immoral, anti-Zionist, inhumane,' say it violates basic rights of 300,000 Israelis
Heads of West Bank local councils and heads of the Yesha Council held an emergency meeting on Monday, after which they decided to ban the entrance of Civil Administration inspectors enforcing the construction moratorium into the local communities.
Earlier Monday, Civil Administration inspectors, accompanied by police officers and soldiers, patrolled West Bank settlements to enforce the construction freeze orders approved by the cabinet.
Enforcing Freeze
Amid controversy over freeze order, Civil Administration inspectors patrol West Bank settlements, enforce halt order. Meanwhile, Jewish organization files petition with High Court to revoke decision; Minister Gilad Erdan criticizes Defense Minister Barak, says order backed by 'political agenda'
In their statement, the settler leaders said, "The government's decision is illegitimate, immoral, anti-Zionist and inhumane, and we will continue to develop the land with or without the government.
"The decision violates the basic rights of some 300,000 Israelis who reside in the West Bank and promotes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel which threatens the State of Israel's existence," the statement read.
During the emergency meeting it was decided that the local council heads will lead a political and public campaign against the construction moratorium.
The council heads instructed local engineers not to cooperate with Civil Administration inspectors.
Also on Monday, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shaul Goldstein sent a letter to the cabinet's ministers in which he compared the construction freeze to Israel's unilateral pullout from Gaza in 2005.
"Don't apologize in a few months or years for not understanding that this (freeze) marks the destruction of the settlement enterprise," he wrote.
