Settler Leaders Confess Illegality of Homes Built on Palestinian Land
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- Published on Thursday, 10 May 2012 12:05
PNN
On Thursday, 10th May, according to police documents reveal, settler leaders said they knew from the beginning that Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood was constructed on privately owned Palestinian land, though Israeli settlers claim that they own these houses.
Three years ago, and during a police interrogation, Yoel Tsur, CEO of the company that built the neighborhood admitted that the purchase process of the land was never finalized.
In 2008, Palestinians appealed to the High Court, they own the land that the Ulpana neighborhood was built on, and they also filled a police complaint.
When the police interrogated Tsur, about the reason behind building his home on private Palestinian land, he changed his story, saying that one building was accidentally built on the wrong lot.
He said, "10 years ago, there was a permit from the Housing Ministry to plan and finance the project, so I assumed the deal had been concluded, or was about to be concluded."
In 2010, police decided to close the case that no one had committed any crime.
Last September, four months after the state promised to demolish the houses and three days before a High Court hearing on the case, Amana, the settlement movement's construction arm, challenged that conclusion in the Jerusalem District Court. It will hear the suit in July.
