Israel high court grants reprieve to West Bank outpost ruled "illegal"

Israel's Supreme Court on April 29 ruled that buildings of the Givat HaUlpana settlement outpost at Beit El on the West Bank, ordered destroyed because of a claim by Palestinian land-owners, would receive a 60-day reprieve. The State Attorney's Office had filed the appeal on two days before, asking for a three-month delay in the scheduled demolition of the Ulpana outpost. The high court had earlier ordered the evacuation of the five apartment buildings by May 1 because they were built on land found to be private Palestinian property. Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, which helped the Palestinian claimants submit the petition against the outpost in 2008, has slammed the government for failing to raze the 30-apartment complex, which is inhabited by settler families. The stay is intended to allow time to find an "alternative solution."

Jewish Press in its coverage of the case refers to Yesh Din as an "extreme anti-Jewish settlement group." The Jerusalem Post is somewhat more balanced, but refers to the apartment block as "illegal structures," without quotation marks. Under international law, all settlement structures on the West Bank are illegal. Approximately 550,000 Israelis now live in what Jewish Press calls "Judea, Samaria, and the eastern part of Jerusalem" (the West Bank including East Jerusalem).