The Civil Administration in the West Bank is apparently acting more aggressively against Israeli outposts, while only less than half of the illegal Palestinian construction in the area reaches the point of opening a case. This is shown by partial data provided to the Regavim movement by the Civil Administration as part of a petition regarding the evictions of illegal buildings in Judea and Samaria.
The District Court in Jerusalem ordered the Civil Administration to provide "Regavim" with the complete data of the enforcement in Judea and Samaria against Israelis and Palestinians within 60 days, after the right-wing movement accused the administration of deliberately concealing the data.
Illegal Palestinian construction.
Less than half the necessary bags, photo: Regavim
Fars Atila (archive), head of the Civil Administration in Yosh, photo: Dovrot Matafash
Hiding the evacuation data?
According to the partial data, 2,460 illegal construction cases against Palestinians were opened in the Civil Administration in 2020-2021, compared to 620 cases against Israelis.
Although apparently there are many more cases on the Palestinian side, in practice it is less than 50% of all illegal Palestinian construction in these years, compared to more than 100% of enforcement against Israelis.
Research by the Regavim movement shows that 6,153 illegal Palestinian buildings were built in these years, compared to 523 Israeli buildings.
This means that while only in about 40% of the cases on the Palestinian side were enforcement cases opened in the Civil Administration, on the Israeli side a case was opened in 2020 on every illegal Israeli structure in the Yash. In 2021 the rates increased to 137%, apparently due to the repeated construction The same buildings, calculated once by "Regavim" and twice by the Civil Administration.
Last week, after the data was received from the Civil Administration, they were furious with the Regavim movement and accused the former of hiding the actual evacuation data.
As part of the petition, which deals with a freedom of information request to receive data on the activities of the inspection unit, Regavim asked to receive all the data on enforcement against Israelis and Palestinians, but the Civil Administration only provided data on the opening of cases and not on actual demolition.
The district court accepted the petitioners' position and this week ordered the Civil Administration to provide the complete data within 60 days.
"You can give the respondent a document with the heading 'summary of annual activity', but if he does not exhaust all of the activity - this is no response to the request to receive the summary of the annual activity," the judge reprimanded the lawyers of the Civil Administration.
Civil Administration inspection of construction in Yosh, photo: Oriya Tadmor
"There is no justification for the administration"
"The administration is doing everything to hide the information," accuses lawyer Boaz Erzi from "Regavim".
According to him, "the current discussion proves once again - there is no justification for the existence of the body that has been elevated in its position for years. The Civil Administration must be closed. We congratulate the judge who did not cooperate with the attempt to throw sand in the eyes with a document that contains nothing and nothing."
The response of the Unit for Coordination of Government Actions in the Territories: "The petition in question is currently in the midst of a legal proceeding, in the framework of which the Civil Administration's reference and response to the issue will be presented."
Advocate Boaz Erez, photo: Regavim
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