LEADING ISRAELI LAWYER: HIGH COURT IS ANTI-SEMITIC

JERUSALEM -- A leading trial lawyer asserted that Israel's High Court has embarked on an anti-Semitic policy of selective law enforcement that stipulates the immediate demolition of all unlicensed Jewish homes.

Leading attorney Yoram Sheftel accused Israel's High Court of selective law enforcement in decisions to order police to demolish unlicensed Jewish homes but to refuse to order the demolition of unlicensed Arab homes. "The selective law enforcement that discriminates against Jews is racist and anti-Semitic," Sheftel said on Aug. 3 outside a Jewish home slated for imminent demolition in the Netiv Avot neighborhood in the Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish communities.

Sheftel said that more than a decade ago the High Court rejected a petition by mayors of both the cities of Ramle and Lod in central Israel to destroy over a thousand homes built illegally by Arabs. Apart from a few houses, Sheftel said, they remain standing today. Sheftel said that the High Court ruled that although all the homes were built illegally, without proper licensing, the court could not order the police to carry out the demolition task.

"The police know their capabilities and it is not the obligation of the High Court to dictate to the police how to do its job," the High Court decision said. Sheftel said the police force is an autonomous body and the High Court's decision not to interfere with police enforcement is based on political considerations."

"The [left-wing] informers petition the High Court which enforces the law selectively based on political considerations," Sheftel said. "The police fear Arab pogroms and therefore desist from destroying Arab neighborhoods."

Last year, Sheftel had responded to a petition by the left-wing Peace Now organization to the High Court to destroy the home of Moodi and Tamar Bibi built in the Netiv Avot neighborhood of the Jewish community of Elazar in Gush Etzion. The High Court accepted the petition and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the home demolished until the end of August. Palestinians said the Bibi home is built on private land but the attorneys for the family disputed this and asserted that the home is built on unclaimed State land.

"Selective law enforcement is political and this is the basis for this abomination," Sheftel said. "The fate of this house will not be saved by the courts, but by 10,000 people who will show up on the appointed day."

The High Court also recently accepted a petition by Peace Now to destroy all 20 homes in the Netiv Avot neighborhood. The court ordered the defense minister to present a demolition schedule within 90 days.

Rabbi Yaakov Meidan, a leading educator in Gush Etzion, said that the government should take into account the contribution to the security of the State by those who own the homes slated for destruction. "In the early days of the State, the Kibbutzim were sacred because of the many Israeli army officers who lived in them," Meidan said. "These families all serve the State in high ranking positions in the military. If one house is destroyed, it puts the whole future of Gush Etzion in jeopardy."

Meidan said that hundreds of people must prevent the destruction of the home. He called for a non-violent struggle which would effectively separate and incapacitate the police forces. "It will not work to barricade ourselves in the home but we must move among the police," Meidan said. "There is no hope for those who cooperate in the destruction of homes.
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