Amrousi - Israel's shadow government

Emily Amrousi..
Israel Hayom..
04 May '12..

Why is everyone making such a big deal over elections? The real government, Israel's shadow government, has never been elected. The elite that pulls the marionette strings, that in effect controls the State of Israel (its legal system, capital reserves, media, academia) will never stand the test of the ballot box. Once again this week they mocked the stupid average citizen. Israel's official democratic government asked the shadow government to delay the destruction of Ulpana Hill by three months. In response, the shadow government issued a petition by "senior jurists" describing the government's request as "decimating the rule of law" and as a "threat to democracy's future."

On the same day, 100 kilometers to the south of Ulpana Hill in the Negev, the rule of law is being decimated on a daily basis with nary a peep from a single "senior jurist." Since 1999, the Jewish National Fund has been planting trees in the northern Negev as part of a national forestation plan. The forestation project, under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Ministry, was funded by the Israel Lands Authority for the purpose of "preserving national land." In other words, forestation is the only way to protect state lands from Bedouin encroachment.

In the village of Al-Araqeeb, north of Beersheba, residents are in the habit of uprooting trees to make way for single-family homes. This destruction of forests and illegal seizure of land takes place with the enthusiastic support of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, and is cheered on by vocal radical leftists.


The encroachers claim that the land was actually privately owned by their grandparents, and that a permanent Bedouin settlement has existed there since 1858. This is all very romantic, if they could only prove it in a court of law. The issue has come before three different courts and not a smidgen of evidence has been provided of a permanent settlement or even a semi-nomadic one ever existing in that location.

The JNF fought back. Bedouin uprooted trees and the JNF replanted them, with energetic park rangers planting saplings like the proverbial finger in the dam. Apparently, it's much easier to uproot trees than Bedouin. Everywhere else in the world, green activists fight against deforestation. But here, green is actually red. These "red-green" activists exerted intense pressure on the JNF, until finally last week, the week of Independence Day, the organization capitulated. The forestation project has been stopped.

Those who preach about the rule of law must grant that it applies equally to everyone. It is not fair for a rule to restrain Jews only. If a community built in good faith and with the government's approval on private land must be evacuated and destroyed, as demanded in Ulpana Hill case, then why not, for the sake of argument, do the same when it comes to Jewish-owned land in Beit Hanina where Arabs now reside?

Examples abound. Ashraf, a young Arab man from the Samarian village of Bruqin told me about the renovations he was making to his home. Half of his home is in Palestinian Authority territory while the other half is under Israeli control. "I prefer to expand my house on the Israeli side because on the Palestinian side, I need all kinds of permits," Ashraf said, "while the Israelis demand nothing." And that's what he did – without a permit, on the side overseen by the Israeli Civil Administration.

From the window of Ashraf's home, you can see the caravans in the nearby Jewish community of Brukhin. The same community that for 13 years has been prevented by the shadow government from building so much as a nursery school.

Elections are interesting, even fun, but as long as Israel's gang of de facto rulers remains in place, no new tidings will emerge from the ballot box.

Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1825

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