Tel-Chai Nation

And very well they should be. A very good report from Israel National News:

A group of legal experts called the the Land of Israel Legal Forum says that most of the Jewish civilian outposts in Judea and Samaria deemed "unauthorized" are, in fact, perfectly legal.

The Legal forum has submitted an official request to present ifs findings to the Ministerial Committee On Outposts.

The story began in March, 2005, when former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department Talia Sasson released a report which declared that some 150 outlying Jewish neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria were illegal. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon commissioned the report, which led to demands from within and from without Israel to expel the Jewish residents and destroy their homes.

In a recent development, Haaretz newspaper reported that the Justice Ministry would soon present the relevant Ministerial Committee with a proposal whereby many of the civilian communities in question would be legalized and assisted. Attorney Talia Sasson, in turn, requested to appear before the committee to argue that the Jewish civilian outposts have no legal standing.

The Legal Forum is requesting equal treatment in order to present committee members with their claim that the communities are in fact “fully authorized.”

Though according to the Sasson Report, the establishment of an outpost requires government approval, such a regulation was not put in place until December 6th, 2004, when Attorney General Menachem Mazuz issued the directive. Until then, the Legal Forum says, the status of an outpost was regulated in accordance with Government Resolution 150 from August 2, 1996, which stipulated that the Defense Minister had the authority to authorize new outpost communities.

Nearly all of the Jewish neighborhoods deemed "unauthorized" by Talia Sasson were established before Mazuz’s 2004 stipulation and are therefore, in fact, legally authorized. “It seems that Atty. Sasson was trying to enforce legal directives against communities that were already in existence before the new guidelines were issued,” a Forum statement said.

It's about time they were properly legalized. All those alarming violations and discriminations against the residents of Yesha, who are among the most law-abiding citizens of Israel, and only now, is justice being done, and hopefully, will soon be done in Gaza as well. This Sasson, as far as I can tell, is some really atrocious person, and does not belong in the position she held back then.

Before the wars that have been engulfing Israel recently, some banks refused to give loans to people because of this. I think that now, it's time for even them to start acting fair.

Update: the housing ministry has finally given approval to some more residential building in Maaleh Adumim and Betar Illit.