Ministers to Decide on Legalizing Dozens of Yesha Outposts

The Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday is expected to approve a law that will essentially legalize dozens of new communities, termed “outposts” in the general media, after decades in which residents lived in a legal gray zone. The “Quality of Life in Jewish Settlement” law, sponsored by MKs Yoav Kisch (Likud) and Betzalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), will require that the communities be given legal status within two years.

Until then, residents of these communities will be eligible for all municipal services that all Israelis receive. In the majority of cases, this means that these communities will for the first time be hooked up to electrical, communication and sewage services. The state has not done so until now due to pressure from the Justice Ministry, which has prevented the Israel Electric Company and Mekorot from connecting these communities, and government ministries from funding projects there. The law would require that those services be provided to residents of these communities.

Yisrael Hayom on Friday published a list of about 60 communities that would be included in the law. The communities are all built on state land and have not been the subject of lawsuits by Palestinians who claim ownership of the land the communities stand on. The large majority were started with government approval, some over 20 years ago. Some 6,000 people live in these communities.

Commenting on the law, Smotrich said that the communities affected “have been up in the air until now. Most of these communities are neighborhoods within larger towns, but the towns cannot take responsibility for them because they are not technically legal. As a result services cannot be provided to them. The state is obligated to provide these people with the resources to live a normal life. Residents of Yehudah and Shomron have the same obligations as all citizens, and they should have the same rights. The support of the government for settlements must go beyond words, the time has come to take action.”

Smotrich is a member of the National Union faction of Jewish Home, along with Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel and MK Moti Yogev. The faction announced that if the Ministerial Law Committee does not approve the law, and if the coalition does not support it through its final Knesset vote, it will not vote with the coalition on other matters.