SASSON SHAKEN BY MOJ PLAN TO LAUNDER, EXPAND

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 003511 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2016 TAGS: KWBG PGOV PREL IS SUBJECT: SASSON SHAKEN BY MOJ PLAN TO LAUNDER, EXPAND OUTPOSTS REF: A. TEL AVIV 03438 ¶B. TEL AVIV 03458 Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (S) This is an action request message. See paragraph 11. ¶2. (S) Summary: Talia Sasson, the attorney who wrote the blockbuster report in March 2005 on illegal outposts activity in the West Bank, was visibly disturbed and agitated by a draft proposal in response to her report that the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is preparing on how to handle construction activity in the territories. Sasson met with EconCouns and econoff on August 31, and explained in detail what her main concerns are about the draft proposal: no mention of evacuating outposts; secret government decisions on where to build settlements; various ways for the settlers themselves to expand existing settlements; the possibility of retroactively authorizing illegal outposts; and the possibility of providing government funding for illegal outposts. Sasson not only criticized the recommendations, but objected to the indecipherable legal language used, which she speculated was designed to confuse both cabinet ministers voting on the proposal and the USG. She explained that the draft proposal contradicts the spirit of the recommendations in her March 2005 report, which is to give the GOI more direct authority to restrict and dismantle settlements and outposts, and added that she expects the MOJ proposal to be ratified in the near future. End summary. ¶3. (S) Talia Sasson, an attorney commissioned by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to investigate illegal outpost activity in the West Bank, published a report in March 2005 that offered numerous recommendations on how the Israeli government should amend legislation to give it more legal control over housing construction in the territories. An inter-ministerial committee was established to study how to implement her recommendations, but the implementation effort was sidelined for over a year by Gaza disengagement, Sharon's health problems, and government elections. Over the summer, however, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ),which chaired the committee, prepared a draft proposal on how to reform the laws pertaining to illegal outposts. Sasson said she received a copy of the proposal for comment, and subsequently wrote a very critical 30-page letter to the MOJ detailing her main concerns. She told EconCouns and econoff on August 31 that the draft proposal moves in the exact opposite direction of her March 2005 report (which detailed a pervasive inter-ministerial web of support for settlement activity throughout the West Bank),and clearly contradicts the spirit of her recommendations, which is to give the GOI more direct legal authority to restrict and dismantle outposts and settlements. -------------- GOI Intent -------------- ¶4. (S) Sasson commented that the Israeli government thinks, "erroneously and arrogantly," that the proposal will somehow co-opt the West Bank settlers by legalizing many outposts and allowing settlement expansion in some areas, while winning their submission to the idea of some settlement evacuations in the unspecified future. Sasson said that, even if there is a withdrawal of settlers and settlements from the West Bank, which she doubts, the government should not trust the settlers to go quietly, and should in fact realize that giving outposts a legal basis for existence will only make a future disengagement all the more difficult. -------------- No Word on Evacuations -------------- ¶5. (S) Sasson reported that one of her concerns with the MOJ's draft is that "there is not one word on evacuations" of any illegal outposts, whether pre- or post-March 2001 outposts. She said that the GOI clearly has the legal authority to evacuate, at the very least, any outposts which her research found were built on private Palestinian land, but the MOJ's proposal does not discuss this issue, leaving it sufficiently vague that pro-outpost advocates can continue to stymie evacuation efforts. She also stressed that her report counted 105 illegal outposts, but that the MOJ draft uses a figure from the Ministry of Defense (MOD) that, while not specified in the MOJ draft, Sasson knows from her research to be about 81 outposts, not 105. -------------- Decisions on Settlements Will be Secret -------------- ¶6. (S) Sasson said that another of her concerns is that a committee of six ministers -- the prime minister and ministers of defense, justice, housing, interior, and agriculture -- will replace the former structure which required the approval of entire cabinet to decide where a settlement will be established, and their decision need not be publicly disclosed. She explained that when Binyamin Netanyahu was prime minister in 1996, he wrote a directive that required that the entire Cabinet decide where a settlement would be built in the West Bank. (Note: The previous prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, had ordered construction of new settlements to stop during his tenure in office, which gave rise to the illegal outposts phenomenon. When Netanyahu because prime minister, he publicly rescinded Rabin's order that halted construction, and himself wrote the directive requiring full-Cabinet decisions. End note.) Sasson noted that Netanyahu's directive implied that if the cabinet makes a decision, it should be public knowledge because meeting minutes are published. Now, however, no one will know what the smaller committee decides about construction in the West Bank because committee minutes are not required to be published, she concluded. -------------- -------------- Approving Expansion of Existing Settlements and Illegal Outposts -------------- -------------- ¶7. (S) Sasson voiced distress at how the MOJ proposal would dramatically increase the channels by which the settlers could secure approvals for expansions, whether for those supposedly already covered by existing master plans or for entirely new expansions. Another of the draft's proposals that Sasson took issue with is the retroactive approval of illegal outposts. According to Sasson, currently a settlement must meet four criteria for the Israeli government to consider it a legally-established entity: the government must have formally decided to build on a particular location; it must be part of an approved master plan; it must be on state land; and it must have municipal borders. If a planned expansion is missing one of the components, the GOI consider the location to be an outpost, she explained. In order to make an outpost legal, she continued, the MOJ draft proposal suggests that a master plan be prepared for construction of houses "around" the outpost, rather than retroactively authorizing what is already in place. For example, if an illegal outpost consists of three or four trailers on a hilltop, the GOI will prepare a "legal" plan to build houses around the trailers, thus providing de facto authorization for the entire area without technically approving the three or four trailers themselves. Sasson asserted that this can in no way be legal, and said that she hopes an organization like Peace Now will take the GOI to court over its intentions to proceed in this manner. In response to econoff's question on the logic of this idea, Sasson speculated that it could be a way for the GOI to claim to the USG that it is not technically retroactively authorizing illegal outposts. -------------- Exceptions Committee to Fund Illegal Outposts -------------- ¶8. (S) Sasson also highlighted a proposal in the MOJ draft calling for a new exceptions committee, that could circumvent restrictions on the use of public funds for illegal outposts. This committee would be comprised of the director general of the Prime Minister's Office acting as the chairman, a representative from the MOD, and a representative from the Ministry of Finance. A representative from the AG office can participate in the discussions. Sasson pointed out that the AG in 2004 ruled that no public funds can be invested in illegal actions, i.e. outposts. However, the MOJ draft, while noting this, says that "in exceptional cases in which the necessary needs of the public require the investment of resources," the committee will be authorized to approve funding for unauthorized outposts. Sasson stressed that this contradicts the AG's ruling, and stressed the fact that there are no criteria set forth to determine which "exceptional cases" would require public monies. (Comment: Emboffs are not naive enough to think that elements in the GOI stopped providing support to illegal outposts after the AG ruling, but the creation of the exceptions committee would clearly and formally contradict the ruling. End comment.) -------------- Report is Terrible; Why Write It? -------------- ¶9. (S) In addition to protesting the recommendations themselves, Sasson said that she objected to the way the proposal was written because the language of the draft is indecipherable legalese. She explained that it is nearly impossible to understand, and that she spent hours going over the ten-page document in order to ferret out what the MOJ's recommendations are. She mentioned that she showed it to several other attorneys who also could not make heads or tails of its meaning at first glance. Sasson speculated that the language used is designed so that cabinet ministers will not understand what they will be voting for, and partly so that the USG will not complain about the proposal. When asked by Econcouns whether the MOJ took GOI commitments to the U.S. to dismantle illegal outposts into consideration when writing the draft, Sasson replied that this did not enter into their consideration. She asked rhetorically, "If they didn't want to do anything with my report, why bother? They should've just let it go and done nothing, rather than this." -------------- Draft to be Ratified Soon -------------- ¶10. (S) EconCouns asked whether Sasson expects the draft to be reviewed and possibly revised in any way. Sasson replied that the only opposition to the draft currently stems from the Labor Party, and even in that case probably comes from only Ophir Pines-Paz, and possibly Kadima's Shimon Peres. She said that Defense Minister Amir Peretz might be opposed to the draft, but thought that he does not have time to deal with it. Sasson speculated that the orders to write a draft such as this probably came from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself. She claimed that then-Justice Minister Haim Ramon spoke to the settlers about the proposal over the summer, and that the settlers gave comments on the draft. She said that she would not be surprised if the settlers themselves wrote the proposal. (Comment: Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer and Settlement Watch Coordinator Dror Etkes (please protect) told econoff that they had testified in front of the inter-ministerial committee on the Sasson Report in June and July, as had the settlers. Oppenheimer and Etkes said that, while Ramon asked good and pertinent questions about outposts, he seemed to take the settlers' side. End comment.) In response to EconCouns' question on how close the draft is to being ratified, Sasson replied that she thought it could be imminent because it needs only Cabinet approval -- not review by the Knesset or High Court. She explained that the Cabinet review -- and possible action -- had been scheduled for Sunday, September 3, but that it was postponed, probably so that Acting Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit can get up to speed on the issue. She assessed that the vote will be re-scheduled fairly quickly. ¶11. (S) Action Request: We urge Washington to call for urgent consultations to ensure that GOI commitments to the USG on settlements and outposts are not irrevocably reversed. Proposed talking points will be provided septel. ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** JONES