Seven years after they squatted state lands, and after many requests from the Regavim organization, the Israel Lands Authority began proceedings against a family that invaded the land near Beit Chananya on the coastal road.

Abed Musallam Najar and the family of Ata Mansur Najar squatted the land seven years ago near Beit Chananya in the HaCarmel Coast Regional Council, land owned by the Israel Lands Authority. They fenced the land, built cowsheds, huts and warehouses.

Two years ago, Regavim appealed to the lands authority, demanding the state take control and enforcement measures against the invasion of the state lands and the illegal construction carried out there. Three additional unanswered requests, and in light of the fact that the lands authority did nothing to remove the squatters, Regavim was forced to go to court.

In August 2017, Regavim petitioned the court to issue an interim order against the lands authority against the background of the ongoing failure to enforce the law against squatters on state land that Justice Rubinstein called “a state plague.”

Following this petition by the Regavim against the lands authority, the JNF and the lands authority recently informed the High Court of Justice that they filed a claim in the Krayot Magistrate Court against the squatters, demanding that they leave the land and pay for the seven years that they unlawfully used it. The squatters were even required to return the land to its pre-invasion state.

Following the filing of the indictment, Regavim agreed to withdraw the petition. The hearing on this petition was held before the Supreme Court President, Justice Esther Hayut, who will soon decide on the payment of legal expenses to the petitioner.

“The fact that a government authority enforces the law and insists on the rights of Israeli citizens only because of the intervention of a private association is unacceptable.” Says attorney Boaz Arazi, who will represent Regavim in the legal process until its successful conclusion stated: “This case is, for example, the helplessness that shouts to the heavens.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)