Mitzpe Kramim

Mitzpe Kramim sits on a ridge in the Binyamin area, east of the Alon Road and overlooking the Jordan Valley. The community is located near Kochav Hashachar and is administered as part of the Binyamin Regional Council area, although the state later acknowledged that the two disputed plots were outside the council's formal jurisdiction.[1]

Mitzpe Kramim was initially established south of Kochav Hashachar on Israel's Independence Day in 1999, on land allocated by the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization. About eight months later, the residents were evacuated under an agreement concerning outposts, and their caravans were moved to the site where the community subsequently developed.[1]

A separate account says the community was first situated near Ma'ale Rehavam in the Gush Etzion area before being transferred under a 1999 outpost agreement to land allocated by the Settlement Division.[4] A 2018 JNS account reported that the site had been treated as state land with the approval of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then-GOC Central Command Moshe Ya'alon, and that the Civil Administration validated its zoning permit, enabling residents to obtain local building permits and mortgages.[5]

The land dispute concerned plots 13 and 23 in block 19, claimed respectively by Hazem Hussein Ajaj and Daoud Ahmad Ali Rabia of nearby Deir Jarir. Ajaj said he purchased his plot from his uncle, while Rabia said he inherited his. The state acknowledged that the plots were registered private land and lay outside the formal jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.[1] Ajaj also recounted that his family had cultivated wheat there and watered sheep from a well, and claimed that they lost access after Kochav Hashachar was established.[1]

Population and housing figures vary by reporting date and unit. A 2016 account described 43 families and about 150 children in the community.[1] In 2020, Ynet reported 46 families, while the head of the Binyamin Regional Council referred to approximately 250 residents.[6] A 2022 report counted 45 existing homes.[2]

The community includes mobile and permanent structures. In 2016, Ynet reported that 35 caravans and four permanent buildings stood on the two disputed plots, housing about 150 people.[1]

In 2011, Palestinians from Deir Jarir who claimed ownership of the land petitioned the High Court of Justice for the return of possession.[1] In 2013, Mitzpe Kramim residents filed a civil suit against state bodies and the Palestinian claimants, arguing that the authorities had allocated the site and should resolve the competing claims so that the residents could remain.[1][4]

In August 2018, Jerusalem District Court Judge Arnon Darel accepted the residents' good-faith argument and ordered that the community's status be regularized under what sources variously call the "market regulation" or "market overt" provision. The doctrine preserves a qualifying good-faith transaction with the Custodian of Government and Abandoned Property when the Custodian believed the property was governmental, even if that belief was mistaken.[5][4] Darel found that Mitzpe Kramim had been "built in good faith, on land allocated by the government," and ruled that Palestinians able to prove ownership should receive compensation rather than possession of the land.[5] Ynet described the decision as the first judicial application of the provision in Judea and Samaria.[4]

In August 2020, the Supreme Court overturned the District Court's outcome by majority vote and ordered the affected buildings evacuated within three years, but only after residents received a suitable alternative, such as state land with replacement buildings or relocation of the existing structures.[6] The majority concluded that the Custodian had not met the good-faith requirement because warning signs concerning the land's private registration had been disregarded. The court also placed significant responsibility for the residents' predicament on state authorities. Justice Neil Hendel dissented.[6]

The state requested a further hearing on the 2020 judgment, and the Supreme Court convened an expanded seven-justice panel. In Further Hearing 6364/20, Minister of Defense v. Abd al-Fattah Salha, the court ruled on July 27, 2022, by four votes to three to reverse the practical outcome of the earlier decision.[3][2]

The majority — Justices Hendel, Amit, Solberg, and Barak-Erez — held that section 5 of the Order Concerning Government Property applied within the boundaries of the existing community.[3] The provision can validate transactions conducted in good faith with the Custodian of Government and Abandoned Property when the Custodian believed the land was government property, even if that belief was later found to be mistaken. The court required compensation for registered owners or others able to prove ownership.[3]

The practical result was that the 45 existing homes would not be evacuated. Additions to existing structures could be permitted, but new homes could not be built.[2] The justices disagreed about the provision's scope, including whether it applied only within the boundaries of the existing community. Justices Hayut, Vogelman, and Baron opposed granting the further hearing.[3][2]

The decision was treated as potentially consequential for other homes facing similar land claims, although its scope remained disputed.[2] Following the 2018 District Court ruling, a UN Human Rights Council report had warned that using the same doctrine might provide a mechanism for regularizing more than a thousand housing units in outposts and settlements.[7]

The legal proceedings attracted attention from United Nations bodies. A UN Human Rights Council report covering November 2017 through October 2018 described the District Court decision as the first use of Military Order No. 59 of 1967 to legalize an outpost. It characterized Mitzpe Kramim as having been built on privately owned Palestinian land that the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization had allocated as state land.[7] The report expressed concern that the ruling offered an alternative mechanism to the Regularization Law for retroactively legalizing outposts and housing built on private land.[7]

A UN Secretary-General report issued on October 25, 2023, and covering June 2022 through May 2023 described the 2022 Supreme Court decision as overturning the earlier order for the residents to leave. It characterized the ruling as changing the legal framework previously applied in the West Bank and as creating a potentially worrying precedent for the retroactive normalization of dozens of outposts and thousands of buildings.[8] These statements represent the UN report's legal and political assessments, which are contested by Israeli authorities and supporters of the community.