Defense Minister Ehud Barak has instructed his ministry personnel to recruit and train 40 inspectors for the task of enforcing the freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria, Barak's bureau stated Sunday. The process of finding and training the inspectors is to last two weeks. The freeze is supposed to last only 10 months. The minister decided to carry out a speedy recruitment and training process after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said in a cabinet meeting that the freeze will be unenforceable because there are only 14 construction inspectors in all of Judea and Samaria. Following the Defense Minister's instructions, after the 40 inspectors are hired and trained, dozens more will be signed up to enforce the ban on new construction. Barak's bureau stated that the enforcement will be carried out by the Israel Police, Border police and the Civilian Administration, under the general responsibility of the IDF. The head of the Elkana Local Council, Tzadok Zehorai, joined the list of officials who refused to accept the freeze order. He told a Civil Administration officer who came to deliver it to him that he refuses to accept an order that contradicts the values of Zionism. “Send an order like that to Yehoshua Henkin,” he told the officer. Henkin was one of the Zionist land-buyers who purchased land for Jewish settlement before the establishment of the State of Israel.
