Edmond Levy gives report to Netanyahu
Edmond Levy gives report to NetanyahuFlash 90

The Regavim movement, an NGO watchdog group for Jewish national property rights, accused the Israeli government Wednesday of ignoring the Levy Report, filed by a committee that was headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, which determined that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are legal. In the current state of affairs, Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs receive clear preference in Judea and Samaria land disputes, not having to prove land ownership, Regavim charged.

Attorney Betzalel Smotrich, Operations Manager for Regavim, told Arutz Sheva that the 2012 Levy Report, which found Judea and Samaria communities to be legal by international law, "as of today, is gathering dust. The Civil Administration continues to operate 180 degrees opposite to the report."

Instead of following the Levy Report, he said, the government is following the Sasson Report. Authored in 2005, Attorney Talia Sasson's report called Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria "illegal outposts." MK Yariv Levin (Likud-Beytenu) argued in 2009 that the report needed to be reviewed given Sasson's bias, revealed that year when she ran for Knesset in the ranks of the radical leftist Meretz party.

However, in line with Sasson's report, "the discriminatory attitude that harms Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria continues...they expel people even though the Palestinian side doesn't present documents," charged Smotrich.

While Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon initially claimed the Levy Report was "his Bible regarding settlement," continued Smotrich, "in actuality, the settlement enterprise continues to suffer oppression as a result of the Sasson Report. The Israeli government did not adopt the (Levy) report to this day. ...There was an assumption that the Defense Minister would enact the Levy Report by deed and not by decree, but that didn't happen either," remarked Smotrich.

The Regavim manager commented that there may be a more sinister aspect to the government-commissioned Levy Report.

"Maybe the establishment of Edmond Levy's Commission was intended to ease the bitter pill of the destruction of Migron and Givat Ulpana, but nothing more. We need to flood everyone with requests to implement the report, including Jewish Home ministers," concluded the lawyer.