Residents of the Mitzpe Kramim settlement in the Binyamin region were thrilled to hear the news of this week's Jerusalem District Court's ruling, which paves the way to legalizing the outpost's status and will allow them to remain in their homes.
The outpost, on a ridge overlooking the Jordan River, was built in 1999 on state land with the approval of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then-GOC Central Command Moshe Ya'alon.
Mitzpe Kramim's zoning permit was validated by the Civil Administration, allowing residents to obtain permits from local authorities to build their homes legally and even to qualify for mortgages.
But in 2011, a number of Palestinians petitioned the High Court of Justice, arguing that the settlement had been illegally built on land they owned privately. In 2013, the Mitzpe Kramim settlers filed a counter-petition, arguing that the land had been allocated by the government for their use.
Mitzpe Kramim was founded by a group of young couples from the settlement Kochav Hashachar, north of Jerusalem. They originally planned to settle south of Kochav Hashachar, but when they discovered after six months that the original community had been built on privately owned Palestinian land, they pulled up stakes.
Mitzpe Kramim is currently home to 40 families, 16 of which have built permanent homes there. The others live in caravans, sometimes with five or more children. All construction came to a halt after the Palestinian petition was filed in 2011. Some of the families living there then opted to leave.
Shiri Gur Aryeh, 41, was one of the founders.
"We were one of the first families to arrive at the previous site. We knew that all the permits from the government were in place, but one day, six months later, we heard on the news that there was a problem.
"At first it didn't make sense – when we arrived, we had all the authorizations – but it turned out that there was some problem with one of the documents," Gur Aryeh said Wednesday.
The settlers agreed to move if the government gave them an alternative site, and they were allocated the land where Mitzpe Kramim now sits.
"We came here. It's a beautiful place, with a view that's just as amazing [as the previous location], and we fell in love with it really quickly. We matured and expanded. More families joined us. Some built homes. Then suddenly, after 11 years, there was a problem again," Gur Aryeh said.
"We thought, this can't be. Because the Israeli government put us here and there must be some mistake. But it turned out there was, and that part of the land was privately owned [by Palestinians]."
Gur Aryeh said she and her husband were sitting in their garden when they heard the news about the court ruling.
"When we heard about the ruling, we started screaming. We were on a crazy high. We felt enormous joy, both because the threat of evacuation that had been hanging over us had lifted, and also as a community. We're also happy for all settlements, and hope that the ruling will set a precedent for other places," she said.
The ruling will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court, but it is expected to stand.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) said Wednesday the Jerusalem District Court's decision, which ruled that the settlers had acted in "good faith" and were unaware they were building on Palestinian property, was an "important achievement" for the settler movement.
Shaked said the ruling proves that evacuations are unnecessary and that the status of outposts can be regulated through other means, including compensating Palestinian landowners.
