Attorney, NGOs boycott E1 hearing over lack of access for Palestinians

• Published date: 04 October 2021
• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Higher Planning Council hearing was expected to deal with Palestinian objections to the project, which is in an advanced planning stage.

The attorney for the Palestinians, Tawfiq Jabareen, and an NGO representing them explained to the council that for technical and bureaucratic reasons the Palestinian claimants had not been able to be present.

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The Palestinians had understood that the meeting was to be held solely on Zoom, which uses technology that is unavailable to the Palestinian claimants who live in areas where the bandwidth is not large enough to allow for such broadcasts.

Other Palestinian claimants also live in rural conditions, without electricity.

Representatives of the Palestinians told the council that they were only informed that their clients could attend in person at 10:30 on Sunday night, and only if they observed COVID-19 requirements. To meet those dictates many claimants would have needed to receive tests and results in time for a morning meeting.

"Proper procedure mandates that their objections be heard," Jabareen said, adding that therefore, "this meeting should be canceled."

Alon Cohen-Lifshitz of the left-wing Israeli NGO Bimkom, said that the Civil Administration could not decide to allow them to physically attend the meeting and then shift its stance at the last second, particularly given the significance the plan has to area Palestinians.

The Civil Administration said that the meeting had never been physically closed to the Palestinians. It had received a request for clarification on the matter only on Thursday and responded on Sunday.

Cohen-Lifshitz shot back that a 10:30 p.m. notification could no longer be considered a Sunday response.

Another representative of the Palestinians, Attorney Netta Amar-Schiff, said that the possibility that the meeting might be held solely on Zoom was only known on Thursday, and as a result, they turned to the Civil Administration on the matter only at that late date.

She added that she herself had only understood at this moment that there had been an option for the Palestinians to enter even if they did not have a green pass. Nor, she said, was it clear to her or her clients what COVID-19 requirements had to be met in order to gain entry.

Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said that she had been specifically told by the Civil Administration that the meeting would be...