Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a Knesset vote on a bill geared at sanctioning illegal West Bank outposts on Wednesday, with the intent of reaching an arrangement that would evade the need to demolish illegally built homes.
The move came as Netanyahu continues to seek ways to avoid the forced evacuation of homes in the Beit-El neighborhood of Ulpana Hill, after the High Court of Justice ruled that the state had to demolish those structures by July 1.
Following that ruling, several top right-wing ministers urged Netanyahu to advance a High Court-bypassing bill that would allow the Knesset to sanction outposts built on private Palestinian land.
In addition, Habayit Hayehudi's Zevulun Orlev and Likud's Ze'ev Elkin said they would seek to pass a bill they initiated that could approve several illegal West Bank outposts, such as Ulpana Hill.
That bill was supposed to be brought to a vote in the Knesset on Wednesday, until Netanyahu convinced its sponsors to delay a decision by two weeks, at which time the government would try to find a solution that would both evade the need to demolish the homes and align with the High Court's ruling.
The prime minister also ordered preparations made ahead of the planned demolition to be halted for the next two weeks.
According to the bill, Jewish residential neighborhood that had been built on land whose legal owners didn't challenge the construction within four years, would not be evacuated.
Instead, the bill allows for the courts to set compensation for the owners, either in cash or in alternate land nearby of equal value. In the bill's explanatory notes, Orlev and the 19 other MKs signed on to state that this process would only apply to communities of at least 20 families.
Netanyahu's move to delay a vote on the bill came as both Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz and Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan indicated that they would support the legislation, despite a binding decision by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation to block it.
One political source estimated that Netanyahu's bid to delay the vote came as a result of the ministers' revolt.
Despite Orlev's willingness to postpone the vote by two weeks, however the National Union's Yaakov Katz insists on submitting his bill on the matter to the Knesset. In response, Netanyahu instructed coalition chairman Elkin to impose full coalitional discipline, in which all coalition ministers and MKs would have to vote against Katz's bill.
According to a senior official, the Ministerial Committee for Settlement conducted a session in the issue, during which Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser updated the ministers as to the agreement with Orlev.
The session was participated by Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Minister Benny Begin, as well as coordinator of government activities in the territories Eitan Dangot, along with representatives from the Justice Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.

By Jonathan Lis and Barak Ravid

Haaretz.com