The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is trying to retroactively legalize a sewage treatment facility near the illegal settlement of Ofra in Ramallah that was built illegally on private Palestinian land.
According to Haaretz news website the current official effort to legalize the plant may get a boost from a recent legal opinion issued by attorney general Avichai Mandelblit allowing the expropriation of private Palestinian land for infrastructure that would serve only Israelis.
The sewage facility was built without permits and two chairmen of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council were fined after they admitted that they had advanced its construction through a land grab.
However a legal opinion from the West Bank legal adviser could allow for the expropriation of the land Haaretz said.
Steps to advance the plan will be discussed at a meeting of a subcommittee of the Israeli army’s civil administration planning committee on December 6.
A security source familiar with the details told Haaretz that the plan is at an advanced stage and is expected to be approved.
The land would need to be formally expropriated and then building permits would be issued retroactively the website affirmed.
