Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli watchdog, had submitted a petition to the High Court in August 2011 on behalf of nine Palestinian villages in area C, demanding that residents be given the right to form regional planning councils, as was the situation across the West Bank prior to 1971, when a military decree transferred planning prerogatives to the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, an arm of the IDF responsible for civil and security coordination with the Palestinians. [...]

"Military Order 418, which abolished the local and district planning committees in the occupied West Bank ... effectively precluded any meaningful Palestinian participation in Israeli-controlled planning processes," wrote Amnesty. "This formal denial of participation in planning for an entire population, coupled with the establishment of a parallel planning system for Israeli settlements... is unique globally, to Amnesty International's knowledge, and fails to conform to widely accepted and practiced planning standards."

According to Rabbis for Human Rights, less than one percent of area C is designated for Palestinian development, as opposed to some 70% of the area, lying within Jewish municipal councils.

With few legal possibilities to build houses in their villages, Palestinians living in the communities in question have resorted to illegal construction of makeshift homes or have refrained from building altogether, residents said.

The state, represented in court by attorney Aner Hellman, argued that the issue of planning in area C -- comprising some 60% of the West Bank and incorporating all Jewish settlements -- is a diplomatic one, and should therefor be left for peace negotiations, not a judicial decision.

That argument was countered by attorney Netta Amar-Schiff of Rabbis for Human Rights. "We refuse to consider planning as a grace used by Israel as a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations," she told the court.

Odeh Najadeh, head of the municipal council of Ka'abnah-Dqeiqeh, a hamlet of 350 residents situated 22 kilometers (14 miles) east of Hebron, told The Times of Israel that the Civil Administration issued 25 stop-work orders for ongoing construction in March. The total number of pending demolition orders for his community now stands at 126.

"Life must go on. When a man gets married, he must leave his parents' home. Where can he go?" wondered Najadeh, a school headmaster living in a community of shepherds.