Republicans Anonymous

Just when the politicians figure out a great way to steal people's land, those pesky lawyers show up and mention such "quaint" concepts as justice. The BBC reports:

Jerusalem land seizures 'illegal'
Israel's attorney general has told the government to call an immediate halt to confiscating Palestinian property in East Jerusalem under a 1950 land law. Meni Mazuz said he was never consulted about the policy, which was secretly approved by the cabinet last summer. <> He wrote to the finance minister saying the law could not be used for people absent from their property because of Israeli security measures.
...

"Mazuz gave his opinion to ministers that this decision is not legally defensible, that it cannot stand up to either Israeli or international law," he said.

Many of the Palestinian "absentees" affected by implementation of the 55-year-old law are cut off from their land by new structures like roads to Jewish settlements and Israel's separation barrier, which has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice.

Source: BBC (Emphasis in original)

Unlike Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft, the Israeli Attorney General is doing his job properly despite political pressure. If John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage is ever updated, Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz would probably get a chapter for standing against his government's attempted land grab.