Groups ask court to block law legalizing settlements

JERUSALEM — Two Israeli rights groups on Wednesday asked the country’s Supreme Court to overturn a new law legalizing West Bank settlements, in the first concrete attempt to counter the contentious measure.

Adalah and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center appealed to the high court, asking it to block implementation of the bill passed in parliament this week that sets out to legalize dozens of settler outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land.

The bill sparked heavy criticism both in Israel and abroad, with critics saying it amounts to legalized land theft. They also said it’s legally problematic as it seeks to impose Israeli law on occupied land that is not sovereign Israeli territory and where its Palestinian residents do not have citizenship or the right to vote.

“This sweeping and dangerous law permits the expropriation of vast tracts of private Palestinian land, giving absolute preference to the political interests of Israel,” said Suhad Bishara, an attorney for Adalah.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as parts of a future independent state.

Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal and counterproductive to peace. Some 600,000 Israelis now live in the two areas.

Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, has said he will not defend it in court. Netanyahu has also expressed misgivings about the bill, reportedly saying it could drag Israel into international legal prosecution, though in the end he agreed to support it.