Israel legalizes Palestinian ‘ land theft’

JERUSALEM —The Israeli parliament on Monday finalized a controversial law legalizing dozens of Jewish outposts built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The law — approved by 60 members of parliament to 52 against — was slammed by the Palestinians as a means to “legalize theft” of land.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not participate in the law’s final votes since he was returning from a trip to Britain, said he had “updated” the US administration so as not to surprise “our friends.”

Speaking after the law was finalized, Bezalel Smotrich of the far-right Jewish Home party, who was one of the forces behind the legislation, thanked the American people for electing Donald Trump as president, “without whom the law would have probably not passed.”

The new law will allow Israel to legally seize Palestinian private land on which Israelis built outposts without knowing it was private property or because the state allowed them to do so.

Palestinian owners will be compensated financially or with other land.

The Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) said the law was a means to “legalize theft” and demonstrated “the Israeli government’s will to destroy any chances for a political solution.”

A PLO statement stressed that the “Israeli settlement enterprise negates peace and the possibility of the two-state solution.”

Ahead of the vote, opposition chief and Labour leader Isaac Herzog lashed out against the “despicable law” that he said would undermine the country’s Jewish majority.

“The vote tonight isn’t for or against the settlers, rather Israel’s interests,” Mr. Herzog said.

The law would “annex millions of Palestinians into Israel,” he warned, and expose Israeli soldiers and politicians to lawsuits at international criminal courts.

Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis of Netanyahu’s Likud party said the argument was over the right to the Land of Israel.

“All of the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people,” he told Mr. Herzog, using the biblical term that included the West Bank. “This right is eternal and indisputable.”

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has warned the government that the law could be unconstitutional and risks exposing Israel to international prosecution for war crimes.

Washington on Monday refused to comment on the new law. —