Israeli settlements
Communities on West Bank retroactively legalized
JERUSALEM — A pair of Israeli rights groups on Wednesday asked the country’s Supreme Court to overturn a new law legalizing dozens of settler outposts in the West Bank, opening what is expected to be a lengthy legal battle over the contentious legislation.
The legal challenges added new uncertainty to the law, which has drawn fierce international condemnations and been questioned by Israel’s attorney general.
The law, backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationalist coalition, retroactively legalized thousands of homes found to have been built on private Palestinian land. While its backers claim these homes were built “in good faith,” critics say the law amounts to legalized land theft.
In the first lawsuit against the measure, the Arab rights group Adalah and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center asked the high court to block implementation of the law. It was the first in what is expected to be a series of legal challenges.
“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, a lawyer for Adalah.
She said the court gave Israel 30 days to respond. She added that Adalah had requested the court freeze the law’s implementation until its final ruling.
In the meantime, the state can begin implementing the law. Experts say the legalization process will take years as authorities identify properties, confiscate lands and work out compensation with the original Palestinian owners.
The West Bank is home to about 120 settlements recognized as legal by Israel, as well as about 100 unauthorized outposts that the government has tacitly accepted.
The new law sets out a process to legalize about half of those outposts, as well as about 3,000 additional homes built illegally in recognized settlements. Palestinian landowners can receive financial compensation or alternative land.
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 all Israeli settlements illegal.