WORLD LEADERS SLAM ISRAELI LANDGRAB LAW
The law in question is only a cover for stealing the land and appropriating the property of Palestinians. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of Arab League
Nobody can legalise the theft of the Palestinian lands. Building settlements is a crime, building settlements is against all international laws. Rula Maayaa, Palestinian Tourism and Antiquities Minister
This is the first time the Israeli Knesset legislates in the occupied Palestinian lands and particularly on property issues. That crosses a very thick red line. Nickolay Mladenov, UN envoy for Mideast peace process
This spike in settlement activity undermines trust and makes a two-state solution much harder to achieve. Tobias Ellwood, UK’s Minister for Middle East
occupied jerusalem — Israel faced international criticism on Tuesday over a new law allowing the appropriation of private Palestinian land for Jewish settler outposts, although the United States remained notably silent.
Britain, France, the United Nations and Israel’s neighbour Jordan were among those coming out against the legislation passed late on Monday.
The law legalises dozens of wildcat outposts and thousands of settler homes in the occupied West Bank and prompted a call by the Palestinians for the international community to punish Israel.
Pro-Palestinian Israeli NGOs said they would ask the Supreme Court to strike down the law, while Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog warned the legislation could result in Israeli officials facing the International Criminal Court.
France called the bill a “new attack on the two-state solution”, while Britain said it “damages Israel’s standing with its international partners”.
Turkey “strongly condemned” the law and Israel’s “unacceptable” settlement policy and the Arab League accused Israel of “stealing the land and appropriating the property of Palestinians”.
UN envoy for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov said the bill crossed a “thick red line” toward occupation of the West Bank — the largest part of the Palestinian territories.
“(The law) opens the potential for the full occupation of the West Bank and therefore undermines substantially the two-state solution,” he said.
The US, however, refused to comment, in stark contrast to the settlement criticism repeatedly voiced under Barack Obama. —
occupied jerusalem — The Israeli parliament on Monday finalised a controversial law legalising about 4,000 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 “legalise 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 finalised, Bezalel Smotrich of the farright 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 Organisation said the law was a means to “legalise 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,” Herzog said. The
We strongly condemn Israeli Parliament’s adoption of a law that gives approval to various settlements consisting of 4,000 units built on the private property of the Palestinians
Turkish foreign ministry
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 Herzog, using the biblical term that included the West Bank.
“This right is eternal and indisputable.”
The law is seen by critics as promoting at least partial annexation of the West Bank, a key demand for parts of Netanyahu’s cabinet, including Jewish Home. Human Rights Watch said the law “reflects Israel’s manifest disregard of international law” and deepens the “de facto permanent occupation” of the West Bank. —