Israel passes bill retroactively legalising Jewish settlements

The bill was supported by Benjamin Netanyahu, but opponents said the law ‘makes theft an official Israeli policy’

 Benjamin Netanyahu was in London on Monday but said he would fly back to Israel for the vote. Photograph: Getty Images

Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem

Monday 6 February 2017 21.53 GMT

Israel’s parliament has approved a controversial bill to retroactively “legalise” illegal Jewish outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land, setting up an inevitable confrontation with the international community.

The so-called ‘Regulation Bill’ paves the way for Israel to recognise thousands of illegally built Jewish settler homes constructed on privately-owned Palestinian land in what opponents have dubbed a ‘theft’ and ‘land grab’.

The law retroactively legalises the construction, with the original landowners to be compensated either with money or alternative land – even if they do not agree to give up their property.

The new law is the latest in a series of pro-settlement moves by Israel since the inauguration of US president Donald Trump, that has seen some 6000 new Jewish settlement homes announced in the occupied Palestinian territoriesin the past fortnight.

The international community overwhelmingly opposes settlements and sees them as an obstacle to peace.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters at the end of his visit to London to meet UK prime minister Theresa May on Monday that he had informed the White House the vote would take place tonight, and had indicated he would support its passage.

The new law - which is likely to face an almost immediate challenge in the courts - was condemned by the Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog, who warned ahead of the vote would lead to Israel being tried at the international criminal court.

Comparing the legislation to a ‘freight train’, Herzog added: “Its cars will carry international indictments against Israeli and Jewish soldiers and officers. This indictment will be signed by the prime minister of Israel.”

The law was quickly condemned by human rights groups including Peace, which issued a statement accusing the Israeli prime minister of being “willing to compromise the future of both Israelis and Palestinians in order to satisfy a small group of extreme settlers for the sake of his own political survival.

“By passing this law, Netanyahu makes theft an official Israeli policy and stains the Israeli law books.”

The new law was praised, however, by far right Israel MP Bezalel Smotrich who described the passage of the new law as a “historic day for the settlement movement and for Israel.”

He added: “Today Israel decreed that developing settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] is an Israeli interest. From here we move on to expanding Israeli sovereignty [on the West Bank] and continuing to build and develop settlements across the land.”

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Speaking ahead of the vote, UN envoy for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, warned: “If adopted into law, it will have far-reaching legal consequences for Israel and greatly diminish the prospects for Arab-Israeli peace.”

Netanyahu had blown hot and cold over the legislation – reportedly telling ministers he feared it would lead the country to the dock of the international criminal court.ore

According to comments made by Netanyahu the timing of the late night vote on the bill was coordinated with the Trump administration.

A White House statement last week offered the mildest of criticism of a recent surge in Israeli settlement building announcements. It was read by some as expressing irritation that the Trump administration had not been forewarned of the Israeli plans ahead of a meeting between Trump and Netanyahu next Monday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/06/israel-likely-pass-bill-retroactively-legalising-jewish-settlements

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My Comments

1. When one wanted to explain the so-called Trump  anti-Muslim ban (for Shiit countries), and wonder where the alleged coordination might have taken in -  one could refer to the latest move (to try to legitimise a policy of cleansing "Eretz-Israel" for Jewish use only, which de facto has been applied for the last century or so)  of the acting colonial Jew-supremacist Netanyahu government.

2. Another USA policy by the (paradoxically) combined Jew- and white-supremacist Trump administration to be closely coordinated with the Jew-supremacist Likud government will be the effort to introduce another flavour of regime-change in Iran.

3. The apparent (plans for a) refreshed rapprochement by the new USA government towards the main ally of Iran - Russia - might (apart from trying to isolate newly chosen USA enemy number none, China even further) also be intended, to try to sort out some kind of mutually to be appreciated bargain at this respect.

4. Although I can not see Russia moving too enthusiastically into a scheme, whereby it might lose her justly acquired influence (and it's military bases) in the ME.

5. But then : Just as there will be numerous blistering Russian files on Trump et al. to be conveniently deployed at the right time if necessary, there also will be USA (Mossad) files on Putin and his clique, to prevent Russia from gaining a decisive leverage over Trump.