Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, gave initial approval to a revised bill that seeks to legalize Israeli West Bank settlements built on what the court defines as privately owned Palestinian lands. The revised bill excluded a West Bank outpost called Amona, which is due to be removed by the 25th of December in accordance with a High Court ruling, angering its Jewish residents whom stress that the lands where the outposts and settlements are located are part of the historic Jewish homeland, and are not occupied territories as is claimed by the international community and judicial system. “We are not… occupying here, we came back to our forefathers’ land. Our ancient land we’re a very ancient people. And this is our home. We tried to be in Europe, we’ve been all over the place and we got kicked out and raped and massacred everywhere. And this is our land, we have nowhere else to go. This is the cradle of the Hebrew civilization.” / “If we will come to the 25th of December and we’ll have to evacuate, we will not evacuate this place. We will bring here more than 20,000 people who will sit with us on this hill and the police will have to take us out of here by force. We are not going to walk out of here. This is our homeland, this is where we belong,” Elad Ziv, Resident of Amona outpost said.
The original bill, approved by parliament last month, had contained a clause that challenged a ruling by the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, in which dozens of families at the illegal outpost of Amona must evacuate homes built on private Palestinian land. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition, who oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, had pushed for that version of the bill’s advancement through parliament, but a center-right partner in the government balked at defying the court’s ruling. After many hours of talks within Netanyahu’s coalition to find a compromise, the so-called Amona clause was scrapped and a new bill was submitted without mentioning the outpost, effectively paving the way for its removal. Under the deal, the 330 Amona settlers are to be moved to a nearby site on land that Israel considers abandoned by its Arab owners. “We plan a large popular legitimate protest here. We will not harm any security officer or soldier, God forbid. But there will be many people here who will express the huge pain for the land of Israel. We hope that those who make the decisions will understand that the public will not let that after 20 years, a Jewish community will God forbid be demolished. it’s possible to legitimize the community and that’s what we demand,” Yair Frank, Rabbi of Amona outpost said.
Israel’s Knesset voted 60 to 49 in favor of the revised bill, which must pass three more votes at unspecified future dates before becoming law. The law is expected to legalize some 55 settlements and outposts, including some 4000 housing units built on privately owned Palestinian lands, effectively advancing the expropriation of some 800 hectares. International law expert Professor Ruby Seibel said he believed Israel would be harmed internationally but an agreed compensation to the Palestinian land owners could serve as a mitigating factor. “It certainly will harm Israel internationally. The mitigating factor is if, and this is the government’s decision, full compensation is paid to the Palestinians. And Israel has expressed its willingness to have international observers on a committee or tribunal that would decide what is full and adequate compensation,” Prof. Ruby Seibel, International Law Expert said.
The passing of the bill in the Knesset brought about an international condemnation, with the US State Department stressing Washington’s concerns that it would profoundly damage the prospects of advancing a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “So we’re very concerned about the advancement of this legislation, which, as you know, would allow the legalization of Israeli – forgive me – about the advancement of this legislation that would allow for the legalization of Israeli outposts located in private Palestinian land. Enacting this law would be profoundly damaging to the prospects for a two-state solution. And we’ve also been troubled by comments that we’ve heard by some political figures in Israel that this would be the first step in annexing parts of the West Bank. And again, it all goes back to what Secretary Kerry was discussing at the Saban Forum the other day, which is the more you create the realities on the ground that would prohibit a two-state solution, then the harder it’s going to be to get to that two-state solution,” Mark Toner, US State Department Spokesman said.