Israeli Knesset Authorizes Wildcat Settlements in Palestinian Lands

Rasa - The Israeli parliament finalized a controversial law legalizing dozens of Zionist settler units built on private Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.

News ID: 427194

Date: 07 February 2017 - 19:51

RNA - The law, approved by 60 members of parliament to 52 against, was slammed by the Palestinians as a means to “legalize theft” of lands, Al Manar reported.

Israeli 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”.

The new law will allow Israel to seize Palestinian private lands on which Israelis built settlements without knowing it was private property or because the so-called ‘state’ allowed them to do so.

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

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