The Israeli government wants to allow Jewish settlers to return to four settlements in the northern West Bank that were evacuated almost two decades ago.
Late last night, the Knesset approved in the first reading the relevant bill, which provides for the return of displaced persons to the villages of Homs, Ganim, Kadim and Sa-Nur, evacuated in 2005 in accordance with the Detachment Law.
Under this law, Israeli settlers were evicted from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank and could not return without permission from the Israeli army. The settlers have since returned to the villages but are leaving again.
Yesterday the bill for the repeal of the articles of the detachment law concerning the four villages was passed by 40 votes to 17, the rest of the deputies abstained or were absent.
The bill, which must pass a second and third reading before becoming law, is key to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government achieving its goal of legalizing a residential community that was built without a permit.
Human rights groups and opponents of the bill warn that it will be used to further expand settlement activity in the West Bank, leading to the de facto annexation of territories by Israel.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has already warned that the bill would escalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
“The implementation of this law represents a dangerous escalation of the conflict,” he stressed, calling on the international community to intervene.
Merav Michaeli, a member of the opposition Labor Party, told Army Radio that the bill would allow “crazy settlers to do whatever they want”.
In February, the Netanyahu government legalized nine Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The US and the EU expressed concern about this decision.
Israel took control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem after the 1967 war. About 600,000 Israelis now live there in more than 200 settlements.
In 2016, the UN Security Council concluded that these settlements violated international law and called for an end to Israeli settlement activity.
Source: APE-MPE, dpa
Source: Kathimerini
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