AFP, Jerusalem :
The Israeli parliament has finalised a controversial law legalising dozens of 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 far-right 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 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.
Meanwhile, the Arab League accused Israel on Tuesday of “stealing the land” of Palestinians after the Israeli parliament passed a law legalising dozens of Jewish outposts in the occupied West Bank.
“The law in question is only a cover for stealing the land and appropriating the property of Palestinians,” said the head of the Cairo-based League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
The law, adopted late Monday, 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 law is a continuation of “Israeli policies aimed at eliminating any possibility of a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Aboul Gheit said.
Jordan, one of the few Arab states to have diplomatic ties with Israel, also denounced what it called “a provocative law likely to kill any hope of a two-state solution”.
The parliamentary approval could “lead the region into further violence and torpedo any peace effort,” Information Minister Mohamed Momani said, quoted by the official news agency Petra.
