HAIFA, August 24, 2017 (WAFA) – The Israeli government response to a petition filed by human rights groups against the so-called Settlements Regularization Law amounts to de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, a press release said on Thursday.
“Israel has confirmed what amounts to a de facto annexation of the West Bank with the state‘s 21 August 2017 response to a petition filed against the Settlements Regularization Law by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Jerusalem Legal Aid Center (JLAC), and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Gaza),” Adalah said in the statement.
According to the Settlements Regularization Law, West Bank settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land would be "legalized" by de facto expropriating the land, planning the settlements, and retroactively authorizing the housing already constructed on the land. The law would "regularize" these settlements in the West Bank with territories unilaterally annexed by Israel such as the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, in direct violation of international law.
The government’s response essentially confirms the state‘s application of Israeli civil law, rather than international humanitarian law, to a territory that is occupied and administered by the Israeli military, it said.
In its response to the Israeli government‘s 156-page reply, Adalah wrote:
“The state‘s position amounts to a de facto annexation of the West Bank. It ignores the fact that the area is occupied territory under Israeli military control. In its response, in fact, the state suspends the applicability of international law to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and instead applies Israeli law in an explicit and unequivocal manner. With this law, Israel grossly violates international law, preferring both its own illegitimate interests as the occupying power and those of Israeli Jewish settlers over the rights of Palestinian residents. We believe that the Supreme Court must make a swift decision to invalidate all of the clauses of the law.”
M.K.
