Israeli High Court Rejects Law that Legalizes Illegal Settlements

Tel Aviv, MINA – The Israeli High Court on Wednesday rejected a law that retroactively legalizes thousands of residential houses in the West Bank and declared the law “unconstitutional.”

The court said the law harmed the rights of the Palestinian population, thus quoted from Daily Sabah.

The decision of the high court was issued when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will formally annex the parts of the West Bank in July.

The law was passed in the Israeli parliament in 2017 but was immediately frozen after the petition was filed in court against it.

The court ruling will affect around 4,000 homes in the West Bank and stipulate that Israeli settlements found illegally built on Palestinian land will not be removed.

Instead, the legal owner of the land will receive alternative land or financial compensation.

Politicians and right-wing groups condemned the court’s decision.

“It is unfortunate that the High Court intervened and overturned that important law,” said Tweet from the Netanyahu Likud party. “We will try to re-enact the law,” he said.

His coalition partner, the Likud Party, Blue and White said in a Twitter account that the Act “is against the constitutional situation in Israel.”

But he added that the party would respect the court’s decision and ensure it was fulfilled, so this had also sparked speculation of a rift between the two main governing coalition parties namely Likud and Blue and White. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)