Israel’s Supreme Court heard a petition yesterday against a law that allows the expropriation of privately-owned Palestinian land for Israeli settlers, reported AFP.
The court, meeting in an expanded panel of nine justices, has been petitioned by Israeli and Palestinian rights groups, on behalf of 17 Palestinian villages.
Israel Supreme Court told that settlements law violates apartheid convention – https://t.co/JBbW4Roh7e via @MiddleEastMnt #Palestine #ApartheidIsrael pic.twitter.com/5NPDBDlb9j
— al whit (@soitiz) June 4, 2018
The law was passed by the Knesset in February 2017. In August, the court issued a restraining order against the law’s implementation, pending its ruling.
According to AFP, the petition “argues that by giving preference to Jewish settlers over the rights of Palestinian landowners it [the law] breaches an international convention on Apartheid”.
Israel's top court meets on contentious settlement law https://t.co/nstAPwsQex pic.twitter.com/EkY5wcbBHL
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) June 4, 2018
It says:
“The clear, declared purpose of the law, which seeks to privilege the interests of one group on an ethnic basis and leads to the dispossession of the Palestinians, leaves no doubt that this law involves crimes under the convention.”
The law is designed to retroactively “legalize” dozens of settlement outposts and thousands of settler homes across the occupied West Bank, homes built on privately-owned Palestinian land.
The Israeli Law to Legalize Land Theft
The bill to legalize settlements invites the world to conclude that Israel is a criminal state, and should therefore not be spared international sanctions.https://t.co/PSTNCo2dtP— Paul James adams (@PaulAdams72) April 3, 2018
Under international law, including as reflected in United Nations Security Council resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, are illegal.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
