Roundup: Israel's controversial outpost bill sparks fears for peace process

Thousands of settlers and their supporters were gathering over the weekend in Amona, a hilltop illegal Jewish outpost in the West Bank, preparing to barricade themselves and confront the Israeli security forces who are expected to evict them next week.

If all goes as scheduled, Amona's 300 residents will be evacuated and their homes will be demolished under a Supreme Court order issued in 2014. According to the Court's decision, the outpost was illegally built on private Palestinian land and must be evacuated by Dec. 25.

It would be the first time the Israeli government has evacuated a Jewish outpost in four years.

Amona, east of Ramallah city, is the largest of about 100 outposts that are scattered across the West Bank. These outposts were erected by ultra-right settlers without permits from the Israeli authorities but the governments often turn a blind eye to their construction.

Over the past months, the dispute over Amona became a major issue in the Israeli politics and society, with implications for the fate of the entire settlement movement and the West Bank.

CONTROVERSIAL BILL

The implications stem from a bill that the Netanyahu's right-wing coalition is advancing in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

Under the so-called "Regulation Bill," the government could retroactively legalize unauthorized outposts.

The outposts are currently illegal under both Israeli and international law.

Under the bill, Israel could expropriate private Palestinian land and allow settlers to remain in homes that were built there.

The Palestinian owners would receive financial compensation.

The bill's main supporter, the pro-settler Jewish Home party, said it is the first step towards official annexation of West Bank lands.

Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 during the Mideast War. Almost immediately after, it began settling land with Jews.

The international community never recognized the settlements and Israel's policy of populating the West Bank with Israeli Jews is subject to constant international criticism.

It was estimated that around 350,000 Israelis lived in over 200 settlements, which Israel considers legal, and unauthorized outposts in the West Bank in 2013, according to Israeli human rights organization.

Both outposts and settlements are illegal under international law as they were built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War.

Nevertheless, Israel has never openly annexed the West Bank and has not applied its legislation there.

On Dec. 5, the Regulation Bill passed a first reading in the Knesset, with 58 lawmakers voting in favor and 51 objecting. The bill still needs to be voted in two more readings before its final approval.

Ironically, Amona was excluded from the bill as part of a compromise deal with the right-center Kulanu faction, which agreed to support the new legislation only if it won't stand at odds with the Supreme Court ruling.

With the full backing of Netanyahu's 66-member coalition now secured, the bill could be approved in the 120-member Knesset within a few weeks.

WIDE CRITICISM

Netanyahu's far-right government took a bold step in putting forward the bill, a move which was quickly denounced by the Palestinians and the international community.

Observants fear that if approved, the law would make the stalled peace process even more difficult as it will further damage the weak trust between Israel and the Palestinians.

Following the vote, a spokesperson for the European Union External Action Service (EEAS) said in a statement that "the EU reiterates its strong opposition, in line with the position of the Middle East Quartet, to Israel's settlement policy and all actions taken in this context."

"Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace, and threaten to make the two-state solution impossible," the spokesperson noted.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov called on parliament members not to support the bill at subsequent readings.

"If adopted, it will have far-reaching legal consequences for Israel, across the occupied West Bank, and will greatly diminish the prospect of Arab-Israeli peace," he said in a statement.

Ahmad Majdlani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, told Xinhua that the bill might wreck the two-state solution.

"It is a very dangerous aggressive step by the right-wing and extremist government in Israel," he said, accusing Netanyahu of "exploiting the current vacuum in the American Administration to impose new realities on the ground and destroy the two-state solution completely."

He added that the bill is considered "a challenge to the international community, international law and the four Geneva Conventions, and approving it would put an end to any peaceful solution under the two-state solution."

He urged the international community to move promptly to end this "racist step, if it was sincerely interested in protecting the law and its enforcement." Endit