Israel’s Knesset passes 1st reading of bill for West Bank settlers

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Knesset (Israel's parliament) on Tuesday passed the first reading of a bill to extend the "emergency regulations" for settlers living in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

According to the Knesset website, the bill was passed with 58-13 votes of the 120-member Knesset.

It will now be forwarded to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which will prepare it for its second and third readings.

The bill was first enacted in 1967 to apply Israeli laws to the settlers living in the settlements in the West Bank and was since then extended every 5 years.

The draft will benefit nearly half a million Israeli settlers living in Israeli settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The bill was a reason for the fall of the former Israeli government of Yair Lapid in 2022 as it failed to pass it.

Arab member of the Knesset, Aida Touma-Suleiman, said the bill aims to maintain the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and “constitutes a colonial and discriminatory regime”.

The Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in on December 29, following elections in November, which gave his right-right bloc a simple majority to form a new government.

On several occasions, Netanyahu and his allied parties said they will give utmost priority to the settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in occupied territories are considered illegal.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara